URGENT NEWS: who is who, attorney in KVHD elder abuse case unclear at this point

Who is the new attorney:

After almost a week, I find tonight that there is nothing clear as to who the "new" attorney is in the Kern Valley Healthcare District criminal case, which has three people charged with elder abuse stemming from a six month investigation by the state of California Department of Justice, in 2006.

I've reported that Dr. Hoshang Pormir has a new attorney in Donald Etra, a high profile attorney who has worked with the likes of "Snoopdog" and other celebrities. Etra, also linked to Ralph Nader, and known as a "firebrand" and consumer advocate, has a broad background even defending death row cases.

However, I am not clear at this time if that is indeed correct.

It all started last Tuesday...

We could not seem to be able to get anyone down the canyon to the courtroom on Jan. 5, where KVHD former CEO, Pamela Ott, former director of nursing Gwen Hughes, and former Medical Director, Dr. Hoshang Pormir, were scheduled for a 9 am status update and possibly setting a date for the preliminary hearing.

None of us made it, so I called on several of the TV stations in Bakersfield to see if they had been in court and had the update as to what happened.

When two stations I usually rely on for information, channel 17 and 29, were out of the loop and had nothing, I decided to try another station, ABC, channel 23.

As I reported in the story last week, I spoke with the local ABC affiliate last week and was told that the court case had been postponed because one of the defendants had changed attorneys.

I asked which defendant and they did not know. Then I asked if they had the name of the new attorney: they gave me Donald Etra's name, and an email address.

After a few moments of questions about me and my interest in the information, I directed him to the blog.

I called back after I didn't find Etra's name listed amongst the Bakersfield law section of the yellow pages.

I verified the name and spelling.

So, I googled him. Apparently, so did someone else, who sent me an article about Mr. Etra and his friendship with George W. Bush, and other "important" types.

I waited until the afternoon to call the court and get the verification. I was told by the "felony department" of the Kern County Superior Court that indeed the case was continued because of a change in attorneys.

Then I was given the extra information, that the defendant was Dr. Pormir.

He was not the one I had guessed earlier in the day, but it was intriguing for several reasons I won't go into right now.

So, I had the first part of the story verified, but then I had to put a call into Etra's office, which I did. I asked the woman who answered the phone that I wanted to verify that Mr. Etra was indeed the attorney for Dr. Pormir in the criminal case. She took the message.

No call back, but not unusual. I called again today, repeating the same thing, I wanted to verify he was indeed the attorney on the case. Now he's got a voice mail from me.

After looking at the Kern Country Superior court site, I found I could not verify anything there with any certainty either.

But it didn't end there.

Do you remember who Monica Lewinsky's attorney was? Do you even remember who she was?

Regardless, now we have the possibility that William Ginsburg, Lewinsky's old buddy, maybe the new attorney in the case.

There has been some information coming in that there are those getting calls from this office, Ginsburg's, and this all has to be confirmed of course, but there seems to be some very confusing things going on.

I'll get back to you soon...