Former County Planning Inspector Sentenced to One Year in Jail, Two Years Probation, and Paying Restitution to His Victims
Patrick McTigue
Press release from the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office:
Earlier today, Judge Kaleb Cockrum sentenced 50-year-old Patrick William Francis McTigue, of Fortuna, to serve one year in jail, two years of felony probation and to pay restitution to his numerous victims. The sentencing follows an October 13th hearing where McTigue pled guilty to crimes committed while he was working as an inspector for the Humboldt County Building and Planning Department: one count of felony bribery (Penal Code section [PC] 68) and two counts of felony grand theft (PC 487) involving three separate victims. Additional counts of the same crimes involving three additional victims will be included in the order requiring McTigue to pay restitution. The prosecution agreed to this resolution to secure restitution for all of McTigue’s victims and to ensure that convictions will prevent McTigue from obtaining similar employment in the future.
Throughout 2017 and 2018, McTigue used his position as a County inspector to solicit bribes from individuals seeking permits for commercial cannabis operations. He defrauded his victims by agreeing to expedite their applications in return for money or other assets. McTigue defrauded victims of over $120,000 during his employment with the County.
McTigue faced a maximum sentence of over 5 years in prison. In prosecuting the case, Humboldt County Deputy District Attorney Steven Steward argued that incarceration was warranted because the crimes harmed not only individuals but also the public’s trust in government. At the conclusion of this morning’s sentencing, Judge Cockrum remanded McTigue into custody to begin serving his one-year jail sentence. Deputy Public Defender Casey Russo represented McTigue.
Earlier Chapter:
- County Planning and Building Inspector Arrested for Taking Bribes From Marijuana Growers and Others
- Building Inspector Charged With Bribery and Theft Told Some Victims He Could Sell Their Legal Pounds Through His Cannabis Collective
- Cannabis Cash: LA Times Talks Bribes, Includes Humboldt County Incidents
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Peace, love, rainbows and unicorns.
Sounds like a county supervisor.
👍
We are glad that at least one of the incompetent, corrupt and nepotistic County Officials has been held accountable for his actions…
Now, go after Michelle, Rex, Virginia, Mike and Steve, because they are misusing your resources and making bad choices daily…
What other crimes have been committed in the name of government, in Humboldt?
More BS in an industry historically mired w BS.
Good! Rumor has it (from several sources) the HC planning dept gives out different requirements and problems for ANY building project depending on who you talk to. They were NOT ONLY looking for bribes with cannabis, but with everything.
Get em ALL!!
That’s a weak sentence. I would have given him the maximum for his breach of public trust.
Agreed!
So… when a prostitute turns a trick the John gets arrested. Who paid this public official to put their permits ahead of everyone else, and do they just skate to the detriment of the folks that tried to do it right?
I’m a taxpayer who was paying this crooks salary.
I want my money back, too.
Seriously, the county should have to refund the taxpayer for the money they wasted paying this criminal.
As far as the people who tried to game the system needing punishment, they paid the price already.
What concerns me most, is not that there are more John’s out there, it’s that this swindler is “just the tip” of the County’s corruption iceberg.
They don’t “just skate”, they also get restitution.
So, they get their permit fast tracked, skate on paying a bribe, then get restitution. Win, win, win. SWEET!
Good luck in receiving that restitution. People will be old and grey before they see any of that money. (though I believe a few might already be a little old and grey) just a guess. 3 felonies and a year in jail don’t look good on your resume. Unless he got money buried in the back yard he gonna be hard put to come up with that amount of money. He had a public defender because of lack of funds
If you read the earlier chapters, according to everyone I talked to McTigue was the instigator. One person I interviewed said, “He opened the door…He tickled and we bit on his story.”
Prostitutes are very often the instigator.
Street wise doesn’t always mean smart. If we are to believe the guy was dabbling in the $120,000 range, well then he was a piss poor crook to be on the scale he was, while being surrounded by millions and millions in black money ripe for the taking. He was like one of those guys you see picking cigarette buts out of the landscaping. Or was he?
Prostitutes get arrested in much higher numbers than johns. And neither should be arrested in my opinion.
But really the difference we have has to do with if you think growers who are trying to learn to move on the legal side of the street and have just moved over from being completely illegal should have suddenly become straight laced business folks when presented with an opportunity by someone they trusted as they were scampering to find solid ground in a new and very shaky world that might destroy their and their family’s livelihood.
And sure…in a perfect world, no one would ever do anything that they couldn’t smile as they testified about in court. In a real world, most folks particularly those suspicious growers that are being coaxed into the white market by a government eager to tax them, are not going to be that perfect.
And if the government wants to keep growers coming into the white market, they have to work with their imperfections.
Why does everybody bad mouth prostitutes? It’s legal in a lot of countries. Makes it safer for both parties. Nevada allows it. Antiquated law.
I agree that prostitution should be legal. We are way over regulated. There is a rule for ever single thing that we do. The unfortunate thing about regulation is that some jerk official will build themselves an empire around the regulatory department. Then they have to prove that they are needed by pushing and pulling with their rules. Then at some point the regulator will figure a way to cash in. See example above.
The bigger and more powerful govt is, the more corrupt it is. People who are for bigger and more powerful govt either don’t know how to keep that govt from becoming corrupt or are adept at extracting preferential treatment from that corrupt govt.
The bigger and more powerful govt is, the weaker and less free citizens are.
People who bribe govt workers should be prosecuted. The idea that there should be a special exemption for illegal growers is absurd.
Pretty hard to get evidence if you are going to prosecute the folks you need to get the evidence…
You may live in a world where you would rather not prosecute the corrupt government inspector if you can’t prosecute the people he enticed to give him money. I don’t live in that world.
Please don’t blame the sex-worker!
Sex-work is not a crime we should be worried about.
Crooked government employees are a serious problem, and it all starts by electing and hiring incompetent, unqualified, corrupt and nepotistic people, like the ones found in the Chambers of the County Supervisors, who should all be recalled….
Nobody is that stupid
there really should be a review of the permits this guy did and didn’t pull through.
Good point. Their permits should be suspended.
Great point, paying bribes to govt workers is a crime. Also, honest people who would not pay bribes went to back of the line wrt getting projects permitted.
If you gonna allow our administration to turn our country into a third world country, might as well start getting on board with the program of greasing the skids.
You know this shit is called lobbying, right.
Local, state, federal, plenty of people getting rich as facilitators.
County is double dipping on cannabis permits as we speak! They charge something like $180 an hour for their salaried employees to work on your permit. Every time they touch your permit you get charged minimum 1/4 hour , even if it ls only to return an email which takes 5 minutes. How can a salaried employee of the county charge as an independent contractor hourly rates??
Double dipping
It’s true, they do charge contractor rates, but the Planners all make between $20-$35 an hour depending on how long they’ve been there (Not based on experience, education or competency). Most of the fee money is absorbed as “overhead” or to cover the salaries of office admin and management.
The Planners, are super overworked and typically carry over 100 assigned cases at one time. Unless they’ve been there for years, which few have (Employee retention at P&B is terrible), they are barely even earning enough to qualify to rent a decent place to live.
The system is bad for the workers, bad for the applicants and bad for the regional economy & community. Apart from individual corrupt people, like this Building Inspector, most of problems at the Planning and Building Dept stem from the top, BOS & upper Dept management.
I don’t know what they earn or how they are paid but I do know that the inspector that came to our house was a pompous jerk that talked down to us every time he opened his mouth. I worked for the county for 32 years and would never talk to someone like he did. We have been to the building department numerous times and he is the only one that has talked to us that way but we do get very conflicting information and they are definitely out to get every dime they can from us. We have spoken to friends in other counties and they are amazed at the cost of permits in Humboldt County and how long it takes to get one.
Very important to be politically connected in 3rd world countries. California is no exception to this rule.
One down and 50 more to go…
Prosecutors say the Ukraine-born Parnas and another Giuliani associate, Belarus-born Igor Fruman, illegally funneled money from Moscow-based businessman Andrey Muraviev to candidates in U.S. states where the group was seeking licenses to operate cannabis businesses. Parnas pleaded not guilty.
Two Muraviev-owned firms wired $1 million to an account held by Fruman’s FD Import & Export Corp between June and December 2018, bank statements showed.
That account then paid off more than 99% of the balance on a credit card account Parnas, Fruman and a company they founded used to make more than $150,000 in donations to candidates and committees ahead of the Nov. 6, 2018 election, the records showed.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russian-businessman-funded-ex-giuliani-233410968.html
Interesting.
How exactly will he pay restitution?
This is why socialis. Will never work in a capitalistic society.
Corrupt Clown just like his superiors!
Meet the new inspector. Same as the old inspector?
I’d bet fish and game get best kick backs. Sickening what they let go
Well, at least he’s not IMMUNE. And the scoundrel was NABBED. Low hanging, expendable fruit. Loyalty didn’t save him. Media silence didn’t save him.
What public “trust” in government? I assume if you work for the government….scum of the earth.