In today’s LA Times an unnamed source in has indicated that the settlement of a sexual battery case with two women is going to cost us (you taxpayers, finally get it?) half a million bucks.
You remember the case, right? The one where FPD cop Albert Rincon alleged serially sexually assaulted women in the back of his patrol car; the one where Federal Judge Andrew Guilford refused the City’s request to throw the case out and issued a scathing opinion about the City’s complicity in the series of attacks by placing Rincon back on the streets of Fullerton to attack other women. Yeah, that one.
$500,000 right out of our pockets to pay for just one out of control cop and his bosses in the FPD who covered up for him. That would certainly include our MIA Chief Sellers and his predecessor and current council member Pat McKinley. And what in the world have former Fullerton cop Don Bankehead and Mayor Dick Jones been doing on the City Council for the past 23 and 15 years, respectively. They certainly appear unwilling to take any responsibility for the police department over which they were supposed to be asserting civilian control.
Remember to remind the Tumescent Trio of these facts tonight.
Frequent commenter, blessusall stopped by yesterday to share a thought about the formal “apology” on today’s City Council Agenda. As you all know the apology was from the City to the Nordell family because last year a bunch of heavily armed FPD cops broke into their house by mistake in some sort of botched drug raid.
blessusall opined about the irony of this insincere apology (got only by dodged persistence by the Nordells) vis-a-vis all the other FPD misbehaving’ going on lately and suggested the City might:
Who else, indeed. These pages are strewn with the miscreance, mayhem, and murder perpetrated by Pat McKinley’s hirees and trainees. At this point even the most die-hard cop apologist must be wondering about the stuff that hasn’t even emerged yet, and how much all this crap is going to cost the taxpayers of Fullerton.
Apology? Hell, yes! And why not demand that apology tonight!
It is not often that you find an apology in the Regular Business of the City Council’s Agenda. I have a bad feeling this is just the first of many apologies to come.
We apologise for any inconvenience you may have experienced.
The Council’s Agenda for Tomorrow’s meeting includes a staff recommendation that the Fullerton Police Department publicly apologizes and acknowledge that the department’s narcotics unit mistakenly raided the wrong home (read the FFFF backstory).
“On October 20, 2010 Fullerton PD Narcotics Unit detectives were attempting to conduct a probation search on a male adult subject living at 219 S. Ventura Place, in Fullerton. Armed Fullerton PD detectives mistakenly entered the Nordel family residence at 223 S. Ventura Placefrom the rear alley, and ultimately through the back door, believing it to be 219 S. Ventura Place.”
It has taken the City nearly a year to issue the Nordell Family an official apology and devise a process to prevent future unlawful entries by our Fullerton Police Department.
I am concerned that had the Nordell family not brought this to the City Council on several occasions, this public acknowledgment and apology would not be forthcoming.
There are a few lessons we can learn from the illegal raid:
First, people make mistakes. Officers are people and are not infallible.
Second, police officers must understand that blindly following their fellow officers into a fight can have deadly consequences. Although it might not always be practical, officers know the circumstances of the fight first. Had officers entered a different wrong house, it is reasonable to conclude officers would have been met by a gun wielding home-owner whose door was being kicked in by a gang of masked thugs all yelling.
The third lesson is that the Nordells have successfully managed to have the Police Department review their actions, recognize the Department’s mistake, and develop a policy for conducting future raids. The Nordell family did not have to sue over the raid though they certainly had the right to. Instead, they sought to make their community safer. In the end, the Nordells may have saved many lives by being vocal and active in the administration of their City’s police services.
Fourth, the Fullerton Police Department has listened to the public and made changes that will protect officers and the public. This shows that the Department is willing to look at new ways of serving the community.
I commend the Nordells for coming forward publicly and holding the Police Department and City Council responsible.
In yesterday’s OC Register, Councilman Pat McKinley, the chief architect of the Fullerton Police Department’s profound culture of corruption, responded to the news that KFI’s John and Ken are coming to Fullerton to promote his recall.
“They are toxic people who create problems for a lot of folks. I wish they would stay away.”
More PR gold from the man who ran the FPD into a moral cesspool during his 16-year stint as Chief of Police.
Oddly, McKinley has offered no public opinion as to the comparative toxicity of:
1) police officer sentenced to jail for fraud to support his pill habit.
2) police officer arrested in Miami airport for iPad theft.
3) police officer who smashed recording device on jail wall to avoid complicity in jail suicide.
4) police officers beating up and falsely arresting Veth Mam.
5) police officers lying on the witness stand about Veth Mam.
6) police officer beating up and falsely arresting Edward Quinonez.
7) police officer sexually assaulting a dozen women in the backseat of his patrol car, with recording device turned off.
8 ) police officers issuing traffic citations to harass protesters.
9) police officers ambushing and murdering a helpless homeless man.
10) police officers turning off recording devices during murder.
11) police officers colluding to falsify reports about said murder.
12) superior officers coaching said falsification.
13) return to street of said miscreants.
14) police officer spokeshole deliberately issuing lies to the media to misdirect, temporize, stall and otherwise obscure said murder and cover up.
15) councilmembers insulting protesters as “lynch-type mob.”
16) councilmembers discounting injuries of murder victim.
17) police officer arrests Emmanuel Martinez by mistake (or on purpose) and he spends 5 months in jail.
Good God! What a litany of toxic behavior, and the really scary part is that this is only the stuff we know about. And the chowderhead McKinley has the nerve to call anybody else on the planet “toxic?” The level of denial of responsibility is remarkable. Of course being given a $215,000 a year pension may create an unavoidable attitude of arrogance and self-entitlement.
However, Mr. McPension has a generous streak, to be sure:
“Councilman Pat McKinley said he supports the radio hosts right to stage a rally, but the former Fullerton police chief certainly disagrees with the pair’s opinions…”
Well, thanks awfully, Pat. You support the First Amendment. Well, you support it when people are watching, obviously. No elaboration about what he specifically disagrees with John and Ken about.
For years now various members of this blog have railed against Congressman-for-Life Ed Royce and the way he has worked hard to stick Fullerton with the most useless, imbecilic repuglican drones he can scrounge up. Idiots, young and old; especially old: geezers who pose no political threat to anybody and who could be relied upon to oppose potential Democrat challengers of Royce himself.
Royce has never given a damn that he helped foist upon his hometown a biblical succession of big government RINOs whose only distinction from the Democrats he fears so much is party affiliation.
But Royce’s chickens are finally coming home to roost with revelation after revelation of malfeasance and mismanagement of the Fullerton Police Department that was supposed to be overseen by the very drones he has supported year after dismal year. Of course Pat McKinley, Royce’s latest political project, is now the poster boy for FPD corruption.
Well, I’m sick and tired of Royce meddling in Fullerton politics to the detriment of the City. The results have been absolutely disastrous for the citizens of our town, and it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Fortunately we have a recall in process to clean out Ed’s stable.
Sign the recall petition today.
And thanks to redistricting we also have the opportunity to rid ourselves of Ed himself. In the game of Congressional musical chairs Royce finds himself looking for the same seat as Gary Miller of Diamond Bar.
How do I get rid of this thing?
So how about a third choice? Are the pickings so slim in north Orange County that we can find at least one candidate who doesn’t have the triple albatross of Jones, Bankhead and McKinley around his neck?
Who cares about the homeless and mentally ill? Lots of people, it seems, but only some of them were approved to serve on a task force investigating the issues on behalf of the city. At the city council’s most recent meeting on September 20th City Manager Joe Felz presented a proposal entitled Fullerton Task Force on Homelessness and Mental Health Services. The city council had asked for such a proposal during a previous meeting on August 16.
The staff identified five specific tasks for proposed group, and went so far as to recommend sixteen people as members. They included representatives of various non-profit organizations and churches and for some reason the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce, as well as three individuals, including Ron Thomas, father of Kelly Thomas. OC Human Relations Commission CEO Rusty Kennedy was proposed to lead the group.
About a dozen people from the public spoke to the issue or ranted about unrelated homeless issues. A few of them offered their assistance as prospective members of the task force, including people who described themselves as homeless or formerly homeless. Mayor Dick Jones suggested that the membership of the task force could be determined at the next council meeting. Perhaps he either did not understand that the council was recommended to adopt the supplied list or did not agree with it. Don Bankhead rambled about having known Rusty Kennedy’s father and said he was extremely glad about something or other that can’t quite be heard in the tape because he habitually does not speak into his microphone.
Both Bruce Whitaker and Sharon Quirk-Silva supported making the task force as inclusive as possible. Whitaker suggested that of the five tasks identified, it might be best to hold the fourth one listed in the proposal first, namely to hold a public forum to solicit ideas on the subject. Quirk-Silva, noting that the idea was not to duplicate already existing services, made a motion to move forward with Whitaker’s idea.
But Pat McKinley would have none of it. He offered an alternate motion to approve the task force membership list recommended in the proposal, but curiously left off the three unaffiliated people, Kitty Jaramillo, Janice DeLoof and Ron Thomas. Bruce Whitaker characterized McKinley’s proposal as “the epitome of top down organization,” saying that it would bring no new energy or ideas to the task. Quirk-Silva joined Whitaker in voting against McKinley’s motion, but McKinley was predictably joined by Jones and Bankhead, although Jones did clarify that other members could be added to the group later.
It cannot be stated too often that homelessness and mental illness are real problems for many people, but addressing those issues should not be confused with seeking justice for a man beaten to death by police officers. Even so, it is remarkable to watch the video of the meeting to see Jones, Bankhead, and McKinley treat yet another problem with the wrongheaded approach of excluding people asking to be included in a solution. In the words of a later speaker, they squandered the opportunity to engage the very public who had been criticizing them week after week for their inaction in the face of a crisis. In the end the Three Arrogant Amigos proved once again that institutions trust institutions, and individuals need not apply.
There’s a new filing in the Officer Rincon sexual assault case, and it’s not looking good for the city.
Federal Judge Andrew Guilford turned down the City’s request to throw out the case, and he offered his pointed thoughts on the Fullerton Police Department’s policy of ignoring officer misdeeds:
The Judge chastised the city for “tacit authorization” of Rincon’s despicable behavior.
Then the judge was shocked at the city’s failure to appropriately discipline the officer for his sexual assaults on multiple women.
Finally, the judge conveyed his dismay that Rincon is still on the loose with a gun and a badge.
Of course, the man responsible for puting, and keeping loverboy on the streets of Fullerton to prey upon unsuspecting women was none other than former police chief and current city councilman, Pat McKinley.
I wonder what Chief Pat has to say about the Judge’s comments? I wonder what his defenders – who like to call Fullerton a “family community” – have to say.
Lookin' out for the ladies. Oh, yeah!
And of course I wonder how many of the people that voted for this screw-up last November would have done so had they known of the extensive culture of corruption that was cultivated by McKinley in the Fullerton Police Department; a cultivation that is only now blossoming into a full, noxious bloom.
Two of the four referendum petitions for Coyote Hills have failed to qualify per the OC Registrar of Voters. These petitions would have put Chevron’s Coyote Hills development on the ballot in a future election.
The Friends of Coyote Hills had submitted four separate petitions to cover the specific plan, the general plan amendment, the development agreement and the zoning change. The remaining two petitions (zoning and development agreement) are still being counted.
