Now is it coming back to you?  I sure haven’t forgotten it.

In October 1999, I was contacted by Burbank resident Alfred “Al” Beardsley.  After a recent encounter with Burbank police officers, one that ended with his being jailed on a warrant charging he’d failed to complete the terms of sentencing for a DUI arrest, Beardsley, then 38, was so irked that he announced he’d run for council on the single-issue platform of reforming the department.

Beardsley made this announcement a few months after that year’s municipal election, and the next wasn’t due for another 17 months.  But he pledged to spend $100,000 on his campaign and boasted he already had an endorsement virtually guaranteeing victory;  OJ Simpson.

Beardsley told me he was the occasional spokesman, advisor and memorabilia agent for the former football star and accused murderer.  That the officers arresting him treated Simpson memorabilia in his car with such disrespect was among the reasons Beardsley was determined to reform Burbank’s department.  Apparently the signed footballs, certificates and such on Beardsley’s back seat were unceremoniously dumped to the floor of his car.

My calls to the offices of Simpson’s various attorneys and agents at the time to confirm or refute Beardsley’s claimed employment were never answered.

In the weeks that followed, little was heard from Beardsley on the political front.  He attended council meetings, but never spoke at oral communications.  Repeated announcements that OJ would appear at City Hall to kick-off Beardsley’s campaign were put off when the candidate said his boss had last minute schedule conflicts.  But the man was certainly being seen all over town, and at 6’6” and 250 lbs., he was impossible not to notice.  Curiously enough, many of his appearances seemed to coincide with the travels of then-Mayor Stacey Murphy. 

Whether at a city function, a community fundraiser, or out for drinks with friends, Murphy kept turning around and finding Beardsley nearby.  Murphy told me at the time that, while he’d called her once about an issue – a call that she said was disjointed and confusing – she otherwise never spoke to him.

Then, in early January, 2000, Beardsley called me, nearly frantic and insisting we had to meet.  We did so the following day, and it turned out to be the one of the oddest meetings I’ve ever had.  Even stranger than a council meeting.

It began with Beardsley playing a tape of phone messages he said were from enemies threatening to kill him.  To me, the messages sounded like calls from people demanding  Beardsley stop bothering them.

Beardsley went on to say that then-City Manager Bud Ovrom and other city officials were harassing him, that Mayor Stacey Murphy was spreading false rumors about their having an intimate relationship, and that Murphy was “stalking” him.  Then Beardsley started talking weird.

Beardsley told me he was receiving messages from Burbank residents urging him to remove Murphy from office, and to do so before the 2001 election.  These messages were being communicated to him through television cameras at City Hall during meetings, and by flashing headlights from passing motorists.

When I was less than receptive to his concerns, Beardsley announced he was well aware of a "conspiracy" that existed between myself, Mayor Murphy and OJ Simpson.  He said he knew we had agreed to work together to "take me out."

Beardsley told me this as I walked him back to his car, and with a smile on his face.  He urged me to tell him how Murphy and Simpson had convinced me to join in on their plan.  "Was it blackmail, or did they threaten you?" Beardsley asked several times. 

No matter how I often I said I'd never spoken to Simpson, and had no interest in doing so, and that no such plot existed, Beardsley congenially assured me he understood why I had to join with the forces against him. 

"They've got you," he said.  "Somehow, they got to you."

Coincident with this meeting, I received a call from a man in Fresno, Ca.  named Richard "Mike" Gilbert.  Gilbert said he was in fact the agent for Simpson’s memorabilia sales, not Beardsley.  I was able to quickly confirm that Gilbert was who he said he was, and that he indeed worked for Simpson.

Gilbert frankly explained that, because Simpson was the subject of a $33.5 million judgment in the wrongful death claim successfully prosecuted by the families of Simpson’s victims, Beardsley was occasionally used to sell Simpson’s collectibles so that proceeds could be surreptitiously funneled back to OJ.  But he said Simpson had otherwise been dealing with Beardsley for years as an obsessed fan.

Gilbert said he was calling me because he’d been hearing from Beardsley often in recent weeks, and Beardsley was talking almost exclusively about me, and about Mayor Murphy.  Gilbert said he was concerned one or both of us were in danger.  I relayed the warning to Murphy.

It was a few days later that Beardsley pulled up alongside me on Hollywood Way one afternoon, and announced he was going to kill me.  “You are dead meat!” he said.

Two days later there was a similar confrontation on the same street.  What followed was an incident that lasted several minutes and covered about a mile of Burbank roads, with Beardsley repeatedly trying to slam his car into my own.

At one point I was racing at high speed in reverse up Hollywood Way, and at another he was driving for blocks at a time in the oncoming lanes of Hollywood Way after I’d avoided him with a “k-turn” just like those I’d seen performed for years on “The Rockford Files.”

Throughout the event I was on the line with a Burbank police dispatcher.  The episode came to a close when we were finally descended upon by a phalanx of Burbank police motorcycle officers, patrol cars, unmarked detective vehicles and even the police helicopter.

Shortly after Beardsley was handcuffed, an officer approached and politely asked permission to search my vehicle.  He said Beardsley was alleging I’d been waving a gun at him and threatening to kill him.  A search confirmed I did not have a gun.

All this is what came to mind last week when I watched on my computer a video of Beardsley being interviewed by one of the ubiquitous gossip web sites.  “They were waving a gun in my face,” Beardsley told the camera.  Of course, two days later Beardsley was backpedaling on that story, announcing OJ had called him and personally apologized, and that their “friendship” had apparently been renewed.

In fact, it was  one of those subsequent “OJ and I are pals again” interviews that was noticed one recent morning by a parole officer in California. 

No, he wasn’t still on parole for the incident that involved me.  In my case, Beardsley was committed to the psychiatric jail facility, where he stayed for six months.  He was ultimately released on probation, conditioned on his continuing in a mental health treatment program, taking prescribed medication, and reporting for twice-weekly blood tests.  (I was formally informed of all this a week after Beardsley had been released, and by an official who had no idea where Beardsley was living or working.)

It appears that, soon after Beardsley completed his probation in my case, he began stalking a Riverside woman.  And while those events were underway in 2003, Beardsley managed to turn a citation for public urination into a felony arrest for threatening to kill a police officer and his family.  It was those episodes that led Beardsley back into prison, and to the parole he was accused of violating by leaving the state last week without permission.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

April 17, 2007

Patients of a Burbank optometrist who also happens to be a city councilman say their eye doctor apparently used his patient lists to distribute campaign literature supporting two council candidates.

CLICK HERE for a pdf version of the entire column.

VOTERS AGAIN REJECT

BERLIN WAIL

April 16, 2007

Between April 1991 and April, 2007, voters have soundly rejected Carolyn and Phil Berlin, or their favored candidates and causes, in all but two elections.

On April 10, voters once again said “no, thank you,” this time directly to both Berlins. 

CLICK HERE for a pdf version of the entire column.

TAKING MEASURES OF THE CHARTER

April 2, 2007

I’ve had a large number of calls, e-mails - even neighbors coming to my door - to ask why I haven’t written sooner about the Ballot Measures A through G currently on Burbank’s municipal ballot, most of them proposed amendments to the city's charter.

CLICK HERE for a pdf version of the entire column.

STOCK TIPS, ANYONE?

March 28, 2007

An observation from a reader prompts me to offer you something brief today.

Sometimes you just nail it.  My reader saw  my March 23 column  [See "...Los Angelization of Burbank's Elections!"] about hit-mail sent out to attack two council candidates, and benefitting candidates Phil and Carolyn Berlin.  I made a prediction as to what the Berlins would say about the nasty literature, and hit the nail on the head:  They're victims.

CLICK HERE for a pdf version of the entire column.

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WHO PAID THE PIPER?

March 27, 2007

Now we know who paid for the effectively anonymous hit-mail ripping opponents of city council candidates Philip and Carolyn Berlin.  Alas, that’s not to say we can prove who wanted the mailers sent.

IT’S THE “LOS ANGELIZATION” OF BURBANK ELECTIONS!

March 23, 2007

Yes, I’ve seen the political literature attacking city council candidates Anja Reinke and Gary Bric delivered to mail boxes this week.  If readers would stop calling me about it, and sending copies via e-mail and fax, I’d sure appreciate it.

Campaign "hit mail" lands in Burbank.

CLICK HERE for a pdf version of the entire column.

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CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

March 18, 2007

I admit it.  There is a dark, twisted and ironic side of me that would very much enjoy seeing Phil and Carolyn Berlin elected to Burbank’s city council.  Why would I say that when I know they are precisely the sort who would (and have previously) sliced and diced a sentence like that one to invent an endorsement?  Well, as I said, it’s a dark, twisted and perspective.

CLICK HERE for a pdf version of the entire column.

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Former Councilman Dies

December 27, 2006

The Leader Follows AGAIN!

December 4, 2006

Burbank's "newpaper of record" fails to tell readers about the opportunity to file as candidates for upcoming elections, and then fails to tell us who the candidates are!

CLICK HERE for a pdf version of the entire column.

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PLAYING CATCH-UP IN BURBANK

August 17, 2006

I’ve been swamped this summer and largely off-line.  As promised, here’s my attempt to “catch-up” on a few matters that popped up in my absence.

CLICK HERE for a pdf version of the entire column.

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DOES MAYOR POSE A THREAT?

May 14, 2006

Burbank’s police department and city attorney’s office believe Burbank Mayor Todd Campbell remains a potential danger to a woman who leveled charges of domestic violence against him in December, or that he poses a threat to neighbors of Campbell’s who sheltered the woman and called police when she fled to their home just before Christmas, 2005. 

CLICK HERE for a pdf version of the entire column.

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A Bargain Nobody Likes

Dec. 23, 2005

Yesterday former Burbank city council member Stacey Murphy pleaded guilty to charges she possessed cocaine and endangered the safety of her 12 year old son by allowing unsecured handguns and ammunition to be stored where he had easy access.

CLICK HERE for a pdf version of the entire column

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Burbank Mails It In

April 11, 2005

In a few hours staff in the Burbank City Clerk’s office will begin counting ballots cast in the General Election for Burbank’s municipal contests. It’s likely more than half of those ballots will have been completed by voters before the first and only public candidate forum took place. This is among the quirks few if any thought of two years ago when voters gave overwhelming support to the idea of conducting Burbank’s elections by mail.

To read the rest of this column in a PDF format, as well as ALL

 columns on Burbank's 2005 municipal election campaigns,

 CLICK HERE.

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