Michael Jackson’s famous album ‘Thriller’ was released around 40 years ago. MTV premiered the ‘Thriller’ video over a year into its release. Therefore, 2019 marked the 36th anniversary of Jackson’s Thriller video and 37 years of his album. Back then, OC Weekly published a list of Orange County’s scariest people in tribute to MJ’s album. Here, we will look at some of the names from the list in no particular order.
Pastor John Rodgers McFarland
Orangethorpe United Methodist Church’s head pastor McFarland was a conservative who supported a plan of splitting the church due to bitter divisions regarding homosexual marriage. McFarland even bolstered his belief that homosexuality is a sin with the Bible, but his reputation soon collapsed after accusations of Escondido child molestation.
Law enforcement first arrested McFarland after a girl stepped forward with the accusations. Authorities felt that there were more victims in places other than Escondido, as the church’s officials quickly removed him from his pastorship. Then, law enforcement rearrested McFarland, when there were 11 felony charges against him with a possible sentence of up to 179 years in prison.
William ‘Rick’ Singer
Orange County resident Singer is notorious for a 2019 scandal where he influenced undergraduate admission-related decisions at many top universities. Singer not only built fake athletic profiles but also hired decoys for admission tests of many academically challenged children. The wealthy parents of those candidates used the service that Singer operated from his home in Newport Beach. Later, Singer admitted in US federal court that he committed the two above-mentioned actions.
Chuyen Van Vo
This man was accused of murdering Hacienda Heights resident Steven Shek Keung Chan when in a California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) parking lot. In 2019, Vo did not formally admit that he committed the crime. Chan and Vo worked at the university for a long time before the tragic event. While administrator Chan retired back in 2017, he came back two years later as a university consultant. Fullerton cops discovered wigs, zip ties, and an incendiary weapon from the crime scene. As of October 2019, the burden of proof rested on the prosecution.
Judge Timothy Stafford
Discovering that a white American judge has misogynistic views about women would be fun at any time. That is what happened as the Commission on Judicial Performance (CJP) smacked OC Judge Stafford for his comments in a 2017 hearing about the appeal for a protective order from a woman against her co-worker. The comments of the judge were so pathetic that we still fear how these would affect young, bright people who might be future leaders. So, instead of quoting those comments, let us just say that Stafford did not do the right thing.
John Saro Balian
With this entry, the scary list just got scarier! Glendale Police Department officer Balian visited Texas’s Brownsville many times, plus he crossed the US-Mexico border alongside a woman named SS in a Federal Bureau of Investigation report. Besides, the two made phone calls over 1,500 times from 2015 to 2018, which might make one wonder whether they were in a romantic relationship. However, FBI agents never thought that the phone calls were a case of hot romance between the two. Law enforcement discovered that the word ‘SS’ referred to a high-profile Gulf Cartel member.
As for the agents, Balian had associations with both the Armenian and Mexican organized-crime groups, as he helped mobsters to extort cannabis stores, steal cars and find government witnesses. Balian denied charges of corruption around when he was arrested, but federal judge John Walter sentenced the man to 21 months in prison.
Andrea Lafferty
With Traditional Values Coalition, Reverend Louis Sheldon and his daughter Lafferty fretted about possible anal sex on the battleground if homosexual soldiers were allowed to serve as combatants. The two insisted that homosexuals should be named only sodomites and perverts, even as they seemingly got millions of US dollars from Americans who relished hatred and bigotry. However, at the same time, the duo did not live as per conservative and conventional family values. In an Orange County lawsuit, Sheldon sued his daughter with a series of allegations, including one about her stealing control of Traditional Values Coalition from him.
Sheldon described the alleged actions of Lafferty as unethical, dishonest and a form of elder abuse. Lafferty tried to settle this case before it would go to trial with the expectation of thwarting further embarrassment.
Bill Brough
Many women Republican Party members stepped forward with sexual harassment accusations against California State Assembly person Bill Brough. Some of those accusations went back years, but others are relatively more recent. Nevertheless, there were such a large number of charges against the assembly member that the Lincoln Club and the Orange County Republican Central Committee asked him to stop his recent election campaign.
As for Brough, he resolutely claimed that he was innocent, as well as, insisted that the allegations were part of a conspiracy to keep him quiet as he opposed OC’s Transportation Corridor Agencies. Fast-forward to 2021 and another woman aide made rape accusations against Brough. The man’s name rhymes with short for brother, but there is little in his CV that would help portray him as an agent of peace.
Mike Pompeo
It is believed that few things could be scarier than a lie. If that is true, then not many could beat former US State Secretary Michael Richard Pompeo in a game of nonstop lying. Pompeo graduated from Fountain Valley’s Los Amigos High School, and he played for the school’s basketball team. Then, he moved from Orange County to West Point, the Federal Republic of Germany, Harvard Law, the State of Kansas, and finally DC. When in Washington DC, Pompeo served in Congress as well as served as CIA director first and then as State Secretary.
Pompeo found a place in the original list of OC Weekly, but the publication also described him as ‘THIS GUY!’ in it. Fast-forward to the present and it appears that Pompeo is only getting better in his game of lies.