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| Attack video gone from cyberspace |
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| Written by Jonathan Partridge / Patterson Irrigator / | |
| Wednesday, 09 January 2008 | |
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An anonymous online video bashing Stanislaus County Supervisor Jim DeMartini seems to have disappeared last week after receiving scrutiny from local residents. Several people have said they noticed that the video was gone some time Friday afternoon. The Dec. 16 video, which appeared on the Web site YouTube, implied that DeMartini had an affair with a staffer, comparing him with former Rep. Gary Condit, D-Modesto. It also raised questions about his business dealings. Condit gained national notoriety after a young intern, who he reportedly told police he had an affair with, was murdered. The Dec. 16 online video made a comparison between Condit’s intern, Chandra Levy, and DeMartini aide Serena Essapour, 22. Essapour was arrested in October 2006 on suspicion of stealing DeMartini’s identity and charging close to $10,000 on credit cards she had created in his name after DeMartini cosigned on her car loan. The video also refers to dozens of businesses that gave DeMartini thousands of dollars. DeMartini has said those companies have bought his farm produce and that the adultery allegations are baseless. The removal of the YouTube video came before Patterson resident Gordon Barbosa applied to have YouTube take it down. Barbosa said some of the footage of DeMartini used on the video was illegally taken from his copyrighted “Westside Stories” talk show program. As of Monday, he said he still had not submitted all the information required to have YouTube consider removing the clip. Patterson resident Donna Worley, who is sponsoring city initiatives for term limits and slow growth, was the only person to buy copies of those programs, Barbosa has said. Worley has said she never saw the YouTube video and hardly knew what YouTube was before the video started receiving attention a couple of weeks ago. She said she used the “Westside Stories” footage only to educate herself, though she would not say whether she gave copies of the show to someone else. Worley also has been an ardent supporter of the PCCP West Park project, a proposed 4,800-acre industrial park that would be built on and around a former naval airfield in Crows Landing. Stanislaus County supervisors are slated to decide in April whether to accept West Park’s proposal. DeMartini has been a constant critic of the project. DeMartini has accused Worley of being a paid representative of West Park, though both Worley and West Park developer Gerry Kamilos have said that is not the case. Kamilos has said he does not want to be distracted by the video. His main goal, he says, is to continue negotiating with the county and working on project plans. Meanwhile, a Web site about Worley’s proposed intiatives, www.reformpatterson.com, also was taken off the Web last week and can no longer be viewed without special authorization. “… I have had some suggestions from some members of the community that I would like to incorporate into the site,” Worley said in an e-mail. “I think I can better accomplish this by temporarily taking it down.” The site is under construction and should be available for public viewing soon, Worley said. In the meantime, she said she is working hard on the proposed city initiatives. To reach Jonathan Partridge at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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