River City: The drought continues

According to the Press Enterprise, the thousand dollar trout is still swimming around in Lake Evans after none of the 4,000 people who attended the fishing derby last month succeeded in catching it.

Next year, it will be upped to $2,000 for the person who catches the elusive fish.

Lake Evans is unfortunately best known as the dunking pool of choice, for former Riverside Police Department officers, Phillip Graham, Tommie Sykes and Jason McQueen who in the summer of 1997 beat a Latino man and tossed him in the lake. Two of the officers were later prosecuted, albeit on misdemeanor assault charges even though Jose Martinez was hospitalized for over a week with his injuries and a related case of pneumonia.

The three officers were supposed to meet up for dinner at McDonalds on University Avenue for burgers and fries. Instead, Graham and McQueen who were traveling together picked up an inebriated Martinez and grumbled about how long it would take them to have their dinner. Whether it was due to anger over a delayed meal or deeper inadequacies, Graham and McQueen instead drove Martinez in the opposite direction from both his home and the county jail facility. They drove about a mile to Fairmount Park where the lake awaited.

At some point, Sykes joined them and the three of them beat Martinez and after swinging him, flung the man who was completely unable to swim into the lake. Apparently, Martinez could do enough to survive and he hid in the grass bordering the lake until he was sure the officers were gone.

It took a while after Martinez reported it first to a sergeant and then other department representatives before an investigation was conducted. Graham's instability and temper would be unleashed at a local restaurant later and he would be facing felony assault charges in that case after he refused to cooperate with two Riverside Police Department officers who appeared to assist him and then ultimately arrested him. Graham had attacked several employees at the Carlos O'Brien restaurant, breaking one's wrist.

Some blame Graham's disastrous career on racial affirmative action, but apparently, according to a Press Enterprise article written several years before the "lake incident", Graham's prowess on the gridiron may have played a larger role in his recruitment and hiring by the police department which wanted him to play on its intramural football team.

If that is indeed true, that would surely be the nadir of the city and police department's hiring practices, which several former city employees including those who worked in the Human Resources Department in the 1990s said were very loose and lax especially in the fire and police departments. Basically, she said, that if anyone in either department or the city wanted to get someone hired, they were hired. This included what are called "legacies" who are relatives of current employees.

In the early years of this new century, two legacies faced criminal prosecution in two separate incidents. Was there something in their qualifying process that was ignored by those responsible for doing the screening and the hiring? That might never be known.

Psychological testing wasn't a mainstay and one former female city employee said she wasn't even sure when prospective employees submitted urine samples for drug testing, whose samples were actually being submitted.

State Attorney General at the time, Bill Lockyer told an audience in San Diego that it took 18 months negotiation to get the city to agree to performing psychological evaluations on prospective officer candidates.

The city eventually paid Martinez about $550,000 for what its employees had done to him.

That episode of this city's history happened 10 years ago, this past July 5. The department which hired, trained and supervised the officers involved in this incident has undergone many changes and about 80% of the officers who even worked at the department during this time period are gone. That's something that employees in that agency will remind you of over and over again. But has the culture changed with the tides of outgoing and incoming officers?

These questions come to mind, as the police department was forced by the city council to welcome back with open arms at least two and maybe a third officer that had been fired in relation to investigations done involving serious misconduct several years ago. It's not quite Maywood Police Department or Albuquerque Police Department, but it's disturbing that in the state of California, it appears that the heads of law enforcement agencies can no longer terminate officers even for very serious misconduct that officers admit to committing.

The case involving former Det. Al Kennedy comes to mind as one where the arbitrator stated that he had committed seriously egregious misconduct when he had a sexual relationship with a rape victim on a case he was assigned to investigate, but the arbitrator backed off on recommending that his employment be terminated. The case is currently in limbo somewhere at the State Court of Appeals after the city council decided in that instance to contest Kennedy's reinstatement.

Kennedy's transgressions most likely cast a stain on the department's sexual assault division, maybe one that can't be erased any time soon. For that reason, he should have lost his job but arbitrators don't hold police officers to the higher standard that their responsibilities elicit but to a somewhat lower one.

Plus the effusion of praise that nearly always accompanies incidents where law enforcement officers face termination or prosecution for allegations of misconduct is often there. Police officers appear to frown a lot on criminals unless they come from within their own ranks including in the case of one former Riverside Police Department officer who had been charged and convicted of robbing post offices. Even after he was sentenced by a judge, other officers and even one city councilwoman, Laura Pearson, praised the officer's character and his work ethic in the Press Enterprise.



What legacy has been left in the wake of the "Lake Incident"and others like it? A stipulated judgment was eventually forced on the city of Riverside in part because of this incident and others. One of the reforms mandated was a rehaul of the investigative process both in terms of procedures and also in training. As part of the newer training, there was a chapter created addressing what was called the "Lake Incident".

But is how the department sees its own officers different than how they are viewed by other entities outside of the agency?

More recently, a Riverside Police Department officer was involved in an incident in 2004 where allegations of excessive force were raised. A lawyer defending a woman in a criminal case against charges that she assaulted the officer said that she had been acquitted of two misdemeanors and convicted only of the lessor one of obstructing and deterring an officer. The lawyer also claimed that the presiding judge on the case had raised concerns during her sentencing that the officer may have used excessive force. That officer was apparently exonerated by the city based on a complaint filed in relation to that incident.

Jurors in another case who acquitted a man of battering Officer Juan Munoz, who had yet to be fired and reinstated on the force, said afterwards that they had been concerned about the officers' conduct during the April 2004 traffic stop. The man filed a complaint against another officer in relation to that same stop alleging excessive force and the Community Police Review Commission delivered only its second sustained finding on an excessive force complaint in its history, according to its statistics. That finding of course was later tossed out by the city manager's office, according to a letter he received.

So amidst the changes in the agency, some questions still remain to be answered in terms of the accountability of the processes involved in the department and whether they are effective. To many people, the department's newly imposed Early Warning System remains shrouded in secrecy. The CPRC is being micromanaged into the ground by the city manager's office apparently in response to ongoing issues that the city must still be addressing with the police department which also appears to be currently under the micromanagement of that office.







Up in Colton, the local government is trying to figure out how to tackle the huge bottleneck involving freight trains trying to pass through that region, according to the Press Enterprise. Of course, everyone has a different idea on how to accomplish this.


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The agency is set to vote Wednesday on awarding a $3.7 million contract to begin preliminary design, engineering and environmental work for the Colton Crossing, an intersection along Interstate 10 in Colton where the Union Pacific and BNSF railroad lines meet.

More than 150 trains, carrying goods from the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports to the rest of the country, go through the Inland region every day but many of them must come to a halt at the crossing, which becomes a four-way stop.

The study, which will take about three years to complete, will look at a proposal to build a bridge at least 30 feet tall so the east-west Union Pacific line would be elevated above the north-south BNSF line.

The project, which is still several years away from construction, is estimated to cost $150 million to $200 million, according to SANBAG.



The bottleneck is believed to be a major contributing factor behind the decision by both BNSF and Union Pacific railroad companies to turn the city of Riverside's intersections into their personal parking lots. This has led to delays often lasting hours at many of the city's 25 or so railroad crossings. Sometimes they stop to allow another train to pass, or to change work crews so they won't be working past their legally allowed time limits. However, on more than one occasion, engineers have stopped their trains across city streets to take a lunch break, of course leaving hundreds of motorists unable to take theirs not to mention hindering the ability of emergency vehicles to navigate through the impromptu parking lots.

As more local elected officials experienced their "click" moments, they become more concerned about the gridlock in the railroads that cause intersections to be blocked for up to six hours daily. Candidate Mike Gardner, who will face Ward One incumbent Dom Betro this autumn, discussed this issue at several campaign stops, expressing his belief that addressing the bottleneck at Colton would address Riverside's problems as well.

Councilman Frank Schiavone is still pledging to put an initiative on the autumn ballot that would levy hefty fines at train companies which park their trains on city streets. Many people remain doubtful that would be enforced. Most likely, Union Pacific or BNSF will treat the city of Riverside how the city has treated Ken Stansbury on his eminent domain ballot initiative, which is to sue in order to challenge the legality of the measure.

If that indeed happens, I think some would call it karma.





Former Los Angeles Police Department deputy chief and current Savannah, Georgia Chief Michael Berkow is back in the news again, according to the Associated Press. Berkow is being sued for allegedly exchanging promotions for sexual favors involving several female officers in the LAPD.


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Attorneys for the city sought to dismiss the lawsuit, saying Sgt. Ya-May Christle's lawyer did not state sufficient facts in the lawsuit to support the allegations.

However, Superior Court Judge William Fahey on Thursday tentatively denied that motion and set a trial date for Sept. 24. He ordered Berkow to come to Los Angeles to give his deposition to Christle's attorney.

Sgt. Christle's claims against Berkow and the city include sexual harassment and retaliation. Christle contends she was demoted and transferred when she complained.





A San Francisco Police Department sergeant has plead not guilty to charges that he had sex with a minor in his car, according to the San Francisco Examiner.

Oakland Police Department officers discovered Sgt. Donald Forte, 58, in a car with a 14-year-old prostitute and arrested him.

The department that employs him said it's possible that given how old Forte is, he might plan to collect retirement.


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Forte was placed on unpaid leave after the arrest, San Francisco police Sgt. Steve Mannina said. He remains on leave without pay while his legal proceedings and a concurrent administrative investigation take place.

While it is not uncommon for workers of retirement age to retire when facing discipline, Mannina said Forte has not done so. The San Francisco Department of Human Resources indicated he has not filed retirement papers.

“He hasn’t been convicted of a crime. He has every right to retire. He’s got service; he’s got age. He’s put in 37 years at the department,” Mannina said.