Board Emailed Congratulations to Gurbaksh Chahal After He Pled Guilty
Days before the board of directors for RadiumOne fired Gurbaksh Chahal for the controversy surrounding his guilty plea for domestic violence, the all-male board sent the former CEO and chairman some super sweet, supportive emails.
Chahal has deleted the unhinged blog posts he haphazardly dashed off the same weekend he was fired. But that hasn't stopped him from blaming everyone but himself. Chahal sent the following emails from his board members to CNN's Laurie Segall:
"I'd say congrats but that doesn't fit for someone targeted by extortionists (some of them elected), so I'll just say it's good to have it behind you," director Bob Latta replied.
"Huge Congratulations! That's great news," board member Steve Westly responded.
"I am so happy for you that this is behind you. Best, as always," David Silverman replied.
"DELIGHTED for you amigo - onwards and upwards!!," Robin Murray said.
That's the entirety of the emails, which were sent in response to an email from Chahal about the plea for two misdemeanors.
The "exit strategy," as Chahal refers to the no jail time deal, was made possible because the judge suppressed a video used as evidence. The footage allegedly showed Chahal hitting and kicking his girlfriend 117 times in half an hour. After telling the police this was not the first instance of domestic violence at Chahal's hands, the victim refused to cooperate. So the "extortionists" his board referred to above would be the District Attorney's office who charged Chahal with 45 felony counts after watching the video:
"I would've gotten a full dismissal on all charges but that would've likely taken several months in the political/legal system" Chahal wrote to his board. "Nevertheless, to provide the DA an 'exit strategy', all felony charges were dismissed and we agreed on a small misdemeanor plea to resolve the matter."
Chahal previously say he was "cornered" into making a deal, implicating a "witch hunt" by the DA's office. Then he said that his board convinced him to take a plea rather than exonerate himself. This email about agreeing to a "small" misdemeanor doesn't seem to support either of those stories.
RadiumOne's new CEO Bill Lonergan previously addressed another chummy-chummy "amigo" email to Chahal. Board member Murray had advised Chahal to "let the haters hate ad [sic] move on." Lonergan admitted that Murray had indeed sent the supportive message, but brushed off the board's culpability in an internal memo to employees:
The communication was an effort to discourage Gurbaksh from hurting himself by talking with the media.
It should come as no surprise that the board members sent Chahal their "delighted" congratulations. The board presumably read through the disturbing criminal complaint filed in August, 2013. It alleged that Chahal repeatedly hit his girlfriend in the head and threatened to kill her, but the board has yet to publicly acknowledge whether they asked to see a copy of the video or what it showed.
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[Image via Getty]