In the game of DLSE musical chairs, Greg Rupp, Robert Jones, and Anthony Mischel got their chairs, but Lupe Almaraz didn't get his chair

Deputy Chief Lupe Almaraz took a big ol' crap in his mess kit towards the end of the blogger's trial. What I'm talking about is how he stepped in it at the trial's finale, and he didn't (even) see it coming. But then again, he had DIR attorneys Steve McGinty, Richard Munoz, and some potted plant (sitting in the bleachers) as his legal team...yikes!

I tried to settle with them, and I made it real simple to the settlement judge: pay the legal fees, leave me alone, and I drop the lawsuit. Real friggin' simple: the judge thought it was reasonable. But you know what they wanted? My resignation. That wasn't on the table, but they kept bullying me into putting it on the table. At every stage of the settlement, they demanded my resignation, and all I wanted was for them to leave me alone and let me do the job I'm paid to do.

These jerkoffs couldn't do it; they couldn't leave me alone. I didn't want to file this lawsuit, but they forced me to do it. If you think I wanted to spend this money for a lawyer, go through depositions & a trial, then you must be nuts (to put it another way ... would you want to do this?). They were going to interrogate me without my lawyer, they demanded to know my confidential sources, and they left me with no choice. You know why they wanted my sources? Because they were going to go after them. They were gonna make time to retaliate against those who talked to the blogger, but they have absolutely no time to un-f*ck that taxpayer-paid, multi-million dollar abortion called CMS.

What I can't believe is that they are rewarding Deputy Chief Commissioner Lupe Almaraz's loyalty by taking the chance on losing, and then Lupe's forever named as the loser Defendant. This is how they take care of their own: they set this guy up to take the fall. This bureaucrat did everything right, he kissed the right amount of ass, he professed love for that taxpayer-paid, multi-million dollar abortion called CMS, and he (even) violated the constitutional rights of a fellow state employee, and they reward him by forcing this to trial with the chance of losing.

DLSE Assistant Chief Greg Rupp, the one who lost the promotion of Deputy Chief to Lupe Almaraz, must be laughing his ass off that Lupe got named as a Defendant. I just didn't think that Lupe would go out like some punk without repaying the favor to Greg. If Greg set up Lupe, and Lupe's too cowardly to deal with that, then the least Lupe should do is send a thank-you note to Greg.