PASADENA
- Pasadena police Chief Phillip Sanchez said he will investigate the conduct of
two homicide detectives, one of whom allegedly threatened to kill a suspect.
Sanchez's
inquiry, which will focus on Sgt. Keith Gomez and his former partner Officer
Kevin Okamoto, is the second in recent weeks involving the alleged misconduct
of Pasadena detectives.
A
separate investigation into allegations of misconduct involving Okamoto has
been turned over to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Sanchez said.
The
Pasadena Police Department's internal investigators will focus on actions taken
by Okamoto and Gomez in relation to a man identified as Jamaul Harvey.
Harvey
was arrested on suspicion of murder in 2007 in a case which Okamoto and Gomez
investigated. The case was tried twice. The jury was hung in the first trial:
9-3 in favor of acquittal for murder; 10-2 in favor of acquittal for attempted
murder; and 7-5 in favor of acquittal on a conspiracy charge.
A jury
in the second murder trial found Harvey not guilty. In a signed declaration
sent to Sanchez, an alternate juror in the second trial said she believed Gomez
"invented evidence" against Harvey.
The
allegations of manufactured evidence come on the heels of a 32-page complaint
from attorney Michael Kraut alleging Okamoto hid exculpatory evidence in a
criminal battery trial. A hearing in that case will be held today in Pasadena
Superior Court before Judge
Kraut
is a former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney who prosecuted the
Rampart case involving serious misconduct by Los Angeles Police Department
officers. He said he believes Okamoto's actions are part of a pattern of
behavior among certain Pasadena detectives.
"I
would be kidding myself if I thought my client was the first person this
happened to," Kraut said. "The question is: How many times has he
hidden evidence?"
Okamoto
was reassigned to
patrol
in February as part of what Sanchez described as a routine rotation. Neither Okamoto
nor Gomez returned phone calls seeking comment.
Harvey
claims he has been routinely harassed by Okamoto and Gomez for close to five
years. He claims Gomez threatened to kill him in 2007.
The
NAACP forwarded to Sanchez a statement from Harvey describing an encounter he
had with Gomez. Harvey said Gomez told him: "Do you know my reputation on
the street? I'm a detective that gets what he wants and I can do what I
want."
According
to the statement, Gomez added: "I could kill you right now and get away
with it because I know you have a gun."
Harvey
claims the most recent incident of harassment came from Okamoto during a
traffic stop May 7.
"I
hadn't committed any traffic violations and I feel I was stopped without
probable cause," Harvey wrote in a formal complaint filed Monday afternoon
at the Police Department headquarters on North Garfield Avenue.
Aggressive
police work by the pair of detectives has earned the duo a dubious reputation
in Pasadena, according to Pasadena-branch NAACP President Joe Brown.
"Okamoto
and Gomez are the names names you keep hearing when our young men bring up the
cops they are having issues with on the streets," Brown said.
Other
area attorneys have expressed concerns as well.
Pasadena-based
lawyer Phillip Koebel said he had a run-in with Okamoto in 2008, when the
former detective attempted to interview Koebel's client at the lawyer's home.
Koebel insisted he be present during the inquiry. Okamoto, according to
Koebel's account, became agitated and said "we will just come back with a
search warrant."
Okamoto
and nearly 20 cops returned weeks later. They claimed to have a search warrant,
kicked down Koebel's door and Pasadena Code Enforcement officers left the
attorney with 15 pages worth of code violations. The lawyer said he was never
served with a search warrant. The code violations were later dropped, Koebel
said.
"I
have observed personally direct disregard for the Constitution," Koebel
said. "There appears to be great license handed to these officers to
breach the Constitution."
Koebel
said he told high-ranking officers in the Pasadena Police Department about the
incident, but nothing came of his complaints.
"I
have talked to Commander John Perez and I think he is a good commander and I
think he cares about this issue, but he doesn't say anything about it,"
Koebel said. "Deputy Chief Darryl Qualls doesn't say anything about it,
and the new chief doesn't say anything about it."
Sanchez
said he was unfamiliar with the Koebel case.
Gomez
is the department's lead investigator in the officer-involved shooting of
former Azusa High School football standout Kendrec McDade. Gomez has been named
in a federal civil rights lawsuit against the department filed by McDade's
family. The suit alleges the shooting is part of a pattern of abuse by the
department and that the investigation "reeks" of a cover up.