The people of Malibu have a right to know who is seeking their vote for city council. Roy Van de Hoek has such a serious criminal record that every voter should ask: How can this man run for council and what is he planning to do to Malibu?
In 1997 he was charged in the San Luis Obispo Municipal/Superior Courts Case No M 253023 with violation of 6 misdemeanor counts which included using force and violence upon a US Department of Interior Park Ranger, resisting a peace officer in the discharge of his duty, vandalizing trees, cutting or destroying trees without a permit, damaging fencing, and damaging a paddock, all in the Carrizo Natural Plain in San Luis Obispo. He pled not guilty, went to a trial and after a two-day jury trial was found guilty of four counts. Following the trial he was sentenced to serve two weekends in the county jail and ordered not to harass, molest, annoy, strike or come within 100 yards of a woman who was the Project Manager of the Carrizo Natural Area of the Bureau of Land Management.
In the investigation report by the Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior of the United States, they synopsized the case as follows:
“The Government believes that since being fired from the BLM on January 21, 1994, Robert Van de Hoek has attempted to impose his own concept of resource management within the Bureau’s Carrizo Natural Area. This has included cutting non-native trees, vandalizing property of the BLM and the County of San Luis Obispo, and intimidating the Carrizo Natural Area Project Manager . .. “
According to the investigative report the project manager of the area made a report to the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Department that Van de Hoek was trespassing on her property, had been seen driving by her house when she was at work, and in another incident shining a spotlight into her home at night at which time she had confronted him. She told the Sheriff’s officer she just wanted to stop him coming around her house.
The investigation also disclosed that several Bureau of Land Management personnel in San Luis Obispo area had said that mature cottonwood, willow and eucalyptus trees had been cut down or severely vandalized on private ranches in the KCL Campground and at the Education Center at the Carrizo Plain. Paddocks had been smashed and fences cut with wire cutters to gain illegal access to the area. These incidents were widespread and reported by several staff members.
On a December evening in 1996, Rob Roy Van de Hoek was caught in the process of sawing a eucalyptus tree by a uniformed BLM officer and arrested at the KCL Campground. The officer reported that Van de Hoek lunged at him and resisted arrest and was, after a scuffle, handcuffed and taken into custody. A large collection of axes, saws, bolt cutters, pliers, and shears were found in Van de Hoek automobile trunk.
The question people should be asking is: What does this say about Malibu, that someone with so much disregard for the law and disrespect for woman, thinks he can run for office? Van de Hoek’s record shows a flagrant rejection of civil rights, property rights and the sanctity of living things. While Van de Hoek is entitled to his own view of the world, he will never have the right, nor should he have the opportunity, to force his views on the rest of us. I believe it is the duty of your newspaper to perform a thorough investigation of this candidate and his record. The central purpose of any campaign, after all, is to give the voters the information they need to make a choice.
Lloyd Aher