October Surprise Before Carson Special Election

In Carson politics, It’s not unusual for mud to fly like napalm with scorched earth intentions. This week, on North Carson Speaks facebook page, scans of a marriage certificate and an affidavit was posted. In it, Carson resident Raymond Green said he was offered $30,000 to help candidate for City Clerk, Monette Gavino, attain a Green Card in 2010. Mayor Pro Tem Jim Dear has endorsed Gavino for the position from which he was recalled five years ago.

Green alleges that he was contacted by Dear, who was the Mayor of Carson at the time and offered him $30,000 to marry his friend Monette Gavino to help her obtain a Green Card. Green said Dear told him that after he weds Gavino, Dear would pay him the money. He said he agreed because Dear was the Mayor of the city and he trusted him.

Green alleges that over time Dear and Gavino moved friends of theirs into his home, while Gavino moved in with Dear. Green says he was evicted from his mobile home for allowing unauthorized people to stay at the residence. Green is silent on why he allowed Gavino and Dear’s friends to stay at the residence.

Regardless of the truth of Green’s allegations regarding the money promised to him, there is evidence that a marriage took place combined with Green’s allegations suggest a crime was perpetrated by himself and Monette Gavino.

According to court documents independently verified by Random Lengths News, Gavino divorced Greene in February 2014 and the judgement was entered by June of that same year. According to a posting made in the Carson Alliance for Truth facebook page, Gavino became a U.S. citizen in 2017.

Gavino played a significant role in the saga that resulted in Dear’s recall as city clerk in 2016 in which he was accused of abusing staff and racially charged encounters.

At the time, city staff, as reported in the city attorney’s investigation, claimed Dear and Gavino were involved in a romantic relationship and that Dear “manipulated” staff into hiring her, despite questions about her right to work. The report that was released included allegations from fellow city staff that Gavino was “mistreated in front of staff.” No details of the alleged “mistreatment” was included in the report. Aarvig’s report included the views of fellow staffers of Gavino, expressing strong disapproval of her conduct in the workplace.

Dear and Gavino both deny that they are or ever were romantically involved, and alleged that it was city staff ― not Dear ― who treated Gavino unfairly.

In 2016, Gavino accused then Mayor Albert Robles of sexual harassment she was a city employee. Gavino dropped her suit against him before she was subject to questioning under penalty of perjury.

It is this background story that made her candidacy for city clerk all the more unusual and fodder for an October surprise hit on her candidacy to become Carson’s next city clerk.

The scanned documents, if legitimate, were all acquired last month, with the initial affidavit dated Sept. 8, while a notarized affidavit is dated Oct. 7. The scanned marriage certificate copy is dated Sept. 21.

Random Lengths News reached out to Dear and Gavino via phone and by text. Neither have yet to reply to our queries.  Random Lengths also reached out to the original poster of the marriage certificate scan and Oct. 7 affidavit, Kimberly Knox. She said would check with Green to see if he is willing to provide a comment. We have yet to receive a response from either Knox or Green.

Zeke Vidaurri, former Carson Commissioner and sometime-spokesman for Dear reported on the Carsonians facebook page that Dear has reported Green’s accusations to the FBI as an extortion attempt.