Somebody I Actually Know is Going to Jail

It has been said there always has to be a first time and at the ripe old age of 62, I think something has just happened to me for the first time.

No, it isn’t seeing a triple play in a baseball, any baseball game on any level, in person. That still has never happened. I saw a perfect game, once, in the Calexico Little League and I have only seen one no-hitter – that on May 11, 1963 when Sandy Koufax threw a no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium a couple of months before my 14th birthday.

I have a photo of that final pitch, with the scoreboard in the background, on my living room wall.

This other “first” is really something special.

I just learned the other day that for the first time in my life, I actually know someone who will serve time in prison.

There were home town rumors that some creep I went to high school with wound up in state prison and another guy who was a couple of years ahead of me in high school – I didn’t know him, just knew who he was – served some time in prison for some financial fraud, but I don’t count those. A nephew of mine once let a traffic ticket go to warrant and spent a weekend in jail, but I don’t really count that either. Another nephew has spent a long time in state prison. He’s a guard, however.

I guy I knew pretty well here in the Pass Area, Norm Davis, a former Beaumont City Manager, Riverside County Supervisor and Banning Kiwanis leader who has since passed away, did spend some time as a “prisoner,” but that was in World War II and the time he spent was in a Japanese prison of war camp. I never counted that against him, of course.

But now, comes the news that former San Jacinto City Councilman and Mayor Jim Ayres has been sentenced to jail for a year and his wife, Nancy, to six months of weekend work-release in Riverside Superior Court for campaign finance fraud.

I got to know him a little a few years back in 2006 when he ran for the Republican nomination for this area’s California State Assembly seat, talked to him once over a dinner and he visited me a couple of times in my office at the Record Gazette when I was editor and associate publisher there. He was very much the politician and seemed very animated and positive as he talked about all the things he wanted to accomplish in Sacramento in taking the place of the very effective Russ Bogh, of Beaumont, who was leaving the Assembly because he had served the maximum three terms there.

It was a very interesting Republican primary that year, because on the Republican ballot was the mayor of Hemet, Ayres, Banning Mayor Brenda Salas and some retired Marine from the Yucca Valley in the High Desert, Paul Cook, who nobody knew down here and who had no chance to win. Yeah, right.

I liked Ayres, but the editor of the Record Gazette’s sister newspaper in San Jacinto/Hemet didn’t, and because I respected her opinion a lot, I decided not to endorse him. I didn’t think Salas was ready for a statewide office and didn’t endorse her, either. I didn’t know Cook and he didn’t take the time to try to get to know me, so I passed on him, too.

After talking with my sister editor at the Hemet/San Jacinto paper, I settled on endorsing the Hemet mayor.

What happened was that the three candidates from Hemet, San Jacinto and the
Pass Area (Banning) split the votes down here, while Cook ruled in the northern
half of the Assembly district and easily won. Because this is such an overwhelming
Republican district, the winner of the Republican primary is virtually a cinch
to win in the general election, which is what happened.

What really disappointed me about Ayres during the campaign was a lawsuit he filed against Cook over the retired Marine’s use of his military title in his name on the ballot – Col. Paul Cook, Ret. When the court heard that Cook was really a Marine and really had been a colonel, it was case closed.

Cook had some other pieces of metal he earned while serving as an active Marine. An infantry officer in the Marines, his military record spanned 26 years. His actions in combat earned him many honors, including the Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. Based on his experiences, Cook later taught courses on political violence and terrorism at UC Riverside.

That was a tough resume to overcome, and Ayres, who had served in the U.S.
Navy, couldn’t compete and neither did any of the other candidates.

The other candidates have gone their separate ways, but Ayres going to jail? Wow!

I sure didn’t see this coming, but I guess neither did he.