Pasadenan born and raised and now a proud Arcadia Rotarian, Mark Kahlof is an attorney specializing in criminal defense.  Mark’s career began a reserve deputy sheriff in Los Angeles County for 11 years.  He learned a lot about guns and procedure.  He described his first on the job assignment, which was a domestic violence matter.  It was in that environment that he learned the ins and outs of drawing a revolver.

        After attending law school, Mark started with a firm specializing in criminal defense.  His first courtroom experience was quite interesting.  He had no knowledge of court procedures, and when the trial court asked him to “take the waiver”, he was totally lost.  Fortunately, the judge realized his inexperience and helped him through the process.  Since then he has made a career in defending persons accused of a crime.

        He spoke about his father’s questioning him about getting a defendant off on the basis of an “illegal search and seizure”.  To his father that did not seem right.  Mark explained it was important that a person accused of a crime have his constitutional rights protected and that right must never be abrogated.

        With his two brothers, they have started a project in Covina, a clinic, to provide surgery, dental work and pediatric services to handicapped and mentally disabled persons.  This is a wonderful project and hopefully their work will continue on.

        As a substitute for a Red Badge Craft talk, Mike Real discussed his business and its operations.  He is president of Real Food Marketing located in Arcadia.  He is originally from San Pedro and attended Loyola High School and U.S.C.  He loves sports and especially Soccer.  At SC he was a business major.  His first job after school was with Western Airlines.  His wife Paula’s father suggested he interview for a job in the food industry and as they say the rest is history. He now owns his food marketing business and supplies fruits and vegetables to food processors that make purees, juice extracts and many by products.  He explained he sells what farmers can’t sell.  He markets fruits and vegetables to the processors and explains their dietary benefits.  He works with small to median sized companies.  He imports food products from as far away as Indonesia and Sumatra.   In closing,  he said that there is no demonstrative evidence that organic foods are any better than regularly grown fruits and vegetables.  Mike is a former president of Rotary and a great sports fan.