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Top So. California athletic inspector arrested for DUI in September, but did anyone at CSAC know?

By Zach Arnold | December 19, 2013

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Remember Oxnard?

In September of 2012, one of the biggest screwjobs ever in the history of the California State Athletic Commission took place for a boxing show in Oxnard, California. You can read the summary of what happened here. The bottom line is that you had deadbeat promoters who, by their own classification, were supposedly violating the Ali Act by managing & promoting a fighter they had an interest in on the card. Other fighters on the card were paid by tickets and if they didn’t meet a certain quota of tickets sold either got paid less or were led to believe they may wouldn’t get paid.

Ticket sales didn’t go the way the deadbeat promoters thought they would, so they canceled the show within hours of it taking place and left everyone out to dry. The deadbeat promoters had a history of not living up to the standards set by the California commission and were on a temporary license that was issued by… Che Guevara.

Some of the fighters sought legal representation, including boxer Crystal Morales who ended up hiring… Farzad Tabatabai, the legal eagle that is representing Dwayne Woodard in his age discrimination & retaliation case against Consumer Affairs & CSAC. Result? Andy Foster hit the deadbeat promoter’s bond and they supposed got crushed for 5-figures — and deservedly so.

The lead athletic inspector who oversaw the event was Anthony Olivas. Olivas was a top conduit in Southern California for (now) former Chief Athletic Inspector, Che Guevara. Two peas in a pod. Guevara resigned in August of 2013. Guevara is now working as a go’fer/recruiter of heavyweight boxers for Michael King, the rich man behind King World Productions. King was involved in the rise of Oprah Winfrey and is a major Hollywood bundler for President Barack Obama. King has a mansion in Pacific Palisades, California. Guevara is currently working for King at his office in Brentwood.

While Che Guevara found his golden parachute with Michael King, Anthony Olivas remained as a top athletic inspector for the California State Athletic Commission. The Department of Consumer Affairs in Sacramento controls CSAC. Olivas works for Consumer Affairs, both as an athletic inspector and also for his day job by being an inspector for Cosmetology. When the controversy over time-and-a-half pay broke out amongst the athletic inspectors, Olivas ended up unscathed because he got his time-and-a-half back pay.

You would think that someone who was involved in a complete and total debacle like Oxnard a year ago would do his best to keep himself out of trouble. Apparently, you would be wrong. According to an investigative tip we received, Olivas was arrested for DUI in Sacramento County in September of 2013. A year after Oxnard.

Here’s a screen capture of the arrest record & court dates so far:


Click the image to view a bigger version of the screen capture

Olivas was arrested on September 3rd. The reason we focus on this date is because, according to multiple sources both in Northern California and Southern California, nobody found out about the DUI arrest until recently. According to one top Sacramento source, news of the DUI arrest was only discovered a week or two ago.

In other words, a lot of important people who work for the commission have been blindsided by the news. They didn’t know. And the few people who have found out allegedly only found out very recently. Rather than the arrest being immediately disclosed and some sort of apology (private and/or public) being issued, there are some individuals in the state who would have really appreciated to have been told about what had happened and would have likely been much more forgiving.

Let’s just say that when I called up to ask about the news and they found out the information from me personally, they were not happy. Now, this is a political hot potato that is going to make people look bad. That’s the last thing the Athletic Commission needs. Where’s the common sense?

In other words, consider such late disclosure a sign of bad judgment. And bad judgment is not good when you work for a state agency and a state body like CSAC that has dealt with a lot of bad press over the last couple of years. As noted in the screen capture, Olivas is scheduled to enter into a plea agreement on January 2nd. Once that takes place, it is up to Consumer Affairs to determine whether or not they will file an adverse action against Olivas based on the grounds that his DUI arrest & plea deal constitutes an act of moral turpitude. An adverse action would set the stage for his firing from Consumer Affairs, which means he could be out of a job from both cosmetology and CSAC.

To say that the reaction behind the scenes amongst those in and around the state commission has been strong would be an understatement. Many were blindsided, upset, and shaking their heads at the fact that they weren’t told about the DUI arrest when it happened and that no apology was issued.

The irony in all of this is that Olivas is/was scheduled to work a Southern California show with a fighter, Charles Martin, who Michael King is backing. There was going to be a friendly reunion between Olivas & Guevara, the two who were connected together for the Oxnard debacle.

If Anthony Olivas did not immediately & directly disclose his DUI arrest in September to the commission in detail and with an apologetic tone, then there is no other way to interpret that action as a case of bad judgment and as a slap in the face. Everyone makes mistakes and no one is perfect but if there wasn’t an immediate disclosure of the bad news and a direct apology for what happened, then that’s inexcusable behavior because it puts others in a bad position image-wise. Besides, how could you expect a DUI arrest to stay hidden from those in power in Sacramento? Not smart or considerate.

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