Oh, Damn. Another FPD Brutality Lawsuit in Federal Court
Nearly a year ago FFFF started what would turn into a long string of investigations into the FPD Culture of Corruption by telling the tale of a young man who claimed that he was beaten and abused by Fullerton cops during a downtown arrest.
There were plenty of skeptics here, and there was a barrage of personal abuse leveled against the man by anonymous FPD goons. At least there was until we published the results of an internal investigation, here, in which at least part of the victim’s assertions were confirmed.
Well last week another of Pat McKinley’s chickens emerged on the horizon, coming home to roost. Andrew Trevor Clarke filed a federal civil suit against Fullerton PD employees Tong, Contino, Hampton, Bolden, Salazar and Sellers.
Sellers? Good call, but I wonder why Clarke didn’t include former Chief, present councilman Pat McKinley. After all, he will proudly tell us he hired all of ’em.
All I can say is the lawsuits are piling up so fast we’re going to need wings to stay above the legal paperwork. And I wonder how much this one is gonna cost us.
I remember Goodrich and Co. came on the site and leaked that the kid was convicted of some bullshit charge.
We now know the veracity of the FPD, its officers willingness to perjure themselves (Veth Mam) and it sure looks like this guy was totally railroaded.
$$$. Thanks again, McPension, Bankhead and HeeHaw. The gifts that keep giving. To Garo Mardirossian! That guy is going to OWN the City.
No culture of corruption huh Capt Hughes? Then why the hell aren’t Tong and the rest of those paid thugs rotting in a cell where they belong? Forget lawsuits, we need prosecutions! Hughes, you listening? Mr . DA? FBI? Seriously, read the complaint. This is the standard of policing we pay for in this city? Wait, this is actually “policing” at all? More like organized crime!
Hey, Fullerton is great! Yes, its becoming a great source of income for people who win lawsuits against it. I am truly amazed that Fullerton taxpayers are not marching on city hall at each city council meeting demanding what are they going to do to reduce the number of lawsuits caused by FPD!
Second question: How come our current second acting chief of police not resigned?
I was out last night at an Orange County charity glad handing three chiefs of police two of whom are recent appointments. FPD members should know their chance of getting out of FPD and into another city are totally gone. You have a dozen members (10% ) who have been booted out this past year and no one wants them but worse, no one wants you either since you are associated with all the various ills of Fullerton. Too bad, I am sure there are some quality cops in Fullerton.
Y’all actin’ lank we done beat ‘im up ahselves!
I think it’s about time Fullerton disbanded its police department and contract with the sheriff.
One would want to know what the track record is of complaints against the sheriffs, wouldn’t one?
In the end they’re all the same, some just cost more.
Well, if so, that would undercut much of the criticism here. I think it’s likely (despite the reservations about this case expressed below) that this is a further sign of a problem, but to some extent it’s a problem endemic to policing by anyone. The question is whether there’s a solution — and blithely stating “oh let’s bring in the Sheriffs instead” without thinking through whether that would solve the problem smacks of being the product of other interests.
If I said “bring in the Brea PD!” people might rightly wonder if I had some ulterior motive. So what’s so great about bringing in the Sheriffs Office?
They’re not great, from what I’ve heard. But I’m interested to know also, how can this problem be solved? Does policing in general need to be changed? How will disbanding the FPD help? Is this a culture issue across all law enforcement agencies in the US?
Go to youtube and search for instance police brutality and see immediately just how far police brutality has spread not just around the country but around the world. On the other hand if you look into it, police brutality has always existed. But in the past when I was a kid here, there was less, or perhaps it was better hidden, I don’t know. One thing that I think would reduce it is hire fewer of the military, perhaps none, for the simple reason that they’re trained to follow orders, no matter what, and to kill, no matter what. Not talk, not look for a better solution, just kill. No offense intended, of course.
Why would that undercut anything. Why pay more for abusive cops?
What’s so great about bringing in new people to the FPD, is that you don’t keep drinking poison after you find out you have poison even though you have nothing to drink. That’s what’s so great about it.
But would you drink the same poison anyway if OC Sheriff’s came in?
I don’t think this is a police issue at all. It’s a multi-fold one.
Why would that happen? These FPD can’t be fired because of the unions- so why not bring in new people that have a decent track record and don’t torture people as though they are jailers in Gitmo?
Tell me if I’m wrong here, but doesn’t OC Sheriff’s have a union also? How do you know that OC Sheriff’s is so great?
Everytime, I think about how no one, not one within the police department complained about fellow police officers or have caused a stink about how the police department is being run. FPD isn’t that big to not know what is going on. Besides, they are cops, isn’t it their jobs to get nosey. I find it hard to believe no one knew about Rincon and such that they didn’t do anything. This is why I think disbanding the FPD could be viable because even though there are good cops in Fullerton, their loyalties to crooked cops
(co-workers) is even greater than protection of the public. If someone did, maybe girls wouldn’t be assaulted in cop cars, maybe Kelly would be alive still, etc.
But I do have a feeling that there is some form of bullying and mobster mentality in the FPD which is why not one “good” officer is not standing up against this. Which is why I would prefer not to disband FPD and would have it make changes. So if FPD is going to change for the better, there needs to be changes from the top. Chief, captains, lieutenants, etc. with one basic concept to create a self image, checks and balances. FPD needs to look itself in the mirror sometimes to see if it is doing what they should be doing. They definately need to clean house. I would like to see some diversity like qualified woman captain or a qualified hispanic chief at the top. What they have now seems not to be working.
Once the top is established, they should go back to concentrating on hiring people in somewhere near the top of their class in the police academy. They are usually cheaper and are trainable to the ways of Fullerton public. As opposed to getting veteran police officers who would get more money than rookies and already set in their ways, good or bad.
Tonight I will go to Heroes, Slidebar and any other cop hang-out with the hopes of getting the crap kicked out of me by FPD.
I could use the dough.
Where is the DOJ? Time to pull the veil of evil off the FPD so we can all see them in the light!
Send in OBAMA!!!
I am not disputing wrongs were committed by the police; that said, the plaintiff’s description of the events that night was chock full of holes. I remember reading his comments here on this blog.
A jury found him GUILTY on both misdemeanor charges. After his probation was revoked last year, he managed to screw up and have it reinstated a couple weeks later.
So I continue to question this guy’s character and honesty.
Uh, if not for the video Veth Mam would be behind bars today.
I question FPD’s chracter and honesty.
So do I. But this case might be the weakest of them all.
Veth Mam was acquitted on all charges and his story was consistent. The same cannot be said for this guy.
This guy didn’t have a video proving the cops lied, (testilied), and committed perjury. That’s probably the only reason Mr. Mam was aquitted. Once a liar always a liar applies to the cops in this case as much as, possibly more than to this, or any, victim/arrestee.
There ya go Fred. Some of us are forgetting the “once a liar, always a liar”.
You all notice the name Thomas Beck in the lawsuit? A LONG TIME civil rights attorney. He has his share of victories too.
So actually you have TWO attorneys representing this guy.
Vernon I know what your saying. BUT it appears that SCALE has tipped into more than a couple defendants favors, the cops are lying.
Hampton’s name keep’s popping up. MAJOR red flag.
In reading this lawsuit which is different from the others, BOTH lawyers are claiming from A-Z FPD is screwed up in every way possible.
What many of you don’t understand is, it appears these attorneys’s are going to use the pending lawsuits and past lawsuits to show a PATTERN of corruption.
UGLY, and it’s FEDERAL court, no playing around like local Superior Court.
Hmmm, do you think using the Rincon case will help these defendants? YOU better believe it.
Folks this stuff is getting ugly. The crap keeps piling up for a city this size.
Holy shit, I remember reading about this on FFFF a few months back, couldn’t believe it then… I can’t believe Hughes and the rest of FPD didn’t know a thing about this little ditty, seeing it occured on 3/17/2010 -no corruption? Transparency?
So, in their eyes, if you actually didnt DO the dirty deed, but knew about it, you are considered “a good apple”?
You nazi’s and associates from 2010, all knew about this and didn’t say a damn thing about it, even though there was no legal action at the time -so don’t use that tired excuse.
Got news for you, Capt. Transparency, this is corruption… like you didn’t know.
Keep backing your bros. in blue, like Hampton whose name keeps coming up in each case of brutality.
Garo doesn’t have to worry about the economy, he is going to have plenty of work in the next few decades.
Ya think a story come out in OC Reg about this?
Hampton just a tool for the white boys. Sound familiar Hamos?
It isn’t a “Culture of Corruption”, this is a “Medical Textbook, or Journal definition of EVIL” So Dan might be right.
What does Capt Crunch/ Hughes have to say about a “Culture of Evil”? I wonder
I know a few here continue to support Hughes. Not sure why? If it’s because he is COOL, I’d say your going to miss the boat.
But at some point he is going to be yanked into these depositions that WILL take place, and have to answer some tuff questions.
What is he going to say?
1. I closed my eyes to all this so I could become Chief, and clean it up when I got appointed?
2. I was ordered to remain silent or be terminated?
3. I didn’t like all this, but my hands were tied by those who control the City.(3 Amigos).
4. Yes I know all this was bad, but now I can clean it up with the assistance of Lou Ponsi.
Like I said awhile back, VERY strange Hughes is still the ACTING Chief after ALL these months.
Now I understand why an outside Chief has not been sought. An outside Chief might throw all those in power under the bus. CAN’T have that either.
Someone should ask Hughes if everyone is still misinformed, or lying about all this?
The guy has been in FPD for years, he’s another one of them who never spoke up about anything in all that time (and still hasn’t), and was on the balcony within earshot of the cop that got a radio call about “excessive horning” (there is a photo of this) and knew full well that Coffman was sent out to chase down drivers and give out tickets.
He knew Goodrich was lying when he said people were leaning on their horns for blocks, yet he said nothing about that, then he dramatically tore up the tickets.
Who knows what else?
Yeah, and why is he acting chef and not chef? I don’t get that either is that normal for PD’s?
He is John Does 1-10, to be named when identified by future evidence.
And could it be possible that some of the other John Does 1-10 include McKInley and possibly other former dirty cops like Rincon?
Yes, you bet. Just some legal terminology one does not need to get to excited about.
Rincon and Hughes, including the other 2 Captains are big players in these upcoming lawsuits.
Any attorney worth their salt would be a fool or asleep to allow big fish like these guys to slip away in the quest for justice.
The big questions for the Captains would be, WHAT did you see going on, and WHAT did you do about it when it happened?
Vicarious liability at it’s finest.
There’s other cops who better stop giving out those dirty looks cause your next- and there goes that big fat ridiculous pension.
Yeah give them the Queen wave…FPD has lost it’s back bone anyway.
I think I saw Officer Tong, He made my SKIN CRAWL, but, I always did scan local news, even before July 5th 2011.
Jesucristo!
I remember this story. No matter what the circumstances, did he deserve the treatment he got?
Slamming, crushing head and fingers. What’s the kick in it? I don’t understand.
Those evil maniacs over there at FPD really love the games they play with people. Sick.
Just as the PINK slime that has been exposed and is being done away with, the same needs to be happening with the BLUE slime.
I miss all the police shills claiming none of this would amount to anything. It is all ginned up by a downtown Fullerton developer.
What a shame. True or not to the last detail, Fullerton PD has a serious problem that I think has actually still been understated. We need a radical change at minimum.
Getting rid of the FPD may be required so the city can divert budget to paying off litigation expenses and settlements. Kind of ironic they may actually be the reason the whole department is canned.
Yeah, I was going to ask about that….speaking of which, wonder where lead coplickers, Larry Bennet and Ackerman are tonight. Crickets
Shebear McKorpse and the rest of the council and the City attorney, Count Chocula, knew about this ridiculous out of control beating in 2010-But, again, more crickets.
Dear gawd- the banners just went up…the two in front of the PD…say The DAHM family supports the police dept and has a chubby hispanic peace officer, leaning down to a cute little boy….FAIL doesnt warm my heart.
The other says: WE SUPPORT THE FULLERTON POLICE UNION….yep my very own sign will be under it by morning …ONLY THE FULLERTON POLICE SUPPORT THE FULLERTON POLICE UNION….. yep I get to look at that freakin POS, for a year. FAIL!
Hmmmm, wonder who sponsered that?
Put a copy of the Rincon Picture with the Depos from the two women he assaulted under the banner, just to be fair.
I said it above in #2, the feeling now around OC police circles is that FPD is a mess and just steer clear of them. The city will have lots of problems to solve before all this goes away and it will take several years.
Interesting that Kelly Thomas unwittingly brought all this incisive investigation into the inner workings of a PD. Now that level of scrutiny shows the link from City Council to City Manager to Chief of Police to the actual running of a PD.
#1: Who is in charge? I will answer that: City Manager
#2: Who hires city manager? I will answer that: City Council.
Mr. Felz are you listening? Tell me what California City that you have sent your resume to will hire you? Bell?
Tuco good point.
We have heard little from Hughes. Nothing from the city manager in all this other than asking Genacco to come in.
I bet whatever Hughes wants to do he has to get approval from the “godfather” before he acts.
The 3 Amigos are running the show and have Hughes on a leash.
Captain Don Bankhead and Chief McKinley are calling the shots, the good ol Doctor is just helping them step on their “weenie”.
Free Bullets, not free speech
“Oh Bother”~Eeyore
Freindly neighbor just asked a great question///IF WE SUPPORT the union, can we have a banner that say’s we support a non corrupt police dept, or we, since we are speaking about WE, do WE support the FPD union? Do we support KTMF? Do we support the three bald tires? I guess you should be careful, when WE are talking about WE.
So here we go again..
I’m quite sure there will be claims by the COPS that their DAR devices were inoperative or the downloaded information has been erased or can not be retrieved.
Where is the information from the DARs of the six cops involved in the Kelly Thomas killing?
I you haven’t, you’ve got to read this entire lawsuit.
And, Andrew Trevor Clarke = hometown hero.
FPD lovers, read this and weep. Everything is going to come out in this one. Every brake check. Every sadistic broken bone “cause its fun.” Every burying of complaints alleging that your officers are psychopathic goons. Its all coming out. Enjoy your depositions, fellas.
Everybody ever beaten by a cop needs to file a lawsuit like this one. Then maybe we’ll actually have some “rule of law” around this country, not the police brutality state we currently live in.
Oh, and future City leadership? Get us to a place where an incident like this leads to multiple prosecutions of cops. Who knows, if you actually punish cops for wrongdoing once in a while maybe people won’t be so happy to sue the city for all we haven’t got.
So true. That is a good looking lawsuit. The plaintiff’s council seems to have thrown everything at FPD to include the city and police department having prior knowledge of many previous excessive force and wrongful arrests cases.
And, “if you actually punish cops for wrongdoing once in a while maybe people won’t be so happy to sue the city for all we haven’t got,” was well said.
LOL and 🙂 Sorry.
The real KILLER in this is going to be the judges written opinion in the Rincon case. It set a tone that should have been a wake up call, PERIOD!!
I think the plaintiffs will attempt to show that despite the judges opinion, FPD continued on down the path of misconduct.
If by luck or accident, this same judge get’s to hear one of more of these cases, watch the city scramble to get that judge removed from the case.
Let’s hope punative damages are awarded accordingly for the MALICE that is glaring in some of these cases.
Let’s hope that those found to a part of the problem, versus the solution will have to pay damages OUT OF THEIR pocket versus the city paying for their stupidity.
A new city council might REFUSE to indemnify those responsible for these misdeeds.
Governement immunity only goes so far.
The arrogance of the leaders is compelling. Let them pay some of these plaintiffs from their hefty “pensions”.
That WILL get their attention, believe me.
If one or more “disgruntled” employees are found by plaintiff’s attorneys, they will have struck a gold mine in seeking the truth.
If this disgruntled individual kept a diary, ledger, intercepted secret memo’s, tape recorded conversations etc, FPD will be doomed.
If one of these managers did in fact report misconduct or make recommendations to take immediate actions on some of these employees, and was told to SHUT UP, by Sellers or the 3 Amigos, it’s going to be ugly for them.
NOTHING more humbling in life when your sitting before a jury in the penalty phase of a civil trial, and YOU the defendant are telling EVERYONE in the court, how much you are worth, having to explain your WEALTH and ASSESTS, so the jury can evaluate how much in damages they can level against you.
I have never been in Federal Court, but those who have tell me it’s an experience you never want to face if at all possible.
Negligent rentention will be a big issue for plaintiff’s counsel.
Make no mistake, attorney’s like Thomas Beck and many others know where to look for dirt within a law enforcement agency.
They know what questions to ask, and how to ask them. Once they have you on the ropes, they will beat you until the “knock out”.
Civil Rights attorney’s have their own sources of intelligence in the LE communtiy, they to have data bases that have “problem cops” listed. Problem agencies too.
Many of the questions they are going to ask you, they very well might already have the answer.
YOUR choice is to tell the truth, nothing but the truth, so help you GOD!!!
Guys like Hampton are on their radar screens. They will dig as deep into everything he has done, as the law allows.
Hampton, and others have no concept as to what may come before all this is done. He will be a schooled individual if he survives the onslaught.
There will be more mud slinging in the civil forum than the criminal.
Its time to flush the stench is terrible.
Tarek Dergoul, a British citizen born and brought up in east London and released without charge after almost two years at Guantanamo Bay, was describing one of many alleged assaults he says he suffered in American custody:
‘I was in extreme pain and so weak that I could barely stand. It was freezing cold and I was shaking like a washing machine. They questioned me at gunpoint and told me that if I confessed I could go home.
‘They had already searched me and my cell twice that day, felt my body around my private parts. And now they wanted to do it again, just to provoke me,
‘I heard a guard talking into his radio, “ERF, ERF, ERF,” and I knew what was coming – the Extreme Reaction Force. The five cowards, I called them – five guys running in with riot gear. They pepper-sprayed me in the face and I started vomiting; in all I must have brought up five cupfuls. They pinned me down and attacked me, poking their fingers in my eyes, and forced my head into the toilet pan and flushed. They tied me up like a beast and then they were kneeling on me, kicking and punching. Finally they dragged me out of the cell in chains, into the rec yard, and shaved my beard, my hair, my eyebrows.’
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I think you guys have a good sense of humor, Sorry in advance!
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Your link is broken. Maybe you can find here: https://www.beyourlover.com/masturbator
FPD is on, Double Secret Probation.mpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0cF2piwjYQ
*******Spoiler Alert*******
“NOTHING IS OVER UNTIL WE DECIDE ITS OVER… …WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH??……………………….. WHERES THE SPIRIT WHERES THE GUTS……….”
Bluto’s Big Speech – Animal House
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7vtWB4owdE&feature=related
*******Spoiler Alert*******
Animal House (3/10) Movie CLIP – Only We Can Do That to Our Pledges (1978)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=0Dy2fo6E_pI
I check this site at 12:AM, there is only a date stamp.
“WERE NOT GONNA SIT HERE AND LISTEN TO YOU BADMOUTH THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!”
Luckily, the audio and video recordings will reveal what actually happened.
I brought that up the “union” thing only to make the point that FPD cannot be fired, not to make an issue out of the unions-so let’s not go there-kay?
I didn’t say OC Sheriff was great-but there sure is no Rincon or Hampton or Tong or Ramos or Cincinelli or Sellers etc there. And there have been no reports of any of those coppers mudering, slamming their prisoners heads into things, fracturing body parts, letting people stand cold and almost naked for 8 hrs or molesting anyone.
I don’t want to make a union issue out of this either. It seems you’ve got to Skelly almost every public sector employee out there now-which I disagree with. (Let’s not go there on that one either…) Of course FPD officers can be fired. Who wants to start the skelly process with ’em?
Do you know that there’s no Rincon, Hampton, etc. at OC Sheriff’s? There have been no reports, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. My opinion only.
I’m not totally naive, so I’m sure the plaintiff in this case wasn’t a complete angel when he was arrested. this does not justify breaking the plaintiff’s bones or bashing his head while in fullerton’s police custody. Because the police are the long arm of the law, they are held to a higher standard of conduct than the public. Police officers must qualify to enter a police academy and then must complete this training before they are allowed to enforce the law on the public.
when those in charge of a situation lose control the result often harms the person arrested and financially harms the city in legal settlements for damage done to the person arrested by the police.
what excuse does the fullerton police department offer for its long pattern of abuses committed upon the good people of fullerton?
No excuse at all…
, when one considers that the aforementioned audio and video (which would have very well exonerated the plaintiff at his criminal trial) had mysteriously gone missing, or had been taped over, destroyed or otherwise by FPD, thus sealing the plaintiff’s fate in court during his criminal trial. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that if these A/V recordings suddenly reemerged at the civil trial that FPD would be guilty of conspiracy and cover-up? I’m no attorney, but I’d be willing to bet good money that it would.
Also from last year-is there any news on this, I guess I wasn’t paying attention but Im curious to know what happened.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/18/larry-markin-beating-help_n_879761.html