Contra Costa Court Slaps Down Fullerton’s Argument
In an interesting SB1421 tentative ruling out of Contra Costa County (CASE NAME: RICHMOND POLICE VS. CITY OF RICHMOND), a court in July slapped down the very argument used by the City of Fullerton to try and suppress the findings of dishonesty by former Fullerton Lieutenant Kathryn Hamel.
“If a sustained finding is made, the agency and the officer cannot undo that historical fact by private agreement.”.
It will be fascinating to watch as the city claims that no sustained finding of dishonesty exists, per SB1421, for Kathryn Hamel because they negotiated it away via a separation agreement.
Read the whole thing [HERE], it’s fascinating and VERY relevant to our case and will be interesting to watch upon appeal.
https://www.kcet.org/shows/socal-connected/episodes/the-fight-to-know
Just watched the episode and there’s absolutely no doubt the city is covering up Hamel’s shameless wrongdoings.
KCET is going to have a field day with Fullerton.
Why is Fullerton so damn corrupt, or is it like this in every city?
Keep up the great work, Josh!
Talk about getting away with crimes – seriously how could the city allow bad cops to get good city pensions? It’s gotta stop or is the cover up so big ?
High time Fullerton comes clean. The people have a right to know how money is being used.
Abused.
Total cover up goin on here. Hamels pension should be paid to the people’s lives Fullerton Police has harmed with all the bad behavior!
Reality is a cop commits crimes to get a promotion and then gets asked to leave with a big fat pension- Didn’t 2 people die because of her lies?https://www.fullertonsfuture.org/2019/fullerton-police-cut-a-deal-to-bypass-the-law/
Fullerton Police Cut a Deal to Bypass the Law
From what we have gathered Officer Hamel had at least two internal affairs investigations into her actions. It is alleged that one of them was for giving false statements.
These internal investigations were dropped as a condition of this settlement specifically to avoid disclosure under the law known as SB1421.
To quote the agreement
“The City will revise its Notice of Intent to Discipline Hamel to remove allegations relating to dishonesty, deceit, untruthfulness, false or misleading statements, ethics or maliciousness. The Interim Police Chief will place a notice in the file indicating that, pursuant to settlement, all charges against Hamel, including charges relating to dishonesty, deceit, untruthfulness, false or misleading statements, ethics or maliciousness were never resolved or proven because there was no Skelly hearing or opportunity for appeal and, accordingly, are not sustained. The IA investigation, and related materials including the revised Notice of Intent to Discipline, will be sealed and maintained in the Human Resources Department, and only in the Human Resources Department, with a notice reading: “THIS IS A SEALED FILE AND SHOULD NOT BE DISCLOSED OR OTHERWISE PRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE CITY MANAGER, AND ONLY AFTER RECEIVING A WRITTEN OPINION FROM THE CITY ATTORNEY THAT SAID RELEASE OF INFORMATION IS REQUIRED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW.”
“The City asserts, based on a “not sustained” finding of all charges, that any and all records relating to this investigation are not subject to release under Senate Bill 1421. The City further asserts that any challenge to this legal opinion by any entity will be defended by the City – in court if necessary – to the fullest extent.”
Since Jerry Brown made it possible to find out when police lie, sexually assault people and cause great bodily harm through SB1421 the police and local governments in CA have been scrambling to find ways to block it’s implementation or ways to work around it and here we see one of those ways.
We citizens should fully expect that this is going to be the new normal.
Lacking consequences the police will continue closing cases and ending investigations to protect their own.
This is what happens when there is no objective civilian oversight and departments are allowed to handle their own investigations into the wrongdoing of their friends, family and co-workers.
Full settlement agreement can be read in the following
https://www.fullertonsfuture.org/2019/fullerton-police-cut-a-deal-to-bypass-the-law/
She lied multiple times in an internal administrative investigation and got caught. But instead of being terminated for dishonesty, she was given a sign and trade deal!! Someone should contact her new employer very soon before the lawsuit!
I believe she made the final decision to arrest the police officer from another department on elder abuse…..when there was none…..and opened up the city to potential liability.
Standard protocol in a case like that is that you run the case by the DA first to make sure everything is good to go before obtaining a warrant and making an arrest. Word is that when the case was run by the DA, the DA said there wasn’t enough evidence to file charges and she couldn’t get a warrant. She made the decision to arrest anyway.
Thus the lawsuit. She is listed as one of the named defendants,claiming false arrest, defamation and wrongful death, among other allegations
After the arrests, Bonnie and Roland Wagner were removed from the house, barred from contact with the suspects and placed in residential care, where they died.
Casselman said the suspects and their photos were paraded for the media, though evidence against them wasn’t there.
“The investigation was nonexistent to minimal,” Casselman said. He described the case as “basically a rush to judgment.”
“Their names have been smeared,” Casselman said. “The case was so poorly documented that the district attorney refused to file any criminal charges whatsoever.”
I believe the fact, that the case was so poorly documented, that fact is being an issue inside the FPD for decades.
Also, they always get the wrong victims. This is not the first time.
But , who call the police for elder abuse-
How incompetents FPD Officers are .
They should sign their names in the break records of incompetence & wrong victims .
Starting from the lower rank of cops who arrest Officer Rock all the way to the detective who handle this case.
Wait, for this kind of situations is usually a family crime detective involved.
I wonder who was the inept detective
DAILY PILOT
Laguna Beach police officer’s lawsuit accuses Fullerton of false arrest and defamation over elder abuse case
By JULIA SCLAFANI
NOV 13, 2018
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dpt-me-laguna-police-lawsuit-20181113-story.html%3foutputType=amp
This is actually a real story? Unbelievable. I realized our political world operates like this I never knew this happened at city level with officers! I’m in shock!