Friends For Fullerton's Future
FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
We’ve all seen Fullerton cops texting on the job – on motorcyles, in patrol cars, and at Starbucks, when in fact they are supposed to be protecting us from evil, hippy dope-smokers.
But wait a sec! What’s this? Chief Danny texting during a Fullerton Council meeting?!
Well, I guess FPD “Detective” Ron Bair will soon be making another “Brown Act” record request!
I always hate it when the stooge press indicates that a “former cop” was convicted of something when the former cop was an active cop when he did what he did to get convicted.
And so I won’t say “former Fullerton cop Vincent Mater plead guilty…” Rather, I will say dirty Fullerton cop Vincent Mater who clearly had something to hide in the wake of the Dean Gochenour Fullerton jail suicide and who demonstrated as much by destroying his DAR plead guilty to day…
Here’s the text of the DAs press release:
FULLERTON – A former Fullerton Police Department (FPD) officer was convicted and sentenced today for destroying evidence by crushing his audio-recorder after an inmate committed suicide in jail following a driving under the influence (DUI) arrest by the defendant. Vincent Thomas Mater, 42, pleaded guilty to a court offer by the Honorable Frances Munoz to one misdemeanor count of destruction of evidence and one misdemeanor count of vandalism. Mater was sentenced to three years of informal probation and 60 days of community service. The People objected to the sentence, arguing for jail time based on the nature of the crime, destruction of evidence possibly related to an inmate’s death, and the defendant’s violation of his position of trust.
At the time of the crime, Mater was a police officer with FPD. At approximately 9:45 p.m. on April 14, 2011, Mater conducted a DUI investigation after making a traffic stop of a vehicle being driven without its lights on in the dark. Mater was in uniform and driving a marked FPD patrol car. Mater arrested the driver, Dean Gochenour, upon determining that Gochenour was under the influence of alcohol.
Mater transported Gochenour in his patrol car to the Fullerton City Jail (FCJ) and turned him over to FPD jailers to be booked upon arrival. Throughout the duration of his contact with Gochenour, Mater wore an FPD-issued Digital Audio Recording device (DAR), which was activated and would have audio-recorded any statements made by Mater or Gochenour.
At approximately 11:30 p.m., inmate Gochenour committed suicide by hanging himself in a cell at FCJ. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office (OCDA) was subsequently contacted to conduct the custodial death investigation.
In the hours after Mater learned of Gochenour’s death, Mater destroyed his DAR by crushing it and removing the mother board and circuit board. The audio captured on Mater’s DAR of the defendant’s interaction with Gochenour could not be recovered as a result of the damage. Mater destroyed the evidence that would have been relevant to the OCDA’s custodial death investigation.
FPD investigated the case against Mater regarding the destruction of evidence and submitted it to the OCDA for criminal prosecution.
To read the OCDA’s full report on the custodial death of Gochenour, visit www.OrangeCountyDA.com and select “OCDA Report Custodial Death Investigation – Inmate Dean Gochenour” from the Investigation Letters tab under the Media Center. The report was issued March 13, 2012.
Deputy District Attorney Brock Zimmon of the Special Prosecutions Unit prosecuted this case.
I don’t know who “the honorable” Frances Munoz is, but I sure want to end up in her court if I ever get busted doing anything naughty. Probation and sixty days’ community service? Really? You or I would be looking at hard time. Oh, well we’ve always know there were rules and regs for us and a get out of jail card for the cops.
Did something fishy happen to Dean Gochenour before or after he was deposited in the FPD jail? Thanks to Mater we shall probably never know.
Oh, and yeah, Mater’s now a former Fullerton cop, although whether he was fired or permitted to walk away we will never know. That shall remain a mystery, too.
It just gets worse. A premature discharge.
Fortunately the injured party is doing fine and no lawsuits are expected.
I just received some interesting news about our Mayor Sharon Quirk who is running for the State Assembly – and its both embarrassing and telling.
I have it on real good authority that Ms. Quirk was invited to a “meet the candidate night” by the good folks in the unincorporated West Anaheim Island – a large area of unincorporated Orange County.
Now theses are the very people Quirk’s political handlers said she would do well with – the working class people of Anaheim’s flatlands, so you would think Quirk would jump at the chance to mingle with her peeps.
Nuh uh.
Apparently at first she just ignored the West Island Neighborhood group, and finally some campaign flunky responded saying that it might be a trap to embarrass Quirk with – questions! That sure has the ring of truth since a quick trip to Quirk’s website shows a cardboard cut out candidate who steadfastly refuses to take a position on any of the important propositions on the ballot this fall – including Governor Brown’s new tax and spend plans.
Nice work, Ms. Quirk.
Kind of creepy.
And no, Ms. Executive Director, your monster is not asleep.
You would think that even a band of rogue cops with the recent history of malfeasance such as the FPOA brethren would recognize that publishing a wanted poster of your political opponents is crossing a line.
Well, I guess not. When you are willing to defend killers, robbers, pickpockets, liars, perjurers, incompetents of all kinds, property room thieves, sex perverts, and who knows what else, you’ll defend anything.
What happens when a supposedly professional detective makes up his own “evidence” as the basis of fabricated claims and a Public Records Act request?
Well, he ends up looking like a damn fool.
This clip is entertaining for several reasons. First we see what a buffoon FPD detective Ron Bair is; second we get to see a calm evisceration of this fool by Bruce Whitaker; third we get to enjoy the cop-lackey Doug Chaffee step on his own weenie defending the indefensible.
Doug Chaffee thinks its “chilling” for Bruce Whitaker to “interrogate” an FPD cop who has made wild and completely false charges against him.
Hmm. I think its chilling that a liar and fact-fabricator like Bair can actually become a detective in the first place with the opportunity to interrogate anybody. Looks like the Culture of Corruption has a new poster boy.
In his desire to promote Chief Danny, Fullerton Council Mole, Doug Chaffee went a bit too far. First he indicates that six cops have been disciplined and some have been fired! Oh, oh. That’s a violation of POBAR, isn’t it? Our trolls are always saying so.
Will The Mole Man’s comments result in a lawsuit by the rogue cops? Let’s hope so. Little Doug can explain what he meant.
What is even more astounding is that Chaffee acknowledges fourteen disciplinary actions by “Acting Chief Danny,” an incredible figure when you consider that some of the bad behavior that we already know about hasn’t even been acknowledged. In other words, Chaffee admits that at least 10% of the force has been disciplined for behavior no doubt well known and protected by a great many more members of the force – including sanctimonious pricks like Jason Shone, the Internal Affairs sergeant.
Chaffee thinks it’s “remarkable” that corrupt cops got “disciplined.” Of course we have no idea what that means, or even if it’s true. What kind of twisted culture exists when the elected authority finds that disciplining bad cops is “remarkable?”
I don’t know about you, but to me that sure sounds like a Culture of Corruption.
