By Sam Hall Kaplan
The names of Malibu Mayor Doug Stewart and Planning Commissioner Drew Leonard are prominently cited in evidence submitted to the LA County Sheriff at the direction of LA County District Attorney’s Cyber Crime Division.
Stewart and Leonard along with several internet imposters are being accused of electronic harassment under the California Penal Code (653.2) for their social media and email postings of the personal information of several residents, with the intent to compromise their veracity and intimidate them so to discourage their involvement in community and political activities.
In the interests of public disclosure, I am one of those residents that has been harassed.
The information used by these nefarious parties ostensibly is a public record, albeit commonly accessed for the use of realtors researching a mortgage history of a property on behalf of a client.
However, charged is that the unsanctioned use by Stewart, Leonard and the imposters was instead for the purpose of malicious harassment, character assassination and intimidation.
The source of the information notwithstanding, if revealed on social media and emails, these crimes, labeled “doxxing,” cite private citizens, and could be punishable by jail and fines.
Compounding the charges the Mayor and Leonard, his appointee to the Planning Commission, grossly misrepresented the data, and its misapplication as evidence of fraud. This was parroted by imposter bloggers.
In addition, Mayor Stewart was cited for not only distributing the misinterpreted personal financial information of a private Malibu resident not his client, he did it on his official Mayoral email, making the City a party to the action and possibly culpable.
Not incidentally, the propagation of the false figures and accusations of fraud could be the basis of a parallel court action of libel against those accused.
And so much for the professional postures of Stewart and Leonard, touting in their quest for public office their now questionable financial and real estate acumen. It certainly lends the “banker” Stewart a contradictory portrait if he runs for reelection in 2026.
As for the imposters, if the charges are pursued their pseudonyms probably will be stripped away and their identities exposed, including who might have orchestrated their involvement.
Noted is that behind their false identities all in concert signed on to local websites, casting dispersions using similar scripts based on the misinformation, including the implication of fraud. They, too, could be charged.
Meanwhile, the exposure of the veiled malicious harassment to stifle the activity of select individuals in local politics should heighten the anxieties of Malibu’s more voracious real estate interests in an election year where their prime propogandist and facilitator on City Council, Paul Grisanti, is being challenged.
If indeed Grisanti is defeated the developer friendly council majority will be no more. Hopefully also gone will be the monied trough where his supporters have been feeding.
This conjectured trough is what has turned Malibu into a monopoly game, the exposure of which on social media a fervent hope to preserve what has become a fragmented, fragile coastal environment, more a tourist destination than an iconic desired community of valued homes.
Editors Note: Upon investigation into the primary anonymous profile that harassed and doxxed Malibu residents, the name Rhonda Barbour was revealed. This profile has now been removed.
 | ReplyForward |
Leave a Reply