Scorched Worth: A True Story of Destruction, Deceit, and Government Corruption

Every profession has their good and bad players. Typically, they are exposed and terminated.Not if they work for CalFire or CDF. The bad players get promoted!! This book is one small story of the corruption that distracts, destroys, and disturbs California's hard-working, law-abiding professional firefighters.Excellent book. Excellent journalism.

Outstanding writing, and in-depth research of a government cover-up and malfeasance within the State of California legal system. This time they took on someone who would not submit to their twisted lies and inadequate gathering of evidence and sloppy investigation. This event clearly shows just how corrupt certain departments of the State of California have conducted themselves, and many are STILL employed by those departments. A must read by every citizen of California, and the rest of our Country. We need to know how the legal games are played. God help you if the government ever comes after you and you don’t have the resources to protect yourself. This man did, and in the process, exposed to the world how the twisted game is played. This book is a marvelous gift. Please read it. You will be held spell bound.

This book goes back and forth between Red Emerson's life story , the start of Sierra Pacific Industries and the Moonlight fire investigation(s) by Cal Fire and the US Forest Service. I really enjoyed learning more about Red, SPI, and their history. The author highlights the fire investigation flaws early and it seems it just gets worse as you read on. I remember reading small bits in the news papers on this case and thinking SPI was getting taken to the cleaners. From the state courts decisions I wasn't wrong. I hope that SPI can get back their settlement from the federal government now. The feds case seemed to rely or go in hand with the state's lame investigation. I am confident Cal Fire learned some lessons and we got rid of an illlegal slush fund. Sad how the government's can roll over you unless you have significant resources to fight back.

Great biographical information on Red Emmerson, the rest is simply yellow journalism. While I agree with Engel’s conclusion (however – I had come to that conclusion before I bought the book), I feel he is guilty of what he accuses Josh White of: coming to a conclusion and only presenting the “facts” that support his conclusion. For example, when describing the different parties involved, Engel describes people in very descriptive and negative terms when he is trying to discredit that person; especially when describing their actions during depositions. He practically puts a halo on anybody involved with SPI. While I’ve had mostly positive interactions with SPI, their halos are more than a little tarnished. Additionally, Engel tries to make the argument that finding many metal filings in the supposed area of origin actually disproves the government’s conclusion that a dozer strike started the fire. This goes against the concept of probability of ignition and common sense. The more filings there are in a receptive fuel bed, the more likely it is that one of them will start a fire. In an early portion of the book, he says it has yet to be proven that dozer strikes on rocks can start a fire, in a later portion of the book he accepts the fact that dozer strikes can start fires (I have personally seen it happen multiple times).To make things worse, there are multiple errors in the book. Borate is no longer used in the retardant dropped by firefighting aircraft. A little bit of research would have revealed that to Engel and it has not been called borate in the firefighting industry for a long time. He misspells the name of one of the people he lists in the book 68 times. And of course, we have the mistake he makes in regard to probability of ignition. This is just a small sample of the mistakes Engel makes, and while they may seem like small mistakes, if he can’t get these simple facts right, what makes the reader think that he can get the complicated facts right?In the same way the government’s case is tainted and cannot be trusted because of the obvious mistakes and spinning of “facts”, it is hard to believe what Engel has to say.

My only reservation is the fact that Benny Wallace was a deputy for the Lassen Co. Sherriff’s office. The author, on more than one occasion early on in the book reports Wallace to be with the Plumas Co. Sherriff’s office. Minor detail, but it did have me wondering how many other little details were incorrect. I do agree with the overall narrative of the case and enjoyed getting some history on Red Emmerson. I’m a local with ties in forestry here, and remember this fire well.

I very much enjoy the way the book was written as well as its content. Great book to find out the truth on the Moonlight Fire !

I really enjoyed this. The facts are true and not spun to meet a different storyline. The back cover quotes my favorite cousin. Great writing.

Wow. Truly outstanding journalism and a heck of a story of blatant government confiscation/taxation thru prosecution/persecution. Thank God the company owner had the resources and will to go the distance and fight to the finish. Between this and "Licensed to Lie" I'm starting to think REALLY, REALLY, bad things about the DOJ as currently constituted. Suddenly that 97.9% Federal conviction rate seems a little less than a sign of strict professionalism and a little more "by any means necessary". Jist sayin...