I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area while Kamala Harris was California’s attorney general. Bay Area residents admired Harris. She had a likable and easy-going personality.
I attended several of Harris’s events, including the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp unveiling at City Hall. True to her style, Harris was all giggles at the event.
I freelanced book reviews and articles for area newspapers in California, including the Bay Area Reporter. According to its masthead, the BAR has served the Bay Area LGBT community since 1971. My interaction with the paper’s staff convinced me it was a solid supporter of Harris.
In 2013, BAR gave me a choice assignment to interview Harris about her selection as grand marshal in that year’s San Francisco LGBTQIA+ Pride parade down Market Street. The interview was part profile. I emailed Harris to her staff in the attorney general’s office in Sacramento.
“Empowerment is having the courage and the ability to pursue what is rightfully yours and refusing to stop until you get it,” Harris said. I used her quote.
Though Harris’s quote was intended for the LGBTQIA+ community, it has broad application. After a damaging identity theft incident, I took Harris’s words to heart.
In 2014, I was contacted by a Los Angeles area attorney. He had information about a 2011 government data breach involving my Personal Identifying Information. I had one year of ID theft protection from the government contractor who had allowed my data to be illegally accessed. The attorney said he could protect me from further financial loss. I stupidly allowed him to charge a $4,500 retainer to my credit card.
When the attorney called back for more and more money, I realized it was a fraud. I lost thousands of dollars that I had planned to use to create a foundation in honor of my daughter, who died at 17 of a heart ailment.
I filed a complaint against the attorney with the California Bar Association. I got no help. It rejected my complaint. As the Los Angeles Times reported in 2022: “The State Bar of California has failed to effectively discipline corrupt attorneys, allowing lawyers to repeatedly violate professional standards and harm members of the public.” The article was based on an audit of the California Bar.
I appealed the bar’s dismissal of my complaint to Harris in Sacramento. Her office advised me to file my complaint with, guess who, the California Bar Association. It seemed that Harris’s staff never read my letter.
Since the attorney telephoned, my complaint involved wire fraud, a federal offense. I wrote to the Department of Justice in Washington. In a March 2016 letter, a Justice Consumer Protection Division official referred me to Attorney General Harris.
At this point, I contacted my credit card company. It had unnecessarily delayed their fraud investigation into the attorney’s $4,500 charge to my credit card. A 2016 letter informed me it had recovered $4,500 from the law firm during its fraud investigation. It also reversed interest charges on the fraudulent 2014 charge. While this was a success, I was still out thousands of dollars.
I sent the credit card company’s fraud investigation and recovery letter to the California Bar Association. I argued that the Los Angeles-area law firm admitted to credit card fraud when it refunded the money to my credit card account. I thought this admission of fraud would force the bar to help me recover other funds lost to the lawyer. I was wrong. Again, the bar took no action.
I recalled Harris’s quote about having “the courage and the ability to pursue what is rightfully yours and refusing to stop until you get it.” The money belonged to my late daughter. I wanted to honor her. I wanted the money returned.
Again, I contacted Harris’s office in Sacramento and sent her the credit card company’s fraud recovery letter. I felt that a fraud admission by the attorney would force Harris’s office to help me recover the rest of my money. I was wrong. Again, her office referred me back to the California Bar Association.
Harris has a reputation for speaking circular and nonsensical “word salads.” Based on my experience with Harris and her Sacramento staff, I understand the pain of her bureaucratic nonsensical circularity of thought and speech.
In her world, fraud complaints circulate without real action. Her laughs and giggles fail to convince me that she cares for people. She failed to help my family.
As a father working to honor his late daughter, I want to know why Kamala Harris abandoned my family. Vice President Harris, my family deserves an answer. We are waiting.
