Former Mayor Rob Moon Offers Lesson in Empathy

Many Residents Could Use Lesson in Empathy from Rob Moon

PALM SPRINGS — As some residents took to the airwaves and social media to criticize former Mayor Steve Pougnet for signing a plea agreement in the criminal corruption case against Pougnet, former mayor Rob Moon expressed empathy. Not sympathy, but empathy, there is a huge difference.

Some thought Pougnet should have stood trial and risked the chance of going to jail.

He has pleaded guilty and accepted responsibility for basically accepting a bribe. What more do people want?

They won’t rest until they have his head on a plaiter —. silver or not. They longed for a public spectacle. They hungered for a pound of flesh. Some chased him like a wild animal hoping to grab a video clip r photo.

Frankly, Pougnet has spent the past decade in a mental jail waiting week after week, month after month and year fora right to a speedy trial under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It never came. The court system is dysfunctional. Witnesses began dying. There was the COVID 19 epidemic.  Other extenuating circumstances also came into play. They may be made public during sentencing.

Pougnet, the man who once led an international tourist destination, now is now unable to volunteer as a senior center, For all of those so concerned, he’s paying a price.

“The senior center does a biography check which I wouldn’t pass …that’s why I can’t volunteer …all the Desert Sun articles come up and then that’s that,” Pougnet told Uken Report. “Christopher (his husband) passed the background check but I wouldn’t.”

This case has hung over his and his family’s head for more than 10 hears while he waited for a “speedy” trial. Those who want a pound of flash from Pougnet should consider that his case could have been dismissed entirely.

Nearly 1,800 criminal cases were dismissed between October of 2022 and April of 2023 due in large       part to a backlog of cases created during COVID 19.

Which brings us to Robert Moon who was running for mayor in 1015. He expressed his empathy during a sit-down interview with John White of KESQ.

Pougnet will be sentenced July 2.

Former Geoff Kors was also asked to weigh in. Let’s leave that right here.