FEBRUARY 13, 2008
Gallegos the Sneak
If you're waiting to read reporting from the courtroom in the Blue Lake police chief rape case in tomorrow's local daily newspapers, you won't find it. That's because District Attorney Paul Gallegos apparently snuck David Gundersen's arraignment onto the court calendar while reporters weren't looking this afternoon.
If you don't know, Gundersen, Blue Lake's chief of police, had been in custody on suspicion of spousal rape. The story has been getting stranger with each new development. Gundersen's attorney, Russell Clanton, claimed in news stories published today that the alleged victim, Gundersen's current wife, a sergeant at the Blue Lake Police Dept., is not a complainant, but rather it's his ex-wife, motivated by a custody battle, who is alleging that Gundersen raped his current wife with the aid of intoxicating substances. Supposedly, according to Clanton, the chief's current wife was going to be in attendance at today's arraignment, and bail hearing, and speak in support of her husband.
However if that indeed happened today reporters from Eureka's two dailies missed it. Gallegos didn't put Gundersen's arraignment on the court calendar for 1:30 p.m., which is when Clanton told reporters it would be heard. So reporters and photographers were standing around twiddling their thumbs waiting to see if Gallegos and Gunderson were going to show up at the last moment. All the while, Gallegos wasn't answering calls from reporters.
When it became apparent the arraignment wasn't going to happen at 1:30 the speculation became it would happen at 4 p.m., when the late court calendar is heard. But when the reporters showed up again shortly before 4 p.m., they saw Gallegos leaving the second floor. It didn't take long for the reporters to learn that Gallegos had snuck the Gundersen case into the courtroom while they were gone from the courthouse.
It would be an understatement to say the reporters were fuming.
Can this case get any more queer? I'm waiting for descendants of Earp brothers to show up and gun it out with Gundersen's attorney.
