These misplaced medical supplies were discovered near Hillcrest Park today. If they belong to you, please call (714) 738-6800 to claim them.
The other day FFFF posted an alarming list of FPD malfeasance, misfeasance, and general dumbassfeassance that should be shocking to anybody whose head is screwed on straight. Of course that excludes people like Councilmembers Bud Chaffee, Jesus Silva, and Jennifer “Fullerton Fire Sale” Fitzgerald who got themselves elected courtesy of Fullerton’s cop union.
One of our Friends pointed out this sad tale, as reported in The OC Weekly, a story of brutal gullibility, incompetence and indifference in which once again, the FPD is responsible for the prosecution of innocent people who end up spending a considerable amount of time in the County lock-up. Andrew Goodrich has informed the public, however insincerely, that the FPD really does try to arrest the right people. But when you read the case of Josh Eddleman and Jerrie Harvey, you really have wonder.
The really funny part of this story (for those of us who can possibly find humor in criminal injustice), is the name of the Fullerton “detective” involved, our old pal, corpulent Barry Coffman, whom you may remember from the award winning video “Excessive Horning.”
How this dim bulb ever became a police detective must remain one of life’s grand mysteries. Right up there with the existence of Bigfoot and how sex shakedown creep Ron “My Request Stands!” Bair ever became a police detective himself.
In 2016 FPD still hadn’t pursued the real culprits in this case, most likely because doing so would prove acutely embarrassing for the professional reputation of “Detective” Coffman.
We’ll follow up.
The other day FFFF ran a post on recent efforts by the Fullerton Police Department to share its Heroic doings with the public. Some were struck by the blatant and ongoing hypocrisy of the department’s alleged attitude toward DUI driving, given the fact that our former drunk-driving City Manager, Joe Felz, was given a free pass by the FPD after running off the road, plowing over a tree, and trying to escape the scene of the crime.
I’m struck by the constant effort of the department to spin PR yarns to make itself look good – despite all the evidence to the contrary. Get a load of the “while you were sleeping” shtick. It’s the old “we Heroes are keeping the streets of Fullerton safe while you get to sleep safe and sound – and how can you put a price tag on that?” routine. This relentless drum beat of the upbeat continues long after Chief Danny “Galahad” Hughes‘ departure, meaning that the strategy of fooling the public into mistaking a tsunami of PR for reform, is alive and well.
Anyway, I though I’d share a few other FPD activities that happened while we were sleeping, or maybe even when we were wide awake, sort of a public service announcement. Please observe the veritable FPD crime wave:
Veth Mam is assaulted, beat up and falsely arrested by Kenton Hampton and prosecuted.
Todd Majors rips off Explorers to pay for drug habit.
April Baughman rips off evidence locker – a lot.
Kelly Thomas is stalked, threatened and beaten to death by Ramos, Wolfe, Cicinelli & Co.
Cary Tong & Co. abuse arrestee.
Sonny Siliceo intentionally misidentifies Emanuel Martinez sending him to jail for 5 months.
Sonny Siliceo files a report so false even the DA can’t ignore it.
Timothy Gibert busted for ripping off high desert Home Depot.
Andrew Goodrich lies to press about cops receiving broken bones from Thomas incident.
Kelly Meija places bag of chicken on iPad, purloins the latter at an airport and gets caught.
Perry Thayer and friends get their kicks.
Ron Bair extracts sex from crime victim.
The battery and false imprisonment by Christopher Wren.
The serial abuses of John Cross and Gregg Nowling.
Officer Bybee rams bicyclist David Tovar.
Well, now I’m completely exhausted. Please feel free to remind FFFF of any other misbehavement by our boys and girls in blue and I’ll be sure to add it to the list.
A while back, Fullerton junior College president Greg Schulz held an open house to share information with the constituents of the North Orange College Community College District. If anyone expected the usual milquetoast tea party, they would have been much mistaken.
One intrepid citizen brought up the matter of Dino Skokos, the FJC security goon who attacked a student last fall. Here is the audio of the interrogation accompanied by a video of the beat down applied to the kid by Skokos.
To his credit, the interrogator will not let Schulz off the hook, and grills him pretty good. Schulz of course will say nothing specific and refuses to pass on the results of the taxpayer funded “investigation” commissioned by him via a law firm that specializes in protecting the people who run government agencies. It’s a “human resources” issue, see, and we poor saps who pay for the salaries of these individuals and the civil claims they cause, are not to know anything about them.
Schulz is happy to remind folks of the investigation; but what it accomplished and how much it cost us will be shrouded in mystery until long after Schulz has taken his massive pension. Schulz won’t even say if the Fullerton Police Department investigated this matter, an issue that has no bearing on personnel confidentiality at all.
Did you notice that at the 1:05 mark the esteemed Schulz says Skokos “is not going to be an employee of the district,” a curious statement given that Skokos is still on administrative leave nine months after the assault . Later he states that he is not permitted to say whether Skokos is coming back or not. It’s all a big secret, see. So which is it? Who knows? Not the public, that’s for certain.
On June 5, 2018, voters in Orange County, including Fullerton, will trudge to the polls to cast their vote for, among other races, the County District Attorney. Thus far, the choices we have been offered rival those for a certain federal election campaign last year. Or a South Park episode from a decade prior.
In one corner we have the incumbent, Anthony Rauckauckas, who was first elected in 1998. Throughout his tenure, he has developed a reputation of refusing to seriously investigate allegations of wrongdoing by public officials, including but not limited to the various violations of open meeting laws in connection with the OC Fairgrounds giveaway (involving favorite FFFF target Dick Ackerman, discussed here ). Rauckauckas was also responsible for personally handling the murder trial of Fullerton PD Officers Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli, which resulted in defense verdict after key evidence (including the false claim that the officers followed department policy) were unchallenged at Trial. And to top it off, the District Attorney office has been completely ensnared by the Jailhouse Informant scandal, which includes everything from alleged lying to defense attorneys about the existence of said informants to failure to forward exculpatory evidence which was inadvertently obtained by the informants. The scandal is a complex one and no one article can possibly do it justice (here’s a link to a series of articles to get you started) but it is serious enough that the District attorney is now barred from prosecuting the death penalty case of Scott Evans Dekraai.
And in the other corner, we have Todd “Wahoo” Spitzer. Admittedly, the Wahoo incident may sound petty compared to the charged of official corruption where Rauckauckas is concerned but the story itself – leaving the scene at a Wahoo fish taco after a preacher came up to talk to him, grabbing his gun and handcuffs from his car and then arresting the man for threatening him – paints a very, very poor picture of Spitzer’s character and temperament. There is also a corruption probe launched against him by the current District Attorney and while he can easily brush it off at the moment given the source, the allegations (if made by somebody else) could prove damaging. Remember, Todd Spitzer raised $235,000 for his campaign for Central Committee (by contrast, most CC candidates don’t even bother opening a committee meaning their expenditures are less than $1500). And his expenditures included all expense paid tickets to Hawaii for both himself and political donors, as well as groceries, meals and hotel expenditures.
Tough choice. Fortunately, Mario Mainero has put himself forward as a third alternative, although he is still in the exploratory stage at this time.
We have a new police chief in Fullerton, and only eight months after his predecessor obstructed justice by giving a DUI city manager a get out of jail card, and retired with a massive pension to become a Disney employee.
The new one is named David Hendrick who was approved unanimously by our city council this week. That includes, of course, self-professed conservatives Bruce Whitaker and Greg Sebourn, who evidently saw nothing wrong paying Mr. Hendricks $230,000 per annum – $5,000 more than his boss, the city manager, and $25,000 more than his predecessor. Of course this gross pension spike will be borne by the taxpayers of Fullerton until Mr. Hendricks and his beneficiaries scoot off to their eternal rewards – in about 30 or 40 years.
Apparently the City Council was not in the least bit concerned that Hendricks was a manager in a notoriously abusive police department; or that he bought an on-line master’s degree from a bogus “university” whose address was likely no more than a post office box in Birmingham, Alabama.
Well, there you have it. Incompetent, leaderless, self-indulgent, lax, expensive, no-fault government continues in Fullerton, full speed ahead.
And please be careful in your interactions with the FPD. Things might end very badly for you.
On July 18, 2017, the Fullerton City Council will vote on whether to approve staff recommendation to hire David Hendricks as Chief of Police of the Fullerton Police Department.
According to his resume, posted online with the staff report, Hendricks has served in the Internal Affairs Division of the LBDP and has “managed approximately 400 Internal Affairs investigations per year.” Per he resume, he also “(p)resented preliminary and formalized complaint cases to the Chief of Police and executive team” and “(r)eviewed police officer use of force/ identify patterns or problems.”
Given that Hendricks has been directly involved in investigating use of force claims and Internal Affairs divisions, it would have been extremely helpful to know what his thoughts on this 2013 beating of Porfiro Santos-Lopez, while lying on his back:
Or his thoughts on the $2.5 million settlement, reached after a plaintiff jury verdict, to two cousins who had filed an excessive force lawsuit arising out of a police beating by Officers David Faris and Michael Hynes, which was caught on camera in 2010.
Or his thoughts on the infamous incident in 2013 where a man named Doug Zerbo was shot to death by police officers while holding a water nozzle, an incident for which the taxpayers had to cough up a $6.5 million judgment.
Actually, thanks to Transparent California, we already know the answer. Both Officers involved in the $2.5 million settlement are still employed with the Long Beach Police Department as of 2016, as is Victor Ortiz, one of the two officers responsible for the spray nozzle shooting death and subsequent $6.5 million lawsuit.
Total compensation of the officers in question, give or take about $9.1 million.
As for the Portofino-Lopez beating, it was described by the Internal Affairs Department itself as a “by the book” arrest in 2013.
The Fullerton Police Department needs reform. The head of an internal affairs division that has a proven track record of excusing and soft peddling officer misconduct charges is not the solution.
Mr. David Hendricks, currently employed by the Long Beach Police Department was recently tapped to by someone, somewhere, somehow to become our new police chief. Here’s the July 12th press release from the City’s website:
Apart from several obnoxious things about this press release (including the tacit presumption that this recommendation for appointment – that was made by who knows who – will be rubber stamped by the City Council), we will consider the information contained in the final sentence, to wit: a Masters of Public Administration degree from something called “Andrew Jackson University” in Birmingham, Alabama.
The FFFF Academic Accreditation team immediately sprang into action, and what they discovered doesn’t suggest academic accomplishment of any sort. Andrew Jackson University was created by a couple of lawyers in the mid-90s who decided that hardworking folk needed an online opportunity to pursue advanced education. Or so the story went. But those familiar with the for-profit diploma mill industry know the story well: these establishments are created to separate saps from their money, and often to separate taxpayers from unpaid student loans underwritten by the government.
Andrew Jackson University – unaccredited by anybody – has now been bought and sold twice since its inception and its “location,” if nothing other than a PO box, has been changed successively from San Francisco to Salt Lake City. It is now called “New Charter University” and is owned by financial investors.
FFFF reached out to knowledgeable experts in this field to learn more about such institutions.
Erasmus Alberus, Professor Emeritus of Academic Ethics at the University of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan told FFFF “these institutions exist merely to give the impression that those who have paid the requisite tuition have attained some sort of academic accomplishment. They haven’t. The purpose is to enhance career and income possibilities through this impression.”
Even more scathing was the assessment of Sabrina Plath, Director of Professional Development at the Thorstein Veblen Center in Valparaiso, Indiana. Says Ms. Plath: It is an ongoing scandal how mail order diplomas are used to leverage career promotion, and salary and benefit enhancement, especially at the expense of the public.”
And so these questions remain to be answered: who was impressed enough by a graduate of Andrew Jackson University that he is recommended for hire as our new police chief with salary and benefits approaching $300,000 a year? Was this laughable non-degree from a phony academic institution a material fact in his selection? Did anybody even care?
Good luck trying to find out. But if you care about this, and if you care about the fact that a press release announced this recommendation before the City Council even decided on a candidate, go to the meeting on the 18th and enjoy the fun.
You remember Dino, right? He was the guy who retired from the LA Sheriff Department with a disability and then took a job as a campus security guard at Fullerton Junior College.
In October 2016 Dino assaulted a student for failing to acknowledge his august authority:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9KyMyo-fcA
FFFF followed up, here, and here to document the remarkable lack of progress in separating this miscreant from his source of employment. Recently FFFF asked the North Orange College Community College District for a list of employees on administrative leave to see what sort of fish might be caught in the broad net. Here’s what we got back:
Fullerton College Employees on Administrative Leave from January 1, 2016 to present:
Robert Smitson – Fall 2015 to January 31, 2016
Jerry Stokes – Fall 2015 to January 31, 2016
Cynthia Wafer – September 2, 2016 to October 31, 2016
Dino Skokos – October 14, 2016 to September 30, 2017
Eileen Anguiano – February 28, 2017 to May 3, 2017
Scott Goss – May 18, 2017 to August 31, 2017
Beverly Pipkin – June 27, 2017 to July 31, 2017
Alan Gonzalez – June 29, 2017 until further notice
For some reason Skokos is not only still on leave, that leave is projected to continue for another ten weeks, meaning that the guy who attacked and falsely arrested that kid will have been on administrative leave for almost one year.
There are still lots of questions that haven’t been answered, and some that have not yet been asked (until now), such as:
- What happened to the “independent” investigator, Currier and Hudson?
- How much has Currier and Hudson charged us for their “services?”
- Has the student who was assaulted and falsely arrested sued the taxpayers, and if so, what are the details?
- Was there a settlement when no one was looking?
- What happened to the Fullerton Police Department in all of this; did they ever bother investigate this themselves? If not, why not?
Here’s the choice nugget from the FJC president as quoted in The Hornet, way back in October, 2016, reassuring his workers, educrats and students that FJC is dedicated in settling this matter:
President Greg Schulz promised the college’s full dedication in reaching a conclusion regarding the incident.
And next time you see her clucking and harrumphing about town be sure to ask your NOCCCD Trustee, Molly McClanahan, what the Hell is going on. Good luck getting an intelligible answer!
In the early morning hours of the very same day that six FPD cops harassed, attacked and left Kelly Thomas to die in the gutter, four of their bad apple brethren had a run-in only a few yards away with the Ortiz brothers – Luiz and Antonio – a couple of downtown Fullerton bar patrons.
Here are the names of the four cops: Bryan Bybee, Billy Phu, Emanuel Pulido and Matthew Martinez. Remember the names. According to the complaint Bybee began the July 5, 2011 altercation by attacking Antonio with a baton while his colleagues joined in the fun and also went to work on Luiz. The beat down ended with the usual ride to the Fullerton Jail, lack of medical attention to the beaten Antonio, refusal to pursue an internal investigation following Antonio’s formal complaint, and the eventual filing of criminal charges by our illustrious DA – who never seems to tire of prosecuting citizens based on fraudulent FPD reports.
Miraculously, Luiz was acquitted 11-1 by an OC jury in 2016, and the DA dropped the charges against Antonio – giving plenty of credence to the allegations made by the brothers in a civil suit against the taxpayers of Fullerton, a suit that was recently settled for the tidy sum of $280,000, only about $1.90 of which will come out of the pocket of Jan Flory, or Jennifer Fitzgerald or Pat “I Hired Them All” McKinley, or any of the other vocal cop apologists who bask in the warmth of Fullerton First membership.
Four more demerit badges for former Chief Danny “Galahad” Hughes’ boy scout sash, even as he rakes in a $20K per month pension.
Here are the relevant documents. Read ’em and weep.
Ortiz – Mutual Settlement Agreement & Release