The Consortium of Corruption

Not pretty, but it works…

Friends, an environmental symbiosis exists in nature when two organisms interact in a way that is mutually beneficial. In the course of human organizational activity we see such symbioses frequently. In the nasty intersection of government and politics such relationships are depressingly common. And nowhere can we see this operation in better form than in the way Fullerton’s politics intersect the management of police business, a business that affects everybody.

Let me begin my essay with a recitation of police behavior in our town that ought to give any decent person reason to give a second thought to nonsense pitched by both the government and the media.

See this badge? It means honesty and integrity. Or not.

We all remember the words of former FPD Chief, Danny “Galahad” Hughes when he said that anybody who claimed a Culture of Corruption in his department was a liar or misinformed. Of course this is the same individual who orchestrated the Kelly Thomas killing cover-up, who ordered the ticketing of “excessive horners,” and who is implicated up to the top of his bald head in the illegal catch and release of drunken former City Manager, Joe Burt Felz.

 

Spokesphincter was the last straw. Apparently.

In all of his endeavors Hughes was serially assisted by the smarmy and arrogant Andrew Goodrich, former union goon and, not coincidentally, the otiose and corpulent spokeshole for department. Friends will recall that it was Goodrich who immediately promulgated lies about cops getting broken bones in the aftermath of the Thomas bludgeoning by his cohorts. Goodrich was caught by FFFF over the years selling so much garbage that he was actually nominated for  a coveted Fringie® in 2011.

Just gimme a minute, here.

Most Friends believe that the author of FPD’s Culture of Corruption was none other than former top-cop Pat “Patdown Pat” McKinley, who imported a bunch of cops from LAPD, including the one-eyed cop on disability, Jay Cicinelli, who bashed Kelly’s face in with the butt end of a Taser. McKinley admitted to hiring all these thugs and he brushed aside the accusations against FPD sexual batterer Albert Rincon by telling an audience that the victims were inferior types of women, anyhow. On the Fullerton City Council he acted in tandem with Hughes as architects of the disastrous cover-up. His plans were inadvertently exposed on CNN. His history of playing twisted, amateur psychologist was well documented.

 

GOD MODE ACTIVATED. Lookin’ out for the ladies, oh yeah!

Some of FPD’s bad behavior has suggested a sexual pervy streak running through the department, and a predilection for looking the other way about it. Albert “Alby Al” Rincon, instead of being fired and prosecuted by McKinley for sexual battery, continued to roam Fullerton’s streets looking for victims – gals he no doubt figured would keep their mouths shut. They didn’t, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands and the City a reprimand from a federal judge. Naturally no charges were ever filed.

Recently we’ve been favored with the story of tubby ginger boy Jose Paez, whose “crime” according to tough guy DA Todd Spitzer, was the unauthorized photographing of his victims. Unfortunately for the girls and women he associated with as a school officer in the FJUHSD, what he was taking pictures of was their undergarments – while they were being worn.

Chiu-FPD-Awards-Promotion
How ’bout a date, honey?

A few months ago the story leaked out about an enterprising young FPD lad named Christopher Chiu, who seems to have found a persuasive way to talk a young woman out of her clothes on the top of the Lemon/Chapman parking structure so he could examine her breasts and nether parts in search of “evidence.” Before the courtly charm of playing doctor wore off, he suggested his availability for a dinner date. Yikes.

Speaking of sex in our city, let us not, Dear Friends, forget the hi-jinks of stumblebum Detective Ron “My Request Stands” Bair, who ended up extracting sex from the mother in a child custody case in which he was a witness. Half a mil on us and adios, Ron. Enjoy the spectacle of the outraged Keystone Kop demanding that councilmembers turn over their cell phone records to him.

Wren, on the right, getting a MADD award. Maybe anger management paid off…

The parade continued recently with the sordid tale of Christopher Wren, a Riverside County anger management clinic grad who was holding clandestine conferences of varying duration with an Officer Riedl – in various FPD assets, including his squad car and in the ladies toilet room. Ick.

Former Sergeant Jeff Corbett was actaully rung up for obstructing justice although seamy stories about sexual escapades while on duty have been circulating for a long time. But to be fair to poor Jeff, it was sending Wild Ride Joe Felz home after the hit-and-run of Sappy McTree that got him busted.

Apart from uncontrolled libido, the gallant gents of the FPD have often displayed their ethical sensibility in an orgy of mayhem against people who hadn’t done anything wrong, or by simply revealing how little they care for the basic concepts of justice. Maybe the cultural shift to full-on violence and callousness was the result of Pat McKinley’s well-known militarization of the FPD.

Ay caramba!

Jay Cicinelli is known across the globe as the goon who smashed in Kelly Thomas’s face with a Taser handle and admitted it on tape. This one-eyed jack was employed by McKinley as a favor to an old LAPD crony. Now this twice disqualified creep actually wants (or wants us to believe he does) his job back!

The gift that keeps giving…

Our obese old pal Manuel Ramos had a long history of lazy and oafish behavior as an FPD cop, culminating in the actions that instigated Kelly Thomas’s death. Bully? Check. Overweight slob? Check. Natural born prick? Double Check. FPD material all the way.

Joe, plumbing…

Of course the proud specimen known as Joe Wolfe was Ramos’s accomplice on that fateful night Thomas was goaded into flight. Good old Joe was there with baton in hand to deliver the first blow to the schizophrenic homeless man.

Over the years FFFF has related stories from the citizenry about abusive and violent behavior of Fullerton’s cops, particularly those patrolling downtown open air booze court. But none of these stories can equal the brutality and the callous treatment of Veth Mam by one Kenton Hampton. See, Hampton’s official version of the story got real fuzzy after it became clear that his recollection of events strained even the credulity of an OC jury past the breaking point, especially when video evidence showed up in court. During a downtown scuffle involving the cops, Hampton arrived by car upon the scene and knocked the phone camera out of the hand of an innocent bystander, Mam, who was giving away about 100 lbs. to Officer Hampton. After throwing the hapless Mam around like a rag doll, Hampton tossed him in the Fullerton clink where he was charged with assaulting a cop, a story Hampton testified to under oath. Was he ever punished? Of course not. Under “Chief Danny” Big Bad Ham seems to have been promoted to a desk job.

MADD Heroes. Far right “Sonny” Siliceo contemplates the downside of an honest future. Tim Gibert, top left, contemplates a career at the Home Depot key duplicator.

And then there is the laundry list of incompetence or indifference. We first met Miguel “Sonny” Siliceo as he tagged one Emanuel Martinez who spent five months at Theo Lacy courtesy of a deliberate misidentification.  Spoke-sphincter Andrew Goodrich comforted us with the words “we try to arrest the right guy.” Years later Siliceo, in a different matter, was convicted of filing a false police report, something very, very hard to accomplish.

To swerve and deflect

And to round out our categories of misconduct, we must pause, I suppose, at least for a moment to reflect on a few of the various petty crimes and thievery perpetrated by our boys and girls in blue. Todd Major ripped off Explorer Scouts to feed his pill habit. April Baughman ripped off the property room of $50,000. Kelly Mejia tried to boost an i-Pad right under the watchful security cameras at the Miami airport. Hugo Garcia was apparently told his services were no longer required after being busted for purloining something or other (off duty, of course; on duty the man was a veritable saint). And then there was the tale of Officer Timothy Gibert, another MADD awardee who got popped out in the high desert defrauding home improvement stores. Just how many small-time thieves and pickpockets we have employed over the years will never be known for sure.

I will slide over details of how the FPD has deliberately ignored clear cases of lawbreaking by its pals, and has actually prosecuted criminal cases against politcal opponents because that sort of behavior we would naturally expect. But it is a segue, doncha know.

So, finally, let’s end this painful revelation with the not-so funny story about Josh Eddleman and Jerrie Harvey two innocent people jailed and prosecuted due to the bungling of newly minted “detective” Barry Coffman, best known for his enthusiastic handing out of tickets for “excessive horning.” Once againSpokesanus Goodrich informed the public that the FPD really, does try to arrest the right people, gosh darn it, a statement so insincere that maybe not even David Whiting would believe it.

Of course this quivering pyramid of gelatin was the President of the Fullerton Peace Officer’s Association for years and years, supporting political candidates who could be counted on to serve and protect his wayward union members while bestowing lavish pay and benefits.

And here is the nexus of casual corruption: without a compliant city council and their hand-picked city manager, this sad litany of crime and no punishment would be an awful lot shorter. The cop union, along with their “firefighter” brethren and sistren diligently help elect reliable stooges to the city council through vast campaign spending via their political action committees. And what a roll call of dunderheads, incompetents, buffoons, seniles, lackeys and assorted political grifters they have greased into office.

Really and truly Jurassic In Every Way

Back in the late 1980s winning campaigns for elected office in Fullerton really started getting expensive, a fact exploited by the “public safety” unions in the the 1990s.  And who became the poster boy for the police association? Why, none other than former Fullerton cop Don Bankhead who’s disability retirement account makes Inspector Clouseau look like a veritable Fred Astaire. It mattered not that Bankead was as thick as two short planks. That was exactly the point. He was their boy.

Hail no!

Don’t forget the lengthy corn-pone career of possibly third degree syphilitic Doc Hee Haw – Dick Jones – who once blurted to an aggrieved citizen at a council meeting “you won’t get anywhere bad-mouthing the police in this town.”

The Lollipop Guild was well represented

In 2000, the union coordinated with candidate Mike Clesceri to spy on councilwoman Julie Sa, and to get him elected to the council. A fellow cop like Clesceri was counted on to support the troops. And boy did he, approving the disastrous retroactive 3 @ 50 pension formula.

Loretta and I were getting our nails done…oh, and socks…

Sharon Quirk-Silva was marginally smart enough to dodge the Kelly Thomas fallout and the subsequent recall. But like almost all of Fullerton’s liberal establishment crowd, she blamed the murder on homelessness, not on bad cops. She ignored the cover-up, and did nothing about the Albert Rincon matter, despite proclaiming her outrage on the nightly news wherein we learned she has daughters.

If the shirt don’t fit, it must be…

When he had the chance Doug “Bud” Chaffee could have held the cops accountable in the wake of the KT killing and the subsequent recall, by which he finally got elected. Instead, the cowardly pustule immediately dove for cover, actually wearing a union-bought pro FPD T-shirt at a council meeting.

Of course Doug was in need of assistance himself when his carpetbaggin’ wife, Paulette was busted on video stealing campaign signs on private property.

The designated driver is on the way…

The cop union knows when it has a live one on the line, and never has that bee more true of Jan Flory, who not only trotted around the city council track in the 1990s, she did so again in 2012 with the help of a hundred thou’ of union scrilla. Maybe her vote on the 3@50 was fondly remembered, but more likely the support was for favors to come. Of course she delivered by approving pay raises and by paying out vast legal settlements against Fullerton police that avoided the embarrassment of ugly stuff getting out at trial. Everything gets hushed up and we pay for the silence. And of course, no, reform was not on the table.

I’m not telling the truth and you can’t make me…

No story of the symbiosis between cops and politicians in Fullerton is complete without mention of our lobbyist councilcreature Jennifer Fitzgerald, who has a career monetizing her job “representing” you and me. Jen’ has made it her specialty to cozy up to the cops, including pay raises, quiet settlements costing us millions, and even wasting $50K a year on the utterly moronic “Behind the Badge” propaganda embarrassment. Holier than holy, her best pal was “Chief Danny” with whom she may have conspired, in the early morning of November 9, 2016, to have the cops drive drunken, hit-and-run Joe Burt Felz home and then tuck him in with a warm glass of milk.

Dazed and confused

And most recently we see the completely dim and inarticulate Jesus Silva, installed in office courtesy of the police union. One wonders how this nincompoop manages to get his shoelaces tied without help, and yet we can be sure of one thing – he will slavishly follow the example of his better half, Sharon Quirk in support of the people who put him in office.

43 Replies to “The Consortium of Corruption”

  1. Joe Wolfe did nothing wrong that night. As for the vast majority of the rest…..the commentary is mostly warranted.

    I hope Wolfe got his job back or lots of money. He should not have been fired.

    1. And you are wrong.

      Wolfe was very much aware that Ramos was intimidating Kelly, and moved his girth quickly around the car, almost on cue, to to club Thomas. KT was REALLY the one who did nothing wrong.

      Maybe someday the story of collusion between Slimebar and Ramos/Wolfe setting up Kelly will come out.

        1. We know what happened. Two cops killed an innocent man and didn’t go to jail for their crime. That is EXACTLY what happened.

    1. That, Friend, is a damn good question. And I believe the answer is pretty easy to get. Multiply known FPD crimes by a safe factor to allow for cover-ups, lies, and fake reports (say 2 or 3), then divide by the number of personnel; and then compare it with what ever the per capita crime figure for Fullerton is (if they even keep statistics at all).

      1. Yeah but you’ll also have to multiply the total crime number by a fraction (say 50%) to account for the fake crimes cooked up. Don’t forget to subtract the FPD crimes from the total or you’ll really skew the results!

        1. Done.

          Still 157% worse than the average Fullertonian.

          That includes kids. Apples to apples just adults is much much worse.

  2. If you want to know why we have shitty streets, this is the reason why.

    Tens of millions wasted on criminals and incompetent fools.

  3. THIS FULLERTON POLICE DEPARTMENT
    TRULY MAKES ME SICK
    LIARS. CON ARTISTS. SEXUAL DEVIANTS

    THEY ONLY SERVE N PROTECT THEMSELVES

    COVER UPS. FALSELY WRITING REPORTS
    ETC ETC. ETC
    WHERE R ALL THE GOOD GUYS ????
    NOT HERE

      1. Palmer the porn lawyer got pulled off the case when they had to bring in the A team. The second threat came from one Bruce A. Lindsay but it looks like he is just a washed up corporate insurance lawyer.

  4. What an awesome post. I believe the crux of Joe’s argument is that public employee unions and in particular, public safety unions have effectively created a shadow government via their PAC’s and massive spending in local elections. The fire unions have mastered the art of this legalized corruption and the threatening and intimidation of elected and would-be elected officials. One has to look no further to Santa Ana’s most recent election where the police union goons spent more than $400k electing 4 out of 6 preferred candidates who then quickly conferred upon these already highly paid goons another $25 million while asking Santa Ana voters to pony up more cash in the form of a sales tax increase.

    Wait for Fullerton to follow suit. I predict the Fullerton city council puts a sales tax measure on the November 2020 ballot using the condition of the streets as justification. The Fullerton Fire Union goons will get behind this measure as it will lead to pay raises for them. Those greedy scumbags are constantly whining that they don’t get paid enough. The police union goons will also pony up all available resources To get the measure passed while teaming up with the fire union goons to start scaring all the old ladies throughout the city into voting for this measure lest they die in their beds if the “Heroes” aren’t fairly compensated.

    Public safety union goon squads brought us not only the police officers bill of rights but the firefighter bill of rights they use to hide their dirty misdeeds. These degenerate parasites have thoroughly corrupted this entire state and perhaps it may be time for the citizens to revolt.

    1. “Wait for Fullerton to follow suit.”

      We’ve been waiting for them to screw up the courage for a couple years. 2020 is going to be tough for Fitzgerald as she will be running for re-election. Zahra and Silva can be relied on to support the tax and all they need is Flory (which is exactly why Fitzgerald appointed her). Look for the machine to start cranking up in January. The predictable 20-21 budget crisis will be the impetus.

  5. This article is half speculation. The other half is unsourced, biased, and completely askew.
    Even if the author pretends to be an investigative reporter with an omnipotent narrator’s view of events, it seems he’s got too much time on his hands.
    Hey joe, why don’t you go outside, take a walk, get some air, join a club, find a hobby, or rejoin Trumps re-election campaign. Just do something productive with your life.
    Try spewing less fake news.

    1. I love this standard line of bullshit from the blue bootlicking brigade.

      Let’s say the article IS half speculation. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? We still have that much of a shit show in our town?

      What a disgrace.

  6. Every City staffer, Councilmembers, and all those people who work at the County are all quite aware of FPD’s F- record, trust me.

  7. As this post re-hashes the Kelly Thomas issue, we can all agree what happened that July night was brutal. Two on duty cops were charged with murder and a third was indicted by a grand jury. The police chief resigned in disgrace and three councilmen were recalled. But make no mistake, a few individuals jumped on board and used the high profile nature of the incident (and continue to do so) to flog their own agendas, which is egregious in its own right.

    1. The Kelly Thomas “issue?” That’s what you call it when you beat a man to death, and the you try to cover it up?

      Not even a good try. No one is flogging anything except an out of control Culture of Corruption that is still as rotten as in was when Thomas was murdered. A common rancid thread runs through the FPD history from way before Kelly until the present douchebaggery and perversions of Paez and Wren.

      1. The dept definitely has problems and needs to clean out the crooked cops. But make no mistake, Kelly Thomas was a criminal who beat on his family, broke into vehicles then disobeyed orders. His family didn’t want him but loved the money they got for his death. This council, chief and criminal cops need to ousted quickly before we become like the city of bell. Let’s stand behind the good ones though who care about our community

        1. That old canard lost its traction in 2012. KT was not a criminal. He was a sick homeless dude who was NOT breaking into cars and who was threatened by Ramos and goaded into flight – then beaten death. Any “orders” were illegitimate.

          If you know the name of a single “good cop” in Fullerton I’d love to know his name. Just one.

  8. You are likely correct in your assessment of FPD, but you’d be naive to think there were many in the community who used Kelly Thomas death to get their 15 minutes of fame and bask in the limelight. A few also used Kelly’s death to dredge up and perpetuate old resentments by conflating his death with people and issues that weren’t remotely related to it. Those people know who they are.

      1. They tried to stick that label on Tony Bushala which was nonsense since he had ZERO financial incentive to get rid of the old bald tires and every incentive to keep them,.

        So who had incentive to use KT’s murder for trheir own gain? Name names or just shut the fuck up.

        And this blog isn’t “likely” right about the FPD it’s 100% accurate.

        1. Funny that you mention Tony Bushala’s name But as long as you did, let’s just agree that Tony had been contemplating launching a recall long before anyone knew, or cared, who Kelly Thomas was. He already hated Jones and wasn’t a fan of McKinley or Bankhead either. Jones had spoken out about one of Tony’s project a while back so when the opportunity came to link those three with KT’s death, Tony pounced. Smart political move! Good for him! He also had it in for the SlideBar owner years before the SlideBar manager called the police to report a homeless man trying to open car doors on the evening of July 5, 2011. There was a bit of personal history there between Tony and Jeremy. So when he had the chance to implicate the SlideBar in KT’s death, why not take it. Who cares if innocent people who had nothing to do with KT’s death were impacted, right? Ron Thomas’ name also comes to mind, but that’s a whole other story.

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