Law N Disorder Archives - Page 26 of 41 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

March 5, 2012Dead heads

We Get Mail: Take Him Out of The Ball Game…

Here’s an irate e-mail we received from a Golden Hills Little League parent explaining that despite his political troubles, Fullerton FPD Culture of Corruption architect Pat McPension just couldn’t be denied his place as a speaker at opening day ceremonies. Strings were pulled, leverage was exerted.

But what’s this?

MCKinley3 — Something better came along...

Subject: McKinley – Little League Opening Day

I contacted you last week informing you that McKinley had strong armed Golden Hill Little League via Parks & rec’s John Clements to speak at GHLL’s Opening Day this past weekend. Despite the league’s concerns given recent news re: Mr. McKinley and the fact that this is a children’s event, they were informed in no uncertain terms that as Mr. McKinley sat on committe responsible for assigning fields to youth programs, not letting him speak would be a bad idea. With their backs against the wall GHLL, a non-profit youth baseball league, decided to allow McKinley a few words.

And the dude NO-SHOWED…

So after strongarming GHLL and indirectly threatening to look unfavorably on their requests for city fields in the future, McKinley didn’t even show…or have the courtesy to have his people call GHLL to let them know. He was a no call/no show.

Lovely.

Message to Golden Hills Little League organizers: no good deed goes unpunished.

March 5, 2012March 5, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Joe Felz Sighs

by Joe Sipowicz80 Comments

Felz_Joe_2011_sml — Why can't they leave me alone?

Poor, put upon Fullerton City Manger Joe Felz is getting frustrated. And so he sighs to a reporter.

He’s frustrated that people are holding him accountable for his promises. Last year he stalled the Howard Jarvis Tax folks by clamming that the illegal 10% water tax would be addressed by March; well, March is here and it ain’t. In the meantime the City has collected $200,000 per month and continues to hide the tax from the water rate payers.

Here is an article in the Register all about how gosh darn tough it is for Felz to : 1) tell the truth; 2) do the right thing; 3) obey the law.

victoria-falls-zimbabwe-africa — It'll cost you...

The truth is that the illegal tax has nothing to do with with the water rate study; it is a stand alone issue that should have been fixed at least 15 years ago. And the fix is easy. The Water Fund already pays the General Fund for work done other city departments for work done on its behalf. The 10% tax is an outright scam that needs to be killed.

March 2, 2012March 2, 2012Behind Closed Doors

So Who (Besides Bruce Whitaker) Hasn’t Seen The Video?

by Joe Sipowicz262 Comments

Here’s an article by the pathetic Lou Ponsi in the OC Register about a guy named John Huelsman, an ex-cop, who unluckily happens to be the step-father of Jay Cicinelli, the Fullerton policeman charged with the beating death of schizophrenic homeless man Kelly Thomas, last July.

This man popped up at the last council meeting nattering the same nonsense about what an angel his step-boy is, so this isn’t really news. What is news is this guy’s claim that he has been able to review the City-owned video that captured the Thomas killing.

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that Huelsman is actually telling the truth. This begs the question – who hasn’t seen the video? We know that our elected representative, Bruce Whitaker is being illegally denied the opportunity to see it. But, really: the freakin’ step-father of the accused gets to watch it? Really? And a Fullerton council member may not?

So who let this guy watch the video? Was it the FPD? Was it the District Attorney? Such questions seem not to have occurred to the incurious idiot Lou Ponsi whom we can all count upon to miss the real story while peddling pro-cop bullshit.

Somebody better explain soon why some clown from who knows where can watch the video, when the people’s elected representative can’t.

February 28, 2012February 28, 2012Behind Closed Doors

The Empire Strikes Back!: WHO IS TONY BUSHALA?

by Jan Florys Dog130 Comments

With Three You Get Meatballs — You thought we were going to take this lying down?

The boys in the White Van are back, out of rehab, and once again patrolling the streets of OC.

They have intercepted and decoded a file containing the following video emanating from Dick Ackerman’s topiary compound within a top-secreted gated community in Irvine. Will this hit-piece be effective in salvaging the political careers of the Three Blind Mice? Will it resonate? You decide!

February 27, 2012February 28, 2012About Us

A Congruency of Interest; Defender of Killers Defends Jones, Bankhead and McKinley

by The Fullerton Harpoon164 Comments

Just in case you thought the Fullerton Recall was just some sort of power play by a mythical “downtown developer” against fine, honorable men who refuse to be bought and sold like cheap swamp land, consider this inconvenient fact: last fall an organization called PORAC poured thousands of dollars into the anti-recall campaign to save the useless, dessicated hides of Jones, Bankhead and McKinley.

So what is PORAC? It stands for Police Officers Research Association California and it appears to be heavily into lobbying for ever greater benefits for cops – regardless of the fiscal impact on the people whom the cops have sworn to serve and protect. It is also a massive fund cops pay into to pay the for the legal defense of bad cops caught doing bad things.

Both of these PORAC goals intersect in Fullerton.

PORAC is paying to defend the suspended-without-pay cops Manny Ramos and Jay Cicinelli, who have been charged with murder and manslaughter, respectively, in the beating death of the homeless man; Kelly Thomas was bludgeoned to death by FPD cops last July.

3 Dead Batteries2 — Dead batteries need defending, too.

But get this: PORAC also contributed to defend the Tuckered Out Triumvirate of Jones, Bankhead, and McKinley. The Fullerton cop union chunked $19,000 into the anti-recall water hazard, too. So what does that tell you, other than organized police labor sees its main chance in the continuation of Fullerton FPD’s Culture of Corruption, a culture where any sort of malfeasance will be swept under the rug, even the death of a harmless man; a culture where there is no accountability, no responsibility, and no apparent discipline.

The same people who are defending the killers of Kelly Thomas are also defending Jones, McKinley and Bankhead. And the Three Dead Batteries are proud of their support.

The choices in the Recall election couldn’t be clearer.

February 27, 2012I Aint a Swallerin That

Transient Involved in Physical Altercation with FPD Cop

by The Fullerton Harpoon127 Comments

Jeez, I think I’ve seen this movie before. Lot of the same actors, too.

A homeless guy named Mark Charboneuax was suspected of burglary and got into “fight” with cop – who bumped his head and got a free ride to the hospital. Charboneaux got a free ride to St. Jude’s, too, supposedly with minor injuries, but we’ll see about that, later. He’s wearing a neck brace and that may mean more work for Garo Mardirossian.

I note a few interesting things. Apart from Andrew Goodrich’s statements that we can now immediately discard as self-serving trash, another cop, this time a ranking officer is quick to point out the cop’s injury is minor and he’ll be fine.

The point of this post is that even random interaction between the FPD and the public are now scrutinized and the statements issued by Goodrich & Co. are rightly subjected to skepticism and cynicism.

February 24, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

Fullerton’s Jim Blake Is A TV Star

by admin46 Comments

Well, the Fullerton Culture of Corruption is in the news again, and, naturally, not in a good way. The star of the show is Fullerton’s own Jim Blake. Here is a CBS undercover report on Metropolitan Water District board members wining and dining themselves on our dime – even as they keep jacking up the commodity cost of water to us, a cost to which our wise City Fathers then tack on an illegal 10% tax!

Jim Blake has been the choice of Fullerton’s establishment to represent our City on the MWD since the Third Day, when God gathered the waters.

Of course this is no news to us here at FFFF. We reported on Blake and Linda Ackerwoman running up huge “travel” tabs a long time ago, here and here. Blake has been reappointed by Bankhead and Jones over and over again. Why?

Well, Blake is supposedly calling it quits at MWD, but not before causing Fullerton more embarrassment.

February 21, 2012February 21, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Don’t Get Your Hopes Up. I’m Not.

by Joe Sipowicz369 Comments

Today Fullerton will be favored with the first installment of reports produced by Michael Gennaco. The one tonight is supposed to deal with the FPD PR apparatus and the way it disseminated information in the wake of the Kelly Thomas killing by members of the FPD. We’ve editorialized plenty on what was said (self-serving claptrap), and not said (the truth) by FPD spokesopening Andrew Goodrich. I do wonder what Gennaco would have to say about the City using a police union boss as its official spokesman – if he addresses it at all, which I think is doubtful.

I have a feeling that the reports issued by Gennaco will be little more than expensive PR for the City.

This might be a good time to remind everybody that the offical sounding “County of Los Angeles Office of Independent Review” is actually a private law firm for hire by anybody with the dough to pay. It’s a small law firm with half a dozen lawyers and a logo that just happens to look like a city seal.

Gennaco is really no different than Jones and Mayer or Rutan and Tucker, hired to limit the damage caused by the serial misdeeds of the FPD and limit liability.

Does that sound harsh? Remember, as an attorney, Gennaco’s main concern is to protect his client and gin up more business in the future. Does that sound like a formula for reform?

Color me skeptical.

February 16, 2012February 16, 2012Dead heads

The Mighty Peculiar Tale of Officer Joe Wolfe

by Mr. Peabody195 Comments

By now everyone is at least casually familiar with the personage of FPD cop Joe Wolfe, who along with Manny Ramos, happened to be the first to confront the homeless schizophrenic man, Kelly Thomas, in the Fullerton Transportation Center, on the sultry night of July 5th, 2011.

Allegedly responding to a call claiming somebody was breaking into cars, Wolfe and Ramos were near enough to get to the scene first. Some folks think this was not a coincidence.

According to the DA, Wolfe searched Thomas’ backpack at the rear of a patrol car as Ramos hovered over Thomas around front – a mere 10-15 feet away. The fact that this implausibly lengthy “search” took place during Ramos’ physical and verbal intimidation of Kelly gave the DA his justification for Wolfe’s subsequent behavior.

What happened next (according to the DA) is that Kelly, who finally realized he was being queued up for an ass kicking one way or another, got up, and backed away from Ramos, hands and palms up; Ramos had pulled out his baton. And who was there to meet Thomas with drawn night stick, having circled around behind the patrol car and who suddenly seemed very much aware of what was going on?

Right. Officer Joe Wolfe.

This corpulent cop, who was so thoroughly engrossed in picking through Thomas’ scant belongings that he supposedly had no knowledge of what was happening a few feet away, suddenly became as nimble as Nijinski, allegedly slamming Kelly in the leg with his night stick, and with Ramos, tackling Thomas. As Ramos held Thomas by the neck and punched him, Wolfe was on top too, kicking and punching as the beat down and the pile on began.

We are asked (by the DA) to believe that Wolfe was completely unaware of Ramos verbally threatening Thomas, and donning his latex gloves; and that he was merely coming to Ramos’ rescue. Could it have happened that way? I guess so, but it really strains credulity to believe that Wolfe was not aware of the provacative behavior of Ramos, even if there were no pre-arranged set up of Kelly involved. And the DA provided no credible explanation for the sheer violence of his physical assault: we are left with the inevitable conclusion that Wolfe meant to do Kelly great bodily harm.

How many times did Wolfe hit Thomas before the one-eyed cop Jay Cicinelli arrived on the scene to finish him off? Only those privileged cops (and city councilmen) who have seen the video know.

Many questions remain unanswered about the role of Mr. Wolfe on the night in question, and despite the DA’s effort to absolve Wolfe of complicity in the killing, many observers, including me, remain unconvinced.

One thing we do know for sure: Joe Wolfe joins an ever growing list of Fullerton cops who can’t be let loose on the street or trusted to testify in court. He has been on paid leave since August. And until the Gennaco report on the Thomas killing comes out, there he will stay.

February 16, 2012March 14, 2012Law N Disorder

What is a Brady Cop? And What Did Vince Mater Do to Become One?

by Travis132 Comments

Update: When you’re trying to pierce the veil of secrecy in a police department bent on concealing its officers’ misdeeds, some of the details come through a little fuzzy. I recently received some corrected information on officer Mater’s role in the arrest, highlighted in red below. Note that Mater is still the officer who (allegedly) destroyed his audio recording and was later fired.

I’ve also noticed that almost an entire year has gone by, but Officer Mater has not been charged with destruction of evidence. The DA is reportedly still “working on the case.”

A Brady Officer is a cop with a sustained record for knowingly lying in an official capacity. A Brady cop’s testimony in court is almost worthless, which makes you wonder why a police department such as Fullerton would bother to employ one.

But on to the story. Remember that odd Fullerton jail suicide of Dean Francis Gochenour last year?

The word was that the ~~jail~~ arresting officer by the name of Vince Mater had broken apart his audio recorder and smashed the chip containing a recording in the immediate aftermath of the suicide. Whatever was captured on that recording before ~~and during~~ the arrestee’s suicide, we’ll never know.

Dean Gochenour died in the Fullerton City Jail on April 15, 2011

A few months later, Officer Mater was quietly fired.

Well, now we’ve found new state court docs revealing that the DA had also declared Mater to be a “Brady officer.”

We don’t know how Officer Mater earned his status as certified liar, but if it was so bad that even the FPD couldn’t look the other way, well…it must have been pretty bad.

Mater’s name did appear in an OC Register story in November 2010 about the wrongful incarceration of Emanuel Martinez at the hands of the FPD, in which Mater was johnny-on-the-spot with a gang tag that helped send the wrong guy to jail.

Fast forward to 2011, when the FPD ends up with a dead guy in jail, a smashed recorder, another cop on paid leave and presumably another set of lawsuits.

Oh, and one more thing: for all the City’s talk of transparency and its employment of several highly-compensated Public Information Officers, all of this information was kept from the public until…well, today.