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Pasadena police chief to investigate alleged misconduct of 2 homicide detectives


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.