Former San Bernardino County Assessor and Colonies corruption figure Bill Postmus will be serving his three-year sentence in state prison after all, his attorney says.
When Postmus, 47, surrendered to authorities Nov. 30 to begin serving his sentence, his attorney said he qualified under prison realignment as a “triple-non offender” and likely would serve his time at a San Bernardino County jail. “Triple-non” is terminology for an offender considered “non-violent, non-sexual, non-serious” who, under realignment, is eligible to serve his or her sentence in county jail instead of state prison.
Signed into law in 2011, prison realignment shifted a large chunk of the state’s prison population to county jails to reduce overcrowding. Postmus, however, does not meet the criteria to serve his sentence in a county jail because one of the charges he was convicted of — misappropriation of public funds — is on the Legislature’s list of 74 offenses that require state prison, attorney Jeffrey Lawrence said in an email. He declined further comment Wednesday.
Postmus of Victorville will be eligible for release after serving 18 months of his sentence.
Postmus was sentenced on Nov. 15 to three years in state prison for crimes he pleaded guilty to in March 2011 in connection with corruption cases stemming from his short term in the Assessor’s Office in 2007-08 and a controversial $102 million settlement between the county and a Rancho Cucamonga developer in 2006, while Postmus was serving as chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.
Prosecutors alleged Postmus used his power to hire friends and cronies at the Assessor’s Office and have them run a political operation at taxpayer expense. In the companion Colonies corruption case, Postmus was convicted of conflict of interest and conspiracy to commit bribery.
Prosecutors accused him of conspiring with other top county officials and a Rancho Cucamonga developer to settle for $102 million a lawsuit over a flood control dispute at Colonies Partners’ 434-acre residential and commercial development in Upland, Colonies at San Antonio and Colonies Crossroads, respectively.
Despite Postmus’ guilty plea and subsequent sentencing following the Colonies trial last year, prosecutors could not make their case against the four defendants: former county Supervisor Paul Biane; Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum; Mark Kirk, former chief of staff to former county Supervisor Gary Ovitt; and former Assistant Assessor Jim Erwin.
A jury acquitted Biane, Burum and Kirk in August 2017, and prosecutors dropped their case against Erwin after a separate jury announced it was “hopelessly deadlocked.”
Postmus fought hard to have his guilty plea vacated, or at minimum be sentenced to probation, to no avail.
San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jodi Miller said in an email that, for security purposes, she could not reveal when Postmus will be transferred from the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga to a reception center for intake before he is sent to prison.
The intake process, which takes a few weeks, includes a medical and psychological evaluation of the prisoner, fingerprinting and collection of a DNA sample, as well as a needs assessment, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Once the prisoner’s evaluations and assessments are completed, a prison tailored to fit those needs is chosen to house the prisoner, Thornton said.
“The process is for prison officials to make that determination where that individual will serve their prison time,” she said.
