Investigator Carl Knudson

By Cal Coast Times Staff

Seven years ago, a CalCoastNews article led to a lawsuit that forever reshaped the lives of its authors, their families, and its subjects. Following a $1.1 million judgement against CalCoastNews and reporters Karen Velie and Dan Blackburn, a production company out of Southern California produced a documentary that chronicles allegations of wrongdoing by a group of people affiliated with San Luis Obispo County’s waste management agency and their alleged attempt to shutter a news agency.

“Lying in Trash probes the origin of the lawsuit — the reckless efforts of a local politician named Adam Hill, and a handful of his governmental co-conspirators who plotted destruction of the two journalists and the news site,” according to the Lying in Trash website. “It documents the deplorable actions of a San Francisco law firm; a county judge bedazzled by those big-city celebrity lawyers; the untimely deaths of two key defense witnesses; pernicious efforts to poison the jury pool; the lop-sided trial; and the litany of lies by plaintiff’s witnesses to mislead jurors.

“It follows an internationally-recognized private investigator as he establishes the accuracy of the journalists’ original reporting, and proves the preponderance of perjury.”

The film, to be released in the winter, includes interviews with a former court administrator, a court reporter, former members of the waste management board, lawyers, a former member of Congress, a private investigator and a former IRS special agent.