Inside the first database that tracks
America’s criminal cops
According to Killedbypolice.net, at least 808 people have been killed by police so far this year, outpacing last year’s deaths by 20 victims.... and they ALL GET AWAY WITH IT!
"Police in the
United States are trained to see the working class and poor as a hostile
enemy. Anything less
than complete submissiveness is grounds for officers to unleash
deadly force on
their victims. In some instances, even the most casual encounters with
police
have proven to be deadly."
"In the
overwhelming majority of police killings, of which there are more than one
thousand every year, no officer is ever charged. In the few cases where
charges are brought, most are found not guilty. The Supreme Court has made
it nearly impossible to convict a police officer for murder stating
that an officer is permitted to use deadly force as long as he or she
believes that either they or others are in danger."
COP MURDERS IN
AMERICA -
THOUSANDS SHOT IN THE HEAD.
JUDGES GIVE THE THUG COPS A PASS TO
DO IT AGAIN!
https://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/article237089834.html#storylink=mainstage_lead
California’s Criminal Cops: Arrested and
convicted of crimes, but still on the force | The Sacramento Bee
CALIFORNIA’S
CRIMINAL COPSArrested
and convicted of crimes, but still on the force
California’s Criminal Cops: Full Investigation
Click the arrow for the full investigation into how California
deals with law enforcement officers who break the law.
EXPAND ALL
More than 80 law enforcement officers working today in California are
convicted criminals, with rap sheets that include everything from animal
cruelty to manslaughter.
They drove drunk, cheated on timecards, brutalized family members, even
killed others with their recklessness on the road. But thanks to some of the
weakest laws in the country for punishing police misconduct, the Golden State
does nothing to stop these officers from enforcing the law.
Those are among the findings of an unprecedented collaboration of
newsrooms, including McClatchy, which spent six months examining how California
deals with law enforcement officers who break the law.
Today, we’re unveiling that review, along with a unique searchable
database of hundreds of current and former officers convicted of a
crime in
the past decade — the largest record of criminal activity among police in
California ever compiled.
The review found 630 officers convicted of a crime in the last decade —
an average of more than one a week. After DUI and other serious driving
offenses, domestic violence was the most common charge. More than a quarter of
the cases appear never to have been reported in the media until now. And nearly
one out of five officers in the review are still working or kept their jobs for
more than a year after sentencing.
It’s a small percentage of the 79,000 sworn officers across the state.
But exactly how many cops with convictions are still on the beat today — or
even the number of officers convicted over the last decade — is far from clear.
Hindered by some of the strictest secrecy laws in the country, California
residents don’t really know who is carrying a gun and patrolling their streets.
Reporters found at least a dozen deputies with prior convictions are
still on the roster at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. And the
five officers with convictions working for the Riverside police include the
acting chief — Larry Gonzalez was a lieutenant in 2013 when he pleaded guilty
to DUI after reportedly crashing a city-owned SUV with a blood-alcohol level
nearly twice the legal limit.
There’s a Kern County Sheriff’s deputy still working despite a
conviction for manslaughter after running over two people while recklessly
speeding to a call. And a Santa Clara County Sheriff’s deputy is back on the
force after dozing off at the wheel and killing a pair of elite cyclists on a
training ride.
“Was justice served? Absolutely not,” said Jon Orban, whose friends
Kristy Gough, 30, and Matt Peterson, 29, were killed when Santa Clara County
Deputy James “Tommy” Council crossed a double yellow line and plowed into a
group of cyclists on a Sunday morning in 2008.
“When someone holds a badge they should be held to a higher standard;
in this case, he wasn’t held to any standard at all,” said Orban, an Army
veteran who considers himself a supporter of law enforcement. “I don’t know of
an organization where if you kill two people you get to keep your job after
millions of dollars are paid out because of your mistake.”
All of the criminal cops who are still on the job were convicted of
misdemeanors. Convicted felons can’t be law enforcement officers in California
— or in most other states.
However, the review found a third of the convicted officers still
working were originally charged with a felony or violent misdemeanor that could
have cost them their right to carry a gun. Most managed to plead down to a
lesser crime to stay on the job.
The review also found convictions for about half of the officers still
working appear never to have been covered in the media.
That includes an L.A.-area school cop convicted of child endangerment,
a San Francisco Sheriff’s deputy with two convictions in two years, and a
California Highway Patrol officer who investigated a possible domestic homicide
despite his own conviction after a domestic dispute years before.
“Given the power that police have — if you have cops with those kinds
of records, it’s sort of a betrayal of the public trust,” said Roger Goldman, a
law professor at Saint Louis University who studies law enforcement licensing
and standards across the country.
The reason so many of these cops are still working — and the public
doesn’t know about their pasts — has everything to do with the way California
oversees its police.
PIERCING
THE VEIL
The Golden State is one of only five in the country that doesn’t
“decertify” officers for misconduct — or effectively strip them of a license to
work in law enforcement. That means virtually all hiring and firing decisions
are up to local chiefs and sheriffs.
“It seems to me nonsensical that the organization responsible for
setting the standards and training for the selection of police officers … has
no ability to act in a case of a breach of that responsibility,” said Mike
DiMiceli, who spent more than 30 years at California’s Commission on Peace
Officer Standards and Training — called POST — which accredits the state’s law
enforcement departments.
Even when an officer is found guilty of something egregious, the public
— which can easily go online to learn the misdeeds of doctors, lawyers or real
estate agents -- would have to hear about an officers’ run-in with the law and
then dig through the local courthouse for details.
When it comes to police misconduct that doesn’t result in criminal
charges, California shields most records from disclosure. But the wall of
secrecy started to crack — a little — this year. That’s when a new law, SB
1421, required police to release internal records about officer shootings,
deadly force, sexual misconduct and dishonesty — a mandate many departments are
still fighting.
Shortly after that new law took effect, reporters from the
Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley got a rare glimpse into officers
who didn’t just violate department policies but committed crimes.
Through a public records request, they received a list of the criminal
convictions of nearly 12,000 people who have been law enforcement officers in
California or applied to be one.
The list was a stunning disclosure — and state Attorney General Xavier
Becerra wanted it back.
The AG’s office had created the list so POST could update a database to
flag when law enforcement officers are ineligible to work in the state.
But Becerra’s office refused to answer any questions about the list, or
clarify vital information that’s missing, such as which names belong to
officers as opposed to merely applicants, and where they work. The attorney
general has only said the list was inadvertently released and that the
reporters were breaking the law by simply possessing it. He even threatened
legal action unless they gave it back.
Instead, the reporting program at Berkeley joined with nearly three
dozen news outlets across the state to learn more about California’s criminal
cops.
After trying to narrow down the convictions list to officers who have
worked in the last decade, the reporters focused on nearly 1,000 cases, hunting
down court files from nearly every county in California. They routinely
encountered roadblocks, from uncooperative government workers to missing case
files to sloppy record-keeping. They also pored over 10 years of news clips to
identify hundreds of additional law enforcement officers missing from the
state’s secret list who had been convicted of a crime in the past decade.
WHO ARE
CALIFORNIA'S CRIMINAL COPS?
Ultimately, the reporters identified 630 current or former officers
with criminal convictions in the past decade in California.
But given the state’s persistent secrecy, the results are only a
snapshot of officers with a prior conviction. If California’s top law
enforcement official knows the real number, he’s not saying.
Becerra has declined numerous interview requests for this story.
OVERSIGHT
IN OTHER STATES
One thing that is clear: Many of the officers on the state’s secret
convictions list who are still working today likely wouldn’t be officers in
other states.
About two-thirds of the states with the power to decertify an officer
do not even require a criminal conviction to boot someone from the profession,
according to Goldman, the St. Louis professor. Misconduct findings by an
administrative body can be enough.
But in California, where local departments decide the fates of problem
officers, it’s nearly impossible for the public to get answers when police
break the law.
Local law enforcement officials routinely dismissed questions for this
story about why they continued to employ cops with criminal convictions, citing
the state’s strict confidentiality rules on police personnel matters.
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s office wouldn’t explain why it keeps a dozen
convicted deputies on the force, including cases involving allegations of
domestic abuse, trespassing, perjury and drunken driving.
BEHIND
OUR REPORTING
In San Francisco, reporters found Officer Warrick Whitfield still
working despite two prior criminal convictions. He got a DUI in 2012, then was
criminally charged two years later for using his law enforcement access to dig
up confidential information about a domestic dispute. He was convicted in that
case too but again kept his job. And the San Francisco Police Department
refused to explain why.
San Diego police wouldn’t explain their decision to keep four convicted
officers, including Roel Tungcab, who was charged with domestic violence in
2011 on suspicion of knocking his wife unconscious. He pleaded down to a single
misdemeanor charge of damaging her phone. Records show authorities have
responded to multiple domestic incidents at Tungcab’s home in recent years. And
yet, records show, Tungcab — who declined to comment —- is still working today.
And the Compton Unified School District wouldn’t respond to questions
about keeping school officer Donte Green on the force after a jury convicted
him of child endangerment. In 2014, Green left his 7-year-old daughter alone in
a car with his loaded gun. She grabbed it and fired it in the direction of a
school, records show. No one was hurt. Prosecutors insisted Green should be
held accountable.
“Look, I appreciate what he does for a living,” Deputy District
Attorney Craig Rouviere told the jury during closing arguments at Green’s
trial. “But you know what? If I fall over dead tomorrow, they are going to
bring in another D.A. to finish this case, because the system is bigger than
one person. ... We can’t look at him and go, ‘Yeah, man, he’s a cop, man. Give
him a break.’ That’s not how the law works.”
A judge sentenced Green to three years probation and he had to take a
National Rifle Association gun safety course.
It’s possible none of those officers would be working in Florida or
Georgia. The two states have agencies with some of the broadest power to
decertify law enforcement officers over not just convictions but a range of
misconduct, including dishonesty, unethical conduct and “moral turpitude.”
In Georgia, officers can be booted from law
enforcement for offenses such as sexual harassment, drunken driving and undue
force. Florida can revoke a cop’s license for possession of cannabis and perjury.
Together the two states decertified nearly 1,000 officers in 2015 —
roughly half the decertifications nationwide, according to a 2016 study.
Glen Hopkins, an official at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement,
said even when local prosecutors let an officer off on lesser charges, his
state can aggressively pursue discipline.
“If they plead it down to a lesser misdemeanor — if we’ve got the facts
— we’re not bound by that,” Hopkins said.
While most other states don’t take as hard a stance, they do have
stricter rules than the Golden State.
In Iowa, theft or defrauding the government can cost an officer his or
her career. But in San Jose, Officer Jeffrey Enslen is still employed despite
being charged with felony grand theft after an internal investigation found he
falsified dozens of timecards, costing the city nearly $10,000. The felony
would have banned him from being a cop, but he pleaded down to a misdemeanor
and saved his job in California.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy David Hernandez could have been
banned from working as a cop in Alaska, Arizona, Montana, New Mexico or West
Virginia, according to records compiled by Goldman, the law professor. Those
states can decertify officers for dishonesty, and Hernandez pleaded no contest
to a misdemeanor for filing a false report after lying about why he pulled over
a suspect in a drug arrest, according to court records and a news report.
And pretty much all of the convicted officers identified as still
employed in California might be finding a new line of work in Idaho where the
state has the option to decertify any cop convicted of a misdemeanor.
UNION’S
POWERFUL INFLUENCE
There was a time when California was actually a leader on police
oversight. In 1959, the Golden State became one of the first in the country to
create a commission to oversee police hiring and training standards.
For decades, the commission known as POST could take away an officers’
certificate to work in law enforcement if they were convicted of a felony.
In the 1990s, the commission considered adding more crimes like perjury
that reflect an officers’ credibility, and so-called “wobblers,” crimes that
can be charged as either misdemeanors or felonies.
But the commission retreated after intense pushback from powerful
police unions, and in 2003 the unions helped push through a bill that stripped
POST of its ability to take away an officer’s certification unless it was
issued in error.
“They were protecting their working members by doing something that
would keep POST from ever getting a bigger bite of the apple,” said DiMiceli,
POST’s former assistant executive director.
Since then, POST simply adds a notation to its database when an officer
is convicted of a felony and is disqualified from working as a cop by state
law. It doesn’t mark anything for most other crimes. So law enforcement
agencies are on their own to perform background checks that might flag criminal
pasts.
TIME TO
GET TOUGHER?
With police transparency efforts on the rise in Sacramento, the debate
is heating up on whether the state should do more to prevent problem cops from
working in California.
“Should there be statewide standards for police officers and deputy
sheriffs? If you ask me, the clear answer is yes,” said Janet Davis, interim
police chief in the Central Valley city of McFarland, a 14-member department
that has had a dubious record of hiring cast-away officers.
Before Davis took over, McFarland hired more than a dozen officers who
had either been convicted of a crime or fired by another department for
misconduct.
0:57
‘The answer to
that is clearly yes.’ Leader of McFarland PD on need for state police standards
Brian Marvel, a San Diego police officer who serves as president of the
state’s largest police labor group, said he expects legislative efforts to
decertify law enforcement officers in California in the near future — and
insists his organization isn’t automatically opposed to it.
“I just want to make sure there is a fair process if an officer is
decertified. I think they should have the right to appeal that, and I think
there should be some due process rights,” said Marvel, whose Peace Officers
Research Association of California represents more than 75,000 officers.
Former POST director Paul Cappitelli agrees that bad cops shouldn’t be
working in California, but he also worries that if the state has the power to
decertify police, good cops might lose their jobs.
“You’d have no more police officers,” said Cappitelli, who fears a
small group of outspoken critics could sway POST’s decision to decertify.
“You’d have the public deciding, and they often want to fire people.”
Others also worry about more state oversight. They say local
departments should have discretion to decide whether a conviction should cost a
cop his job.
“I’ve seen cops get a second chance, go on to be better officers and
human beings because they have been humbled by their mistakes,” Alameda County
Sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly said.
Take the case of former Fremont police Officer Nicholas Maurer.
In April 2009, Maurer was convicted of assaulting a man following a
drunken dispute at a BART station in a highly publicized case that cost him his
job. Records show he was sentenced to three years of probation and 45 days of
jail that he could serve through a work program — although a judge later
shortened his probation after reviewing letters of support from law enforcement
to help Maurer get another job. With the assault on his record, he still
couldn’t carry a gun, though.
So he went on to work for eight years at Ohlone College in the Bay Area
as an unarmed officer.
“I made a mistake — a huge mistake,” Maurer said in a recent interview,
pointing out he didn’t try to cover up his wrongdoing. “I feel terrible.”
BLOWN
SECOND CHANCES
The news organizations’ review found many departments in California
generally choose to fire officers convicted of crimes. For example, all but one
of the 17 Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department deputies convicted of crimes
in the review are gone, the majority within six months of charges being filed.
But the review also found multiple examples of departments giving problem
officers second chances that backfired.
Richard Sotelo was an Imperial County Sheriff’s Department correctional
officer in February 2013 when he was charged with domestic violence for
assaulting his estranged wife. He was allowed to keep working despite the
pending charges. But months later he was accused of a crime again, this time
sexual battery against a male co-worker. He was charged for that as well.
Sotelo ultimately took plea deals and was convicted in both cases and left the
force.
The Los Angeles Police Department gave officer David Guerrero a second
chance after he pleaded down a 2012 drunken driving charge to reckless driving.
He was also the subject of multiple police reports — before and after that DUI
arrest — that didn’t result in charges.
In one incident investigated by the Bell Police Department months
before his reckless driving, Guerrero allegedly “threatened, assaulted and
battered” a woman who was in a dispute with his girlfriend, according to court
records.
“That’s how you do it, LAPD style,” Guerrero allegedly said as he drove
away.
The DA’s office didn’t file charges. It also didn’t prosecute Guerrero in 2013
when he allegedly threatened to kill the mother of his child, court records
show.
He finally ended up behind bars in 2016 when he got into an argument
and allegedly sucker-punched a man, leaving him blind in one eye. Guerrero —
who said in an interview he was defending himself — was charged with a felony
and ultimately pleaded no contest.
“I certainly did not expect this from a Police Officer, whether he was
off duty or not,” the victim wrote in a letter to the judge who sentenced
Guerrero to 30 days in jail and five years of probation.
This time, the LAPD got rid of him.
The San Francisco Sheriff’s Department showed similar tolerance with
Deputy James Naguina Jr.
He was charged with domestic battery in October 2008 after his ex-wife
alleges he broke down a bathroom door and grabbed her during a violent
confrontation.
Naguina managed to plead down to a lesser charge — violating a court
order — that let him stay on the force. The judge let Naguina keep his gun for
his job but ordered he carry it for work purposes only.
But if that was his second chance, Naguina was about to need a third.
Two weeks from the end of his probation, Alameda officers spotted
Naguina driving without his headlights on and making an illegal U-turn.
According to the police report, he appeared drunk and as he struggled to find
his car insurance and registration, the officer spotted “a holstered pistol in
the center console.”
Prosecutors accused him of violating his probation by carrying his gun
outside of work but only charged him with driving drunk.
Naguina didn’t lose his six-figure-a-year deputy’s job, though.
Despite his two criminal convictions, he’s still working for the San
Francisco sheriff.
Robert Lewis produced
this story for the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, and David
DeBolt for the Bay Area News Group. Jason Paladino, Ali DeFazio,
Katey Rusch, Laurence Du Sault of the Investigative Reporting Program at UC
Berkeley and Jesse Marx and Lyle Moran of the Voice of San Diego contributed to
this report. For McClatchy, project contributors include Rosalio Ahumada, Matt
Fountain, Nathaniel Levine, Rob Parsons, Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado, Robert
Salladay, Darrell Smith, Sam Stanton, and Elliot Wailoo. Email us at cacriminalcops@gmail.com.
THE LINEUP:
COPS WITH CONVICTIONS
1. Daniel
Hun Chun Battery
2. Matthew
B. McKibban Disturbing the peace
3. Branche
Smith Assault by public officer
4. William
Wyatt Rape
5. Christian
Rene Talavera Sexual penetration of a minor
6. John
Patrick Fox Solicit lewd act
7. Matt
Farris Second-degree murder
8. Blair
Christopher Hall First-degree murder
9. Scott
Michael Adams Disturbing the peace
10. John
Peder Mott Domestic violence
11. Denise
Lai Murder
12. John
Ryan Mejia Insurance fraud
13. Michael
Patrick Leary Grand theft
14. Marcus
James Lee Domestic violence
15. Walter
Gutierrez Filing a false report
16. Kevin
Harralson False imprisonment
17. JerehLubrin Second-degree
murder
18. Patrick
Cooney Child porn
19. Dan
Jenner Embezzlement
20. Kyle
Rowland Negligent discharge of firearm
21. RafaelRodriguez Second-degree
murder
22. Johannes
Mehserle Involuntary manslaughter
23. Kyle
Pennington Domestic violence
24. Kenneth
Skogen Sex with a minor
25. Daniel
Jason Kalis Drug possession
26. Michael
Joseph Campbell Vehicular manslaughter
27. Noah
White Winchester Rape
28. Romeo
Aberin Extortion
29. Charles
Foster Disturbing the peace
30. Eric
Cephus Child molestation
31. Eric
Van Mendonca Drug trafficking
32. Thomas
Leipelt Indecent exposure
33. James
Council Vehicular manslaughter
34. Matthew
Phillip Cash False imprisonment
35. Ryan
McGowan Illegal weapon possession
36. Shalon
Faye Cunningham Falsifying evidence
37. Ruben
Salgado Soliciting murder
38. Ryan
Woolery Sex with an inmate
39. TonyYao Insurance
fraud
California’s Criminal Cops: Arrested and
convicted of crimes, but still on the force | The Sacramento Bee
PAI
BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
More from the series
California’s Criminal Cops: Full Investigation
EXPAND ALL
PIERCING
THE VEIL
WHO
ARE CALIFORNIA'S CRIMINAL COPS?
Search
the database of hundreds of officers convicted of a crime in the last decade
OVERSIGHT
IN OTHER STATES
BEHIND OUR REPORTING
UNION’S
POWERFUL INFLUENCE
TIME TO
GET TOUGHER?
Janet Davis is interim police chief in the Central
Valley city of McFarland, a 14-member department that has had a dubious record
of hiring cast-away officers. ZACHARY STAUFFER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING PROGRAM
AT BERKELEY
BLOWN
SECOND CHANCES
THE LINEUP:
COPS WITH CONVICTIONS
Officers
featured in the illustration
Sacramento
sheriff must pay legal fees in Bee’s fight to get deputy records, judge orders
STATE
Court
tentatively rules against AG Becerra: State must disclose police records
LOCAL
‘He was
trying to kill me.’ Yolo sheriff releases first records in fatal deputy
shooting
CRIME
DUI,
dishonesty, shootings: Sacramento sheriff’s files reveal deputy discipline
cases
IN AMERICA, THE BIGGEST CRIMINALS ARE COPS!
More than 80 law
enforcement officers working today in California are convicted criminals, with
rap sheets that include everything from animal cruelty to manslaughter.
California’s Criminal Cops: Arrested and
convicted of crimes, but still on the force | The Sacramento Bee
CALIFORNIA’S
CRIMINAL COPSArrested
and convicted of crimes, but still on the force
BY
ROBERT LEWIS AND
More from the series
California’s Criminal Cops: Full Investigation
Click the arrow for the full investigation into how California
deals with law enforcement officers who break the law.
EXPAND ALL
More than 80 law enforcement officers working today in
California are convicted criminals, with rap sheets that include everything
from animal cruelty to manslaughter.
They drove drunk, cheated on timecards, brutalized
family members, even killed others with their recklessness on the road. But
thanks to some of the weakest laws in the country for punishing police
misconduct, the Golden State does nothing to stop these officers from enforcing
the law.
Those are among the findings of an unprecedented
collaboration of newsrooms, including McClatchy, which spent six months
examining how California deals with law enforcement officers who break the law.
Today, we’re unveiling that review, along with a
unique searchable
database of hundreds of current and former officers convicted of a
crime in
the past decade — the largest record of criminal activity among police in
California ever compiled.
The review found 630 officers convicted of a crime in
the last decade — an average of more than one a week. After DUI and other
serious driving offenses, domestic violence was the most common charge. More
than a quarter of the cases appear never to have been reported in the media
until now. And nearly one out of five officers in the review are still working
or kept their jobs for more than a year after sentencing.
It’s a small percentage of the 79,000 sworn officers
across the state. But exactly how many cops with convictions are still on the
beat today — or even the number of officers convicted over the last decade — is
far from clear. Hindered by some of the strictest secrecy laws in the country,
California residents don’t really know who is carrying a gun and patrolling
their streets.
Reporters found at least a dozen deputies with prior
convictions are still on the roster at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s
Department. And the five officers with convictions working for the Riverside
police include the acting chief — Larry Gonzalez was a lieutenant in 2013 when
he pleaded guilty to DUI after reportedly crashing a city-owned SUV with a
blood-alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit.
There’s a Kern County Sheriff’s deputy still working
despite a conviction for manslaughter after running over two people while
recklessly speeding to a call. And a Santa Clara County Sheriff’s deputy is
back on the force after dozing off at the wheel and killing a pair of elite
cyclists on a training ride.
“Was justice served? Absolutely not,” said Jon Orban, whose
friends Kristy Gough, 30, and Matt Peterson, 29, were killed when Santa Clara
County Deputy James “Tommy” Council crossed a double yellow line and plowed
into a group of cyclists on a Sunday morning in 2008.
“When someone holds a badge they should be held to a
higher standard; in this case, he wasn’t held to any standard at all,” said
Orban, an Army veteran who considers himself a supporter of law enforcement. “I
don’t know of an organization where if you kill two people you get to keep your
job after millions of dollars are paid out because of your mistake.”
All of the criminal cops who are still on the job were
convicted of misdemeanors. Convicted felons can’t be law enforcement officers
in California — or in most other states.
However, the review found a third of the convicted
officers still working were originally charged with a felony or violent
misdemeanor that could have cost them their right to carry a gun. Most managed
to plead down to a lesser crime to stay on the job.
The review also found convictions for about half of
the officers still working appear never to have been covered in the media.
That includes an L.A.-area school cop convicted of
child endangerment, a San Francisco Sheriff’s deputy with two convictions in
two years, and a California Highway Patrol officer who investigated a possible
domestic homicide despite his own conviction after a domestic dispute years
before.
“Given the power that police have — if you have cops
with those kinds of records, it’s sort of a betrayal of the public trust,” said
Roger Goldman, a law professor at Saint Louis University who studies law
enforcement licensing and standards across the country.
The reason so many of these cops are still working —
and the public doesn’t know about their pasts — has everything to do with the
way California oversees its police.
PIERCING
THE VEIL
The Golden State is one of only five in the country
that doesn’t “decertify” officers for misconduct — or effectively strip them of
a license to work in law enforcement. That means virtually all hiring and
firing decisions are up to local chiefs and sheriffs.
“It seems to me nonsensical that the organization
responsible for setting the standards and training for the selection of police
officers … has no ability to act in a case of a breach of that responsibility,”
said Mike DiMiceli, who spent more than 30 years at California’s Commission on
Peace Officer Standards and Training — called POST — which accredits the
state’s law enforcement departments.
Even when an officer is found guilty of something
egregious, the public — which can easily go online to learn the misdeeds of
doctors, lawyers or real estate agents -- would have to hear about an officers’
run-in with the law and then dig through the local courthouse for details.
When it comes to police misconduct that doesn’t result
in criminal charges, California shields most records from disclosure. But the
wall of secrecy started to crack — a little — this year. That’s when a new law,
SB 1421, required police to release internal records about officer shootings,
deadly force, sexual misconduct and dishonesty — a mandate many departments are
still fighting.
Shortly after that new law took effect, reporters from
the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley got a rare glimpse into
officers who didn’t just violate department policies but committed crimes.
Through a public records request, they received a list
of the criminal convictions of nearly 12,000 people who have been law
enforcement officers in California or applied to be one.
The list was a stunning disclosure — and state
Attorney General Xavier Becerra wanted it back.
The AG’s office had created the list so POST could
update a database to flag when law enforcement officers are ineligible to work
in the state.
But Becerra’s office refused to answer any questions
about the list, or clarify vital information that’s missing, such as which
names belong to officers as opposed to merely applicants, and where they work.
The attorney general has only said the list was inadvertently released and that
the reporters were breaking the law by simply possessing it. He even threatened
legal action unless they gave it back.
Instead, the reporting program at Berkeley joined with
nearly three dozen news outlets across the state to learn more about
California’s criminal cops.
After trying to narrow down the convictions list to
officers who have worked in the last decade, the reporters focused on nearly
1,000 cases, hunting down court files from nearly every county in California.
They routinely encountered roadblocks, from uncooperative government workers to
missing case files to sloppy record-keeping. They also pored over 10 years of
news clips to identify hundreds of additional law enforcement officers missing
from the state’s secret list who had been convicted of a crime in the past
decade.
WHO
ARE CALIFORNIA'S CRIMINAL COPS?
Ultimately, the reporters identified 630 current or
former officers with criminal convictions in the past decade in California.
But given the state’s persistent secrecy, the results
are only a snapshot of officers with a prior conviction. If California’s top
law enforcement official knows the real number, he’s not saying.
Becerra has declined numerous interview requests for
this story.
OVERSIGHT
IN OTHER STATES
One thing that is clear: Many of the officers on the
state’s secret convictions list who are still working today likely wouldn’t be
officers in other states.
About two-thirds of the states with the power to
decertify an officer do not even require a criminal conviction to boot someone
from the profession, according to Goldman, the St. Louis professor. Misconduct
findings by an administrative body can be enough.
But in California, where local departments decide the
fates of problem officers, it’s nearly impossible for the public to get answers
when police break the law.
Local law enforcement officials routinely dismissed
questions for this story about why they continued to employ cops with criminal
convictions, citing the state’s strict confidentiality rules on police
personnel matters.
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s office wouldn’t explain why
it keeps a dozen convicted deputies on the force, including cases involving
allegations of domestic abuse, trespassing, perjury and drunken driving.
BEHIND OUR REPORTING
In San Francisco, reporters found Officer Warrick
Whitfield still working despite two prior criminal convictions. He got a DUI in
2012, then was criminally charged two years later for using his law enforcement
access to dig up confidential information about a domestic dispute. He was
convicted in that case too but again kept his job. And the San Francisco Police
Department refused to explain why.
San Diego police wouldn’t explain their decision to
keep four convicted officers, including Roel Tungcab, who was charged with
domestic violence in 2011 on suspicion of knocking his wife unconscious. He
pleaded down to a single misdemeanor charge of damaging her phone. Records show
authorities have responded to multiple domestic incidents at Tungcab’s home in
recent years. And yet, records show, Tungcab — who declined to comment —- is
still working today.
And the Compton Unified School District wouldn’t
respond to questions about keeping school officer Donte Green on the force
after a jury convicted him of child endangerment. In 2014, Green left his
7-year-old daughter alone in a car with his loaded gun. She grabbed it and
fired it in the direction of a school, records show. No one was hurt.
Prosecutors insisted Green should be held accountable.
“Look, I appreciate what he does for a living,” Deputy
District Attorney Craig Rouviere told the jury during closing arguments at
Green’s trial. “But you know what? If I fall over dead tomorrow, they are going
to bring in another D.A. to finish this case, because the system is bigger than
one person. ... We can’t look at him and go, ‘Yeah, man, he’s a cop, man. Give
him a break.’ That’s not how the law works.”
A judge sentenced Green to three years probation and
he had to take a National Rifle Association gun safety course.
It’s possible none of those officers would be working
in Florida or Georgia. The two states have agencies with some of the broadest
power to decertify law enforcement officers over not just convictions but a
range of misconduct, including dishonesty, unethical conduct and “moral
turpitude.”
In Georgia, officers can be booted
from law enforcement for offenses such as sexual harassment, drunken driving
and undue force. Florida can revoke a cop’s license for possession of cannabis
and perjury.
Together the two states decertified nearly 1,000
officers in 2015 — roughly half the decertifications nationwide, according to a
2016 study.
Glen Hopkins, an official at the Florida Department of
Law Enforcement, said even when local prosecutors let an officer off on lesser
charges, his state can aggressively pursue discipline.
“If they plead it down to a lesser misdemeanor — if
we’ve got the facts — we’re not bound by that,” Hopkins said.
While most other states don’t take as hard a stance,
they do have stricter rules than the Golden State.
In Iowa, theft or defrauding the government can cost
an officer his or her career. But in San Jose, Officer Jeffrey Enslen is still
employed despite being charged with felony grand theft after an internal
investigation found he falsified dozens of timecards, costing the city nearly
$10,000. The felony would have banned him from being a cop, but he pleaded down
to a misdemeanor and saved his job in California.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy David Hernandez
could have been banned from working as a cop in Alaska, Arizona, Montana, New
Mexico or West Virginia, according to records compiled by Goldman, the law
professor. Those states can decertify officers for dishonesty, and Hernandez
pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor for filing a false report after lying about
why he pulled over a suspect in a drug arrest, according to court records and a
news report.
And pretty much all of the convicted officers
identified as still employed in California might be finding a new line of work
in Idaho where the state has the option to decertify any cop convicted of a
misdemeanor.
UNION’S
POWERFUL INFLUENCE
There was a time when California was actually a leader
on police oversight. In 1959, the Golden State became one of the first in the
country to create a commission to oversee police hiring and training standards.
For decades, the commission known as POST could take
away an officers’ certificate to work in law enforcement if they were convicted
of a felony.
In the 1990s, the commission considered adding more
crimes like perjury that reflect an officers’ credibility, and so-called
“wobblers,” crimes that can be charged as either misdemeanors or felonies.
But the commission retreated after intense pushback
from powerful police unions, and in 2003 the unions helped push through a bill
that stripped POST of its ability to take away an officer’s certification
unless it was issued in error.
“They were protecting their working members by doing
something that would keep POST from ever getting a bigger bite of the apple,”
said DiMiceli, POST’s former assistant executive director.
Since then, POST simply adds a notation to its
database when an officer is convicted of a felony and is disqualified from
working as a cop by state law. It doesn’t mark anything for most other crimes.
So law enforcement agencies are on their own to perform background checks that
might flag criminal pasts.
TIME TO
GET TOUGHER?
With police transparency efforts on the rise in
Sacramento, the debate is heating up on whether the state should do more to
prevent problem cops from working in California.
“Should there be statewide standards for police
officers and deputy sheriffs? If you ask me, the clear answer is yes,” said
Janet Davis, interim police chief in the Central Valley city of McFarland, a
14-member department that has had a dubious record of hiring cast-away
officers.
Before Davis took over, McFarland hired more than a
dozen officers who had either been convicted of a crime or fired by another
department for misconduct.
0:57
‘The answer to
that is clearly yes.’ Leader of McFarland PD on need for state police standards
Brian Marvel, a San Diego police officer who serves as
president of the state’s largest police labor group, said he expects
legislative efforts to decertify law enforcement officers in California in the
near future — and insists his organization isn’t automatically opposed to it.
“I just want to make sure there is a fair process if
an officer is decertified. I think they should have the right to appeal that,
and I think there should be some due process rights,” said Marvel, whose Peace
Officers Research Association of California represents more than 75,000
officers.
Former POST director Paul Cappitelli agrees that bad
cops shouldn’t be working in California, but he also worries that if the state
has the power to decertify police, good cops might lose their jobs.
“You’d have no more police officers,” said Cappitelli,
who fears a small group of outspoken critics could sway POST’s decision to
decertify. “You’d have the public deciding, and they often want to fire
people.”
Others also worry about more state oversight. They say
local departments should have discretion to decide whether a conviction should
cost a cop his job.
“I’ve seen cops get a second chance, go on to be
better officers and human beings because they have been humbled by their
mistakes,” Alameda County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly said.
Take the case of former Fremont police Officer
Nicholas Maurer.
In April 2009, Maurer was convicted of assaulting a
man following a drunken dispute at a BART station in a highly publicized case
that cost him his job. Records show he was sentenced to three years of
probation and 45 days of jail that he could serve through a work program —
although a judge later shortened his probation after reviewing letters of
support from law enforcement to help Maurer get another job. With the assault
on his record, he still couldn’t carry a gun, though.
So he went on to work for eight years at Ohlone
College in the Bay Area as an unarmed officer.
“I made a mistake — a huge mistake,” Maurer said in a
recent interview, pointing out he didn’t try to cover up his wrongdoing. “I
feel terrible.”
BLOWN
SECOND CHANCES
The news organizations’ review found many departments
in California generally choose to fire officers convicted of crimes. For
example, all but one of the 17 Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department deputies
convicted of crimes in the review are gone, the majority within six months of
charges being filed.
But the review also found multiple examples of
departments giving problem officers second chances that backfired.
Richard Sotelo was an Imperial County Sheriff’s
Department correctional officer in February 2013 when he was charged with
domestic violence for assaulting his estranged wife. He was allowed to keep
working despite the pending charges. But months later he was accused of a crime
again, this time sexual battery against a male co-worker. He was charged for
that as well. Sotelo ultimately took plea deals and was convicted in both cases
and left the force.
The Los Angeles Police Department gave officer David
Guerrero a second chance after he pleaded down a 2012 drunken driving charge to
reckless driving. He was also the subject of multiple police reports — before
and after that DUI arrest — that didn’t result in charges.
In one incident investigated by the Bell Police
Department months before his reckless driving, Guerrero allegedly “threatened,
assaulted and battered” a woman who was in a dispute with his girlfriend,
according to court records.
“That’s how you do it, LAPD style,” Guerrero allegedly
said as he drove away.
The DA’s office didn’t file charges. It also didn’t prosecute Guerrero in 2013
when he allegedly threatened to kill the mother of his child, court records
show.
He finally ended up behind bars in 2016 when he got
into an argument and allegedly sucker-punched a man, leaving him blind in one
eye. Guerrero — who said in an interview he was defending himself — was charged
with a felony and ultimately pleaded no contest.
“I certainly did not expect this from a Police
Officer, whether he was off duty or not,” the victim wrote in a letter to the
judge who sentenced Guerrero to 30 days in jail and five years of probation.
This time, the LAPD got rid of him.
The San Francisco Sheriff’s Department showed similar
tolerance with Deputy James Naguina Jr.
He was charged with domestic battery in October 2008
after his ex-wife alleges he broke down a bathroom door and grabbed her during
a violent confrontation.
Naguina managed to plead down to a lesser charge —
violating a court order — that let him stay on the force. The judge let Naguina
keep his gun for his job but ordered he carry it for work purposes only.
But if that was his second chance, Naguina was about
to need a third.
Two weeks from the end of his probation, Alameda
officers spotted Naguina driving without his headlights on and making an
illegal U-turn. According to the police report, he appeared drunk and as he
struggled to find his car insurance and registration, the officer spotted “a
holstered pistol in the center console.”
Prosecutors accused him of violating his probation by
carrying his gun outside of work but only charged him with driving drunk.
Naguina didn’t lose his six-figure-a-year deputy’s
job, though.
Despite his two criminal convictions, he’s still working
for the San Francisco sheriff.
Robert
Lewis produced this story for the Investigative Reporting Program at UC
Berkeley, and David DeBolt for the Bay Area News Group. Jason
Paladino, Ali DeFazio, Katey Rusch, Laurence Du Sault of the Investigative Reporting
Program at UC Berkeley and Jesse Marx and Lyle Moran of the Voice of San Diego
contributed to this report. For McClatchy, project contributors include Rosalio
Ahumada, Matt Fountain, Nathaniel Levine, Rob Parsons, Cresencio
Rodriguez-Delgado, Robert Salladay, Darrell Smith, Sam Stanton, and Elliot
Wailoo. Email us at cacriminalcops@gmail.com.
THE LINEUP:
COPS WITH CONVICTIONS
1. Daniel
Hun Chun Battery
2. Matthew
B. McKibban Disturbing the peace
3. Branche
Smith Assault by public officer
4. William
Wyatt Rape
5. Christian
Rene Talavera Sexual penetration of a minor
6. John
Patrick Fox Solicit lewd act
7. Matt
Farris Second-degree murder
8. Blair
Christopher Hall First-degree murder
9. Scott
Michael Adams Disturbing the peace
10. John
Peder Mott Domestic violence
11. Denise
Lai Murder
12. John
Ryan Mejia Insurance fraud
13. Michael
Patrick Leary Grand theft
14. Marcus
James Lee Domestic violence
15. Walter
Gutierrez Filing a false report
16. Kevin
Harralson False imprisonment
17. JerehLubrin Second-degree
murder
18. Patrick
Cooney Child porn
19. Dan
Jenner Embezzlement
20. Kyle
Rowland Negligent discharge of firearm
21. RafaelRodriguez Second-degree
murder
22. Johannes
Mehserle Involuntary manslaughter
23. Kyle
Pennington Domestic violence
24. Kenneth
Skogen Sex with a minor
25. Daniel
Jason Kalis Drug possession
26. Michael
Joseph Campbell Vehicular manslaughter
27. Noah
White Winchester Rape
28. Romeo
Aberin Extortion
29. Charles
Foster Disturbing the peace
30. Eric
Cephus Child molestation
31. Eric
Van Mendonca Drug trafficking
32. Thomas
Leipelt Indecent exposure
33. James
Council Vehicular manslaughter
34. Matthew
Phillip Cash False imprisonment
35. Ryan
McGowan Illegal weapon possession
36. Shalon
Faye Cunningham Falsifying evidence
37. Ruben
Salgado Soliciting murder
38. Ryan
Woolery Sex with an inmate
39. TonyYao Insurance
fraud
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