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Che Guevara thinks he’ll be the next E.O. at the California State Athletic Commission

By Zach Arnold | August 3, 2012

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Last week, we reported that Governor Jerry Brown’s office was recruiting candidates for the vacant Executive Officer slot at the California State Athletic Commission. The reaction to this news, both on the inside of DCA/CSAC and outside, was less than charitable. After all, the root problem for CSAC’s future is that it’s controlled by Denise Brown’s Department of Consumer Affairs, the 4,000-employee strong Sacramento political monster. Until CSAC is back to being a self-sufficient commission, DCA will continue to run interference in business dealings. Therefore, it’s hard to believe that any candidate that Governor Brown’s office selects will be able to navigate the vindictive politics of DCA management, DCA’s legal department (Anita Scuri, Doreathea Johnson, Spencer Walker), and controversial California supervising Deputy Attorney General Karen Chappelle. Plus, the fact that Governor Brown’s office is active in selecting candidates for the CSAC E.O. slot as opposed to letting CSAC itself recruit candidates for the job tells you everything you need to know about the lack of transparency & authority at CSAC.

We also reported last week that current Pest Control Board Executive Officer Bill Douglas, who was the former E.O. at CSAC in 2009, has been charged by the Sacramento DA’s office with seven misdemeanor counts relating to allegations of impersonating or and using the identities of CSAC front office staff (like George Dodd, Che Guevara, Nichole Bowles, Robert Ulrey) in communictions. Sarah Waklee, who works in the CSAC Sacramento office, was not named as a victim in the prosecutor’s complaint. While more details will emerge on the case at an August 30th hearing in a Sacramento court room, there are clues readily & publicly available that should give you an idea as to what the case involving Douglas is all about.

Bill Douglas, after leaving CSAC and heading to Pest Control, wanted to become a professional MMA & boxing judge. He ended up working some dates for amateur MMA events under the CAMO banner.

July 26th, 2010 CSAC meeting minutes:

d. William Douglas –MMA/Boxing Judge

M/S/C tabled until he has undertaken a mentorship. Details to be established by EO to demonstrate compliance with Rule 379.

December 2nd, 2010 CSAC meeting minutes:

Application to be a Judge – Bill Douglas

There was no real formal training program in place when Mr. Douglas first applied to be a judge. Executive Officer George Dodd and the commission came up with a mentorship program and asked Mr. Douglas to share his experience going through the comprehensive training program.

Mr. Douglas stated: “After completing 18 training events at this time I can say with absolute confidence that the program does work.” He stated that any future CSAC employees looking to make a transition to a judge should go through this mentor program. The program gave him experience and confidence in his ability to be a judge and recommends the program to continue for any others interested.

Commissioner Hernandez asked Executive Officer George Dodd if this mentor program is now the blue print for anyone looking to be a judge. He replied this was a special case due to the fact he was a regulator for years prior to applying to be a judge. He further commented that the next step is to come up with a process of bringing new officials on board that have never been regulators of the sport; to develop a beginning and advanced two-phased training program.

February 4th, 2011 CSAC meeting minutes:

William Douglas, MMA and Boxing Judge – George Dodd recommends Mr. Douglas be granted licensure as an MMA and Boxing judge.

There were no public comments given on Mr. Douglas’ licensure, M/S/C to grant licensure as an MMA and Boxing Judge.

According to the Sacramento DA’s office, five months after getting approved for a boxing/MMA judging license, Bill Douglas would allegedly start using the identities of other people (Robert Ulrey, George Dodd, Che Guevara, Nichole Bowles, Elizabeth Parkman) in violation of Penal Code sections 530.5(a), 528.5(a), and 529.2.

Interestingly, Douglas is still working as Executive Officer at Pest Control and has not, to our knowledge, been placed on administrative leave. There is a special meeting for the Pest Control Board the day after CSAC has their August 8th meeting in Sacramento.

The reason we bring up the name of Bill Douglas here in regards to the current power vacuum at CSAC is because it highlights a couple of points. First, who in their right mind would want to walk into this buzz-saw of a job? It’s like asking for permission to torture yourself. And not only that, but you also are vulnerable to the nastiest of political threats from powerful Sacramento politicians both at DCA and at the state capitol. On top of that, you are vulnerable to raids at any time from the Division of Investigation, DCA’s bloodhound unit, without any order from a judge or any sort of search warrant. DOI has confiscated computer equipment from various DCA employees over the years.

Second, Bill Douglas was the Executive Officer at CSAC in 2009. This was a critical time for CSAC, as it was right after Armando Garcia departed and DCA settled a sexual harassment lawsuit to the tune of $75,000. When Douglas was in charge as E.O. at CSAC, you had the infamous hand-wrapping incident with Antonio Margarito at the Staples Center when he was preparing to fight Shane Mosley. Che Guevara, working as an inspector, missed the illegal hand wraps. If it wasn’t for Nazim Richardson, Shane Mosley’s trainer, who had caught the infraction then all hell would have broken loose for the Margarito/Mosley fight. Instead, Richardson caught the illegal hand wraps and Chief Athletic Inspector Dean Lohuis came in to handle the situation. Lohuis and fellow inspector Mike Bray did what needed to be done to rectify the matter.

When Margarito ended up having his hearing in front of the California State Athletic Commission, it became a circus thanks to California Deputy AG Karen Chappelle. What was an open-and-shut case turned out to be a farce of a presentation. Instead of one viewpoint being told by the three inspectors in question (Guevara, Lohuis, and Bray), you ended up with Chappelle & Guevara having their version of events and Lohuis & Bray giving their version of events. Even though CSAC ruled against Margarito, Chappelle had managed to screw up the process.

Again, this is a woman whose arbitration decision in the Robert Guerrero matter (Goossen-Tutor vs. Golden Boy) was labeled by a judge as an action based on fraud and/or corruption. The judge found that Deputy AG Earl Plowman, supervised by Karen Chappelle, had written the arbitration ruling and had it signed by someone else other than the arbitrator!

As Farzad Tabatabai put it:

“Justice was done. The Court’s ruling correctly recognizes what should be obvious to everyone: an arbitration decision that is drafted by someone other than the arbitrator and signed by an outsider to the arbitration, without ever being seen by, reviewed by, or approved by the arbitrator, may not be binding on the parties. The question that remains to be answered is how CSAC and the Attorney General’s office allowed this to happen in the first place.”

99 out of 100 times in a private workplace, both Guevara and Chappelle would have had their professional careers terminated. However, this is California. Chappelle continues to draw a salary of $130,000 a year from the state and supposedly has aspirations of becoming a boxing judge. Guevara, who missed Margarito’s hand wraps, ended up getting promoted by the Department of Consumer Affairs under the watch of E.O. Bill Douglas. Guevara was promoted to the spot of Chief Athletic Inspector. Dean Lohuis, the CAI who cleaned up the hand wrap mess, was personally and professional destroyed by the Department of Consumer Affairs in a vicious manner. Mike Bray, also a good guy in the matter, found himself as a victim of retaliation by DCA when they decided to stop booking him to work combat sports events. The tax records show it. Retaliation. Remember, DCA is already dealing with an age discrimination & retaliation lawsuit by inspector Dwayne Woodard.

Within a few months of the Margarito incident, Bill Douglas headed for the exits and got a lateral transfer from CSAC E.O. to the Pest Control Board, where he became the interim E.O. last year. Che Guevara got promoted to the Chief Athletic Inspector spot and has been a mainstay at CSAC.

With George Dodd now out as Executive Officer at CSAC, the position is vacant. We know the Governor’s office is recruiting candidates. We also reported a couple of weeks ago that the UFC is reportedly supportive of current inspector & CSAC office worker Sarah Waklee getting the job as Executive Officer. Now comes word that Che Guevara is interested in becoming the next Executive Officer at CSAC.

With Kathi Burns, a long-time DCA manager who has little to no knowledge of combat sports, as the current Interim E.O., Che Guevara will be handling things on the ground at shows and will largely be in position as the boss. According to a source on background, Guevara was at last weekend’s Robert Guerrero boxing fight at the HP Pavilion in San Jose and addressed the CSAC staff that was at the show. In short, the sales pitch from Guevara is that if he becomes the next E.O. at CSAC, it will be business as usual and no major changes will supposedly happen. Interestingly, there were 9 inspectors at the HP Pavilion event. This is to be noted because of the recent 3 inspector policy that George Dodd & CSAC Chairman John Frierson had agreed to at the June 4th San Diego CSAC meeting. I’m sure inspectors like Sid Segovia, Mohammad Noor, and Larry Ervin will be more than happy to hear about the voluminous amount of inspectors getting booked for shows.

With Waklee & Guevara now making their intentions clear, along with the Governor’s office, it is only natural to expect that tensions in Sacramento will increase. With so many hands in the political cookie jar, only one person will get the job. The question is who makes the call and what Denise Brown at the Department of Consumer Affairs has to say about it (along with DCA legal). Given the amount of political pressure being put on Brown right now by the California state Senate over DCA finances, morale is said to be terrible.

Tread carefully.

Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

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