I am the Camera: The grand jury speaks

"I am the camera's eye. I am the machine that shows you the world as I alone see it. Starting from today I am forevcr free of human immobility. I am in perpetual movement. I approach and draw away from things--I crawl under them--I climb on them--I am on the head of a galloping horse—I burst at full speed into a crowd--I run before running soldiers—I throw myself down with the aeroplanes--I fall and I fly at one with the bodies falling or rising through the air"


----Dziga Vertov





The Riverside County Jury issued a report involving the county jail facilities, according to the Press Enterprise.

One recommendation it made was for the installation of more video cameras. The grand jury recommended them for security reasons, but they can be used to record misconduct by correctional deputies as well even if Sheriff Bob Doyle isn't pointing that out.

Several years ago, two deputies beat a male inmate to a pulp after he had asked them for more toilet paper. The two employees are currently facing criminal charges for assault under the color of authority. Charges of sexual battery under the color of authority were also filed against deputies in facilities including that in Indio in recent years.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



The recently released study stated that the county should use all technology available to maintain supervision. It cited inmate complaints and jail areas not under camera surveillance as reasons to add more.

The county is trying to fill 54 new positions for correctional deputies at the five jails throughout the county, which together confine more than 3,500 inmates a day, said Sheriff Bob Doyle.

The jails are required by federal court order to begin releasing inmates once they reach 98 percent capacity. That leaves much of the county's jail system filled with people accused of violent crimes who are awaiting trail and those convicted of crimes who are waiting to be transferred to the state prison system, which is even more crowded.

For Doyle, that's all the more reason to have more cameras.

"It's good to have visibility wherever we can in the jail," Doyle said.





The county is required to respond back with its own report within 90 days. Maybe the Sheriff's Department could also install digital video recording technology in its cars like the Riverside Police Department is still trying to do. However, given the rash of sexual misconduct cases involving the deputies in that department including that of Deputy David Kushner, it might be more useful to have cameras that record inside the squad cars.

Quite a few Riverside County Sheriff's Department deputies, both sworn and correctional, have criminal cases traveling through the courts in this county. These deputies were reported both by their alleged victims and by other deputies in their department who apparently were sickened enough by what they saw to turn them in. If that is the case, then their actions should be lauded.

This is what good law enforcement officers do. They report misconduct or suspected misconduct in their fellow officers even at the risk of being ostracized by those including higher-ranking officers who still don't get it.


Here's a status report on some of the deputies who are facing criminal charges:



John Wayne Leseberg: Sexual assault, produce great bodily injury on elderly person, dissuading witness and other charged in two cases, plead guilty to burglary and indecent exposure counts. Sentencing is on July 31.


David Kushner: Kidnapping, oral copulation under the threat of authority, sodomy, rape under color of authority and other charges. Jury trial set for Sept. 4.


Michael Vernal: Assault under the color of authority, destroying evidence. Charges affirmed at preliminary hearing. Heading to trial, no date set.


Antonio Gomez: Assault under the color of authority. Charge reduced to misdemeanor. Case at trial readiness conference stage.


Ronnie Tyrell McPhatter: Felony assault, Assault with a deadly weapon and criminal threats. Preliminary hearing set Aug. 3.


Jeffrey Keith Sanders: Sexual battery, kidnapping, lewd conduct, assault under color of authority and other charges. Awaiting preliminary hearing but no date set.


Mark Steven Barrett: Assault with bodily injury(stabbing). Received nine months house arrest and $44,000 in restitution fine in a plea bargain.


Efrain Santos, jr.: Inflict injury on a child, domestic violence, threats. Charges discharged at preliminary hearing


Angela Carol Parks: Conspiracy to commit solicitation to commit murder, Conspiracy to sell drugs and other charges. Charges affirmed at preliminary hearing and going to trial with no date set.


Would any of these deputies been charged with serious criminal misconduct if there were more video cameras installed? Maybe in some cases like in a enclosed space like a jail or inside of a squad car, but if deputies or any other law enforcement officers want to engage in misconduct, they'll find ways to do it outside of the range of a camera.

Still, it can be a useful tool and some day maybe within the current decade, both the Riverside Police Department and the Riverside County Sheriff's Department will have installed the cameras that the heads of the respective agencies and local governments have promised to provide. Not that it's not entertaining to see the city manager's office in Riverside dance around the issue 10 different ways when asked about it, but it should be done in a more timely fashion than it has been.





The county grand jury is an effective tool for filing complaints. It convenes regularly and investigates complaints involving public agencies within Riverside County. Focus of the complaints are allegations of malfeasance and/or legal actions not carried out in a legal manner.

That still doesn't leave them with much time to investigate complaints if all of them out there were filed. Perhaps, there needs to be two grand juries.

Here's a FAQ on what it does. Here are its most recent reports including this latest one which is the one titled, Riverside County Sheriff's Department-Corrections. If you want to file a complaint with the grand jury, here's an application form.

Before you all line up at once, here's some food for thought. The city of Riverside has been the object of a number of grand jury complaints on everything from its housing of private corporations rent-free in the basement of City Hall, to its hiring practices, to that little alleged incident involving Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis, his gun and the woman outside the video rental store and the Riverside County Sheriff's Department's handling of it.

Not one word, report or even peep back on any of them. Remember the grand jury is sitting under a county agency.





Here's the Early Warning System candidate of the day fresh from San Diego County, courtesy of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Two fatal shootings, three other excessive force law suits and some admitted misconduct by one San Diego County Sheriff's Department deputy, Mark Ritchie, all in three years.

Richie even testified that he had once kicked a man who was handcuffed.

Coming under fire is District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis who cleared Ritchie in all of his shootings in addition to clearing five deputies involved in five separate shootings which all took place in the Vista area in 2005.







The State Attorney General's office backed Dumanis' decision in one of Ritchie's shootings, that of Jorge Ramirez, but stated in its ruling that it had disagreed with Dumanis' analysis of the incident.

Ramirez had been shot and then lay on the ground wounded while being shot six more times.



(excerpt)


Ritchie told investigators that after he wounded Ramirez, he shot him six times in the chest to “eliminate” the threat he posed because he feared two other robbers would ambush him from behind, according to an internal sheriff's report on the incident, which was obtained before the attorney general's report by The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Ritchie, who worked in the county jails for more than three years before transferring to patrol duty, still faces legal action for the shooting: Ramirez's parents sued the deputy in federal court on claims of excessive force and wrongful death.

Ramirez's father acknowledges that his son was a gang member and drug addict, but said that does not justify his death.

“I would like to see the cops use less force when they are doing their job,” Benny Ramirez said in a recent interview at his Escondido home. “I can't accept he's dead. I keep thinking he's going to do some time and be home in six months.”










Anther day, another internal investigation involving a Los Angeles Police Department officer, according to the Los Angeles Times. It sounds like a cliche but this unit is very busy.



(excerpt)



LAPD Internal Affairs Cmdr. Jim Voge said an officer is the subject of an investigation for shooting the video, and the matter has been referred to his commanding officer for a disciplinary decision. Voge declined to name the officer or provide further details, citing personnel rules.

In a statement to The Times, Harvey Levin, managing editor of TMZ.com, said the firm does not comment on where it gets its material.

Law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation, who spoke on the condition that they not be named, said the officer told investigators he gave the video shot with a cellphone camera to TMZ because he thought it would be fun. Investigators so far have no evidence that the officer was paid for the video clip, the two sources said, but they are still investigating.






The attornies for Riverside Police Department Officer Ryan Wilson submitted more paperwork in court in relation with Wilson's legal efforts to get the Community Police Review Commission to toss out its sustained finding of excessive force against him on the 2004 shooting of Summer Marie Lane.

It's kind of convoluted in terms of trying to figure out exactly what the legal argument is and it's even more confusing to try to guess why the legal eagles are focusing their attention on the CPRC's public report, which isn't binding, and not addressing its official finding, which is binding, in any way, shape or form. Someone from City Hall needs to explain to them what the difference is between the two. The problem is, everyone, including the plaintiffs and the defendants, is on the same page on this troublesome issue.

That said, Wilson and his attorneys are to be commended for at least keeping their legal arguments and rationale transparent. The city has thus failed to do this so far. While the civil courts have records that the city's attorneys have submitted responsive briefs to Wilson's writ, thus far they have yet to be imagined to facilitate the public's access to them. Even with layoffs in the court clerk's office, the delay is still highly unusual given that the writ is scheduled to be heard at the end of this month.

What's interesting is how the attorneys now are alleging that the CPRC has advocated charging Wilson with either murder or manslaughter charges simply because legal language was used by a police commission which uses legal analysis all the time. In fact, the "exonerated" finding used legal language in that it described an action as "legally justified and proper" before it was changed soon after the Lane case's disposition was released. Apparently, the powers that be at City Hall realized how that put them in a bind.

Still, commissioners deliberate allegations of criminal conduct against officers frequently which requires the use of a legal standard.

Chief Russ Leach was deposed in this case and fought hard for his officer, so if Leach has a high regard for him and he's the one who makes all the decisions then Wilson's in fine stead in his job. Leach did aver that he couldn't send Wilson on a ride along with an NBC reporter because he did not want to hear the end of it.[italics, lawyer's]

That's of course in the same deposition that Leach said he would promote Wilson regardless of public opinion if he fulfilled the qualifications for the position, which weakened Wilson's legal argument though I'm fairly sure that wasn't Leach's intention.

After the CPRC issued its findings, Wilson was assigned to be a POPs officer, a rather prestigious position which puts him front and center in the community where he's assigned at any given time. Before that, he had been assigned to receive SWAT training, again a really prestigious position for an officer to be in who had only been employed by the agency a scant three years.

Even under the remote possibility of Wilson being tracked through the department's Early Warning System, Wilson would still be in excellent stead. A recent study of early warning systems showed that officers being tracked by these systems in their agencies had a slighty increased chance of receiving promotions.


(excerpt, Samuel Walker, Geoffrey P. Alpert, and Dennis J. Kenney, National Institute of Justice, 2001)



One disturbing finding was a slight tendency of early warning officers to be
promoted at higher rates than control officers. This issue should be the
subject of future research, which should attempt to identify more precisely
whether some departments tend to reward through promotion the kind of
active (and possibly aggressive) behavior that is likely to cause officers to
be identified by an early warning system.



It seems that far from what was implied or stated in the deposition and accompanying legal briefs that Wilson's career has flourished instead of languished. It's odd how those who dislike the CPRC flip flop from insisting that it's an irrevelent body, then in the next breath(or legal document) acting like it's lord and master over the police department.

Interesting assumption that Leach would as he said, never hear the end of it, given how many complaints he has heard so far on even the idea that he would consider sending Wilson out with a reporter. How many complaints has Leach ever received about officers being assigned to ridealongs by those who he believes would never let him hear the end of it?



*pin drop*

Canary in the Mine: Politics and process

While perusing the political notebook briefs section in the Press Enterprise, I saw a notice regarding candidates lining up to run for two available seats in the California State Assembly next year.

What was so interesting wasn't the news about the candidates who were planning to toss their hats in the ring for positions currently held by Bonnie Garcia and John J. Benoit who will term out at the end of 2008, it was the news that one prospective candidate was already dropping out of the contest before it really had even begun.


That candidate, Linda Soubirous had already ran for a political office when she took on Riverside County Board of Supervisor Bob Buster in 2004. It was surprising to hear that she was taking her political ambitions and her 0-1 record to the state level rather than trying again at the county level first. It was not nearly so surprising to hear that she wasn't going to run for that office after all.


Why is that the case?


Because several weeks ago, Soubirous was appointed by the Riverside City Council to represent Ward Four on the Community Police Review Commission when four members of the city government voted to approve her selection. Those four included Ward Four Councilman Frank Schiavone who announced several weeks ago that he intends to run against Buster for the county supervisor position that Soubirous had tried and failed to net for herself four last time out. Before her selection for the CPRC, rumors had been floating around that Soubirous was considering another run at Buster's seat.

Schiavone was joined by council members Ed Adkison, Nancy Hart and Steve Adams. Why Adkison's vote is so important in this case might be more apparent next year. For now, Soubirous had enough votes to get a seat on the commission. So now she's got the commission to keep her occupied, hopefully too occupied to keep her from seeking political office especially one where she might step on someone else's toes.


Two city council members, Dom Betro and Art Gage, cast no votes at all for any Ward Four candidate to serve, for reasons that apparently differed greatly from each other. And as to whose reasons for removing themselves from the selection process arose from higher moral principles, the answer might surprise you.

Gage said that he didn't support having anyone on the CPRC who arose from a law enforcement background and cited her past financial support by several law enforcement labor unions including the Riverside Police Officers' Association as one of his concerns. The words of any governmental official up for election has to be taken with a grain of salt but this was the answer that Gage provided when asked.



Betro didn't provide a reason for not casting a vote, but defended the city council's flip-flop vote on the Ward Six representative by saying that when there's a tie, the council compromises. And he's absolutely right. The city council has thoroughly compromised the CPRC during the past six months and it hasn't even needed a tie vote to do that. Not with its current city management team in place.



That statement, with the key word being compromise, might explain and has explained a lot of things both in terms of how the current city council operates in general and its behavior towards and against the CPRC. Last year, the city council changed its mid-term selection process for three of the city's boards and commissions including the CPRC. So far under that current process, it has made it clear that its selections will become increasingly politicized as positions on the CPRC become items that different elected officials can bid on and barter for, as has become the case beginning last year. Maybe that's what the word, compromise means.


As for Soubirous, it was not clear when she had put her application in for the position except that it had not been received before the annual appointment period for the city's board and commissions which took place in March. Copies of it were not available at the city council meeting where the selection process took place. But then that's the case with political appointments. Members of the public are not provided with copies of their applications to read, as most often they are said to have gotten lost or delayed some place.



What's more clear is that her departure from the state assembly race followed her selection onto the CPRC. In one sense, if she's dropping her political ambitions to show her commitment and dedication to her new role as a CPRC commissioner then that's one way to show those qualities.



On the other hand, if she's dropping out of the race because she's been selected to the CPRC and elected officials knew that going in, then that's a problem. One sure way to sort through all the intrigue is just to watch and see if there are any city officials looking for new jobs in the political arena who may plan to jump into that assembly race by next year.



Any medium with a crystal ball can tell you that one place to look first for prospective state assembly candidates is for the last name, first initial to be at the very beginning of the alphabet rather than its end.



But now that Soubirous is on, why weren't the issues raised about her prior endorsements and campaign contributions by any of the city council members? Why did several of them apparently know that she had the votes before they even cast them if had abided by the Brown Act and not discussed the appointments prior to the vote?


Again, that word, compromise. Wait long enough and it will become clear what was promised to the city council members who didn't contest Soubirous' appointment as a conflict of interest. Hopefully whatever it was and whoever it does benefit is worth it to the city's residents who trusted a selection process used by the city council that was to be fair, equitable and transparent. Trust that it's growing more clear, has been very much misplaced.



Another question to ask would be have you ever heard of the term, quid pro quo? Welcome to the board and commission selection process in the city of Riverside.



Most people who apply to the city's boards and commissions really believe that they have a chance to be appointed to serve on one of them, but more and more the people who are getting picked to fill those spots especially on really "important" commissions like the CPRC are those who either have served on other boards and commissions or who are currently serving on a board or commission and want to bail off that one to seek the "greener pastures" of the CPRC.



Most of those who apply, even those with impressive resumes filled with years of community service don't make it through the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee's selection process. To get out of that committee, it all depends on who you know, especially if that elected official sits on that committee. Are you on a first-name basis with the city's elected officials like the past four individuals selected to the CPRC have been or would you refer to them by their governmental titles because you don't know them?



You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours and so forth. Expect to see more of that philosophy in future appointments to the CPRC because when it comes to treating the CPRC like a toy, the city manager's office isn't the only game in town. For all the talk about the city manager's office intending to "improve" on the CPRC, Brad Hudson and Tom De Santis appear more intent on micromanaging it much as they've been doing with the police department.

The results so far? A reduction in complaints filed including from several of the city's neighborhoods where they stopped filing them completely last year. What is also being seen is a slow, but steady increase in civil litigation being filed against the police department especially during the latter six months of last year.



What is past is prologue. Riverside is coming full circle again.




In Sacramento, there's been more appointments of Black and Latino judges according to this article in the Press Enterprise.



(excerpt)



Schwarzenegger agreed last summer to work for greater diversity on the bench as part of a political compromise to get a funding bill passed for 50 new judgeships.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, had cut the number to 25 until the governor agreed to supply annual reports on the makeup of the state judiciary and applicants for its openings and make other efforts to improve diversity on the bench.

Riverside County will get seven new positions, combined with seven planned or announced retirements for 2007, said Riverside County Presiding Judge Richard Fields, who is the county's first black jurist. Four of the retirement positions already have been filled.

Among the appointments made since mid-April were the county's first black woman jurist, Irma Poole Asberry. The county, which has a 41 percent Hispanic population, now has two Latino judges with Wednesday's appointment of Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Angel Bermudez to the bench.

[Richard]Fields called the number of openings this year "unprecedented. ... The entire face of the Riverside County bench is going to change."




Still, it's mostly White men who sit on the judicial benches with over 70% of judges being White and 75% of them are male. About 6.3% o.f all judges in California are Latino with 4.4% apiece being Black and Asian-American.


Both Riverside and San Bernardino Counties will be receiving about seven new judges to address the growing shortage of judicial officers. As a result of that shortage, Riverside County is about 1,000 felony cases behind schedule and its civil courts have been virtually shut down since last summer.




In Los Angeles, the Police Protective League is calling on the department to further train its offices in crowd control, according to the Los Angeles Times. The department's labor union is proposing its own list of recommendations stemming from the May Day incident along with those that likely will be generated by other investigations taking place.



(excerpt)


The union said changes can avoid a repeat of the "kind of missteps" seen May 1. League officials on Monday called for all new officers in the Metropolitan Division, the unit involved in the melee, to attend "new person school" to ensure they are trained immediately in crowd-control tactics. The union also called for all command officers to be required annually to attend crowd-control management classes.

"Constant, updated training ensures that officers know not only what to do, but can implement the department's policies, procedures and expectations for any given incident," said league President Bob Baker. "The May 1 incident revealed the downside of the department's cost-based decision over the past several years to abandon introductory training for new Metropolitan Division officers, and to not train all officers for large tactical situations."



These recommendations and others including mandatory training for all credentialed media in terms of how to act in these situations where they're attacked by police officers come as the city council prepares to receive a briefing from LAPD Chief William Bratton on the status of the department's own investigations into the incident where over 60 Metro officers stormed into MacArthur Park, hitting dozens of people assembled there with their batons and shooting them with less lethal bullets.




Capt. Colleen Walker will be in charge of the Coachilla and La Quinta cities' police services. She's the Riverside County Sheriff's Department's only female captain.


(excerpt)



"She'll fine-tune it," he said of Walker, adding that she was his second-in-command during his first year at the Indio station and is familiar with procedures and programs.

Walker has raised three children while she and her husband worked full-time. She's faced bullets and survived being hit on the head by a drunk, she said.

The new role will offer challenges, but she's ready to confront them with an open mind, she said.

"I like to think differently about how to solve the problem," Walker said.



Walker said that she's intent on keeping the current programs including Neighborhood Watch in place.