Five before Midnight

This site is dedicated to the continuous oversight of the Riverside(CA)Police Department, which was formerly overseen by the state attorney general. This blog will hopefully play that role being free of City Hall's micromanagement.
"The horror of that moment," the King went on, "I shall never, never forget." "You will though," the Queen said, "if you don't make a memorandum of it." --Lewis Carroll

Contact: fivebeforemidnight@yahoo.com

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Location: RiverCity, Inland Empire

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

What's the bounty for sexual abuse?

The latest chapter in the pitiful saga surrounding former Det. Al Kennedy took a rather unfortunate turn when presiding Judge Stephen Cunnison in Riverside County Superior Court denied petitions filed by both parties. Because of his ruling, the decision made by an arbitrator to reinstate Kennedy without seniority or backpay stands.

This is bad news for the residents of the city of Riverside, because Kennedy had been fired by Chief Russ Leach in 2001 for admitting to sexual misconduct with a rape victim on a case under his investigation. The woman filed a civil rights law suit alleging coerced sexual relations under the color of authority, battery and other violations. The city settled with her shortly after, for $25,000.

So what's the city to do now?

The city council has three choices. It can reinstate Kennedy back on the force, or it can dig back into his professional history and drag out a convenient physical or psychiatric injury to retire him on. The only option, and by far the least likely is that the city council could vote to appeal Cunnison's ruling at the state court of appeals.

Given that Kennedy was a veteran officer with nearly 30 years on the force, the most likely outcome of this travesty will be a retirement. He will probably wind up with half of his highest annual salary without taxes each year for the rest of his life. What is called, a bounty. The bounty for committing sexual misconduct with a woman, is a great one in this city. Sickening as it is, it would be far better than returning this disgrace back into the fold of the police department.

Now, with the decision made, the case heads back into closed session probably in the upcoming weeks where the city council will hear its options and make its decision whether to pay another bounty to yet another White officer who screws up. Then these same council members will hang out at the annual auction held by the Rape Crisis Center as if they did not just pay off a man who if not a rapist, surely falls under the category of creepy sexual predator. Capt. Michael Blakely, who is on the board of the Rape Crisis Center will act as if he weren't the one who only recommended a written reprimend as discipline for Kennedy's actions. The double standard between civilian sexual predators and cop sexual predators will continue undisturbed.

Travails of Al Kennedy

1 Comments:

Blogger The Stark Raving Viking said...

It is absolutely disgusting regarding the levels of police lying, perjury, sexual assaults, thefts, beating, killings, and other misconduct.

I proposed Civilian Oversight of Police to elected officials in Stafford Springs, Connecticut, and also complained about cops and corrupt courts in newspapers.

An incident where I returned home to my dark driveway and was jumped, beaten, and threatened with death if I didn't give up my wallet was used to maliciously prosecute me.

I was sentenced to a year in prison, 3 years probation for having used pepper spray. The criminal wasn't arrested and was given immunity.

Try putting "Steven G. Erickson" in a search engine.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005 6:49:00 PM  

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