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By Miriam Raftery
October 5, 2018 (El Cajon) -- In his latest campaign piece titled "The Lies vs. The Facts", El Cajon Councilman Kalasho has made claims that are so outlandish that most can best be described as detached from reality. He urges voters to "don't believe what you hear in the press," despite well documented news articles in East County Magazine, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Reader, and multilple network TV stations on his actions.
His piece derides as “fake news” reports that he is guilty of wrongdoing and fraud, faces sexual harassment claims deemed true by a judge, is accused of threatening people with an attack dog, is under investigation, and paid business fines.
Here are the actual documents from official government agencies, court records and more proving that all of these facts reported are the media are not "fake news," but provably true:
Guilty of fraud and wrongdoing – There are many incidents of wrongdoing including criminal, civil court and governmental agency findings. Here are the highlights, or lowlights:
Kalasho pled guilty to 2 criminal counts of worker’s compensation fraud, according to the San Diego District Attorney. View the document he signed pleading guilty, as ECM was first to report: https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/2018/August/Kalasho%20MisdeamenorRev.pdf?526 )
He was found by a jury to have committed fraud in a separate civil case for lying about seeing a vehicle in his car wash crash into a neighboring business. View the judgment: https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/2017/June/Kalasho-IdealMarketFraudJudgment.pdf?740
Sexual harassment: Kalasho was found by a civil court judge to have sexually harassed beauty pageant contestants. Click links in this paragraph to view the actual court documents. Judge Timothy Taylor issued a judgment granting a motion to allow documents, a supporting declaration and admissions to be admitted at an upcoming civil trial as true facts—meaning Kalasho cannot dispute the accuracy in court of the judge’s findings that Kalasho:
- offered a woman the crown in exchange for sex
- made comments about another contestant’s breasts jiggling on the runway
- posted fake nude photos online of a pageant winner with whom he had a dispute
- destroyed video evidence
- created numerous fake Facebook accounts to defame a restaurant owner who refused to post his campaign signs.
Read our article with more details: https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/judge-finds-facts-true-and-admissible-case-against-kalashos-faked-nude-photos-sexual-harassment
Businesses fined: His car wash was fined for a workman’s comp violation and ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution. View case details and labor codes violated: https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/2018/August/KalashoMisdemeanorPrintout.pdf?847
Other dubious business dealings: A Chamber of Commerce that he founded was forced to change its name due to a trademark infringement, after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ordered Kalasho to cease using the name. View the federal order: https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/2017/June/Kalasho-TradeMarkRevoked.pdf?19
The state Attorney General’s office revoked the nonprofit status of the Miss Middle East Beauty Pageant run by the Kalashos and their Chamber, after they illegally failed to register it as a nonprofit with the IRS two years after founding the organization and holding multilple pageants. View the Attorney General’s letter sent to Kalasho and the Franchise Tax Board: https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/2017/November/Kalasho-AGDisallowance%20Letter_MISS%20MIDDLE%20EAST%20BEAUTY%20PAGEANT%20USA_0.pdf?212
Assault with dog: Kalasho has been accused by two people of threatening to assault them with his trained attack dog and allowing the dog to lunge at them. Both ECM reporter Paul Kruze and a process server notified police of the threats. Read Kruze’s statement submitted to police: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/sd-reporter-s-statement-to-police-about-councilman-ban-kalasho-20180705-acrobat.html . Posts on Kalasho’s Facebook page confirmed an altercation with Kruze involving the dog, though their accounts of what transpired differed.
The process service’s report is incident number 938; view e-mail from process service company confirming assault report filed: https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/KalashoProcessServerREdacted.png. Kalasho has claimed this incident never occurred.
A police report has also been filed by Jesse Kendrick, son of Kalasho’s political opponent, Councilman Gary Kendrick, alleging that Kalasho followed, stalked and harassed Jesse while he was campaigning for his father, frightening him and forcing him to go home for his safety. The next day, both Jesse and Gary Kendrick allege that they were again followed and harassed by Kalasho. Their police complaint is incident number 18008640. View Jesse Kendrick’s statement of the incidents, sent in an email to ECM, here.
More wrongdoing: Kalasho also agreed to a settlement in a federal lawsuit filed by activist Mark Lane. Kalasho was accused of violating the U.S. Constitution by blocking critics on his social media and deleting their comments. He agreed in the settlement to stop doing these actions, but days after the settlement, Lane accused Kalasho of again deleting his posts illegally.
Under investigation: He is currently accused of filing false real estate filings to hide assets in a civil case: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/sd-me-kalasho-deeds-20180226-story.html If confirmed true, this would be a felony and Kalasho could be charged with a crime. He may also be under investigation by police or the D.A. for some of the other actions described above, such as sexual harassment of pageant queens, posting revenge porn against one woman, and menacing people with his dog that by his own admission and online video, he has trained to be an attack dog.
Kalasho’s flyer also lists several items he claims are “facts.” Here are the actual facts about those items:
- “Started a senior program.”
Kalasho posted video of himself and others giving out gifts to seniors in a rest home. He called the group “El Cajon Elves.” However this was not a city program. The City Council rejected this proposal based on Kalasho’s record of fraudulent activities. He started the organization unofficially on his own, visiting a senior center to deliver holiday gifts and other items.
- “Raised money for kids.”
According to a post on his Facebook page, Kalasho gave some gift cards to teachers at Greenfield Elementary School. This action drew protesters upset over the court findings of sexual harassment by Kalasho to bring “No Kalasho in our school” signs at recent council meetings.
- “Started El Cajon Elves.”
This is the same as number one.
- “Homeless gift card drive.”
Kalasho has held gift card drives at a Masquerade Ball that he hosts, according to announcements for the event posted on his social media. But he has provided no information to media to document who received the donated gift cards. Because the state revoked the nonprofit status of Kalasho’s nonprofit, there are no public records available to document any claims he makes of charitable contributions by his privately-owned organizations.
- Started “Clean El Cajon Day.”
This was a revival of a previous program conducted by El Cajon’s downtown Community Development Corporation. The current clean-up events are primarily run by Councilman Steve Goble, however Councilman Kalasho did attend at least one event.
- “Has a homeless plan.”
His homeless plan proposed that the city hire 10 homeless individuals and confiscate shopping carts from homeless people. Council rejected this proposal due to liability concerns, potential conflicts with city labor contracts, and because Downtown Management Partners already hire formerly homeless individuals who are residents of the East County Transitional Living Center and have passed screenings to assure they are not using drugs or alcohol. Instead, the Council adopted a broader, multi-point plan to reduce homelessness proposed by the East County Regional Task force on the Homeless. You can read details here: https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/el-cajon-providing-comprehensive-leadership-homelessness.
- “Only one talking about unfunded pension liability.”
The City has $44 million in reserves and is now putting extra funds aside annually for unfunded liabilities. It is true that like many cities, El Cajon is facing pension under-funding issues as the city manager cautioned last year. However the city has been taking steps to grow its revenues through new hotels, car dealers and soon, a performing arts center reopening. These actions were underway before Kalasho joined the Council.
- “Only one who voted no on city executive raises.”
The City Council voted to give a 2.5% pay raise to all employees, including workers who went several years with no pay increase. Kalasho was the only no vote.
- “Doesn’t accept PAC money.” Kalasho has accepted PAC money in prior campaigns but has not received any in the present race as of the latest filing. It is unclear whether he did not ask for PAC money, or if any PACs rejected requests due to Kalasho’s highly publicized ethical and legal controversies.
As for conflict of interest concerns, Kalasho’s failure to recuse himself from a key vote in which he had a conflict of interest due to a hefty contribution his Chamber received from Waste Management cost the city thousands of dollars to rescind and revote on trash collection liens, with a new city-paid mailing to notify those impacted. http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/sd-me-kalasho-conflict-20171113-story.html.
- “Started Neighborhood Watch programs.” It is unclear whether he started such a program, though his Facebook posts indicated he has met with at least one Neighborhood Watch group.
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