Debbie Peterson’s Unhinged “Murdered Daughter” Lie
NOTE: The following contains sensitive content that may be troubling for some.
In her 2022 book, The Happiest Corruption: Sleaze, Lies, & Suicide in a California Beach Town, Grover Beach mayoral candidate Debbie Peterson falsely claimed I spread a conspiracy theory somehow and somewhere that CalCoastNews co-founder Karen Velie and far-right provocateur Kevin P. Rice murdered her daughter.
This is not only shocking and tragic, but it is wildly false and disgusting.
Peterson provided no evidence to substantiate a claim that’s been bandied around for well over a decade. And every time this false claim appeared, I received threats from the general public and my personal safety was in jeopardy.
Where did this conspiracy theory come from?
In 2014, Velie called my former workplace at Information Press and threatened to blackmail my boss, Sandra Marshall, who was running for Congress at the time. The gist of the blackmail threat was: if I wasn’t fired from my job and Velie didn’t receive monetary compensation for the “pain and suffering” she endured from me criticizing her “reporting,” she was going to harm Marshall’s family and my family.
Velie claimed to my boss that I falsely accused her of murdering her daughter. When my boss pressed her for specifics, Velie claimed I personally posted these allegations on a message board website called Topix back in 2013. Here is a screenshot Velie herself provided to the court as an exhibit in a lawsuit she filed against former District 3 Supervisor Adam Hill in 2017:
Nowhere does it show I posted this false allegation. And nowhere is Rice mentioned anywhere.
Frankly, I had no idea when or how Velie’s daughter died until CalCoastNews co-founder Dan Blackburn wrote about the tragic circumstances in 2016. According to Blackburn, Velie’s daughter died in 2014 as a result of a seizure. But someone who prides themselves as “ethical” and “truthful” like Peterson would do her due diligence on some of the more salacious allegations she’s written in her book, especially when it comes to the death of someone’s child — someone who should never be invoked or weaponized to hurt someone else.
I wrote to Peterson that disputed her false claim, but she never responded. And according to Nextdoor, Peterson successfully reported a link I shared on the platform to my previous column, which addressed other baseless claims about me. To date, she hasn’t addressed her false claims.
But she is running for mayor of Grover Beach.
I support Grover Forward, which opposes Peterson and her agenda, including Measure G-24 and the recall.
Peterson should never serve in public office again.
