The Man Who Trolled a School Board

Oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] there's a man from Orange County named Steve Rocko he's a politician an activist a battler of secret organizations he's a conspiracy theorist who's devoted much of his life to fighting a shadowy cabal called the partnership Rocco has written extensively about the partnership in his book called ROC Co behind the orange curtain secret chronicles in public record accounts of corruption murder and scandal of corporate and political California written by America's premier legal technician in it he describes the partnership as a consortium of corrupt co-conspirators within the legislative judicial and economic halls of Orange County Steve Rocco has spent 40 years investigating the partnership it all began in 1980 when Rocco was arrested for shoplifting four rolls of Kodak film and a sausage from an Albertsons supermarket this arrest he says was set up by the partnership Rocco has accused the CEO of Albertsons of trying to kill him he says that he hired an assassin to hit him with a truck and that he sent a man wielding a power saw after him Steve Rocco hosted a self-produced public access show from 1993 until 1994 which focused on exposing the partnership as well as injustice and corruption within Orange County okay so obviously Steve Rocco is a highly eccentric person but if that's all there was to this story then it would it be interesting now would it no you see the tale of Steve Rocco is the ultimate absurdist underdog story that's right you heard that right the ultimate absurdist underdog story it's about a dissident a watchdog who fought against the bureaucratic system from within this is the story of Steve Rocco versus the orange Unified School Board Rocco did you vote yes or no don't touch me you understand that what you tell I'm gonna recess this meeting thank you if you're bored you're welcome to leave mr. Ortega someday tell us about your brother who was employed here mr. Rocco oh I think you need to be quiet okay no I think I need to keep going you know you're not here for the children I'm not don't personalize it now you have employees now you're talking about a brother of mine who passed away mrs. Nichols Nichols I would like to make a motion to adjourn the meeting this story begins in 2004 after Steve Rocco inexplicably became a publicly elected government official the race was for the area six seat on the orange Unified School Board Rocco Juan with 54% of the vote twenty four thousand seven hundred and forty nine votes in total he defeated Phil Martinez a PTA president with the backing of the teachers union despite the fact that he didn't campaign at all Steve Rocco didn't even print out a flyer all he did was ride his bike to the Registrar of Voters office and fill out a small form after Steve Rocco's victory things started to get even weirder and that's because no one knew how to find him no one knew how to contact him and tell him that he won he didn't communicate with anyone for a month not the Registrar of Voters office or the school board or journalists who visited his home and hopes to get an exclusive on the man that they dubbed the mystery trustee when the teachers union sent him a congratulatory letter it was returned unopened with refused written on the envelope speculation about just who the hell he was intensified hardly anyone even knew what he looked like except for a handful of his neighbor's a member of the school board told the Los Angeles Times quote you hear things because people are desperately trying to find some info on him I heard he rides bikes he likes garage sales he hangs out at a 7-eleven I don't know if any of that is true then nearly a month later Rocco finally revealed himself by calling into a local radio show and promising that he would attend his December 8th swearing-in ceremony Steve Rocco did in fact attend his swearing-in ceremony and he did so in a big way living in a time of secret organizations we're living in a time of of corruption and mostly a time of dictatorship aiding and abetting the drug and human cargo trade is only part of the problem you change things here you change things nationwide the world is watching I am and have always been the anti-corruption candidate in front of an audience of parents teachers and orange Unified School District officials Rocco delivered a five minute rant about the partnership the question should be not as who is Rocco but what is the partnership this miss mentions at least twenty to thirty partnership members this is an expose not a manifesto expose is a French word not a Russian word he explained that his job as an orange Unified School Board trustee and fighting the partnership was one in the same doing my job as trustee and fighting organized crime are one in the same you think that you're in heaven you're in hell during his debut on the school board Steve Rocco cleared some things up he attributed his month-long absence from the spotlight and his lack of a campaign to his parents being kidnapped and one of the main reasons why I didn't run this summer was because both my parents were kidnapped this summer they couldn't leave he also paid tribute to his father in Italian and vowed to continue to fight the partnership yo te amo te quiero papa Nova de novembro at a low premature nada que paso questa Guerra qua till a partnership to Tokyo fire effort their after footage of Steve Rocco's swearing-in ceremony circulated some speculated that he was a performance artist a troll some went even further theorizing that he was Andy Kaufman in disguise we're back from the dead well let's look at some other news and Steve Rocco who was elected to the surprise of many to the orange Unified School District Board actually showed up for his swearing-in Gustavo my my colleague Nick scout showed reported it last week and it was really bizarre spectacle because once a once again Rocco in his previous interview with the LA Times owned the only thing he talked about was this big conspiracy and in this in this case he once again instead of speaking about school issues he talked about the conspiracy and in fact the weekly were speculating that there is no real Steve Rocco in fact that Steve Rocco is the late performance artist and economy Andy Kaufman was a comedian known for his anti comedy performance art often playing bizarre characters in order to provoke a reaction from audiences someone even made a website called Andy Kaufman lives calm but at a press conference held in his lawyer's office Steve Rocco denied any rumors of him being or associating with Andy Kaufman in any way now if you're asking me for my opinion none of this was a stunt Steve Rocco was and still is most definitely insane this wasn't an act or performance art and that's the beauty of this story what happened was that nearly 25,000 people voted an unstable person into a seat in public office which he went on to occupy for the next four years so you might be wondering what would Steve Rocco like as a school board trustee well let me tell you he was an agent of chaos I'm against drugs and I probably have lost more to the drug situation than anybody else I've lost relatives I've lost friends I've lost my job I've been set up but how do you find out about that you don't you know and just think about the newspapers in the past couple of months the last couple of months I've been to death attempts stalking the police reports are right here have you heard anything of course you haven't and it all deals with the drug situation you know I like to think that's somewhere no my father's directing me on this and the more I thought about it and the more that I investigated the matter I discovered that my father's passing wasn't just an act of God it was pre-planned it was premeditated it had the political agenda and it's more than malpractice my father was murdered my father was murdered by lopressor poisoning or an overdose your drugstore the big ones Albertsons believe me the CEO of Albertsons set me up have you ever heard anything have you read the story no set him up and he's dead okay so there's a couple reasons why Steve Rocko one okay so here's how the ballot looked as you can see under Phil Martinez's name it says Orange County Park Ranger under Steve Rocco it says schoolteacher slash writer typically in these low ballot races for local office voters aren't too well informed about who their candidates are so in this case many people chose Steve Rocco simply because his designation said schoolteacher which they assumed was a better fit for the school board than a park ranger here's the thing though Steve Rocco has never been a schoolteacher he holds teaching credentials as well as a total of eight associate's degrees from Santa Ana College but has never utilized any of them professionally in other words he submitted a false ballot designation which surprisingly doesn't have very many consequences so if I said I was a brain surgeon right and I put that down would that go down sure but now here's where it kicks in is there's a 10-day review period so people that know you or may not know that you're a brain surgeon could challenge that designation but they call you up and they say I'm smaller is not a brain surgeon they do all the time and and what do you do when we refer them to a court so for example they could file a case in court it's an emergency hearing and a judge at that point would make the determination based on evidence if you came in and were able to prove that you were a brain surgeon then the court could likely rule in your favor another reason people voted for him was as a protest against his teachers union backed opponent a vote against the status quo Oh Chris Reid I think you went on record last time we talked saying you voted for Steve brocco let me say that you three sound like you're part of the partnership you never to speak of that on the air well I'm rapidly regretting my vote for the guy obviously I projected my hopes that he would be an anti-establishment figure on to this blank slate and now as this latest ville de and he's not turning be what I hoped one voter called him a breath of fresh air and explained that she voted for him because she felt as though he would not just be another teacher's union puppet she remarked that she considered him a lesser of two evils another member of the community declared quote I voted for Rocco and I'd vote for him again the same person wrote a letter to the local paper to say that he would have chosen Ozel the clown over Rocco's opponent Phil Martinez they're looking at a guy who who wears a stocking cap and and dark sunglasses at evening meetings and rails on about conspiracies is going to be a breath of fresh air but a lot of folks really saw him as a kind of an anti candidate to somebody else that was they thought would be expected in knee-jerk and this is you gonna be fascinating to watch because so far we we don't really know what he thinks about education school board trustees are publicly elected officials who work together as a board of representatives overseeing a school district together they meet and vote on matters such as the school districts yearly budget personnel hirings and firings student expulsion z' and things like whether to approve a field trip or not typically the school board meets twice a month for two evening sessions first is a closed session meeting followed by a regular session meeting which is open to the public when Steve Rocco became a member of the school board he made it clear that he would not attend closed session meetings believing that the public should be involved in every discussion I made it a point from the very first time I was elected not to go to closed session so I could tell you the truth so nobody could hold me back a true transgressor Rocco refused to do other things like give his fingerprints or photograph for district records so confidentiality you know it's a word I really believe it and I believed it for myself too I haven't given them my phone number because I've been warned what happens here you know where she winds up it winds up in a directory as a school board trustee Steve Rocco could be best described as an unintentional nuisance to his colleagues the fact was that he had no real effect on policy decisions within the school district since his vote only counted as one out of seven to all of these stiff school board members and PTA attendees Steve Rocco was their worst nightmare an unqualified pest who wasted their valuable time and derailed their meetings but from the lens of an outside observer like me see Rocco's conduct could only be described as hilarious what must have messed with the other board members minds was that they knew Steve Rocco was just as legit as them look there's no doubt in my mind that Steve Rocco wholeheartedly believed that he was exposing the Partnerships trail of deceit and corruption by railing against it at the school board meetings so it's not surprising that soon Rocco started to believe that his colleagues on the school board were members of the partnership and that they were trying to kill him he felt particularly unsafe with the seating arrangement placing him in close proximity his two most ardent detractors west puts MA and John Arteaga well three minutes if you look in that section over there there's no high school students if you look in the over there there's no board member if you look over there there's no board member and that's because fear that's what you inspire well you sit here and you try to do your job and you don't know when a fist is gonna come in front of your face you don't know when somebody's gonna hover over you exhibit a Exhibit B is there anybody here who thinks that I would be safe sitting in that chair or that chair and I asked way back in December that's the seat that should go to me take a look there's nobody there nobody can come at me you're safe so now I get to choose between either thug number one or thug number two so who wins my guess is thug number two I don't know what I'm gonna do for protection I can't carry a gun and I don't want to so I don't know how I'm gonna protect myself you're inspiring fear you're a bad leader this is voodoo this is a voodoo Unified School District that it's because of you huh one day Rocco appeared at a city council meeting claiming that he was the victim of a politically motivated beating mr. Rocco welcome our investigation hasn't shown that any one of you has any problems with partnership and I'm talking about organized crime this administration right here you have nothing to worry about we've done a good investigation there's nothing here on you but I would seriously have you reconsider your relationship with the orange Unified School District because that is another matter all-together I'm liking the officer which is in the back there because he provides protection and protection is very important because things like assaults by other board members happen in your city well actually by two of them I wasn't planning on speaking tonight but this isn't chocolate on my face and I was told not to take it off until photographers from the police department came by pretty much my life was threatened today again and I've led from head to foot I'm in pain right now my nose is swollen I can't breathe and I hurt my other clothes are at home but they're all bloody just like this glove right here and just like my face is the people that attacked me this morning are in jail they were caught we were told who did this I would seriously consider any sort of relationship you have with them in the immediate future and as far as the police we welcome them because it's not safe in the boardroom it's not according to the Santa Ana Police Department although it was true that Rocco was assaulted one of the suspects was juvenile and it was unlikely that the attack was politically motivated after Steve Rocco's fulminating speech at the City Council meeting his sidekick / investigator Evan Harris stepped up to the podium and attempted to present his findings about the partnership thank you very much mr. Harris you are next good evening my name is Evan Harris I do investigations for myself mr. Rocco and check facts I've done them for a partnership in the past I was prevented from delivering the partnership information mr. Harris you're gonna need to stick to an item that's under the jurisdiction of the City Council it needs to be under the jurisdiction of something that the City Council can make a decision on presented a new tome units under your okay I was prevented from delivering the partnership information at the Unified School District the supposed Rocco Menace is the message of the people mr. Harris again that is not something that's under the jurisdiction of this City Council you know what sir you need to you need very good thank you very much then Evan Harris aided Rocco in investigating the partnership and often showed up to meetings to speak on Rocco's behalf Steve Rocco sat on the board for two years before his colleagues finally had enough of his antics please direct your comments to oranjee device I'm not gonna let you do it unless it as a regard to orange Unified School District use me for your guarantee you know let me get through this alright get to the portion with which change to Orange Unified School District San Juan Capistrano Road firstly tried to silence him then they tried to get rid of him for good we care about our employees we care about our community we are done dealing with this kind of behavior and I'm hopeful that mr. raka will choose his words more carefully when he is in public session and doesn't breach this violation the board voted 4 to 1 to censure him on October 12th 2006 after he stated that he would fire a controversial principal during a public meeting after being censured Rocco stayed on the board however he was no longer permitted to place items on the agenda unless it was co-sponsored by another board member aided by an open government advocacy group called Californians aware he later sued the school district for violating his freedom of speech the lawsuit was quickly thrown out of court Rocco and his Koch plaintiffs were ordered to pay the school district 80,000 dollars in attorneys fees in the end it was Richard McKee the president of Californians aware who footed the bill in an interview McKee called it the price of living out his principles after successfully censoring him they tried to drum up community support for a Rico a political recall is the process by which a public official is removed from office before his or her term is over this attempt to oust Rocco was performed in conjunction with members of the PTA the school board and the teachers union together they formed the committee to recall Rocco during an orange Unified School Board meeting a representative of the committee handed see Rocco intent to recall papers generating applause from members of the audience and in furtherance of supporting that community I am tonight presenting to mr. Rocco notice of intent to recall I would love to see the r-word recall making mr. Russell the committee to recall Rocco required 10,000 valid signatures from the school districts registered voters in order to qualify for a ballot recall the petition to recall Steve Rocco began to circulate on June 29th 2007 if they wanted to force a recall election they had until September 21st 2007 to collect the signatures but first some backstory because I still haven't told you exactly what led to the recall it begins with Rocco's sole supporter on the board trustee Rick ledesma Rick ledesma was the only board member to vote against censoring Rocco he sometimes cited with Rocko and Rocko sometimes sided with him so here's what happened on March 8th 2007 Rick Ledezma aided Rocco and placing an item onto the agenda called the partnership in Orange County and the orange Unified School District yesterday today and who knows an examination by Evan Harris at the unholy trilogy of government corporation and education although he was still censured by the board rick Ledesma support was all that Rocco needed to speak uninterrupted for 30 minutes about the partnership in a long-winded diatribe that included lines like this district loves pedophiles after his presentation members of the public castigated Rocco for wasting the community's time and taxpayers money two years ago our community became the laughingstock when we voted mr. Rocco into office we have sat quietly while he rants incoherently about things that are unrelated to running the school district he is not here for the benefit of the children or our community quite frankly mr. Rocco we've had enough of your nonsense you have spent 22 months making political remarks placing dolls coke bottles signs and pictures before you on the diets and making a mockery out of being a board member mr. Rocco most people in community think that you're crazy but you're unprofessional and in most cases you were wrong rick Ledesma was caught in the crossfire by those who admonished him for eating Rocco by co-sponsoring his agenda item some suggested that there should be a recall effort launched against ledesma as well never happened and neither did the rocco rico by the september 21st 2007 deadline they only accumulated around 5,000 signatures half of what they needed so the target date was extended to December 5th but they still didn't have enough signatures by then so their attempt to recall Rocco was officially abandoned they failed to garner community support due to a lack of interest from the public some speculated that the stakes were just too low as one political observer commented in the end it seemed that the recall effort was more of a personal matter for the board members than a genuine concern to the community I'd like to thank you for a two-year dictatorship which was wonderful I'd like to thank you for the recall which was the three women board members up here and I'd like to thank you for the two attempts on my life which the media didn't cover it didn't matter anyway because the recall didn't go through the people have already spoken if you did not want me here you had your chance to get rid of me okay you had your chance let's give you another chance in November however they did eventually gerrymander him out of his trustee area so he couldn't run for re-election he was redistricted into trustee area seven which his sole supporter on the school board rick Ledesma represented Braco declared that he wouldn't run against Ledesma Ledesma was later re-elected to the board as its president okay so here's the best part during his final days on the school board Steve Rocco was arrested for stealing a bottle of ketchup and the case went to Superior Court on September 29th 2008 Rocco stole a half-empty 14 ounce bottle of Heinz ketchup from a dining area outside of the cafeteria at Chapman University he was detained by campus security who witnessed him concealed it in a shopping bag and put it into his bicycle basket before speeding off Rocco claimed that he took the bottle in order to recycle it but that the security guards planted the model into his bag on behalf of his enemies in order to frame him and discredit him as a public official the Rocco was cited on a charge of petty theft he released after being warned to stay away from Chapman University according to school officials the bottle was only worth one dollar and 20 cents but Rocco declined to stay away from the University and asked for a trial by jury and his request was granted by April of 2009 a three day petty theft trial held in Superior Court began Rocco's signature look a watch cap in dark sunglasses violated the courts dress code so he showed up sporting more appropriate attire members of the public criticized the district attorney's office for what they saw as a waste of thousands of dollars of taxpayers money over a half-empty bottle of ketchup the DA said that although they offered Rocco a plea bargain he insisted on his right to a jury trial during the trial Rocco represented himself in court testifying on his own behalf in the witness stand he maintained his innocence and argued that he was set up by political enemies he also issued fifty subpoenas 250 supposed witnesses including an unspecified Hinds Representative all of which were thrown out by the judge the jury deliberated for around three hours before reaching a unanimous verdict they found him guilty of misdemeanor petty theft and he was convicted on Thursday April 15 2009 Superior Court Judge Jacquie C Brown sentence Rocco to two years of informal probation he was ordered to pay $200 in fines and told to stay 100 meters away from Chapman University this was a scam from day one Rocco said outside of court he called his trial one-sided and a joke Rocco vowed to appeal the sentence in 2011 he sought a retrial but his request was denied Steve Rocco continues to be involved in politics to this day surprisingly people still vote for him Steve Rocco possesses this unshakeable ability to constantly disrupt the Orange County political establishment he's like a permanent fixture that they just can't get rid of and God bless him for it because without him who else could the people of Orange County depend on to keep them safe from the partnership I am you're not gonna vote for me because I'm Vietnamese not vote for me because now I'm Mexican or Latino because not you're not gonna vote for me because I'm a Democrat or Republican because I'm not you're not gonna close for me because I'm a little alien or because I'm a foreign citizen because I'm not also not a lawyer on one of you you want change what things done you want a cleaner County and you vote for me and we get the job done in the future to vote for somebody else okay quick updates these videos take a long time to make as you know months go by so if you're curious about what I'm up to I have a Twitter Instagram and the subreddit all links can be found in the description box below otherwise stay tuned for more weird stories [Music]

Channel: Oki's Weird Stories

Views: 458,658

Rating: 4.9271116 out of 5

Keywords: OKI, Weird, Surreal, Strange, Oki's WEIRD STORIES, Steve Rocco politician, OUSD, Orange County

Id: qW5wOXijJjE

Length: 28min 55sec (1735 seconds)

Published: Mon May 25 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/marpralmay]

you are fucking awesome. these videos are prime

[u/Jeriba]

I'm was in the middle of watching it before I stopped. Gonna have to save it for tomorrow because it's always nice watching your/Oki's videos. Always top quality and one of the very few YouTubers that doesn't piss me off..

[u/SmellsLikeTat3]

Fuck it I’d vote for him. I wonder why that one guy sided with him though, maybe he was a bit of a conspiracy theorist himself

[u/Secure-Garbage]

I would have voted for 4 more years. Can I imagine the dread the other board members felt before and during their once a month open public meetings. At least they got the once a month closed meeting to themselves.