Yolo County, CA: Deadly pyrotechics blast exposes public corruption

[Winehole23]

the quasi-baronial reverence accorded to police in this case was both the cradle of corruption and a manifest hazard to the public

A former Yolo County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant is one of five people charged with murder following a fireworks warehouse explosion thatkilled seven workers in the rural Northern California community of Esparto last summer, authorities said

Machado was placed on administrative leave following the violent July 1 explosion, which was felt by residents up to 20 miles away, destroyed a family farm and sparked a 78-acre grass fire.

An investigative report filed by a Yolo County civil grand jury last month stated that various top county authorities were aware of the sprawling illegal operation for at least three years prior to the lethal explosion, yet failed to take action.

A county Building Services Department official received a tip that the property was being used by two pyrotechnics businesses in June 2022, according to the report. Department officials wrote in emails that they would inspect the site, but noted they would “tread lightly” as the property was owned by “deputies that we work with.”

“Inexplicably, no code enforcement occurred, even though all dangerous fireworks had been banned by ordinance throughout rural Yolo County since 2001,” the report states. “In the absence of official oversight and enforcement, unmitigated expansion of the fireworks businesses operating at the site in Esparto led directly to death and destruction.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...ireworks-blast

[Winehole23]

Machado’s wife, Tammy, was working at the Sheriff’s Office in an administrative position at the time of the blast. She also has been placed on leave and was charged in a separate indictment with child and animal endangerment for allegedly storing illegal fireworks at their property, as well as tax fraud and mortgage fraud.


The 30-count indictment alleges a decadelong conspiracy that “turned the property of a former Sheriff’s Lieutenant Sam Machado into the Northern California hub for an illegal enterprise that imports illegal explosives on the black market,” Yolo County Deputy Dist. Atty. Clara Nabity said at a Friday news conference.