{"id":305976,"date":"2026-05-08T13:15:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/305976\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T13:15:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:15:23","slug":"kern-county-district-attorney-emails-show-plans-to-push-open-door-network-out-month-before-notice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/305976\/","title":{"rendered":"Kern County District Attorney emails show plans to push Open Door Network out month before notice"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 After Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer abruptly ended the Open Door Network\u2019s partnership with the Family Justice Center in January, she and her staff declined to say how they chose Bakersfield Recovery Services as a replacement.<\/p>\n

Victims\u2019 advocates had questions.<\/p>\n

Among them: Did Bakersfield Recovery meet the law\u2019s requirements to operate a victims shelter?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Criticism made over connections between Kern County DA and proposed provider at Family Justice Center\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Through the Public Records Act, 17 News received a mountain of documents about the transition from the Open Door Network to Bakersfield Recovery Services.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of documents, containing hundreds of emails between Zimmer\u2019s office, the Family Justice Center staff and the Open Door Network. Most of it shows they had a good working relationship.<\/p>\n

But one email is very telling.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 20, a month and seven days before the DA\u2019s office fired the Open Door Network from the Family Justice Center, Assistant District Attorney Ken Russell sent an email.<\/p>\n

The email is to Ganesh Archarya \u2014 the CEO of Bakersfield Recovery Services.<\/p>\n

Russell described the grants the Open Door Network was using to staff the Family Justice Center. Then he described how Bakersfield Recovery Services could get those grants.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Victim Services Unit is able to train your staff on the skills necessary to operate as a nonprofit for those grants,\u201d the email read.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all. Russell wrote that the DA\u2019s office could apply for a 2nd-tier sub award \u2014 part of a grant that will let the DA pay a Bakersfield Recovery employee to work at the center until the grant funding year is over.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the next funding year, the grants would be distributed directly to you,\u201d Russell wrote in the email.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Supervisors table Family Justice Center staffing controversy\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Russell said without ODN, the areas the DA needs assistance with is confidential case management, emergency shelter and housing, counseling and 24\/7 response to law enforcement and medical facilities.<\/p>\n

Ganesh wrote back, two days later, accepting the offer.<\/p>\n

Russell replied, \u201cThank you again and I think this will be a big bonus for both organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with Bakersfield Recovery Services, Acharya is also the CEO of the Psychiatric Wellness Center.<\/p>\n

It is the exact place disgraced former Kern County Supervisor Zack Scrivner is getting mental health treatment for his felony child abuse charges, as well as allegations of molesting his preteen daughter. Scrivner is Zimmer\u2019s nephew.<\/p>\n

Archarya also donated $2,000 to Zimmer\u2019s reelection campaign.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve tried to interview Zimmer about the Family Justice Center, asking through a DA spokesperson multiple times. We either got no response or were told Zimmer was unable to speak on camera.<\/p>\n

17\u2019s reporter Andres Armenta got a chance to ask her at the Crime Victims\u2019 Vigil in April:<\/p>\n

Armenta: \u201cThe Family Justice Center, what is your response to the\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Zimmer: \u201cC\u2019mon. We\u2019re here tonight to talk about the Victims\u2019 March.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armenta: \u201cI know but we haven\u2019t had the chance to talk to you yet and I think we\u2019ve covered a good amount\u2013\u201c<\/p>\n

Zimmer: \u201cThank you, thank you very much. We\u2019ll see you tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armenta: \u201cYou don\u2019t have any comment on the Family Justice Center or your connection to it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Zimmer: \u201cThat was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

We asked the DA questions about this email thread, if it was normal to help nonprofits apply for grants and to bring them up to government laws in order to staff the FJC. We received no reply.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 After Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer abruptly ended the Open Door Network\u2019s partnership…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,49339,100429,128791,8414],"class_list":["post-305976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-cynthia-zimmer","tag-family-justice-center","tag-ganesh-archarya","tag-open-door-network"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}