I feel sorry for Bill Postmus.
The former San Bernardino County supervisor, former assessor and prime suspect in the ongoing county corruption investigation was arrested in court on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance last week.
It’s Postmus’ third arrest in the past two years, and it must have been a pretty low moment as he was in court to face charges that included drug possession along with more serious charges of grand theft and misappropriation of public money.
In this case, prosecutors are alleging that Postmus as assessor abused his office for personal gain by running a political operation at taxpayer expense. The drug charge stems from the discovery of methamphetamine in his home by investigators serving a search warrant there in January 2009.
They arrested him then, too, and he resigned from office about a month later.
Last February, investigators arrested him again when they filed conspiracy and bribery charges against him, this time accusing him of participating in a massive conspiracy to steal taxpayer money by settling a $102million land-use lawsuit with a developer (Colonies Partners LP) that made more than generous contributions to his campaign and political action committees to which he had ties.
When they arrested him, investigators found more drugs. And apparently, he was high.
I’ve only met Postmus once that I can remember, and that was in early 2006 at an editorial
