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1.9 KiB
Markdown
22 lines
No EOL
1.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
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tags:
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- Person
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- Lawyer
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- LawEnforcement
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summary: "Three consecutive grand jury foremen and Ben Wagner, an attorney representing deputies exposing corruption, sought help from Van de Kamp's office, but to no avail."
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born: 1936-02-07
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died: 2017-03-14
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location: "Pasadena, California"
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updated: 2026-09-22
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---
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[[John Van de Kamp]] was the State Attorney General of [[California]]. He is mentioned in connection with the "Queen's accident" investigation and the broader corruption in Mariposa County.[^1]
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[[James White]], an Assistant [[United States Attorney|U.S. Attorney]], revealed that the original [[California Highway Patrol|CHP]] report on the "Queen's accident" was sent to Van de Kamp's office in Sacramento. Van de Kamp reportedly told his assistant, [[Arnold Overoye]], to "discard" or "trash" the report. He then appointed [[Bruce Eckerson]], the Mariposa County District Attorney, to take charge of the investigation and submit a new report.[^1]
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Three consecutive grand jury foremen and [[Ben Wagner]], an attorney representing deputies exposing corruption, sought help from Van de Kamp's office, but to no avail. Wagner learned that everything pertaining to Mariposa was automatically "trashed" when it crossed the Attorney General's desk. Wagner later filed a Writ of Mandamus against Van de Kamp for refusing to investigate corruption in Mariposa County.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010. Contemporaneous reporting shows the Mariposa County district attorney, Bruce Eckerson, resisting the CHP's call to prosecute Sinclair for six months, not acting on the attorney general's instructions: "Highway Patrol's Crash investigation questioned," United Press International, September 25, 1983 (https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/09/25/Highway-Patrols-Crash-investigation-questioned/7300433310400/). |