CPRC 2008: The $395,000 finding

(First in an ongoing series)



"Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it."

---Lewis Carroll

According to court documents, the City of Riverside has paid out $395,000 to settle a law suit filed in connection with the 2004 fatal officer-involved shooting of Summer Marie Lane by police officer, Ryan Wilson.


Lane was shot to death after Wilson walked behind her stationary vehicle up to her driver side window and fired his service weapon three times inside the car, striking her. Initially, in a December 2004 briefing before the Community Police Review Commission, a department representative had said that Wilson had fired at Lane while on the ground behind her car as she was backing towards him. The department later called that a "minor" misstatement of facts.


Lane was Wilson's second onduty shooting. In January 2003, he and his field training officer, Jose Loera shot and killed Robert McComb after a traffic stop and pursuit after he allegedly pointed a handgun at them. At the time, Wilson had been on the force for about three months.

The police department and the CPRC agreed that the McComb shooting was within policy.


However, after reaching the conclusion of their respective investigations in the Lane case, the findings delivered by the parties involved had reached opposite conclusions.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)


The Riverside Police Department's Internal Affairs Unit concluded that Wilson's shooting was in line with the department's deadly force policy. The Riverside County district attorney's office determined that there was no criminal wrongdoing on Wilson's part.

Both an attorney for the family and the Riverside Community Police Review Commission concluded that Wilson was out of the car's path and not in danger when he fired the fatal shots.

"We just thought settlement was in the best interest of the city to bring the matter to a close," said Supervising Deputy City Attorney Jeb Brown.

The money, minus $125,000 in legal fees, will go to Lane's two sons, now ages 9 and 6.
Michael Lane, the boys' father and the husband of Summer Lane, "was willing to forgo everything, including burial expenses, in order to have his boys taken care of," said E. Thomas Barham Jr., who represented the boys.

"It is a tragic case for both the young officer involved and the family of Summer Lane," Barham said in a phone interview. "It's about the danger of methamphetamine and what it can do to an otherwise decent human being."



Mentioned in the article, was a video recording that doesn't appear to be the same one provided for the CPRC by the police department while the commission conducted its own investigation into the shooting death in 2005. That video tape didn't show any footage related to the actual shooting like this one apparently did. But did this video turn the tide in the talks to settle the case?

Perhaps, but there was also that finding by the CPRC against Wilson. The $395,000 finding.


(excerpt)


Barham, a former Los Angeles County sheriff's lieutenant, had access to a video recording of the incident that produced a still image every four seconds.

"It does not show the actual discharge of the firearm, but it shows where the car was and where the officer was immediately after the shooting," he said.

He said the pictures showed Wilson was standing on the driver's side of the car, behind the doorpost. "He was in a proper tactical position to give her orders, and not in a position of danger," Barham said. "She could not have used the car to run over him."

The car was in drive and moved forward after the shooting. Wilson said he did not give a verbal warning before shooting. Brown, the supervising deputy city attorney, declined to comment.



When the CPRC released its finding that Wilson had violated the department's use of force policy when he shot Lane, one chapter of its history ended and another one began. The culmination of that finding was seen for what it was, a $395,000 finding against the city, only this week. By the time this case had settled, much had been done in anticipation of future court dates where settlement talks might take place.


Dates that those on the seventh floor and other corners of the city didn't want to see but couldn't avoid given that a half-dozen law suits involving fatal contacts between police officers and civilians were winding their way through two court systems during the past two years. Law suit settlements and verdicts not only cost the city money but they also attract outside and very much unwanted attention if enough of them pile up over a period of time. Riverside had already been down this road before several times and had no desire to return there.

So the city stepped forward in early 2006, after dismissing the Lane finding the only way it could do so which is by ignoring it, to change its fate, by first taking back its commission. It began holding meetings at City Hall regarding the fate of the CPRC, involving what it believed were the stake holders of the CPRC. Invited were representatives from the City Attorney's office, the City Manager's office, the police department and the chair and vice-chair of the commission. Left clueless for a long time, were members of the community including many leaders.

Discussions about what happened at these meetings were discussed in public during CPRC general meetings and subcommittee meetings quite a bit later as much as they could be in a commission that was bleeding members and becoming increasingly silent in meetings on just about any subject. People in the community were shut out of the process as they would be for the next 18 months left with many questions but no one willing to answer them. After all, the CPRC was created by an ordinance passed by the city council and thus had only been out on loan to the community as it turned out. That was perfectly fine until the CPRC's findings started getting expensive.

For about five years, for better or worse, the commission had been a community mechanism that had weathered all kinds of storms in its path, including the political kind. All that was about to change and ironically or not, it would begin to take place not long after the city's residents voted in every precinct in every ward throughout the city to place the CPRC out of political harm's way into the city's charter. The city was about to respond to this public endorsement of this process by taking it back for its own use, the number one purpose being to reduce the level of risk the CPRC's decision could place on City Hall and the police department.

Helping voters make this decision to pass Measure II was an ill-advised if somewhat expensive campaign launched by the Riverside Police Officers' Association that showed a computer generated photogenic police man all tied up with no place to go and blaming everything from delayed response times to an inability to respond to terrorism on the nine-member panel. Those who approved that advertisement campaign hurt the cause of the RPOA later on when it argued that it was shortages in staffing that caused concern regarding these and other issues.

It was a campaign based on fear, which would precede another much more recent one built on the same principle, a strategy which proved to be much more successful intrinsically than when it had been applied externally.


After receiving about 60% of the vote, the amendment to place the CPRC in the city's charter passed, which no doubt upset some folks on the seventh floor of City Hall. Most upset were members of the GASS quartet who were heavily backed by RPOA money and it's speculated that it was the decision of this quartet to take action involving the CPRC by directing the actions of two of the city council's direct employees, the interim city manager and the city attorney. Even though they would say over and over again that they would not act against the CPRC to respect the will of the voters, few believed them.

Members of GASS were also infuriated at one of their own, Councilman Art Gage who they blamed for the placement of the CPRC out of their political grasp. Gage after all, had tried to push a motion only months before that fateful election to defund the CPRC by up to 95% of its annual budget. In the face of a threatened veto by Mayor Ron Loveridge, Gage couldn't even muster enough support to get a second to his motion made during two afternoon session of the budget reconciliation hearings of 2004. No one was going to risk voting for an unpopular measure that had no way of passing until GASS could find itself a fifth vote to overturn Loveridge's veto. That fifth vote was supposed to have been local prosecutor Paul Fick but he had lost narrowly to Dom Betro in a runoff election for Ward One in 2003.

As you know for this and other sins, Gage was kicked out of GASS which at that point was evolving into a new quartet, known affectionately as BASS. This quartet wasn't opposed to the CPRC so much as it just had better things for which to occupy its time and energy, most notably putting up its name in lights on development projects popping up all over the city as part of the Riverside Renaissance production. If the city manager wanted to play with the CPRC, well he had the blessing of those on the dais to do so as long as he delivered in other areas.

BASS however didn't exactly relish a strong independent CPRC, but one more in line with a vision of a shiny public relations tool to use to facilitate relations between the police department and certain communities that had experienced turbulent relations with the agency in the past. The recent drive to reduce the commission to a body where even its policy recommendations in relation to officer-involved deaths were to possibly remain under wraps is a reflection of that stance regarding the CPRC's function which is held by BASS. But this part came along much later in the latest chapter involving the CPRC.

Before that and the development of BASS, interesting changes came to pass involving the relationship between the CPRC and the seventh floor while GASS still ruled the roost.


Only a mere month after the 2004 election, then executive director Don Williams was removed from his position and then Community Relations Director Pedro Payne was named interim director which meant he was handling two positions at one time. The community was upset by this development because it meant that the CPRC was operating with a director who was only working part-time in what many people felt was a full-time position.


Hudson and Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis remedied that when they blew in from Riverside County to seize the reins of River City by making Payne the full-time executive director but with a caveat attached, meaning that he would be an "at will" employee. Many people realized later on, that this was likely done to set up Payne for being ousted as the director of the CPRC which would send the CPRC in a tailspin and lead to a series of commissioners' resignations. And in autumn 2006, that plan was put into effect, first by banning Payne from attending public meetings held in the community, according to a memo that he received.

This was done allegedly to avoid the perception of bias by the commission against the police department. What it did instead was spread the perception in communities that the commission was meant to be biased in favor of the police department, but the city manager's office didn't care because concerns about the community were at the bottom of its list of priorities involving the CPRC. They were even lower on the list of the city council members directing the city manager's office in regards to its campaign involving the CPRC. As you've seen in recent months, BASS only wants to hear from individuals who applaud its sense of direction.



Payne resigned on Dec. 31, 2006 purportedly to seek out greater career opportunities. No one in the community bought that excuse for a second, knowing that he had been exactly where he had wanted to be. Community members met with Hudson behind closed doors in his office and what did Hudson say? First, he told one group that yes, the CPRC did put the city potentially at risk of civil liability which was probably the most important thing about the panel he's ever said. Then he told them, you'll bring down 30 or so bodies to one city council meeting and then what?

DeSantis was apparently very much into running a lot of city departments including many said, the police department which underwent its own crisis last March when the city tried to convert upper management positions in that agency to being "at will" even though both the police and fire departments weren't allowed to do so. Some say, he tried to even do like with those serving in captain positions. Some other people referred to him also affectionately as the city's head librarian as well as running the Human Resources Department. The same department which used to allegedly hire assistant city managers with masters degrees in management or public administration until things changed for that department in 2005.

Why so many people think this is what's happening with the city manager's office is not clear, but it's a strong sentiment anyway in this city that there aren't really any department heads and any other strongly expressed perception about City Hall is a distant second to this one.

Hudson joked to others that some times DeSantis was a tad bit overenthusiastic at going out to do things but that if he ever caused any problems, Hudson said he would pull him back in line. Whether that's ever happened is anyone's guess. It certainly hasn't seemed so with the CPRC.

The community leaders sat back and waited for their city officials to rescue the commission from the city manager's office, but that rescue never came. In fact, even the "good" city council members voted enthusiastically to bolster Hudson's annual salary into the stratosphere showing that essentially they all endorsed his actions involving the CPRC even as their close supporters insisted otherwise in order to maintain the support that their candidates would desperately need in upcoming elections. We just saw how that played out during this past election cycle.

The community members began to lose faith in a process that viewed them as nuisances rather than stake holders especially as the city council appointed a commission filled with de facto city employees, political candidates backed by RPOA money and individuals being rewarded for their loyalty to elected officials making these decisions. The commission became even more White than the police department, became filled with mostly affluent people who interacted with police officers mostly socially and only by choice and there was no representation by community members from most of the communities where the police officers spent most of their time and energy.

The main questions by neighborhood residents are the following and only the order of them changes.

How many commissioners are people of color? Are Black? Are Latino? How many of them are from my neighborhood? How many of them are from law enforcement backgrounds? Are any of them related to the RPD?

It was enough for one group of city residents to began researching the process for circulating a ballot initiative to change the appointment process of commissioners to the CPRC. It was enough for one neighborhood to stop filing official complaints with the CPRC altogether according to statistics included in this year's annual report released by the CPRC. This year, that's included one involving a man getting beaten badly by an officer only one month ago. Bad enough to leave baton imprints on his body days after the alleged incident.

It didn't become obvious until a later date through court documents filed in connection with a law suit filed by Wilson challenging the CPRC's finding against him but there were other individuals that were furious with the same body that they embraced enthusiastically in public. Chief Russ Leach revealed through his deposition given to RPOA attorney Michael Lackie in February 2007 how furious he was with the CPRC and likely Payne as well for its decision against what he called an outstanding police officer.

Leach had praised the CPRC in public and said it needed more independence. However, his feelings about the body that he expressed to Lackie were quite a bit different than that, more that at least in the case of Wilson, it was too independent?

After all, presiding judge, Dallas Holmes had this to say about Leach's deposition. Leach didn't support the civilian review board, Holmes said, and he himself had never met a police department's management who did. Was he accurate in his statement? Chiefs are always riding the fine line, which is often razor sharp between accommodating the public and not getting fired by those above them in the hierarchy and those beneath them.

So the relationship between the CPRC and the police department like that of the CPRC and City Hall had clearly changed, in the wake of the Lane finding.

What was past, was clearly shown in workshops held by the CPRC in early 2004 where it had hosted different parties, otherwise known as stake holders, involved in the CPRC's operations. What happened during them shows some differences between then and now.


In earlier years, the CPRC had operated under its own steam with minimal involvement from the seventh floor at City Hall. The city manager had so little to do with the commission directly that a 2004 workshop with then City Manager George Caravalho and then Asst. City Manager Penny Culbreath-Graft proved fruitful in learning more about the role of that office in making the final decision on complaints filed against the police department. Many of the commissioners at the workshop had not even met either person let alone had them dictate what items they could discuss during their meetings.

The City Attorney's office? It had so little to do with the commission that questions sent to it for response by commissioners were essentially ignored for months and City Attorney Gregory Priamos declined to attend his own workshop in 2004, citing confidentiality issues as his reason. Many of the commissioners had never met him nor his staff let alone had them dictate what items that they could discuss during their meetings.

Leach told the CPRC that he agreed with it a lot and supported a more independent, stronger CPRC that had a better relationship with the department. It was nothing different than what he had told community members in numerous venues over the years.

The two representatives from the RPOA who deserve some credit for simply showing up, mostly threatened the CPRC with fines, accused it of making "horrible decisions overturned in arbitration" of which it could ultimately only produce one example and disagreeing about what color police cars were driven by "real" police officers. Some commissioners had to be peeled off the ceiling afterwards but it proved to be an educational experience for them, one long overdue.


Contrast that with today, where the City Manager's office essentially ran the commission for 18 months and Priamos or one of his subordinates attends every meeting held by the commission. Also attending are representatives from the police department who during several meetings this year outnumbered people attending from the community. The police department sends representatives to all the CPRC meetings including closed sessions. The CPRC can't talk about anything that's not stamped with approval by either the city manager or the city attorney.

Leach doesn't seem nearly as happy with the CPRC when dishing with Wilson's attorney. And the RPOA has come full circle as shown by its recent election results which stunned mostly everyone except this one.

So what happened?


Not long after City Manager Brad Hudson told the public that he passed the buck on the Lane decision because he was relatively new at the job, having only served six months at that point, he submitted a declaration in the case of Ryan Wilson v the City of Riverside that he basically ignored the public report released by the commission except to say that it was not included in Wilson's personnel record. Curiously enough, Hudson didn't mention the actual finding reached by the CPRC in closed session at all. But then again, neither did anyone else.

In 2003, there were three onduty fatal shootings, all of which would result in law suits being filed against the police department and city. Even though only 16% of fatal incidents involving police officers resulted in civil litigation from 2001 to 2004, that was about to change. More law suits were filed involving more deaths and the litigating rate from 2004 to 2007 increased to over 80% of incustody deaths. All three shooting deaths were to be investigated not just by the police department but also the CPRC as it fulfilled the duty outlined for it in the city's charter.

That left the city, especially its risk management division in quite a dilemma. More litigation meant more legal expenses and potentially high-priced settlements or even worse, jury verdicts. Maybe it dawned on them for the first time that the mechanism they had created to soothe the public upset about the handling of police matters in 2000 could come back to bite them years later unless they kept a firm hold on it.


After all, the previous five years when there had been no sustained findings by the CPRC involving incustody deaths, a very low rate of civil litigation by the families of the deceased, things had been relatively quiet at City Hall except for an exercise in histrionics by a city employee or elected official here and there.

Then came the finding that changed everything and this week, a monetary value was placed on it, but that's only a small portion of its cost.


With the Lane case settled, there remains five other law suits filed in relation to fatal incidents involving Riverside Police Department officers. Two law suits have been filed in both federal and state court involving the 2005 incustody death of Terry Rabb, who died after being restrained by two police officers while suffering from a diabetic episode.


Two law suits have been filed in relation to the 2006 shootings of Lee Deante Brown and Douglas Steven Cloud. Brown was shot and killed by Officer Terry Ellefson after allegedly grabbing Ellefson's taser. Cloud was shot by Officers Dave Johansen and Nicholas Vasquez after crashing his car and allegedly moving his hand towards the center console.


In more recent months, litigation was filed against the city and department in connection with the October 2006 shooting of Joseph Darnell Hill, by his children. Hill was shot by Officer Jeffrey Adcox while allegedly struggling with another officer and grabbing his taser.

The Cloud shooting is next on deck for the CPRC and passed its first-year anniversary as has the Hill case without the CPRC even having received an update on its own investigations. Things have clearly changed in that area as well.



Three out of five of the officer-involved deaths were African-Americans. Both Lane and Cloud were White although Wilson referred to Lane in his interview with investigators as being Latino several times. All five of these individuals were at least initially unarmed. Several were mentally ill or medically incapacitated.

As 2007 fades into the sunset, so will follow 2008 and a new year for the commission, including new episodes which will be discussed in the ongoing series on the CPRC and its "stake holders" both those rubber stamped by City Hall and those who aren't.






Over 3,000 miles away in Riverside, California Jada Bell, daughter of Sean, has been drawing pictures of her father in heaven according to the New York Daily News. Her father was shot to death nearly a year ago, in Queens on the day of his wedding.


(excerpt)

In school, Jada grows silent each time her teacher leads the class in sing-alongs about moms and dads - shrinking away as classmates pipe up about their parents, Paultre Bell found out at a recent parent-teacher conference.


"I had to tell her, just because you don't see Daddy every day doesn't mean that you don't have a father. You always have a father," Paultre Bell said. "He's watching out from up in the sky. You just can't see him."


On Father's Day, Jada's class painted little wooden jewelry boxes. She wrote on the back of hers, "I love you Daddy," and left it at Bell's grave.


The toll is harder to measure with little Jordyn - who's too young to remember or appear in many of the photos and home movies that Paultre Bell relies on to help Jordyn learn about her missing father.


"It's just hard knowing that she'll never know her father. She'll only know him from the home videos that I show her and the pictures," Paultre Bell said.


Three New York City Police Department officers have been indicted by a grand jury on charges in relation to the Nov. 25 shooting of Bell and two of his friends. Their trial date is currently set on Feb. 4. The charges they face range from manslaughter to reckless endangerment.





In Kalamazoo, Michigan, applications are being accepted to fill several at-large positions on the Citizen-Public Safety Review and Appeals Board.


(excerpt, MLive.com)



INFORMATION REQUIRED: Each applicant is asked to disclose an address, phone number, Social Security and driver's license numbers, name, personal/professional references and answer 10 questions about availability, convictions and relationships to current law-enforcement officers.






How long does it take your jurisdiction to decide whether law enforcement officers acted appropriately when shooting individuals? In some counties in Florida, it can take up to two years or longer according to the Orlando Sentinel.


(excerpt)


Asked about Olsson, Clarke and Vidler, Lamar spokeswoman Danielle Tavernier said the cases "were all closed by our office; but the disposition letter never [was] sent out, therefore not notifying the deputies. This is being addressed ASAP."

The explanation angered unions representing deputies and police officers.
"That is ridiculously irresponsible," said Orange County Deputy John Park, president of the Central Florida Police Benevolent Association, which represents 1,300 deputies and supervisors. "All I know it is hurting deputies."

Park knows what it's like to be under scrutiny. In 1999, he waited more than a year to be cleared after he shot and killed a suspect in Taft. He thinks prosecutors pay more attention to the rights of suspects than those of officers enforcing the law.
Officers "should be afforded the right that is afforded every other person," he said. "And that is timely investigation, resolution and notification of their case status."






Seeking the assistance of the FBI is the family of Stacey Peterson, who's been missing since Oct. 28, according to the Chicago Tribune.


Also, former Sgt. Drew Peterson who was married to Stacey had come forward with a letter he had received that said his fourth wife was seen in New Jersey.


(excerpt)



I find it very interesting that Mr. Peterson is placing any value in the letter ... when his original statement was that she took a passport, a large sum of money and a bikini and was heading for the Bahamas," Bosco said at a news conference Friday.

As for reports that Drew Peterson was seen with another man hauling a large blue barrel to his sport-utility vehicle the day his wife disappeared, Bosco said all such leads should be investigated. This month, searchers found a blue barrel in one of many bodies of water they searched but concluded it likely was not connected to the case.

Bosco said Thanksgiving Day was difficult for her family.

Thursday "was a very, very hard day," she said. "Stacy was a family person. She held the family together. The family ... tried to get together, but it wasn't festive at all."



Kathleen Savio's family mourned her again as she was reburied after having two more autopsies conducted to get to the bottom of how she died three years ago, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.



(excerpt)



Savio's sister Susan Savio was too upset to speak, so her son Michael Lysak read her final message during the graveside service:

"You finally told me what happened to you. Now you're in heaven with mom and granny. Justice will be served. I promise you I'll speak your words. I love you."
He read on:

"We would like you to know this is a ceremony of goodbye, to lay to eternal rest, Kathleen 'Kitty' Savio. She endured much in her short time on Earth. She was a beautiful person and many love her. She made many happy, she left many footprints on so many hearts. She will be remembered, and how remarkable is she? She even after death helped to solve her death. She was and always will be a strong, remarkable young woman -- a mother, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a friend to many. As long as she is in our hearts, she will always be near. We will all love you so much, Kitty. Farewell, travel on and be happy. Peace be with you, Godspeed, God rest your soul. Goodbye, baby sister, goodbye big sister."

Marcia Savio offered another farewell:

"Kathleen, Kitty, was laid to rest today to be in eternal rest in peace. She had to go through much, but this is her final journey. She is just going home. She is loved, she'll be missed. We will miss her radiant smile and laugh.
"We, the Savio family, want you to know her father was able to get Kitty one lasting, final gift. From dad to Kitty-Pop [a family nickname given by her dad] a new casket. Kathy would laugh and smile to know it wasn't cheap.

"We needed to accomplish this for Kathleen Kitty on a very limited time frame. Northlake Funeral Home and their crew, Joe and Ruben, were absolutely great, championing behind the family and making a huge effort of getting a casket on time in white, a color she said she wanted, telling that to her sister Susan before."

"Thank you Jackie and Judy, also a great deal of gratitude to the Wilbert Vault Co. for their swift speed for Kathleen.

"Thank you, Greg, this kind act has restored faith in the hearts of some of the family members to know there are still people who respect and care about Kathleen.
"Father Chris was here before and he is here now for her and her goodbyes to us, and ours to her. He is so gracious to be here for Kathleen today, to honor her and send her on a journey. Thank you for giving Kathleen her dignity and respect on this day."