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ABC 7 to Report Sheriff Baca Acts as Pitchman for Health Supplement Company….and More



According to an upcoming report on ABC 7 (appearing Monday at 11 pm) Sheriff Lee Baca has been acting as a pitchman
for a health supplement company called Yor Health.

(NOTE: The videos that were posted here" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> and here, suddenly vanished during the day on Monday after this story ran, and more reporters began inquiring. They showed Baca as a keynote speaker addressing thousands of Yor Life devotees and sales people at the company’s 2010 annual conference. ABC 7 also reports on Baca’s most recent go round at the company’s September 2013 sales conference earlier this month. Videos from that conference, that had been posted on Yor Health’s site, have also been blocked from public view.)

We understand that ABC 7 has been digging deeply into various aspects of the sheriff’s pitchman activities at Yor Health,—including the question of what if any financial arrangements may have been made in return for Baca’s hawking of the company’s products.

We suspect that the report will also look into the ethics of an elected official pitching for a profit making concern such as Yor Health.

We’ll link to the network’s online report after the segment with Marc Brown airs.

In the meantime, it is interesting to note that the Yor Life sales strategy is described by its founder Dennis Wong as “network marketing.”

Yet, according to other reports, like this one by Bradley Cooper for the NY Sun, Wong has displayed a liking for multilevel marketing and that, around ten years ago, Wong was charged by the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly engaging in an illegal pyramid scheme. Wong and his partner settled with the FTC, and the settlement, among other strictures, “bars them from participating in any prohibited marketing scheme, including any business that operates as a pyramid scheme.”

While we’ve seen no indication that Wong and Yor Life’s business strategy is in any way illegal, complaints about the company’s multi-level marketing efforts have surfaced on various sites the web (such as this one and this one).

In any case, be sure to tune in at 11 pm for ABC 7’s full story on Sheriff Lee Baca as pitchman.


UPDATE: Here’s a link to the broadcast, for those who didn’t get a chance to see it. Plus we have a fuller rundown in WLA’s Monday post by Taylor Walker.


ONE MILLION ELEMENTARY SCHOOL KIDS ABSENT EACH YEAR IN CALIFORNIA SAYS CA AG

In an alarming report released Monday by California Attorney General, Kamala Harris outlines a truancy crisis that is costing the state a fortune in funding, and creating a damaging achievement gap for many of the state’s children.

The AP’s Robert Jablon has more on the story. Here’s a clip:

California must act to reduce rampant truancy that saw an estimated 1 million elementary students absent in the last school year and may cost the state billions of dollars through increased crime and poverty, according to a study released Monday by the state attorney general’s office.

“The empty desks in our public elementary school classrooms come at a great cost to California,” the report said.

The report, scheduled for release at an anti-truancy symposium in Los Angeles, said children have unexcused absences from school for a number of reasons, including family issues, neighborhood safety concerns and bullying. It called for a sweeping battle against absenteeism that brings together parents, educators, lawmakers, law enforcement and community groups.

“The findings are stark. We are failing our children,” the report’s executive summary concluded….


LA’S CITY ATTORNEY GOES AHEAD WITH ECHO PARK GANG INJUNCTION

There has been strong advocacy pro and con about the new gang injunction in Echo Park that has just received court approval.

The LA Times Hailey Branson-Potts has more on the story. Here’s a clip:

A Los Angeles County court last week granted a permanent injunction against six gangs in Echo Park and its surrounding neighborhoods, according to the city attorney’s office.

The injunction prohibits known members of the gangs from associating with each other in public, possessing firearms or narcotics, or possessing alcohol in public, officials said. It also prohibits gang members from possessing aerosol paint containers, felt-tip markers and other items that can be used to apply graffiti.

The gangs named in the injunction are the Big Top Locos, Crazys, Diamond Street Locos, Echo Park Locos, Frogtowns and Head Hunters.

“We’ve got to be tough on violent gang activity, and gang injunctions such as this one … are an important step,” Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer said in a statement.

The city has 45 other active gang injunctions, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The city’s lawyers filed the Echo Park injunction in June. It creates a 3.8-square-mile “safety zone” in Echo Park, Elysian Valley, Historic Filipinotown and portions of Silver Lake, court documents say.

The injunction — a civil suit that seeks a court ruling declaring a gang a public nuisance — also includes Echo Park Lake and Dodger Stadium


AND MORE ON THE STATE’S PRISON OVERCROWDING CRISIS

We didn’t want you to miss the LA Times editorial on the latest wrinkle in the state’s prison overcrowding crisis and what to do about it. Here’s a clip:

The three federal judges who have ordered California to dramatically reduce its prison population have now pushed back their deadline by 30 days. The delay is both less and more than it seems.

It’s less, because it’s nothing close to the three extra years that Gov. Jerry Brown said he would need to reduce overcrowding and to keep the number of inmates capped. Instead of facing a Dec. 31 compliance date, the governor and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation now have until late January. That’s not enough time to reduce crowding by attrition, or even by assigning newly convicted felons to leased cells in and outside of California.

But it’s also more, or at least it could be. It’s a signal from the judges that they believe, perhaps for the first time since the reduction order was handed down four years ago, that California may be ready to devote considerable thought and resources to reducing the flow of felons into the system….

We agree. And may we step up to the plate.

19 Comments

  • So now the elected Sheriff is a pitchman for YOR Health company, I wonder if any county resources (county vehicle and driver) were used during this speaking engagement??????? I wonder if he disclosed it in his yearly outside employment form?????? No wonder he has an answer of “I don’t know,” when it comes to department matters, because he is more involved in his personal gain as a pitchman for YOR Health…..Can’t wait for the late nite infomercials…..hypocracy at its finest, what a joke…..

  • I heard “YOR Health” products are now mandatory for all Department personnel. It has also been added to our Core Values and Manuel of Policy and Procedures.

  • This is clearly against the law. However, with the last DA Mr. Cooley, in bed with Baca, nothing was ever done. Our newly elected DA Ms. Lacy will have her metal tested on this one.

    Baca giving away guns to campaign donors. Campaign donors becoming reservist with having to go to class. Illegal release of Paris Hilton (my legal opinion.) Accepting illegal campaign money. Visiting his girlfriends on duty in a county car and county time. 50K in fees from speaking engagements from Tuscaloosa County. Then hiring the sheriff of this county as a Chief! Hiring campaign donors for positions that deputies should have had. Pay to Play! Lying statements given to the Jail Commission. And the list goes on! and on!

    C: You really need to interview our DA and ask her questions about Baca and his criminal behavior. Had a deputy done this type of behavior(and wasn’t a campaign donor) the deputy would not only be fired but also prosecuted! Well, maybe not as neither Captain Abrams nor Cruz were held to answer!

  • JL We googled Baca and Scientology and found this video/ You Tube titled LA Sheriff’s Deputy Under Investigation for Endorsing Scientology. It has a clip from Channel 2 and has Witmore saying it is against policy to endorse and an investigation going on because of it.

    There is much more to be seen on what he is doing just google him.

  • Because some of his execs, like a certain newly promoted Chief, are the ones that take care of his reserves, making sure they get to work out of class, and continue to be treated like the VIPs that bring him the money.

  • Gawd! Please make it stop! I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m getting dizzy from all of this nonsense.

  • “Whitmore said the sheriff wasn’t paid any money, although his expenses in Las Vegas were covered by the company.”

    A compensated trip to Sin City (is) payment. Am I wrong? The voters will turn out for this election. Like Trutanich, the “Incumbent” advantage will be insignificant. There is no way he will win in 2014. Mark your calendars.

  • @comment #8-CSN83:

    are you refering to the local news report from a few years back about the private sales brochure featuring a photo of Deputy Benjamin Ring dressed in his Dept. issued uniform?

    Most people understand that appearing in uniform for a product endorsement is unethical and prohibited.

    A few people understand that persuading people to withdraw money from their standard retirement account and transfer it to an investment operated by the Church of Scientology is probably illegal for anyone not holding a brokers license from the S.E.C.

    As for the investigation of Deputy Ring, it must have turned out quite well – as he was transferred to the Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau.

    Which leaves one to ponder the possible paths to advancement in Sheriff Baca’s Dept.

    We have heard about the “”I Support Paul Tanaka for Mayor of Gardena” pathway.

    We haven’t heard anything about the “I have taken advanced coursework offered by C.O.S./L.R.H.” pathway into S.H.B.

    Steve Whitmore probably can tell you how how many of the uniformed SHB staff followed the C.O.S. path.

    Which makes the assumption that Whitmore must be well connected within C.O.S., considering his other statement from the same news report which conveys that there is no real investigation of Deputy Ring and also praises and promotes Scientology.

  • 16- I bet you my next 401k retirement check that Democrats will snub there nose at Baca in this election. They have been educated on this one!!

    Keep it comin…

  • #15 thanks for the information, was wondering what happened. Maybe the press will get the sound bite from ditmore yesterday and compare it to the youtube statements he made about Ring. I heard he is in Lost Hills now but who knows.
    It is very obvious that Baca is not running this department. I have heard that he must have a pre meeting now to have a meeting. How sad, is it too much YOR health, lack of food, or too much time with Scientology instead of gong to work? Is it legal for him to take photos with that group in uniform at fund raisers? All sorts of photos on the internet with him doing that. Guess this helps to explain why he has to have his staff run the department for him, he is just too busy. Only problem with that is they are making a bigger mess with their own personal agendas.
    Baca has lost interest in his job as Sheriff, he has moved on. The fact that he fails to take responsibility for anything he does, says all decisions are his but does not read cases,( so he will not have to testify in court), it is time for him and his goons to go.

  • This is a tabloid-esque article. Sheriff Lee Baca came to the event accepting no personal money, he doesn’t even accept free products from the company.

    He is a great public speaker and as a public servant to the LA based company he came to speak about being a noble person, with noble thoughts and actions. He spoke about the important of health and epidemic of obesity in America.

    He is obviously a great man who only has an intention of doing great work for the world.

    This article is written as slander and a need for attention by the writer and this publication totally taking a good mans character and skewing what actually happened at the event to get the community agitated over nothing.

    Sheriff Lee Baca is not corrupt, the writer of this article is corrupt.

    This probably won’t be posted because the media doesn’t give the truth they give sensational interpretations of the truth. If thats why you got into this industry then I suggest you go write fiction novels because this article about Sheriff Lee Baca depicts a man who doesn’t exist.

    He is a great human being who doesn’t deserve this from the community he sacrifices for.

    Alex Thomas

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