Palm Springs Attorney David Baron Diggs a Dry Hole in Desert Hot Springs

DESERT HOT SPRINGS, Calif. - Nov. 22, 2013 - PRLog -- DESERT HOT SPRINGS, CA – He admitted the defeat of his client while continuing his client’s challenge to the legitimacy of an election that cost her the seat of mayor by just 12 votes.

Speaking as the personal attorney for outgoing Mayor Yvonne Parks (http://www.desertvortex.com/yvonne-parks-mayor-city-council-desert-hot-springs), Attorney Dave Baron praised theRiverside County Register of Votersfor its accuracy. A recount requested by Yvonne Parks did not change the outcome by even one vote. But Baron also expressed to the media that Yvonne Parks thought fraud was involved in the election.

For those not familiar with Dave Baron, his firm of Slovak Baron Empey Murphy & Pinkney LLP (http://sbemp.com/) is also the personal attorney of former Desert Hot Springs city manager Rick Daniels, Peter Chrysikos (http://www.peterchryssikos.com/) (an unlicensed alarm contractor under indictment, the Mission Springs Water District and the City of Needles where Rick Daniels took a new position as city manager after quitting his job in Desert Hot Springs.

As attorney for all these people and institutions, David Baron has had an involvement in Desert Hot Springs’ most heated political battles. Desert Hot Springs is a city known for more political battles than most small cities its size.

Representing Rick Daniels
While it is not certain how long David Baron’s association with Rick Daniels dates back, he did represent Daniels in his contract renewal with the city and possibly his original contract negotiations that first landed Daniels the Desert Hot Springs city manager job in 2008.

Baron also represented Rick Daniels when Daniels brought an action against the city of Desert Hot Springs claiming he was bullied by two council members. Daniels lost that action after the city spent $78,000 to investigate the allegations with an independent investigator. Baron would have been paid separately by Daniels in that action.

It is not known if Yvonne Parks, a member of the city council that authorized the city incur the $78,000 expense for the Daniels investigation, was represented by David Baron at the time of her vote.

It was soon after that Rick Daniels quit his job in Desert Hot Springs to take a city manager job in Needles, California and just three months before news broke in Desert Hot Springs that the Rick Daniels budget left the city broke and in debt. The city council voted last week to declare a fiscal emergency in an effort to head off bankruptcy.

Representing Needles
David Baron is a partner and namesake in his Palm Springs law firm. His firm is the registered city manager for the city of Needles. A firm associate, John Pinkney, attends Needles city council meetings as the city attorney. The firm had the city attorney contract prior to Rick Daniels’ arrival but now that Daniels is there, the representative from Baron’s law firm sits just across the room from Daniels at Needles city council meetings.

Involved with Rick Daniels
Attorney David Baron made a pitch to also be Desert Hot Springs city attorney – while Rick Daniels was working for the city.

It was in the middle of Daniel’s threat of litigation that David Baron’s law firm threw their hat in the ring with other city attorney applicants. This came about during the time that Baron was the personal attorney for then city manager Rick Daniels and was the firm that had represented Daniels’ in negotiating his employment contract.

The city council did not select Baron, likely due to the conflict.

Involvement with City and Water District
David Baron’s firm represents the Mission Springs Water District, a position that would have put Baron’s law firm in the challenging position if it had also represented Desert Hot Springs. Even though the two agencies work closely together, at times they have competing interests that would create a financial conflict for Baron’s firm and the two agencies.

Involvement with Peter Chyrssikos
Baron also represents Peter Chryssikos, an unlicensed contractor who received a city contract from Rick Daniels to install and monitor alarms in city buildings under the name of Chryss Home Security, a business with deep ties to city leaders.

Rick Daniels had Chryssikos install a $6,000 home entertainment system in his home. Chrysikoss also installed alarm systems in the home of Council Member Jan Pye and in the business of Council Member Scott Matas.

Living as a roommate with former Council Member Karl Baker, this was discovered to be a mutual business association in the alarm business. Checks from the city ended up being deposited into Baker’s personal bank account of Chryssikos who also worked as the manager for Baker’s failed re-election campaign in 2011.

In the representation of Chryssikos, Baron’s firm found itself in court with the Desert Star Weekly newspaper that was highly critical of Daniels, Pye, Matas and Parks. In that action, Baron successfully sought to eliminate the newspaper’s adjudication that allowed the paper to print legal ads, an important source of revenue.

That court action set the wheels in motion for the newspaper to be sold with the new owner ordering that the newspaper’s online archive of articles be deleted that were critical of Daniels, Parks, Pye and Matas. Also deleted was all reference to funny business at city hall regarding Chrysikos.

New or Old Relationship?
That David Baron shows up now representing Yvonne Parks at the recount raises an interesting question of when that relationship was established.

Did David Baron concurrently represent Mayor Yvonne Parks while concurrently representing City Manager Rick Daniels while he was threatening to sue the city? Did Yvonne Parks have a role to play in forcing the sale of the newspaper business that eliminated online articles critical of her?

That Nagging Peter Chryssikos Matter
Peter Chryssikos is next scheduled to appear in court on January 17, 2014 for a jury trial on four counts of doing business as an unlicensed contractor, an action brought by the Riverside County District Attorney.

David Baron’s law firm is not representing Peter Chrysikos in that matter. Instead, Chryssikos hired high-priced criminal defense attorney John Patrick Dolan to represent him in what is nominally an administrative matter of nolo contender accompanying the payment of a small fine.

There may be a reason for that. A conviction against Peter Chryssikos in that criminal matter could hurt Chryssikos’s chances in a case Chryssikos brought against KNEZ 94.5 FM where once more David Baron’s firm again represents Chryssikos. In that case, KNEZ was critical of Daniels, Parks, Matas and Pye and exposed the connection between Baker and Chryssikos, along with other details.

Were David Baron to prevail in that case it will likely will set in motion additional litigation against various unnamed John Doe’s to attempt further censorship.