In the Sharon Palmer Case, We Need to Stay Focused on Who the Real Frauds and Cowards Are

Okay, let’s get a few things out into the open here. There’s an exchange following my Thursday posting about Sharon Palmer in which Joe Slow brings up a run-in with the law that Sharon Palmer had back in 1999.

I was aware when I wrote about her that Sharon had had a past legal problem because the sheriff’s press release says so. (“A background check of Palmer’s criminal history revealed a prior felony conviction for fraud,” says the release.)

I didn’t bring it up in my posting because, as Robert Monahan rightly points out in comments on the post , it really has nothing to do with this case, and its mention in the sheriff's press release is actually another example of the questionable police tactics in this entire case.

But I did speak with Sharon about it before I posted the account of her arrest. Based on the writeup about it that Joe Slow refers to (why is it that people like Joe Slow won’t use their real names?), there is a key heading: “Mastermind Still at Large.”

The “mastermind,” Edward Rostami, was Sharon’s husband, and he really ran the mortgage enterprise described in the article. Sharon says she had little knowledge about operations at the firm. When the shit hit the fan, and Rostami disappeared, the authorities went after Sharon. “He left me with three kids and nothing else. They (the authorities) thought if they held me, they could get to him.” Didn’t work.

So they held Sharon on $12 million bail for nine months. Her kids, ages one, three, and four, were parceled out among relatives. (Unfortunately, these kinds of cases are more common than we realize, with single moms often the victims--another dirty little secret of American law enforcement.) After nine months in jail, the deal came down to this: If Sharon pleaded guilty to fraud, she would be released and get her kids, and life, back.

She took the deal (what choice did she have?), completed the divorce, and resolved to start a new life producing density-rich healthy food. She was doing great, until Dec. 18, when the Ventura County Sheriff decided a single mom with three young kids would make a great demo for the troops on undercover and SWAT team tactics.

There’s one further little irony in this mess. The key legal issue that seems to have gotten the sheriff into a twit—about using an unlicensed production facility—is not only very much debatable, but an issue that came up in the famous California spinach E.coli 0157:H7 illnesses of September 2006, that sickened 205 and killed three. (Let's not forget, no one's even hinted that Sharon's goat cheese got anyone sick.)

I’ve been looking further into the spinach case in the course of researching my book about the raw milk issue, and according to the state’s report, it turns out that the Dole plant partly responsible was using a new unlicensed facility to clean and otherwise process its spinach (see page 44 of the report). I can’t seem to find any reports of any Dole officials being handcuffed and thrown into jail without warrants in connection with that case, or even being politely served with warrants. Did I miss something?

Of course not. We’re not only dealing with double standards to go with slander and inuendo in these kinds of cases, we’re dealing with cowardly law enforcement officials not worthy of the badges they wear. 

Comments

[Steve Bemis]

David, thank you for this gritty reporting. You are doing what the press is supposed to do, not only getting the story of the moment, but the background as well, and bringing the truth to light.

[Sylvia Gibson]

Amazing. I would bet that many people don't realize the extent of the oppression exerted by our government et al.

It appears the new administration will be more of the same by those who are chosen, I am not expecting "change".

[Lacedo]

Wow, David, your investigative reporting is the best. It's not just your advocacy for nutrient-dense food, or the quality of your writing that make this blog top notch.

My heart goes out to Susan Palmer and her children. Being victimized twice by government bullies. Spending nine months in jail, separated from her infant and toddlers? Being abandoned by her husband was probably a blessing, considering what a cad and psychopath he seems.

It's clear from the prior post that California is really trying to put small farmers out of business. Their pretext couldn't be more clear in the Susan Palmer case, revealing the true evil purpose. Is there a test that could be done on the pasteurized cheese, to prove that it wasn't made from raw milk? Wouldn't that prove that it had to have been made at the certified location?

[Aubin Parrish]

It is looking very much like a war on small farmers, anyone outside the industrial ag paradigm. It's going to be a pretty hard sell to the public if stuff like this keeps happening and people notice, if some of the looming threats to our food supply play out in the unpleasant ways that are likely. Among people I know, and people they know in turn, awareness is growing exponentially of how precarious our food situation could be and how vacant of any real nutrition most grocery-store food is. They are craving more connection to their food, by being personally connected with local farmers and/or growing food themselves. This awareness was mentioned in a recent opinion piece by Peggy Noonan, in the WSJ on Jan. 9. From that piece, "Lately I think the biggest thing Americans fear, deep down—the thing they’d say if you could put the whole nation on the couch and say, “Just free associate, tell me what you fear?”—is, “I am afraid we will run out of food. And none of us have gardens, and we haven’t taught our children how to grow things. Everything is bought in a store. What if the store closes? What if the choke points through which the great trucks travel from farmland to city get cut off? I have two months of canned goods. I’m afraid.” The piece isn't about food or farming per se. You can read the whole thing here, "Mere Presidents": http://www.peggynoonan.com/

[Joe slow]

As a proposed Investigative Reporter, you should get your facts straight from liable sources, instead of from the goats mouth. If you actually researched the facts, Sharon Palmer went into hiding in Mexico when the FBI heat started coming down on her. Did she take her children to Mexico with her? What was she doing smuggling 3 Illegal Mexican Nationals back into the USA? (Maybe to milk goats while she was in jail.
The only reason law enforcement is after her is she does not pay her way, she is still scamming people out of money and many feed stores around Ventura County. She has 4 pending lawsuits against her and a arrest warrant was issued for her arrest on 12/05/08 for Appearance and Examination of Judgment Debtor.
http://www.ventura.courts.ca.gov/via/CaseInformationSummary.aspx?CaseNo=56-2008-00324387-SC-SC-VTA

She has just been served for another Apperance and Examination of Judgement Debtor, lets see if shows up for this one.
http://www.ventura.courts.ca.gov/via/CaseInformationSummary.aspx?CaseNo=56-2008-00324389-SC-SC-VTAAnother case has been filed against her for writing bad checks to a local hay dealer for over $9000.00,
http://www.ventura.courts.ca.gov/via/CaseInformationSummary.aspx?CaseNo=56-2008-00333883-CL-CL-VTA

Drink unpasturized milk and dairy products, I dont care - Just dont try to protect swindlers.

[Don Wittlinger]

The American dream down on the farm or the American NIGHTMARE ala corporatism?
Again the tools US Marshall, state police, county police and this time their corporate sponsors.
Monsanto Investigator In Illinois laughs They Are Doing " Rural Cleansing"
by Linn Cohen Cole
http://opednews.com/articles/MONSANTO-investigator-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090110-871.html
HMMM the way 2009 is unfolding are we going to wish we were back in 2008?

[Don Wittlinger]

JOE SLOW Instead of attacking David one man and one story maybe you should look around and expose the real swindlers. Try agribusiness, the disease management system, public schools, the debt based fiat paper money system, the Wall Street frauds all of them, the fractional reserve baking system, the SAD and on and on and on.
I will drink my raw milk and eat my germ filled raw butter, drink thick raw cream and eat raw cheese. My DW and I have a perfect track record to back up what we are eating in a total of 10 years on medicare we cost the system nothing not one penny nor any insurance compay either.
I do hope you never loose your freedom of choise to consume the other stuff or your freedom of speech to speak as you will.
Joe are our freedoms in jeoprady or not?

[Ken Conrad]

Mr. Slow apparently has self serving issues that are irrelevant with respect to this site and the topic at hand and it would appear that he is attempting to use someone’s unethical behavior to condone the abuse of power by authorities.

His participation on this site however and the nature of his attack prompts me to question his sincerity and integrity.

Ken Conrad

[hugh betcha]

i expect mr. slow might be the ex-husband or someone close to him. this blog site should record and keep his url just in case...

[Don Neeper]

A story posted Sunday in the Ventura County Star hints at another possible reason that Sharon Palmer was targeted. The story quotes Palmer as stating that the issue is "just a misunderstanding that she hopes to clear up," but also indicates that she is the herd manager for goats leased by Aajonus Vonderplanitz's Right to Eat Healthy Foods organization. "Palmer said she thinks her arrest was more about the raw milk controversy than about her and hopes the misunderstanding can be cleared up out of court."

The extreme measures used against her make a lot more sense if they were intended to send a message about her herdshare contracts as opposed to a licensing dispute over some cheese.

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/jan/11/raw-milk-issue-a-mix-up-says-dairy-owner/

[Don Neeper]

This is off-topic, but I wanted to share some interesting and disturbing information that I recently dug up. It turns out that there is a Washington D.C. based organization called the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA, http://www.nasda.org), founded in 1915 and whose mission is to "represent the state departments of agriculture in the development, implementation, and communication of sound public policy and programs which support and promote the American agricultural industry, while protecting consumers and the environment." NASA is governed by a ten member board consisting of department of agriculture directors from various states, currently including Robert Boggs of Ohio, Patrick Hooker of New York and directors from eight other states.

NASDA currently has seventeen Policy Statements on topic areas developed by the NASDA membership - "These topics are consistent with the guiding principles outlined in the policy statement titled 'Guiding Principles for Agricultural Competitiveness and Working Partnerships.' NASDA policies are the operational, working policies that guide our efforts to influence the development and implementation of sound policy and programs at all levels of the federal government."

On a hunch, I took a look at Policy Statement #4, "Food Regulation and Safety." In section 4.3 "Roles and Responsibility" buried about half-way into the document are two paragraphs under "Milk Quality-pasteurization" that are very interesting:

"Only pasteurized milk, milk products and properly aged cheeses should be sold for human consumption. Sale includes distribution by use of animal or herd sharing, bartering, exchange or agistment. In those states where the sale of unpasteurized milk is authorized, those products should be labeled 'Not Pasteurized and May Contain Organisms that cause Human Disease.'

Apparently healthy cows and goats can shed in their milk organisms which are pathogenic to human beings and may cause diseases such as brucellosis, Campylobacter enteritis, salmonellosis, and tuberculosis; and inasmuch as milk handlers may introduce pathogenic agents during the handling of unpasteurized milk (including certified raw milk)..."

What is most disturbing about this policy is that NASDA, an organization consisting entirely of the heads of the state departments of agriculture, has decided entirely on its own in opposition to various state laws and court decisions that all milk sold for human consumption should be pasteurized. Furthermore and contrary to various court decisions, NASDA has decided all by itself that herd shares, bartering, exchanges and boarding contracts are all "sales"!

I would just chalk this up to departmental hubris, were it not for the fact that this is a policy statement guiding all departments of agriculture, who are also members of NCIMS - the National Conference of Interstate Milk Shipments. NCIMS (http://www.ncims.org) is responsible for writing the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO), which is the template legislation for milk and dairy production that is mostly adopted as-is by many dairy producing states. The topic of raw milk and herdshares has come up in past NCIMS conferences, and no action was taken during the last one. The next conference is scheduled for this April in Orlando Florida, and the danger is that one of the committees may decided to insert language into the PMO defining herdshares as "sales" or banning them entirely. States often adopt the PMO with a very cursory review if at all, and it would be very easy for Ohio, New York or Pennsylvania to suddenly find that herdshares are illegal under their state's revised code. There are many people keeping an eye on NCIMS and the PMO, and we would certainly have advance warning if the PMO was changed to disallow herdshares.

One final tid-bit that I found was that during the NASDA's midyear meeting in February 2008, Director Kawamura of California submitted an action item requesting "NASDA to conduct and update a survey on raw milk regulation and food safety issues at the state level." This item was moved to recommend, passed by the membership and is presumably being implemented. We can only speculate to what nefarious purpose this survey has been or will be used.

[Ken Conrad]

Don,
Who do they intend survey?

Ken Conrad

[Don Neeper]

Ken, unfortunately you know as much as I do about the survey. :-)

I would guess that NASDA formed an internal committee tasked with putting together a survey asking specifics about each state's raw milk legislation and any disease outbreaks linked to raw milk consumption reported in that state. The survey would then have been turned over to each NASDA member, who would have assigned someone in his or her department to complete and return it.

I can imagine that this survey could then be used as a tool to induce changes in the PMO. For example, they could say that state X allows retail raw milk sales and had X1 number of "raw milk outbreaks", while state Y disallows raw milk sales and had no "raw milk outbreaks." Clearly state X is endangering the public health, and the PMO must be changed to disallow raw milk consumption.

[Rhemy]

Joe Slow is right! I am one of Sharon's victims - she swindled me out of $1400! She resells items that she did not raise, i.e., chicken, duck, squab, rabbit at her farmer's markets. She is a con artist and fraud and I for one commend our government authorities for their attempt to put a stop to her dirty dealings.

[Rhemy]

The point of my prior post is this - unfortunately Sharon Palmer is a dishonest individual. I for one feel that people should be able to obtain a honest product regardless if it is raw or not. It is our bodies for goodness sakes!

But Sharon is not honest about the products she sells and this puts her buyers at risk and I just don't think that is in sync with the whole raw movement.

Just my two cents.

[An Observer]

Rhemy,

There is an overall concept here of "know your farmer." Recently, a raw milk drinker (Elizabeth) noted dishonesty on a raw milk website, and worked with the producer to correct it (perhaps an example of "self-policing"). The final outcome was a struggle between ideologies, a representative of children who became sick from raw milk, and a the right to choose producing/distributing/selling/buying raw milk. But, ultimately there was some progress (see David's posts about ideology).

Bottom line - there is no place for dishonesty when selling or giving away any food. As consumers, it is important to try to do research and make the best choices. And, it is the duty of regulators to enforce the laws and regulations (yet, not overstep boundaries), in order to protect the public health.