Today Fullerton will be favored with the first installment of reports produced by Michael Gennaco. The one tonight is supposed to deal with the FPD PR apparatus and the way it disseminated information in the wake of the Kelly Thomas killing by members of the FPD. We’ve editorialized plenty on what was said (self-serving claptrap), and not said (the truth) by FPD spokesopening Andrew Goodrich. I do wonder what Gennaco would have to say about the City using a police union boss as its official spokesman – if he addresses it at all, which I think is doubtful.
I have a feeling that the reports issued by Gennaco will be little more than expensive PR for the City.
This might be a good time to remind everybody that the offical sounding “County of Los Angeles Office of Independent Review” is actually a private law firmfor hire by anybody with the dough to pay. It’s a small law firm with half a dozen lawyers and a logo that just happens to look like a city seal.
City Seal
Gennaco is really no different than Jones and Mayer or Rutan and Tucker, hired to limit the damage caused by the serial misdeeds of the FPD and limit liability.
Does that sound harsh? Remember, as an attorney, Gennaco’s main concern is to protect his client and gin up more business in the future. Does that sound like a formula for reform?
Gummint makes problems; gummint makes problems worse. QED.
Yesterday Grover Cleveland posted on how the Fullerton City Council’s creation of a boozy mess downtown that led to the emergence of an FPD goon squad to quell the crime wave that the council, including Recall targets Jones, Bankhead and McKinley, had created.
The only problem was that the FPD goon squad didn’t solve anything; it actually added to the crime wave!
Here’s a reminder video: a late night confrontation between a thug and some thugs in uniform. An innocent bystander was beat up and arrested. His offense? Capturing the event on video. Later he was put on trial for assaulting a cop, to which Fullerton cops Kenton Hampton and Frank Nguyen swore on oath in a court of law. It never happened, but that didn’t stop the FPD and the DA from trying to put an innocent man in prison. Now we have two more Brady cops, if they weren’t Brady cops already, and a nasty, expensive law suit waiting in the wings
I am a wordsmith. Shakespeare didn't rewrite Romulet and Julio, did he?
In the case of the FPD public information officer, not much, apparently.
It happens that FPD has some sort of class on how to love your local cops, and below, I share two on-line descriptions of the class. Check out the 2009 version vs. the 2012 version. All of the Pat McKinley quotes were replaced word-for-word with alleged quotations by Dan Hughes!
How’s that for a nice copy and paste job from a $130,000 per year employee, FPD spokesphincter Andrew Goodrich?
The 10-week course “will expose participants to the many faces of police work in their community,” explained Fullerton Police Acting Chief Dan Hughes. “Participants will gain an overall knowledge of the Fullerton Police Department, how it’s organized, how it serves the community, and they will learn about the men and women behind the badge.”
Hughes emphasized the course is not meant to train people to become police officers; rather, “it is intended to improve communication and understanding between the community and the department.”
Gee, that sounds like something I might have said...
The 10-week course, which will be held from March 11 through May 13, “exposes participants to the many facets of police work in their community,” explained Fullerton Police Chief Pat McKinley. “Participants will gain an overall knowledge of the Fullerton Police Department, how it’s organized, and how it serves the community, and they will learn about the men and women behind the badge.”
McKinley emphasized the course is not meant to train people to become police officers; rather, “it is intended to open communication between the community and the department.”
Either Goodrich is the laziest $130,000 man alive, or Danny Hughes is channeling the ghost of Pat McPension!
FPD Bonus Question. “communication and understanding between the community and the department” means:
1. We will not flatulate in your face because we think you are unconscious.
2. We will not break into your house by mistake, hold you at gunpoint and refuse to apologize.
3. We will not beat you up, arrest you and then lie on the witness stand about how we came to find you in our jail the next day.
4. We will not throw you in jail for five months because we are just too damn lazy to catch the right dude.
5. We will not handcuff and sexually assault you in the back of our patrol cars.
6. We will not swipe your wallet after we kick the crap out of you.
7. We will not encourage you to commit suicide in our jail. Nor will we try to destroy the evidence thereof.
8. We will not rip you off by committing credit card fraud.
9. We will not steal your iPad at an airport security checkpoint. Or any place else for that matter.
10. We will not instigate a fake crime report, beat the living shit out of you, electrocute you, drive your facial bones into your brain, sit on your chest as you asphyxiate in your own blood, stand around as you die, and then laugh about it the next day as we go back to work.
I’ve been thinking about this for months. It’s been gnawing at my spinal cortex. It’s been chewing on my psyche. It’s been snag-toothing the back of my brain. There is no polite way to put this. OC District Attorney Tony Rackauckas’ case against the goons who killed Kelly Thomas is designed to fail.
There are just too many lose ends overlooked or ignored by the DA. Too many unasked questions. Charges that are mystifying, flimsy, dubious, ultimately useless.
If ever anybody looked like a patsy it was the obese clown Manny Ramos, who, as Rackauckas pointed out, initiated the brutal contact with the schizophrenic, undernourished homeless man. But other than possibly joining the pile on, Ramos is not said by the DA to have been part of the actual beating laid down on Thomas. That was said to have been perpetrated principally by the one-eyed cop Jay Cicinelli, who was hit with paltry charges and a paltry bail.
The Second Degree murder charge against Ramos won’t stick since his lawyer need only point to the damage done by the other cops, four of whom have already been exonerated of any crime by the DA. And Cicinelli’s lawyer will argue that a cop tasering and beating a man’s face into his brain case is not to be considered excessive force by an OC jury, let alone manslaughter, since it never has in the past.
Joe Wolfe, whom we are supposed to believe had no knowledge of what was going on between Kelly and Ramos, a mere 15-20 feet away, and who actually delivered the first blow – a swing of the baton to Thomas’ leg, and who immediately piled on, was inexplicably given a pass by Rackauckas. Is it too conspiratorial to propose the possibility that Wolfe was actually waiting for Kelly to run away from Ramos? How long does it take to search a backpack?
And then there’s Kenton Hampton, whose thuggery has been well-documented on these pages; who arrived on the scene in time to hold down Kelly’s legs as he was being tortured and beaten by Cicinelli. He got a get out of jail card from our DA, too. So did Blatney and Craig, arriving on the scene to participate in the mop up operation, and possibly in phone/film collection activities.
Will the DA even bother going after Ramos anymore? With the preliminary hearing scheduled for March 28th, I wouldn’t be surprised if charges will be dropped, maybe even the charges against Cicinelli, as well. Could Wolfe or Hampton still be charged if the DA has second thoughts about his strategy, and assuming he actually wants to convict somebody of something in this killing? Yes, it’s possible, but not very likely.
I’m starting to think the whole thing was just an elaborate whitewash of a conspiracy; a charade in which a weak DA ostensibly succumbed to public pressure, but never had any intention of vigorously prosecuting any cops. If so we are all in deeper trouble than we can possibly appreciate. I hope I am wrong.
And I hope if I am not wrong that Federal and civil trials will bring to light all of the information our Do-Nothing DA, by his action, or lack of action, seems intent on not disclosing.
Back in November the Fullerton Recall proponent Chris Thompson issued a challenge to anti-recall spokescloaca Larry Bennett to a debate. Bennett claimed that he had to wait for his superiors (presumably “Dick” Ackerman and Dave Ellis) to get back from Thanksgiving Break.
After that, crickets.
Crickets – until the Recall signatures were validated by the Registrar of Voters and the Fullerton Is For Sale Gang knew it was in deep shit. The very next day Bennett appeared out of the blue, just dying to “debate.” But not live, no, but in a creepy, censored, on-line environment in which he could get nonsense written by Ellis and Ackerman in front of the public. Any one, really.
Anger management failed...
As Dick Jones would say: Nuh, uh!
Bennett it’s time you stood up in front of a live audience and explained all the lies on your pathetic website and your dopey mailers. Then you can explain to the people of Fullerton about the record of the Somnolent Sloths you are so proud of. You can explain all about the Culture of Corruption in the FPD – well documented by one case of malfeasance after another, culminating in the death of a man. You can explain the land giveaways your boys made to campaign contributors, and the the illegal attempt to expand Redevelopment. You can tell them all about the illegal 10% water tax that they have imposed on the water rate payers of Fullerton for 15 years.
Luck ran out a long time ago on Smilin' Larry, used, used car salesman...
Better yet, Larry why don’t you thaw out one of your boys to do the talking for himself? Bankhead? Jones? McKinley? You claim these three are experienced, wise, honorable men. Surely such paragons of virtue can speak up for their own record, right?
Fullerton cop Kellly Mejia finally had her day in court and pled guilty to swiping an iPad in a Miami airport TSA security check point. She got a slap on the wrist from the judge: a “theft class,” a dinky fine, some community services hours and best of all will get this expunged if she she keeps her nose clean for a whole year.
How can you tell if Goodrich is lying?
Lou Ponsi of the Registercites FPD spokessphincter Andrew Goodrich who claims Mejia was fired at the end of October after being on paid leave since May. Ponsi is obliging in pointing out that Mejia is a former Fullerton cop, glossing over the fact that she was a Fullerton cop when she committed her crime.
Of course we peons are not permitted to know what she was actually fired for, since the public is not privy to police personnel matters no matter how egregious a cop’s offense may have been; whatever Mejia was canned for, presumably it wasn’t for committing larceny in Florida, since she hadn’t pled guilty of anything yet on October 28th. Was there something even worse the we shall never know about?
MOTION TO VACATE JUDGMENT AND SENTENCE FILED 02/07/2012 ORAL SET FOR 02/07/2012 AT 12:30 GRANTED
48
02/07/2012
REPORT RE: SENTENCING SET FOR 02/07/2013 AT 09:00
47
02/06/2012
REPORT RE: PLEA SET FOR 02/07/2012 AT 09:01
46
02/06/2012
MEMORANDUM OF COSTS AMOUNT 603.00
44
02/06/2012
STAY GRANTED – DUE 02/07/2012
43
02/06/2012
DESCRIPTION
ASSESSED
PAID
BALANCE
CRIME STOPPE
20.00
20.00
0.00
ADD’L FINE/F
225.00
225.00
0.00
CRM COMP TR
50.00
50.00
0.00
STATE LETTF
3.00
3.00
0.00
COUNTY LETTF
2.00
2.00
0.00
ADD’L COURT
65.00
65.00
0.00
REPLCMNT SUR
85.00
85.00
0.00
CRIME PREV F
50.00
50.00
0.00
TEEN COURT F
3.00
3.00
0.00
PROSECUTION
100.00
100.00
0.00
TOTAL:
603.00
603.00
0.00
LAST ASSESSED: 02/06/2012
LAST PAYMENT: 02/07/2012
40
02/06/2012
CLOSING JUDGE GLICK, LEONARD E
37
01/09/2012
E-SUBPOENA: TORRES, HECTOR ID: 030-02366 FOR: TRIAL ON 02/06/2012 AT 09:00 ISSUED BY: CJIS
SENT: 01/09/2012 RECD/NOTFD: 01/09/2012 ACKN: 01/09/2012 S
36
01/09/2012
E-SUBPOENA: CORREA, GILBERT ID: 030-02120 FOR: TRIAL ON 02/06/2012 AT 09:00 ISSUED BY: CJIS
SENT: 01/09/2012 RECD/NOTFD: 01/09/2012 ACKN: 01/10/2012 S
35
01/09/2012
E-SUBPOENA: JACOBS, DAVID ID: 030-01666 FOR: TRIAL ON 02/06/2012 AT 09:00 ISSUED BY: CJIS
SENT: 01/09/2012 RECD/NOTFD: 01/09/2012 ACKN: 01/09/2012 S
34
01/05/2012
TRIAL HEARING SCHEDULED FOR 02/06/2012 AT 09:00
31
11/21/2011
MOTION FOR CONTINUANCE FILED 11/21/2011 SET FOR 11/21/2011 AT 14:09 GRANTED DEFS
30
11/21/2011
REPORT RE: TRIAL DATE SET FOR 01/05/2012 AT 09:00
29
11/21/2011
REPORT RE: PLEA SET FOR 01/05/2012 AT 09:00
28
11/16/2011
MOTION TO/FOR: TO CONTINUE
27
11/15/2011
NOTICE OF HEARING 11/17/11
25
10/24/2011
E-SUBPOENA: TORRES, HECTOR ID: 030-02366 FOR: TRIAL ON 11/21/2011 AT 09:00 ISSUED BY: CJIS
SENT: 10/24/2011 RECD/NOTFD: 10/24/2011 ACKN: 10/24/2011 S
24
10/24/2011
E-SUBPOENA: CORREA, GILBERT ID: 030-02120 FOR: TRIAL ON 11/21/2011 AT 09:00 ISSUED BY: CJIS
SENT: 10/24/2011 RECD/NOTFD: 10/24/2011 ACKN: 10/24/2011 S
23
10/24/2011
E-SUBPOENA: JACOBS, DAVID ID: 030-01666 FOR: TRIAL ON 11/21/2011 AT 09:00 ISSUED BY: CJIS
SENT: 10/24/2011 RECD/NOTFD: 10/24/2011 ACKN: 10/24/2011 S
SENT: RECD/NOTFD: ACKN: 10/24/2011 S
22
08/29/2011
MOTION FOR CONTINUANCE FILED 08/29/2011 SET FOR 08/29/2011 AT 09:31 GRANTED STIP
21
08/29/2011
TRIAL HEARING SCHEDULED FOR 11/21/2011 AT 09:00
20
08/23/2011
MOTION TO/FOR: TO CONTINUE TRIAL
18
08/01/2011
E-SUBPOENA: TORRES, HECTOR ID: 030-02366 FOR: TRIAL ON 08/29/2011 AT 09:00 ISSUED BY: CJIS
SENT: 08/01/2011 RECD/NOTFD: 08/01/2011 ACKN: 08/01/2011 S
17
08/01/2011
E-SUBPOENA: CORREA, GILBERT ID: 030-02120 FOR: TRIAL ON 08/29/2011 AT 09:00 ISSUED BY: CJIS
SENT: 08/01/2011 RECD/NOTFD: 08/01/2011 ACKN: 08/02/2011 S
16
08/01/2011
E-SUBPOENA: JACOBS, DAVID ID: 030-01666 FOR: TRIAL ON 08/29/2011 AT 09:00 ISSUED BY: CJIS
SENT: 08/01/2011 RECD/NOTFD: 08/01/2011 ACKN: 08/01/2011 S
15
06/02/2011
TRIAL UNIT ASSIGNED: FELONY DIVISION 21
14
06/02/2011
TRIAL PROS. ASSIGNED: ABRAMS, IVAN
13
06/01/2011
DISC EXHIBIT: STATE’S DEMAND FOR DEFN DISCV/DEMAND FOR ALIBI
12
06/01/2011
TRIAL HEARING SCHEDULED FOR 08/29/2011 AT 09:00
11
06/01/2011
INFORMATION FILED
5
05/09/2011
BOND RECEIVED POWER/RECEIPT # 46776
9
05/06/2011
DEMAND FOR VIEW OF EVIDENCE
8
05/06/2011
DEMAND FOR DISCOVERY
7
05/06/2011
WRITTEN PLEA OF NOT GUILTY
6
05/06/2011
NOTICE OF APPEARANCE ROBERT G. AMSEL
4
05/03/2011
INTAKE UNIT ASSIGNED: FSU – CASE SCREENING
3
05/03/2011
INTAKE PROS. ASSIGNED: BETTENDORF-PL, KRISTI-KF
2
05/03/2011
ARRAIGNMENT HEARING SCHEDULED FOR 06/01/2011 AT 09:00
1
05/03/2011
CAB AMT/ 5000 ISSUED 05/03/2011 POWER/46776
Well, just another in an embarrassing series of black eyes for the FPD who steadfastly maintain that there is no Culture of Corruption in the FPD, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Okay. So I leave a shiny trail. What are you gonna do about it?
Here’s a fascinating excerpt from the No Recall bozos’ website. It seems that some assclown named Larry Bennett finally responded today to a November, 2011 challenge by Chris Thompson for a debate. What a difference three months makes! Last anybody heard from Bennett, he was waiting for Dick Ackerman to return from Thanksgiving vacation to tell him what to do.
When I get back from Hawaii I'm gonna kick ass. Or not.
Now Bennett and Ackerman seem to think they’re in a position to dictate terms to the Recall campaign. No, dimwits, you’re not going to use the Best Blog in OC to peddle your bullshit. Publish it on your own joke of a website. And invite comments, you sad, pathetic puds. I dare you.
In the meantime, Larry, I’ve been told that the challenge from the Recall is still in place: a live debate between Recall Proponent Chris Thompson and you; or better yet, with one of the Three Dead Tree Stumps – if you can pull one of them out of cold storage long enough to defrost. Do you have the huevos? Do gastropods even have huevos? I doubt it. But pretty soon you’ll have no choice.
02/08/2012
Why Is Bushala Rejecting a Debate on his Blog?
TONY, WHY DID YOU REJECT A DEBATE ON YOUR OWN BLOG???
Dear Tony,
It appears that your $170,000 has bought a recall election in June. It is unfortunate that you have rejected my offer for an on-line debate using your favorite blog – Friends for Fullerton’s Future. Chris Thompson tells me that you are unwilling to modify the blog to remove the anonymity of bloggers and commenters because of the sensitive nature of some of your regular bloggers.
In case you would like to reconsider, this is my proposal:
I proposed that you and I engage in an online debate hosted on the Friends for Fullerton’s Future Blog Site. This online debate would be between you and I and available for viewing by the public. We would alternate posts where each of us is free to make our case and to challenge the opposing post. I’m sure you might want to talk about the death of Kelly Thomas, release of the video over the D.A. and Ron Thomas’ objection, pensions, the water tax, police discipline cases and the responsibility of our elected council members. We would want to explore the political involvement of yourself, how redevelopment has benefited your family, Chris Thompson and your political friends.
Our only conditions for the online debate is that the blog change its operations to provide to the Citizens of Fullerton the same level of transparency they demand of the individuals and institutions they attack. Specifically the bloggers who post to your site would post under their actual name. That way the Citizens of Fullerton would know who is making what charge and the responsibility for their comments would rightly be a matter of public record. Secondly, the commenter’s who wish to post to our debate items would do so using a Facebook profile. That would bring some accountability and civility to the debate. This format is used successfully by the Orange County Register, Times Community News publications, and many other political blogs.
I believe this will be a constructive debate that uses the blog you like to tout. I look forward to your reconsideration.
Frustrated that the slow working of his mind could not process the new data, McKinley was about to flail about violently.
Here‘s an article in the Register about Fullerton Councilman Bruce Whitaker asking his fellow councilmembers to vote on whether to see the video of the Kelly Thomas killing at the hands of the FPD. He seems to be suffering from the delusion that Fullerton elected leaders should be intelligently informed.
It’s an interesting article for two reasons. First is the reaction of councilman Pat McKinley, former FPD Chief, and architect of the Culture of Corruption in the force. You would expect him to be opposed to letting anybody see the actions of goons he hired personally and let loose on the streets of Fullerton. But what’s that you say, Pat?:
Councilman Pat McKinley, Fullerton’s former police chief, said he is “violently opposed” to the release of the video.
“I think it’s completely off-base,” McKinley said. “It’s absolutely unprecedented, and it would be wrong to view that before the trial.”
Violently opposed? Now that doesn’t sound like a balanced man, does it? His reaction to a perfectly reasonable request says much about McPension the man. Is he about to go off the deep end?
Mcpension may not want the video released, but I assure you it has nothing to do with any trial, and everything to do with a recall election.
The other thing that struck me as odd is the City Attorney’s alleged request to the DA for permission to view the video and the imbecilic comments ascribed to DA spokesholetress Susan Kang Schroeder, who seems to be just making shit up. The council could watch this video as a closed session personnel issue and nobody else would have to see it. Also, the FPD is bound to have made copies so why ask the DA for permission at all – except to get that “no” answer you want? Acting Chief Hughes, who is neither investigating nor trying anybody, claims to have viewed the video 400 times! I’m starting to suspect everybody has seen this video – except some of the council and of course, the public.
And as a final thought, is there anybody in Fullerton who believed the serial prevaricator Pat McKinley when, after an awkward pause on CNN, he denied seeing the video himself?
But not before ripping off the taxpayers of yet another $150,000 in the form of a disability claim. Apparently he got sick of his job and two compliant medicos agreed the poor bastard was just too ill to continue. But fear not. On disability half of Seller’s $18,000 a month pension will be tax free.
The City’s lawyer who dealt with the case is satisfied. Well, he’s not picking up the tab, we are. And come to think about I wonder how hard the City really pushed back on this scam.
And why not? Life is good when you can get away with grabbing a public sidewalk and build a building on it. “Are you crazy, Joe?” I can hear you saying. No. FFFF shared the story, here.
The sidewalk grabber was Mr. Anthony Florentine, proprietor of the Tuscany Club. Here he is chipping in to save the Three Dithering Diplosaurs:
And the guy that let Florentine get away with the heist was none other than former Fullerton Development Services Director F. Paul Dudley, whose incompetent tenure caused harm to Fullerton that will probably never be fixed. A member of Fullerton’s $100,000 pension club, Dudley makes extra cash lobbying his former employers on behalf of developers. So he’s working to keep the Old Boys in office, too:
Of course Dudley had help in brushing off the sidewalk scam, and then papering it over. And he had help in the persons of Don Bankhead and “Dick” Jones, previously beneficiaries of Florentine’s campaign largess.
