PASADENA -- Two decades ago, a trio
of Pasadena gang members stunned the City of Roses by gunning down six boys
trick-or-treating, killing three and injuring three others on a night now known
as the Halloween Massacre.
Now, after a 20-year police
crackdown against gangs in one of Southern California's most regal cities, the
tide has turned, with crime at modern historic lows.
But instead of celebrating a
hard-won victory, Pasadena police are themselves accused of kidnapping, beating
and threatening to kill witnesses, withholding evidence in trials, attempting
to bribe attorneys, wrongly shooting unarmed residents and a litany of civil
rights abuses in their war against gangs and thugs.
"It's gotten out of hand,"
said Joe Brown, former head of the city's NAACP branch, who has been tracking
cases within the black community. "The problem is a lack of appropriate
training and community policing.
"Some officers have used some
of the most egregious tactics in police investigative work."
Law enforcement agencies from the
Federal Bureau of Investigation to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department,
the county Alternate Public Defender and Office of Independent Review and the
Pasadena police internal affairs unit are expected to soon release the results
of various police misconduct investigations.
In February, Pasadena Mayor Bill
Bogaard and Police Chief Phillip Sanchez also called for a comprehensive
independent audit of cases within the Detective Bureau.
"Chief Sanchez has worked
diligently since his appointment in 2010 to further changes within the
department's policies, procedures and protocol to enhance accountability,"
Bogaard said in a statement. "While those efforts continue, we must also
ensure that the residents of Pasadena have confidence in our police
department."
The city has long trumpeted its
historic Tournament of Roses parade, 99 years of Rose Bowl kickoffs, its
old-money mansions and some of the richest civic, scientific, architectural and
cultural landmarks in Southern California.
But now the city's pristine image is
marred by the acts of a few.
Despite a commercial renaissance of
its historic downtown and creeping gentrification of its century-old bungalow
neighborhoods, some say numerous gangs - from the Pasadena Denver Lanes Bloods
to the Latin Kings to the Altadena Block Crips - still prey upon whole
communities.
Police have responded in force - and
with perfect success in solving every murder since 2008 and attaining one of
the lowest violent crime rates in decades. Serious crimes from car thefts to
armed robbery to rape and murder fell from more than 9,700 in 1993 to 5,300 a
decade ago, in line with a national decline in crime. Last year, such crimes
dipped below 4,000 for the first time in five years.
The average of nearly 20 murders a
year two decades ago has plummeted to between four and six a year over the last
five years, according to city records.
But in getting there, some say
police have crossed moral, ethical and legal battle lines, according to numerous
police department complaints, civil rights lawsuits, Superior Court judges and
local community activists. Multiple allegations of police misconduct are now
subject to a web of internal police, county and federal law enforcement agency
probes.
Some of the more straightforward
allegations include:
·
Gunning down an unarmed black college student who police officers
believed was reaching for a gun, igniting protests from Pasadena to Los
Angeles.
·
Firing multiple times at a black city utility worker's truck after the
worker fires a warning shot to ward off a threatening gang member. Police
filled his truck and the surrounding neighborhood with bullets.
·
Dragging a witness from his home to police headquarters, then assaulting
him to coerce false statements.
The embattled police chief,
meanwhile, has hired a private firm to examine the inner workings of his
department. This includes every case handled by two cops admonished by a state
judge in February after declaring a mistrial in a 2007 murder case because of
"egregious" police misconduct.
While one of the officers allegedly
threatened to charge a witness as an accessory to murder and hand her daughter
over to the Los Angeles County Department of Child and Family Services if she
didn't recant her testimony, another offered to pay her $6,450 in
"relocation expenses" when she finally did. Police officials say the
woman was legitimately placed in a witness protection program.
One of the cops even said in court
he didn't know he was bound by law to hand over evidence that might vindicate
the accused.
"Does he think I'm a turnip
farmer and I fell off my truck on the way to the market?" said Superior
Court Judge Larry P. Fidler, who had presided over the Phil Spector trial,
after declaring Officer Kevin Okamoto and Detective William Broghamer committed
"misconduct."
Okamoto has been placed on paid
leave. Broghamer has been assigned to a desk job.
Sanchez says he's doing everything
possible to investigate the allegations of misconduct levelled at just a few of
his 240 sworn officers. He denies any racial profiling within a department
mostly supervised by black and Latino officers. He says the cops' actions have
been grossly mischaracterized by defense attorneys involved in a handful of
police cases.
"If there are allegations of
misconduct, I'm going to investigate them in a timely manner," said
Sanchez, who joined the Pasadena Police Department three years ago, vowing to
make it more transparent. "Pasadena police officers aren't perfect. They
make mistakes.
"We have a robust internal
affairs (unit) that investigates every allegation."
Controversy over Pasadena police
misconduct flared up a year ago with the shooting of an unarmed black teen on
the city's gang-ridden northwest side.
A year ago this month, a hundred
demonstrators packed the steps of Pasadena's resplendent City Hall to demand
justice for Kendrec "Mac" McDade, who was fatally shot by police in
March 2012. Protesters also marched in downtown Los Angeles, while hundreds
more filled an L.A. church where civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and the
Rev. Al Sharpton called for an end to racial profiling in Pasadena and other
cities across the nation.
Their beef: That two officers
responding to a bogus 9-1-1 armed robbery call had gunned down the 19-year-old
football standout when he appeared to reach for his waistband after dark. The
cops, fearing the young man had a gun, opened fire and killed him. The teen
turned out to be unarmed.
"Why did they shoot me?"
McDade reportedly said as he lay dying.
Since then, the District Attorney's
Office and the Pasadena city prosecutor have declined to file charges against
anyone involved in the case, including the undocumented immigrant who made a
false robbery report that led to the shooting. A police review last month
exonerated both officers, saying they had acted within department policy.
But on the anniversary of McDade's
death last month, his family's outrage was still palpable.
"There aren't too many people
left who want to step up and demand justice," his father Kenneth McDade said
as he choked back tears at a small candlelit memorial. The family has filed a
wrongful-death lawsuit, expected to be tried next year.
Pasadena had once been a city of
refuge. Founded more than a century ago by Hoosiers fleeing a frigid winter for
the perfume of San Gabriel Valley orange blossoms, it soon became a winter
resort for vacationing moguls of industry. Its Millionaire Row offered solace
to chewing gum magnates, soap makers and carpet sweeper kings. Its tidy
Craftsman-style bungalows also offered relief from Victorian architectural
excess.
Today, the genteel burg 11 miles
northeast of Los Angeles is best known for its Rose Parade, viewed by millions
worldwide. Its majestic Colorado Street Bridge, now celebrating its 100th year.
Its Caltech, Jet Propulsion Lab, Arts Center College of Design and soaring
federal appeals court. As well as its classic bungalows, historic downtown and
art museums that woo connoisseurs of taste from throughout the region. It's
also known as the hometown of Jackie Robinson, who played baseball, football
and basketball and ran track at Pasadena Junior College.
All within a city of 138,000 - where
39 percent are white, 34 percent Latino, 14 percent Asian and 11 percent black,
according to the U.S. Census. Despite median family earnings of $68,000,
Pasadena ranks second to San Francisco in the statewide gap between rich and
poor, with 15 percent of the population living below the poverty line,
according to the U.S. Census.
Despite the disparity, the alleged
police misconduct rankles civic leaders who don't see it squaring with the
city's august image.
While some believe the city has no
problem with racial prejudice, it was among the last school districts in the
country to implement desegregation. Most of the others were in the deep South.
Court-ordered busing resulted in massive amounts of parents pulling their
children from public schools and placing them into private institutions.
Pasadena attracted significant national attention as the first western city
ordered by federal courts in the post-Brown v. Board of Education era to
desegregate its schools.
"Pasadena is a very old city,
has never been known for racism. And it's sad," said Norma Valenzuela,
president of the League of United Latin-American Citizens' Pasadena branch.
"Certain police officers have been racist, even against their own.
"We're known for our roses, our
parades, our Rose Bowl. Police misconduct, it's just bad press."
The allegations - involving a
half-dozen cases, two pending civil suits, a flurry of police complaints and
nine officers - would make most heads spin. Investigations against at least
three police officers are still pending.
They include the case of McDade,
investigated by Detective Keith Gomez, who has been vilified in the family's
civil lawsuit for being directly involved in multiple police beatings and
killings of black men in Pasadena. A former suspect in a murder claimed Gomez
threatened to kill him.
They also include:
·
The case of 18-year-old Shawn Baptiste, who was riddled with bullets by
two alleged gang members at a Pasadena intersection in February 2007. Jerrell
Sanford and Michael Grigsby were both charged with his murder. After Fidler
declared the recent mistrial because of the "egregious" police
investigation by Broghamer and Okamoto, both are expected to be tried again.
·
After the cops on the case, Broghamer and Okamoto, were accused of
interfering with the female witness, they and Gomez were also accused in a
police complaint of battering a witness, 24-year-old Jeremy Carr. In his
complaint, Carr alleged the three cops stormed into his home, spirited him to
police headquarters, handcuffed him to a wall, then beat him in an effort to
extract a lie that would bolster their case.
He didn't, he said, and as a result suffered
injuries to his face, ribs and back. This month, he told his story to police
internal investigators.
·
Meanwhile, another witness in the Baptiste case said he learned that
police had falsely labeled him a snitch - making him a target in the streets.
"It's threatening," said Gary Brunston, 30, of Altadena, outside his
job mentoring troubled kids at the Learning Works Charter School in Pasadena.
"Any time I roll through the neighborhood, somebody could shoot at
me."
·
There is also the case of Edward Damas, who pleaded no contest for
joining another assailant in brutally disfiguring a man during a brawl in
February 2009 at the Wokcano Restaurant & Bar.
A bar employee accused Okamoto in a
police complaint of pressuring him to wear a wire during a chat inside Damas'
jail cell - violating state laws against self-incrimination.
Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz
also accused the policeman in court last year of failing to turn over witness
information, transcripts and audio recordings that Damas' attorney said could
free his client. The judge later cleared the officer of knowingly hiding
evidence.
"I would be kidding myself if I
thought my client was the first person this happened to," said attorney
Michael Kraut, a former deputy district attorney and a whistleblower in the Los
Angeles Police Department's Rampart corruption scandal. "The question is:
How many times has he hidden evidence?"
Among the cases getting a second
look is that of Sherwin Williams, a black city utility worker charged in
December, 2010 for firing at police, and injuring one officer.
On the night of Dec. 27th, the
44-year-old Fontana resident pulled into a Pasadena parking lot, only to be
confronted by a gang member who'd once stabbed him, according to a civil
lawsuit Williams filed against police. Williams said he fired a warning shot.
The gang member then reported the incident to police, he said.
Police responded by peppering
Williams' pickup with 22 bullets, damaging nearby cars. They later accused him
of being a gang associate - and injuring a cop. During a jury trial in 2011,
Williams was acquitted of all charges. No officer said to be injured was
identified. Afterward, his attorneys said police failed to turn over some 500
crime scene photos during the trial.
Williams has since sued the city for
excessive force. The trial is expected to begin this summer.
Finally, the litany of police
misconduct allegations include the case of Matthew Deuel, charged with public
intoxication and resisting arrest in June 2011 after a soccer game at the Rose
Bowl. Since then, Deuel has sued the city, claiming two officers violated his
civil rights by filing a false police report saying he was drunk. One of the
officers later admitted he lied in the police report. A doctor who'd seen him
in the ER said during a court deposition that the patient was not intoxicated.
One attorney in another Rose Bowl
case claimed Okamoto, the maligned officer, had asked him for airline tickets
to Hawaii in exchange for not arresting the father of a man who'd allegedly stabbed
someone in December 2010. Sanchez said the allegation was unfounded, that an
internal investigation had cleared the officer.
Meanwhile, one defendant in a recent
murder case has made the various misconduct allegations a basis for his
defense.
But there is irony that a city whose
Police Department is run by minorities must defend itself against allegations
of racial profiling.
Brown, of the NAACP, can reel off
numerous suspicious police shootings of black residents. But he was quick to
commend Sanchez and the city for its police reforms, especially during the past
year. He sees reason to hope.
"The chief is not taking any
hostages," he said. "Under Chief Sanchez, there has been change.
Officers cannot do what they used to do without facing disciplinary
action."
Since the former deputy chief for
Santa Monica came aboard, Sanchez has called for greater accountability,
including disciplinary action, for officers. He set up a system of receipts for
complaints against police, easily filed online, a computer system to track
problem cops, as well as protect the city from liability. And he's instituted a
central complaint desk.
The chief, who had founded Santa
Monica's SWAT unit, said he has aimed to raise the bar for professionalism in
Pasadena.
Last year, the department made 8,700
arrests, while employing categorical force 53 times, or in less than 1 percent
of cases, he said.
The department also investigated 84
police complaints, including 28 targeted at potentially problem cops, ranging
from rudeness to excessive force to unauthorized search warrants, according to
a police report. Of those, 16 were sustained, which included 10 reprimands,
four suspensions and two fired cops, Sanchez said. Forty-five complaints are
still under investigation.
Many of the allegations against
Okamoto, Broghamer and Gomez were generated by a single source: attorney
Michael Kraut, who filed eight complaints, only one of which has been
sustained, said Sanchez, while three remain under investigation.
Last winter, the Los Angeles County
District Attorney's Office exonerated both officers involved in the McDade
shooting, saying they believed they were under fire when they shot the unarmed
teen. The officers were also cleared by an internal affairs police
investigation.
"While I think the conduct of
these officers is concerning, it doesn't mean they are integrity
violations," said the 55-year-old chief. "We have great people. These
allegations have been exaggerated.
"However, the internal affairs
investigators will determine what occurred. And if my officers violated
department policy, or the law, they'll be held accountable. However, if the my
officers are exonerated, then we'll move on ... and go back to the daily
discharge of our duties, and striving for excellence."
Nonetheless, some civic activists
are calling for an independent police commission, comprised of members with
legal and civil rights backgrounds.
"We need an independent body to
look at these issues - police corruption, misconduct, fatal shootings,"
said Randy Ertll, executive director of El Centro de Accion Social, an advocate
for the poor that stages an annual peace walk. "There needs to be a
feeling of safety, so that people don't get shot by police or gang members,
because certain areas are not safe in Pasadena.
"It's deceiving: we have the
Rose Parade image, but the reality is different."
