RED BLUFF >> The Tehama County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday morning that the grand jury has charged Supervisor Pati Nolen with willful and corrupt misconduct in office. According to Matt Rogers’ office, this is the first step in removing her from the Board of Supervisors.

According to Rogers’s office, the grand jury’s investigation it uncovered evidence that Nolen had on more than one occasion secretly recorded confidential meetings without the knowledge or permission of other persons present; had removed from closed session private and confidential personnel material related to a county employee without permission or authority to do so; and had deliberately lied and misled the media and the public regarding her use of alcohol on county property as well as filed retaliatory false police reports.

The news comes less than a week after the grand jury found that the county government was rife with dysfunction. The grand jury, which is composed of 19 county residents annually appointed by the Superior Court to serve as grand jurors and citizen watchdogs over local government.

Nolen, in a statement on Tuesday, denied the allegations, claiming the charges are about control.

“There were no complaints filed against me, not until I spoke up. Not until I began asking hard questions,” she said. “Not until the now-infamous DUI call , a call that has since evolved into a full-scale campaign to remove me from this seat without due process, without counsel, and without the basic decency of transparency.”

According to court documents releaed Tuesday by Rogers’ office, there are three charges against Nolen, including recording a meeting on March 24 without the consent of the others present in the room. According to court documents, the closed session meeting was about a civil rights case against her.

“Respondent deliberately left her recording device in the room after being excused from the meeting, specifically for the purposes of recording a private discussion regarding a closed session item related to a civil rights complaint regarding her, and to obtain confidential information that she, as the subject of the complaint, is not authorized or entitled to have,” the court document stated.

Investigators say she told them that she did so to take notes. Investigators also claim that she admitted to starting recording meetings on January 28, 2025.

The second charge claims that she was drinking on the job on March 25. According to court documents, it is a violation of Tehama County policy for alcoholic beverages to be on county property and for a public official to be intoxicated while in the discharge of their duties.

According to the court documents, the supervisors check her cup because they were looking for a recording device of some kind due to the earlier allegations of her recording meetings. it was then that they discovered it contained an alcoholic beverage.

They later called police to report a possible DUI driver.

“The DUI call was false and after I was stopped by the Red Bluff PD (half an hour after the call?),” Nolen said on Tuesday. “I was not charged with anything and was permitted to continue driving home.”

The third claim is that on April 29, 2025, after an employee evaluation was conducted in closed session, she purposefully removed a confidential evaluation packet.

According to court documents, the evaluation packet included a prior confidential personnel investigation of the employee being evaluated.

“Respondent was warned that the information being provided to her was confidential and was reminded that the information could not leave the closed session setting. Despite this, Respondent willfully removed the confidential documents.”

The court documents also allege she attempted to hide the fact that she “had done so by purposefully writing her name on another supervisor’s packet to give the impression that she had followed instructions and left her copy behind. That Respondent attempted to disguise the fact that she kept her copy shows that she knew that she was not authorized to keep that material.”

When county staff realized Nolen had improperly removed the packet, “county officials contacted her and requested that she return the packet,” court documents say.

According to Rogers’ office, the grand jury’s investigation was initiated after receiving numerous complaints regarding Nolen’s behavior and conduct in office. In the press release, the DA’s office said the grand jury claims evidence, including documentation, video surveillance footage, and testimony under oath, was obtained during the investigation. Rogers’ office shared that the Grand Jury determined that Nolen had abused the position entrusted to her by the residents of Tehama County to such a degree that it necessitates the initiation of the removal process.

The accusation will be the subject of a quasi-criminal trial. Rogers’ office said if Nolen is convicted of the charges contained in the accusation, she will be immediately removed from office.

The Grand Jury’s investigation spanned eight months and was presented to District Attorney Matt Rogers.

Nolen told the Daily News that the D.A.’s public announcement was unexpected. She claims that DA investigators told her last week, when they called her, that they wanted to “keep it private.” They allegedly suggested coming to the supervisor’s house. Nolen said since they claimed to have no idea what paperwork they were giving her was, she told them she would see them at the Board meeting on Tuesday.

Nolen will appear before a judge on Aug. 12 at 8:30 a.m. in Department 5 of the Tehama County Superior Courthouse.

If convicted, instead of being subject to incarceration or fines, Nolen will be immediately removed from office, which is why this type of case is considered quasi-criminal in nature.

Law enforcement stressed that the Grand Jury conducted this investigation and presented the accusation to the District Attorney’s Office. This accusation was not the result of a criminal Grand Jury issuing an indictment.

“The Grand Jury completed an extensive and thorough investigation into these allegations and reached the conclusion that Supervisor Nolen should be removed from office for her conduct,” Rogers said. “The Tehama County District Attorney’s Office respects the Grand Jury’s decision and will pursue the case for the removal of Supervisor Nolen. This is a sad time for Tehama County, and truly unfortunate that Supervisor Nolen’s conduct has put Tehama County in this situation.”

In a statement to the press, Nolen claims her gender is what is at issue.

“I stood in my role as an elected Supervisor, and for that, I have been met with silence, secrecy, and now, what appears to be spectacle,” she said. “And it’s not the first time this County has responded this way to women who speak too plainly. We’ve seen it before.”

She claimed that Candy Carlson was also “resented by the administration, but she was never targeted in the way I have been. The difference? I’ve been more vocal. And that, it seems, is the real offense.”

She added that looks forward to her day in court and intends to stay seated. I love Tehama County and its citizens who I serve. I will not stand idly by as others defraud this County to enrich their friends. I look forward to my day in court.

“This is un-American,” she said. “This is a political act, dressed up in prosecutorial clothing.”