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The Sordid Case Of The Alleged California Ketchup Thief
SANTA ANA, Calif. - He was the ultimate dark-horse politician, a school board member who murmured about conspiracies, refused to talk with colleagues, wore coal-black sunglasses during night meetings and survived a recall attempt.But former Orange school trustee Steve Rocco may finally have met his match in a half-full bottle of ketchup. Rocco is being tried for stealing a 14-ounce Heinz bottle from a dining area outside the cafeteria at Chapman University, a charge he claims is bogus because -- in his calculations -- the ketchup was worthless. If Rocco made for an awkward and often mute politician when he served a four-year term on the school board in Orange, he seemed light, gregarious and engaged as his petty-theft trial opened Tuesday, jotting things down in a spiral notebook, asking detailed questions and laughing with his public defender. Told he would have to adhere to courtroom etiquette and go without his standard knit beanie cap and dark glasses, Rocco showed up in a plaid shirt with a black tie and flip-up sunglasses and had a white bandage the size of a slice of bread affixed to his head. Superior Court Judge Jacki C. Brown's courtroom has become the latest stage for Rocco, a 58-year-old unemployed recluse known for espousing shadowy conspiracy theories about a powerful, secret cabal he calls the Partnership. He made national headlines in 2004 when he won a school board seat in Orange, listing himself as a "teacher/writer" on the ballot. Now a different panel will be asked to pass judgment on Rocco and decide whether he stole the plastic squirt bottle of Heinz from a table at a dining area in September and put it in a paper bag before speeding off on his bicycle. Or did he just take it, thinking it was trash and in need of recycling? The case seems straightforward, if not a bit mundane and, well, cheap. According to prosecutors, the bottle had a value of $1.20 -- well below the $15 each juror is being paid a day for their civic service. So while Deputy District Attorney Lynda Fernandez asked jurors to "focus on the conduct of the defendant rather than the value of the item," public defender Erica Gambale simply jingled two quarters and a dime in her palm. "This is it, ladies and gentlemen, this is it: 60 cents," she told jurors. "At best, half that ketchup was left." The trial continues. Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-04-15 |
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