Friends For Fullerton's Future
FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
Here is the 400 page transcript that was released yesterday.
Read the transcript of the grand jury indictment of Joe Wolfe
I did notice in the testimony on page 103 that Captain Dan Hughes had received a copy of the Kelly Thomas killing video that very night…yet those police officers who are now being charged with murder and excessive force were not put on leave until nearly four weeks later, just a few days after Supervisor Shawn Nelson had asked the FBI to get involved.
Here is a sanctimonious asshole named Jason Schone who thinks it’s bad for sick folks to get medical marijuana. But he owns a giant bong! Believe it or not this pustule is a sergeant in the Fullerton police department – which just goes to show you how low they have sunk.
He thinks it’s okay for his Hero brethren to beat a mentally ill homeless man to death. He thinks it’s okay when his brethren sexually molest detainees in FPD squad cars. He thinks it’s okay when his Hero brethren beat up and arrest and prosecute innocent citizens; he thinks it’s okay when his FPOA brethren destroy evidence; he thinks it’s okay when his Hero sistren steal from the evidence locker and TSA checkpoints.
Watch this:
What a guy. And now you know the moral caliber of the people employed under Acting Chief Danny Hughes “new and improved” FPD. It’s low. Really low.
Seen enough? I have.
Well, that’s former officer Wolfe to you. Here is the D.A.’s announcement:
THIRD FORMER FULLERTON POLICE OFFICER ARRAIGNED ON INDICTMENT FOR BEATING-DEATH OF 37-YEAR-OLD HOMELESS MAN
SANTA ANA – A third former Fullerton Police Department (FPD) officer was arraigned today after Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) Tony Rackauckas obtained an indictment from the Orange County Grand Jury against him for his criminal participation in the July 2011 beating-death of 37-year-old homeless man Kelly Thomas.
Former Officer Joseph Wolfe was indicted Sept. 24, 2012, on one felony count of involuntary manslaughter and one felony count of the use of excessive force. He faces a maximum sentence of four years in state prison if convicted. Per the statutory bail amount, Wolfe surrendered on $25,000 bail. The defendant is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing Nov. 2, 2012, at 9:00 a.m. in Department C-40, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.
The first two defendants in this case, then-Officer Manuel Ramos and then-Corporal Jay Cicinelli (see below), were charged Sept. 21, 2011, in Case #11CF2575. Since that time, the OCDA has actively continued its investigation and legal review and decided to seek an indictment against Wolfe following extensive legal and factual analysis and development of evidence.
The Orange County Grand Jury heard testimony from 10 witnesses and examined 113 exhibits of evidence over three days beginning Sept. 19, 2012, before returning an indictment on Sept. 24, 2012.
The law requires that grand jury transcripts, including any evidence or testimony, to be sealed until 10 calendar days have passed from the date of receipt of those transcripts by the defense. Due to this restriction, the OCDA is legally prohibited from discussing any information related to the grand jury proceedings at this time.
This piece was sent in yesterday by an FFFF reader who calls himself Brandon. I’ve also included a video of the acting chief making the city’s announcement.
Well it took 14 months but the Fullerton Police Department finally admitted what many had suspected since the beginning- Kelly Thomas was not doing anything wrong the night he was harassed and eventually beat to death by 6 Fullerton Police Officers. According to a statement made by Fullerton acting chief Dan Hughes, “There is no evidence of which the Fullerton Police Department is now aware that Kelly Thomas actually tried to steal anything from any of the vehicles in the lot.”
While this information is not surprising to anyone who has been reading the Friends for Fullerton’s Future blog over the last year or so, it is a victory toward holding the officers involved in the beating death accountable. A large part of the defense of the two (and soon to be possibly three) officers currently facing charges in the case rests on Thomas’ “criminal” behavior on the night he bludgeoned, electrocuted, and suffocated to death by six of Fullerton’s finest. With this admission by Chief Hughes, the lawyers for Manuel Ramos and jay Cicinelli will likely have a difficult time trying to convince a jury that Thomas was asking for his deadly beating that night. Of course the attorneys representing the ex-officers will no doubt still try to paint Thomas as a dangerous criminal whom their clients were afraid of that night. But when you are defending one of the most heinous, callous murders ever caught on tape, you have to draw at straws in order to have a chance at getting your clients off.
While many are no doubt happy to see the FPD finally confirmed what they had been suspecting and postulating on for over a year, relatives of the accused are not among those rejoicing. John Huelsman, the stepfather of Cicinelli tried to blame the current Fullerton City Council for directing Hughes to make the statement. “This is a criminal matter,” Huelsman told reporters. “These guys can go to prison… and the City Council just said they’re guilty because Kelly Thomas was innocent.” Talk about overstating the obvious. Mr. Huelsman’s incredulity at the fact his step-son could possibly be complicit in the murder is rather amusing given all of the evidence supporting it. And I don’t think the Fullerton city council has to tell anyone that your step-son and his comrades are guilty. We’ll let the video evidence and eye witness reports do that.
There certainly was a lot of boohooing and breast beating at the Fullerton City Council meeting last week in response to the Council majority pulling the plug on a State DUI grant.
The cops mobilized their MADD allies to tell all the horrible stories of drunk driving mayhem. The only problem was that that’s not the point, no matter how much the liberal spendthrifts like Jan Flory would love to throw at her pals in the FPOA for overtime.
Yes, the real issue is the efficacy of DUI checkpoints in the first place, and something even more sinister: the use of DUI checkpoints to seize vehicles belonging to unlicensed drivers, as detailed in this OC Register story from 2010 that cites an actual, honest-to-goodness study at Berkeley. Apparently the impound/towing fees are immense, as are the fines. We already know about the tens of millions of overtime every year in the state, mostly for cops to stand around.
The cop addiction to all this gravy might explain this video of a public forum in Pomona where the topic of DUI/vehicle seizures is being discussed. Naturally a proud member of the police association is there to scream at those who might object.
Hmm. Sergeant O’Malley?
For paranoia, sheer cynicism and demonstration of unbridled self-interest there’s nothing that can beat this “playbook” created by the law firm of Lackie, Dammeier & McGill for use by their clients: cop unions.
See how many of these tactics strike you as familiar in Fullerton. Paranoia, cynicism and self-interest. Check, check, check.
Lackie, Dammeier & McGill
Former Cops Defending Current Ones
Political Option
As most association leaders already know, associations should be selective in their battles. However, this does not mean that the association should roll over for everything either. Association respect (by the employer) is gained over years of actions or inactions. Associations who rarely, if ever, take things to the mat or challenge the employer gain little respect at the bargaining table or elsewhere. The flip side is also true. Those associations that battle over every minor issue may be seen as an association that simply cannot be pleased, so why bother. While it is a fine line, somewhere in the middle is where you want to be. The association should be like a quiet giant in the position of, “do as I ask and don’t piss me off.” Depending on the circumstances surrounding the negotiations impasse, there are various tools available to an association to put political pressure on the decision makers. A few things to keep in mind when utilizing these tools are the following:
Public Message
Always keep this in mind. The public could care less about your pay, medical coverage and pension plan. All they want to know is “what is in it for them.” Any public positions or statements by the association should always keep that focus. The message should always be public safety first. You do not want wage increases for yourselves, but simply to attract better qualified candidates and to keep more experienced officers from leaving.
The Future
Also keep in mind that once the fight is over, you and your members will still be working there. Avoid activities where one or just a few members are involved who can be singled out for retaliation. Always keep in mind your department policies and the law. You should be in very close contact with your association’s attorney during these times to ensure you are not going to get yourself or any of your members in trouble. For associations in the Legal Defense Fund, please keep in mind that concerted labor activity should always be discussed with the LDF Trustees prior to the activity to ensure coverage.
Let the Debate Begin
Again, the ideas listed below are not in any particular order. Just as in your use-of-force guidelines, you can start with simple verbal commands or jump to a higher level, based on the circumstances.
Keep in mind that most of these tools are not to deliver your message to the public but are designed to simply get the decision makers into giving in to your position.
Of course, other ideas that cops come up with are very imaginative. Just keep in mind, the idea is to show the decision makers that the public favors public safety and it will only harm their public support by not prioritizing you and almost equally as important, to let them know that next time they should agree with you much sooner.
Want to see and hear what a real local hero has to say about Kelly Thomas and the FPOA Blueshirts? Check it out:
I don’t know about you, but I think if we had a few more Baxters and a few fewer Florys we would have had a whole helluva lot less trouble around here in the past year.
Yes, we know the cops and their family members love the FPD. But you know who else loves the Fullerton police enough to chip in for those blue shirts?
Take a look at the most recent donations to the FPOA political committee for the period ending 6/30/12. It includes some familiar names.
Manuel Ramos
Jay Cicinelli
Albert Rincon
Sound familiar?
On Tuesday the City Council is scheduled to discuss what they want to do about the embarrassing fact that the City charged an illegal 10% tax on our water bill for fifteen years, amassing a total rip-off that easily topped $25,000,000. The funds were deposited in General Fund and mostly went to pay for salaries and pensions of City employees that had absolutely nothing to do with the acquisition and transmission of water – the ostensible purpose of the levy. It even went to pay for four-star hotels for Councilmembers’ League of City junkets.
Some folks think reparations are due, in some fashion, to the rate payers that got ripped off. But how? A check in the mail? Lowered rates in the future? Repayment from the General Fund to the Water Fund?
The City doesn’t have $25 mil laying around, and rebates in the future for past indiscretions would certainly create inequities. Going back just a few years for reparations may be a logical and practical step. Repayment from the General Fund over time may be the only recourse and would certainly address the original purpose of the “in-lieu fee” which was the cost of delivering water to the people and businesses of Fullerton. However it should be pointed out that the the 10% that was raked off was never connected to the true cost of the water in the first place.
Another question to be dealt with is what is an applicable rate for miscellaneous City costs that are currently unrecompensed by the Water Fund? There isn’t much unaccounted for, and the “consultant” for the Water rate Ad Hoc Committee tried to cook up some phony percentage between 6 and 7 based largely on the cost of the City charging the Water Fund rent!
This raises all sorts of embarrassing questions about why the Water Utility was not permitted to acquire all this valuable real estate in the first place, dirt cheap, if now it is to be treated as a separate entity; and how a landlord can negotiate rent with his tenant when they are both one and the same person. In any case there is a new council that is a lot less likely to cave in to this sort of nonsense than the old stumblebums.
In any case, I want to mention a couple of things. First, the perpetrators of the scam need to be identified and chastised for their complicity in the tax: they would be all of the former councilmen of the last 15 years who let this happen; the city managers Jim Armstrong, Chris Meyer, and Joe Felz, who participated in the scheme and who either knew or should have known it was illegal; and let’s not forget Richard Jones, Esq., the City Attorney, who was there every single step of the way and damn well knew it was illegal. Second, Joe Felz’ obvious strategy of stalling and temporizing on this issue, aided and abetted by the Three Hollow Logs and Sharon Quirk, protracted the rip-off by another full year and compounded the problem even more, even as they knew the jig was up.
It should be interesting to see if any of our aspiring council candidates show up to share their wisdom on this subject.
What do you think?
Friends, here’s a repeat post by our esteemed JFD from last November. It is even more trenchant now that his former mistress has declared war on the only two really good councilmen Fullerton has had as long as I can remember – and that’s a long time.
– The Desert Rat
Whenever my former mistress got into a mood or had a couple too many G&Ts, and picked up that broomstick I always made myself as inconspicuous as possible. Looking down from doggie heaven I can see she hasn’t changed much. It’s good to know she still has that metal rod firmly stuck in there.
Here she is at the Fullerton City Council meeting during public comments handing out some cooked-up award to Pat McKinley.
Notice how she grieves for Fullerton because of the incivility to her “esteemed” councilmen, Sleepy, Dopey, and Doc (I gotta tell ya she never grieved after whacking my orbital bone with that broomstick, but that’s a another story altogether, eye blousing-wise).
Obviously she has set a rather low bar for estimation; if Old Doc HeeHaw can haul himself over it, I guess almost anybody can.
Apparently my former mistress doesn’t give much thought to the $350,000 settlement that a hand-picked McKinley cop cost the taxpayers of Fullerton because he sexually assaulted women in the backseat of his patrol car; or that McKinley thinks that it’s okay for a certain kind of woman to be so victimized; and that, according to Big Mac “it’s just touching. Not a good thing, but it ain’t a dangerous thing;” or that her esteemed councilmen turned over Fullerton to the cops to do with it as they liked – theft, beatings, perjury, false arrest, a killing.
Mrs. Flory somehow got an extra seven minutes to ramble on and on about all sorts of bullshit, whereas others get the microphone shut off after three. Looks like there really is a double standard there.
Anyway, there you have a fine representative of what’s left of Fullerton’s Old Guard liberals: stubborn, frightened, clueless, self-righteous, dwindling fast.