Asm. Jasmeet Bains (D–Bakersfield) wants to know why former Kern County Supervisor Zack Scrivner was not charged with a sex crime.
Bains wrote a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta asking for clarification on the charges filed against Scrivner.
The backstory: Scrivner was charged with three felony counts of child abuse and two felony counts of possessing assault weapons by the California Department of Justice in February.
- The charges stemmed from an incident at his Tehachapi house in April of last year where he was stabbed in the upper torso by one of his four children, who was trying to protect another child from being sexually assaulted by Scrivner, according to Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood.
- Detectives seized around 30 firearms and psychedelic mushrooms from Scrivner’s house after the incident.
- Scrivner resigned from the Board of Supervisors last August after taking a lengthy medical leave of absence.
- According to the complaint filed by the Department of Justice, Scrivner allegedly got into bed with one of his children and touched the child inappropriately.
The big picture: Bains asked Bonta for an explanation of the evidence that led the Department of Justice to conclude that Scrivner got into bed and inappropriately touched one of his children.
- She asked why the evidence was deemed insufficient to bring child sexual abuse charges.
- Bains also asked if the evidence would have been sufficient to bring child sexual abuse charges against Scrivner if he had committed the same actions without consuming mind-altering or mood-altering drugs, looking to see if the consumption of drugs factored into the determination to not charge Scrivner with child sex abuse.
What she’s saying: “While the DOJ has charged Mr. Scrivner with willful cruelty to a child and weapons charges, there is considerable confusion regarding the absence of any sexual assault charges,” Bains wrote.
