Moorpark Gadfly Gets Probation in Attempted Assault

A Moorpark City Hall gadfly who pleaded no contest to trying to run down a code-enforcement official with his truck was given probation Monday and ordered to stop harassing city officials.

Over the defendant’s objections, a judge also ordered 66-year-old Gerald Light Goldstein to seek psychological counseling.

Goldstein, who said he was molested by a psychiatrist when he was 17, told Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren that “I have no faith” in mental health counselors.

But Perren ordered the counseling sessions, saying, “I’m not going to indict 100 years of psychoanalytical study on the basis of one bad experience you may have had.”

Police arrested Goldstein in September after code enforcement officers and Ventura County sheriff’s deputies went to Goldstein’s home to clear newspapers, magazines and other clutter they said was attracting rats and other vermin. His mobile home was so full of trash that Goldstein was forced to sleep in his truck.

Goldstein, who had ignored orders to remove the trash, was angered by the cleaning party’s presence on his property. He forced code enforcement officer Mario Riley to dive away as he sped toward him in his truck.

Goldstein turned the truck around and appeared ready to make another pass at Riley when the deputies drew their guns and forced him out of the truck. He stayed in jail until he pleaded no contest to one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon in March.

Mental health officials who talked to Goldstein while he was in jail awaiting trial described him as intelligent--he is a member of the high I.Q. society Mensa--but suffering from compulsive behavior that did not allow him to throw anything away. He does not work and is supported by a trust fund his mother set up for him before her death 10 years ago.

Goldstein moved to the 1.2-acre lot in Moorpark in the early 1980s and has been a fixture at City Council meetings since. He is known for his long-winded, sometimes rambling but often humorous diatribes against city officials and policies.

“On a personal level it is impossible to dislike you, but I have to push that aside,” Perren said while delivering a long civics lesson about how to legally disagree with government.

“You must grudgingly accept the fact that it is your right to protest, but it is not your right to ignore laws.”

Perren said Goldstein is still allowed to attend and speak out at council meetings.

But if his cantankerous behavior crosses the line to harassment of city officials, he could be arrested for violating probation, Perren said.