Another Bad Apple Falls From Tree: Fullerton Cop Goes to Jail for Robbing the City

In what appears to be a rising tide of embarrassing news personnel-wise, the Fullerton Police Department has a new case of Bad Cop to explain to the public.

Fullerton police officer Todd Major plead guilty this month to fraudulent use of an access card and felony grand theft of money and property belonging to the City of Fullerton. Major is now serving out his 6 month sentence in the Theo Lacy County Jail with three years of probation to follow.

Todd Major

Major was a sworn police officer at the time of the theft, earning $90,000 a year in the Community Services Bureau. His case was prosecuted by the big boys at the State Attorney General’s office.

The plea deal included the dropping of additional charges indicating that Major also stole from the Fullerton Car Show, two Troy High School administrators,  eleven Fullerton Police Explorers, and the Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons supermarkets.

Read the charges (pdf)

At this time we don’t know what this convicted cop stole or how he stole it. Due to the union’s fierce protection of bad cops, we also aren’t entitled to know if he was fired or how much paid leave he received before he went to jail.

Anyone with more information on these crimes is invited to contact this blog.

112 Replies to “Another Bad Apple Falls From Tree: Fullerton Cop Goes to Jail for Robbing the City”

      1. Bandwagon? This thing is going to be a freight train once all the FPD rotten apples are shaken out of that tree!

  1. Do you get paid leave when you’re cooling your heels in Theo Lacy?

    It’s probably in the Peace Officer’s Bill of Rights.

  2. Once again, I’m not surprised at all.

    …now if I could just get back the money that was stolen from my person while I was in FPD custody, that’d be great.

    It’s high comedy how members of the public, as well as FPD officers tried to damage my credibiltiy and claim the cops would NEVER steal from someone in custody – and now we’ve seen two officers arrested in as many months for theft from the FPD.

    This is not isolated… it’s the culture of this force.

  3. Isn’t the city’s PIO supposed to tell us when criminals get arrested in Fullerton?

    Smells like a cover-up.

  4. I’d like to see (and many other concerned readers as well) what this guy looks like, but don’t throw stones doesn’t want you to find out! It’s better if we don’t know at all!

      1. That’s funny but off topic. There is a ripe odor wafting from the FPD and it stinks of a culture of corruption a la LAPD’s Rampart.

  5. I seem to remember a story about some guy in risk management a year ago that stole from the city. I believe it was in the OC Register. Wonder why we never heard about this?

  6. Just a short time till the blog trolls from FPD will blame this on the writers of this blog. Forget that a cop stole from the city, the real guilty ones are those who report it.

  7. What percentage of people in Orange County get accused/ convicted of a crime each year? What percentage of FPD gets accused/convicted of a crime each year?

    1. 144 sworn officers and 3 bad apples. That’s 2% of the officers… How many more fall from the tree could force the City to bring the OC Sheriffs to town.

  8. concerned reader, no one else is asking to see pics.. who cares what they look like…..still think u have some strange motive for wanting to see pics..

  9. He was charged with stealing from Geno Rose and Joseph D’Amelia… aka the Campus Supervisor and Assistant Principal at Troy HS, respectively, who were canned on June 30, 2010. That was days before the alleged theft occurred.

    I think that means he was accused of raiding their lockers after they got the boot.

    1. That’s right didn’t Ms. Popplin (If I spelled that right) get fired too? I think she and her cohorts were doing some underhanded things, I am not sure but she was relocated to La Sierra till her contract ran out.
      In my opinion she is rather strange,she uses her old girly charms to try to get her way, not everyone saw this but there are many who know she has this conniving quality and can read her like a book.

  10. It was a cover-up all the way down the line.

    City Manager Chris Meyer
    Interim City Manager Joe Felz
    Police Chief Michael Sellers
    Public Information Officer Andrew Goodrich

    …all shielding these bad cops from public scrutiny. Time for some new management! It’s for our own safety.

    1. Exactly! Fullerton obviously cannot run a legit city on its own. And we are supposed to pay more taxes for this crap?

      Beginning to smell like Bell in here….

      1. These Fullerton cops are bullies with a badge, and cannot be trusted. I’m ashamed to say I live in Fullerton!!

    2. What would the Grand Jury do? You have no clue what you’re talking about and sound like a complete fucking idiot

      1. Wow, somebody sure is terrified of an independent investigation of what’s going on inside the FPD bunker.

      2. What would they do? Possibly return indictments, for one thing. Or study the mismanagement of the department and make findings that the City would legally have to respond to.

        Idiot.

      3. Anon is just another brilliant FPD GED. Nice attitude. Do you treat all members of the public with the same demeanor?

  11. I’m don’t throw stones’s love child and I agree…concerned reader shut up. I know my dad can’t spell right and he sounds retarded, but he’s got a point!

    1. concerned reader, you need to…wait, what the heck? i don’t remember having any love children!

  12. I’m really glad you’re bringing these stories to light, Travis. The public deserves to know. It’s best to get these people off the payroll, for they have broken the public trust, and have failed to uphold the oath to uphold and protect, to be a trustworthy individual.
    That oath was something designed to be taken to heart. Unfortunately, this person never did.

    1. And not reported by any cops, that’s for sure!

      And prosecuted by the Attorney General. Interesting.

      1. Do you know this to be a fact? Not true Major Asshole. Grow a set and think for yourself unless of course you are Travis or Tony using one of 25 different names

        1. Funny, nobody read about it on Andy Goodwrench’s website, now did they? We had to find out through a blog, not by the goon we pay $130,000 to keep us informed of FPD activities.

  13. Come on Major put his “Life On The Line” as a community service officer……….If we are to believe the blue hairs like BackTheBadge.

  14. He sounds like one of those school police but the difference with him is instead of staying at one school he must travel to different campuses so he had access to pick pocket a larger area.

    Now all you police who feel you need to steal in this manner should “ferget bout it” just continue to do the same old “rip off the taxpayer” thing that most police do, take a medical leave then you double dip, then open a martial arts school at the same time how about running for city Thief, I mean office!

  15. Congrats to FFFF for outing the FPD who stole an iPad. The OC register columnist, Lou Ponsi, picked this up in his column on 6/29 without credit to FFFF. You can let Ponsi know that not crediting sources is very unprofessional. His email address is lponsi@ocregister.com.

  16. I heard on KNX that the OCDA announced BREA PD detective (and UNION BOSS) Shawn Neel was aquitted for his MURDER of an unarmed young man EXACTLY a year ago.

    Funny how the LACDA turns these investigations (OIS) in thirty days.

    Even Funnier how Neels long time BEST FRIEND Billy HUTCHINS retired as chief three months ago.

  17. Richard Collender, Julian’s father, said he had just begun reading the report when asked to comment on the findings.

    “From what I’ve read, they haven’t conducted a thorough investigation,” Collender said. “These alleged facts are not facts. … We will present our side.”

    tonyserra said:

    Funny how the LACDA turns these investigations (OIS) in thirty days.

    Ok the dead dope robbers dad said the investigation was too short Tonyserra sez it was too long who was is right?

    Don’t play finger guns with cops…..It’s 10 o’clock Thompson do you know where your kids are?

    1. tonyserra didn’t say it was too long. He said it took too long to produce. Can’t you read GED troll?

  18. I know when Brea PD shot up my asshole kid they were very polite and responded very quickly. Their cars were also very clean. I would have to say they did a much better job of killing my kid than Fullerton PD would have. Oh, did I mention that the shooting of my kid was also justified.

  19. Community work program: He picks up trash along the freeway with the other inmates.

    He’s no longer a cop…. What should his occupation be…Blogger?

  20. I just had to share this… I took this huge and I mean HUGE dump and the crown on it looked just like Travis.. the funny thing was it smelled like Tony.

  21. @tuna killer… they have to put false info. he is with people he may have arrested….. if they find out who he is, they would probaly hurt him very bad or kill him……he is probaly seperated from everyone….if he gets hurt, those deputies will have to pay out big $$$$

  22. Wow, I leave town for a couple of weeks and the place goes bonkers with rotten cops popping up like poisonous mushrooms after a good hard acid rain.

    I would dearly love to see the Fullerton Police Department share its failures along with all of its alleged successes.

    Seriously.

  23. I’m trying to figure this out based on the document you posted.

    I’m guessing the supermarkets were involved because he tried to use the ATMs inside them? There was also a charge involving a bad City of Fullerton check. Maybe he wrote a check to himself from the city account, or maybe he was making withdrawals on the city credit card.

    The petty thefts from the Explorers, the Car Show and Troy HS are just odd and shameful.

    I guess you can’t even buy a good cop for $90k. We should pay them all a million dollars so they stop stealing from us.

  24. I’m ITT Tech. Did you know I can lick my own Balls? My skill as cumputer geek cums in handy as Cummisioner. Sometimes i wake up after a planning Cummission meating with a cucumber shoved in my ass and you know what i always say… well do ya? That smelly Tony is sure a tricky fuck that’s what i say and sometimes, but not all the time I say… Tony i’m tired of you shoving cucumbers in my ass….. you know what he sez? Tough, I pay you to take it up you ass so stand still BITCH!…….. That Tony is so Butch.

    1. And here we see the true GED intellect at work. How about a new motto for FPD: “No foul mouthed GED slug will be turned away.”

  25. wow, no one clashes with the characters on this site more then me, but if theirs one thing i hate its overpaid pigs, oh wait there is one thing i hate more, overpaid ignorant dirty pigs like these last few idiot comments. fuck the police

  26. Since you are posting crap by provocateurs (“Fred Alcazar” and “Anonymous”), who are probably cops trying to bring down your blog, this is my last post. I will not assist in FFFF suicide — the cops win. These two assholes add no facts, just filthy language intended to incite and degrade the credibility of this blog. It is sad that you permit someone to yell “fire” in a theater.

    I regret my defense of this blog to the OC Register. Stupid blogs do not deserve to survive. We learned that from the flame wars over a decade ago.

    I feel sorry for your serious readers and contributors. You are destroying your good stories because no one will take you serious or bother to read the filth with no content you post.

    RIP FFFF.

    Arnold (my real name, not a phony pseudonym to fool others into not knowing that i have a vested interest, e.g., cops).

    1. There is no credibility to this blog. Have you been reading this for awhile? Take a look at what they do. Personal attacks on people they (Rat Tooth Kiger and Smelly Ass Tony) don’t like. They tend to leave others with similiar skeletons alone because of their friendships. Examples are Sebourn, Thompson, Norby, Whitaker and Nelson. Whoop to do if there are any serious readers because it’s probably one of Tony or friends anyways. My guess is that there is no more than 100 people that actually look at this site and 75 do it for laughs.

      1. I’ll beat you to it……….BEST BLOG OF OC………..Right that is an award that is purchased.

    2. Arnold, don’t you realize that the true mentality of the Fullerton police man is on display here? Let them show their true colors: vulgarity, selfishness, cowardice, greed, intellectual vacuity, and oh did I mention vulgarity? And all these wonderful attributes employed to defend their own crooked kind.

      So I say bring it on! Show the citizenry what you GED slugs really think about crime – when perpetrated by yourselves! Attack the honest and brave; shelter the dishonest thieves. You go, girls!

  27. Ohhhhh, come on Arnold you made me cry. Don’t be such a cunt.
    Buck-up and jump back in the pool the waters fine but watch out, Travis and Tony spent far to much time playing humpback whales together.

  28. You guys offend every group in town but your own. What makes you think every post not supporting your view point is a cop, looks to me you guys just hate cops?

    1. How does a 100% factual story offend anyone?

      So far as “every post not supporting” their point of view being a cop, there are plenty of posters that oppose this site who are never accused of being a cop. Is it possible that the publishers can discern who is posting even though the posters try to hide their identities? Maybe?

      I read this site. I post when I can. I try not to offend anyone. I do not hate honest police. I fear dishonest police and anyone who helps cover them up.

    2. B.S. I hate dirty cops and the system that enables an protects them.

      Notice that this post was about a convicted thief and here you are popping up to say “you guys hate cops.”

      Not even a good try at diversion.

  29. This blog is not dedicated to cop hating? Then lets do this, show me one post by this blog relating to the Fullerton police department in the past 3 years that is not some kind of slam on the police department.

    The only positive post I can think of is when Chief Sellers was praised by this blog for decision to put the police department’s policy on line for all to see. As I remember that was done by request for either Tony or Travis is that correct?

    1. Friends for Fullerton’s Future supports candidates and causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County.

    2. Nice try but either a misdierection play or a failure on your part to understand the difference. If this blog were “dedicated to cop hating” as you state one would likely see the dedication in almost all the posts. From what I read the police department makes it to the blog when members of the department do things any reasonable person would have a problem with. By your definition the site hates Fullerton because most of what is exposed here are the opposite of puff stories about the city.

      You seem to be of the mind that one can not criticize without hating. Point out the TRUE bad deeds of any member of the group and you must only be doing it because you hate the entire group. It couldn’t be to inform the public, expose hypocrisy, stir debate, bring an issue to light or anything like that. Nope, pure hatred is the only reason anyone would ever alert the public to true facts that occur at the police department. Just ask the public information imbecille/officer, he’ll tell you himself.

      Maybe you are on to something. Looking at it your way (and only your way) it seems the police department must hate the taxpayers of Fullerton. Why else would it’s members take hard earned taxpayer money and still repeatedly resort to theft? Why would the department fail to tell us when one of their apples has gone bad? It could only be a hatred of the residents because clearly in your world if there is at least one possible explanation you like it has to be the only one. All other logical choices are unilaterally excluded on a purely subjective basis.

      The decent people in the department should be more outraged about the conduct of some of its officers than any reader here. Most of the outrage from regular citizens stems from the fact there seems to be a lack of outrage in the department. Maybe they mask it well and are actually as pissed off as the rest of us when one of their members becomes a criminal.

      The problem is not hatered, it’s that we cant rely on the department to inform us when any of the truly bad apples is arrested or convicted so we are left with blogs to air the dirty laundry of the department.

    3. Why should this blog praise the cops for simply doing their jobs? That is the overpaid and supremely arrogant Goodwrench’s job.

      So far as I can tell FFFF doesn’t praise anybody for meeting minimal thresholds of competency for public employees that are extraordinarily well-compensated.

      BTW, did Sellers ever post any policies on-line?

      1. Travis has his rat tooth mouth wrapped around the shaft of anything Chrissy, Tony, Bruce, Shawn or Norby ever do that the poster child for braces feels is worthy. He’s the first one to praise them. what the hell is the difference? Nothing other than he is personal friends with these asswipes and he hates cops, fireman and teachers and any governament worker. I’m sure dipshit Travis will be posting more negative stories about police, teachers and fireman but you won’t see one about any of his personal friends. FUCKING hypocrite.

          1. Have to agree Hales, where is the hypocrisy in a factual story?

            You sound like those people in congress that want talk radio to have as many shows for liberals as conservatives regardless of what the market says is desired by the audience. This may be news to you but there is more domain space out there. If you think you have a hook for readers and a passion to write, why dont you start a site that prints all the stories this site leaves out?

    4. Yes it is ask Travis. What a great guy and representative of Fullerton. Bruce should be recalled for appointing such a GED dick and governememt worker hater. He makes shit up to fit his little blogs needs. But my guess is Bruce is the one feeding him information that he comes across in closed door sessions. What an honorable man Whitaker is.

      1. Even if Travis were a government worker hater, I’d take him over the usual drones who get appointed to anything in Fullerton.

        Travis stands up for the taxpayers first. Wow! What a unique concept.

        And that is why Travis is a local hero!

      2. Lundergaard, none of these stories appear to be made up. Did Mr. Ponsi make up his confirmation of the Miami arrest? Is the register making up too?

        You seem really upset about these stories and it is hard to believe it is unrelated to you either being part of the FPD or somehow involved. Who else would be so hostile over a true story?

        Why dont you just admit Todd Major and the woman who stole the ipad are idiots and enjoy your 4th of July weekend?

  30. I don’t think so :
    The only positive post I can think of is when Chief Sellers was praised by this blog for decision to put the police department’s policy on line for all to see.

    A promise which the Chief failed to fulfill. Thank you for reminding me.

  31. Ok so you guys could not find one example either. You proved my point. The number one duty of local government is to provide public safety……

    Friends for Fullerton’s Future supports candidates and causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County.

    Several of the contributors on this blog are city officials what are you doing to provide responsible public safety to it’s citizens?

    What changes to the Police Department do you propose that would prevent officers from committing policy violations and lawless acts in the future?

    Your name calling of city staff by city officials associated with this blog is not productive and is an embarrassment to those of us in this community who don’t mind seeing effective, aggressive policing.

    1. “What changes to the Police Department do you propose that would prevent officers from committing policy violations and lawless acts in the future?”

      Thank you for asking. I have several ideas but lets start with one. Why doesn’t the department set up some basic protocol to screen its own for financial/credit problems on a regular basis? Sound crazy? Let me remind you that the department screens every applicant for this before they ever qualify for the force. Show up with credit problems on your background and you will not get hired.

      Why? Aside from generally being a sign of irresponsibility, there is too much risk to have an officer who may be desperate for cash in a position where he/she is entrusted to enter homes, businesses, arrest people and inventory their property etc. For some reason after we hire people we quit caring about the same things that mattered so much in the beginning.

      Now i’m not saying we fire anyone with credit problems but maybe a heightened awareness of the problem might help management be more vigilant. Maybe credit counseling would help some of these people before they resort to theft.

  32. “Friends for Fullerton’s Future supports candidates and causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County.”

    Or anyone else that has aspirations of higher office and is willing to use Bushala money and the Fullerton dais to get there so they can abandon the City and keep me looking for other idiots to support.

  33. I don’t think so :
    those of us in this community who don’t mind seeing effective, aggressive policing.

    If effective, aggressive policing were what Fullerton has you wouldn’t bee seeing this kind of criticism. Breaking into and detaining a family in the house next door to the target house is not effective policing. McKinley’s profiteering from his own position or Bankheads fake disability shows the crookedness is from top to bottom. Fullerton PD has, I am sure, some dedicated and ethical officers, but the culture is historically and undeniably self-serving.

  34. “…why dont you start a site that prints all the stories this site leaves out?”

    The GEDs can’t do that because that would take brains and real work, two thing most of them know nothing about.

  35. It is sad to see how infantile the “opposition” is in their postings on this blog.
    Police are found guilty of crimes and the marijuana smoking, crime committing, police and their “groupies” come on FFF to cry foul.
    Looks like they are just throwing accusations to the wind. Pointing fingers at Tony and Travis for exposing them. Then saying it is all lies when there is proof? WTF???
    It looks like police training includes, how to intimidate, steal, and lie while wearing a uniform that we taxpayers, are supposed to shut up and respect authority and just continue to pay your salaries.
    Talk about power going to someone’s head. Arrogant egos abound. Just who do you think you are accountable to?

  36. You just don’t understand how tough these officers have it. They all deserve an IPAD.

    Thanks for risking your lives so that my family and I can enjoy OURS! Please donate at my site above.

    -Joel Swintowski

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