Neuroblast Posts the Fay Angus and Colin Braudrick Videos

It is rather astonishing how one City Councilman's inability to tell the truth about something that there really was no point in fibbing about in the first place has captured the attention of so many in this community. We are talking, of course, about Josh Moran's unfortunate answer to a Pasadena Star News inquiry about convicted child pornographer Bob Matheson.

Josh's denial became something of a point of hilarity in town as various photographs of Josh with Matheson getting their party on at varying posh Sierra Madre social events have turned up everywhere.

The Star News article in question, "Porn Convict Has Sierra Madre Political Ties," can be found by clicking here. And the passages that caused such an uproar in that quarter read as follows:

Matheson maintained ties to several local politicians, including former Mayor Joe Mosca. Besides signing nomination papers for Mosca in 2010, Matheson hosted a fundraiser for Mosca at Matheson's Liliano Drive home. Mosca moved to Great Britain earlier this year and was unavailable for comment.

Other politicians Thursday sought to distance themselves from Matheson. Although he was supported by Matheson and attended several functions, Councilman Josh Moran said the longtime resident didn't stand out.

"I didn't know him at all," Moran said. "He was just another face in the crowd."

Mayor Buchanan did not return two phone calls seeking comment.

Later several photographs of Josh and Bob chillin' out in the social limelight turned up on the Internet. Much to the embarrassment of the Councilman.

The Moran camp hasn't seen much humor in any of this however, and they have reacted in some rather bizarre ways to our coverage of the story here on The Tattler. They created a spokesperson sock puppet named Lady Elizabeth Wistar, who was recently thrown off The Patch for making up fake events. A blog that is an imitation of this site called the Tattler Tattler, which has since fallen into disuse as its creativity challenged and rather simpleminded proprietors couldn't think of much to say beyond their original premise. And they also shelled out a considerable amount of money to libel me on an anonymous hate site, which turns out to be an offshore entity of considerable disrepute on the Internet. I just hope they didn't give the individual who runs it their credit card information. Or, come to think of it, maybe I do.

All of which seems like a lot of effort just to build some deniability for Josh's unfortunate moment in a newspaper article, and one that didn't have to occur in the first place. It certainly is a fine example of something all moms hopefully told their youngsters early on, that honesty is far less complicated than fibbing, and trying to cover it up only makes matters even worse. And in this case those matters have apparently not run their course yet. Which is fine with me, when you run a blog with a name like The Tattler you just can't ask for better content. We cover this kind of stuff here, no matter what.

Which brings us to Tuesday evening's conflagration, which took place at the first City Council meeting of what is an election year. Something that always adds a certain pungency to the proceedings in our highly politicized community.

The first of these two Neuroblast videos (click here) shows Fay Angus stepping up to the podium to discuss the situation. Entitled "Fay Asks for Leadership on Matheson Case," Fay is shown reading off Mayor John Buchanan for his complete and utter silence on the matter. This being a major crisis in our little town, it would seem incumbent upon the Mayor to offer at least a few comforting words to the residents. Rather he remained silent, even to the point of refusing to return phone calls from newspapers.

Fay is also shown upbraiding Councilman Moran on his inability to tell the truth about his knowledge of Bob Matheson's existence, when obviously that was not the case. Her points being along the lines of what we have discussed here on the blog. It was an effective speech and the angry reaction of Moran's people attending the meeting became quickly evident.

The second of the two Neuroblast videos shows City Council candidate Colin Braudrick stepping to the podium to defend his friend Josh Moran. This has become something of an unfortunate moment for Colin in that his line of attack, in particular in regard to Fay Angus's earlier comments, was entirely besides the point.

This video (click here), entitled "Colin Braudrick on the Matheson Matter," details his experiences with child pornographers and similar predators as an officer of the Los Angeles Police Department. His point being that the people around a predator have no idea going on as the activities of the offending person are, in Colin's words, "their deepest, darkest secret."

Which is something I believe everyone in town can agree with. But where Colin went astray was in the second half of his statement. Here he suggests that Fay Angus and "others in the community" are guilty of attempting to somehow implicate Matheson's friends with his crimes. Which is something of an unfair attack, and in my opinion one designed to fend off the critics of failed city leaders such as his friend the Councilman.

Fay's point, and mine as well for that matter, has always been about the failed leadership of this City's political class in the Matheson Affair. We have a Mayor who refused to discuss the matter in any way until last Tuesday's meeting, and then only because Fay held his feet to the fire. Plus we also have a Mayor Pro Tem who just couldn't find it in himself to tell a truth that would have in no way harmed him. And still can't bring himself to do it, for that matter.

Would it really have been too much to ask of either of them to issue a press release that said investigations are ongoing, and that Matheson engaged in awful crimes and they share in the horror and disgust of all Sierra Madre residents? Instead of having their surrogates, friends and family members create absurd sock puppets, nonsensical blogs, tell specious tales and subscribe to hate websites? All with the purpose of attacking anyone who dared to speak out about the lousy job our absentee guardians of the public interest have been doing in this matter?

You'd think that these people would have known better. If John and Josh had done the right things in the first place, nobody would even be talking about this anymore. Or going to the videotape, for that matter.

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