Warning: This Blog Isn't Uplifting for City Hall

UPDATE***** Former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach charged with two misdemeanor counts of Driving Under the Influence in connection with his Feb. 8 car accident. His case number is RIM10003229 and his case comes up for arraignment on March 25 at 1:30pm in Dept. 21. The charges came nearly two months later than they should have and again raise questions on how this incident was handled by Leach's former law enforcement agency.****





Chief Leach has done all he can do for the City and should retire. You see, many present and formers employees of the department know what Chief Leach is - and it’s not a Leader. Over the more than five years that he has been Chief, he has committed acts of malfeasance, and in some cases unlawfulness; has failed to develop leaders capable of leading the department into the future, in spite of the fact that he has promoted the majority of his command and executive staff; has lied and spread rumors about members of the department, has lied to and spread rumors about public officials, including some of you; has caused dissention and dysfunction throughout the ranks; has engaged in unethical conduct unbecoming of a Chief, and has promoted based on favors and friendships rather than merit..



----Excerpt of letter allegedly sent to City Council and Mayor Ron Loveridge not earlier this year but towards the end of 2005. It's not clear whether or not these allegations made were ever investigated by the city council, mayor or their direct employee and Leach's boss, Brad Hudson before the contract was put on the city council agenda for a vote to approve Leach's contract that year. Leach's contract was last renewed at the end of 2009. This letter does make it difficult for those still in City Hall to plead ignorance now about at least any alleged problems with Leach and the police department before the Feb. 8 accident.







I've received different responses to my postings about the situation stemming from the Feb. 8 vehicle accident and traffic stop involving former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach including one that stated that I'm being too hard on City Manager Brad Hudson in my blog postings. That I've accused him of being involved in the cover up involving the initial noninvestigation of Leach's traffic stop and City Hall of not doing enough in response to what happened with Leach during that stop and its aftermath. Everyone's entitled to his or her opinion and I respect his sentiment but our perspectives are just very different and maybe our roles are as well. Different writers including bloggers have different perspectives to add to the dialogue taking place over this incident and there's going to be some differences of opinion as well as information offered from one writer to the next on the same event as it unfolds. It's been interesting to read all the different coverage in different venues since this has all been going on.


This blog is one perspective of many out there and this perspective believes that yes, a cover up took place involving the police chief's contact with his own officers and and one that likely goes beyond just one vehicle accident. If that's the case, City Hall may have absolved itself too quickly in its role through its own probe. Something which given that Hudson is in charge of the probe was fairly easy for him and it to do before the probe's results even make it over to that Best, Best and Krieger lawyer that was hired behind closed doors on the Seventh Floor to provide ahem, "independent oversight". Hired with the tax payer money generated from Riverside's property, sales and other taxes without having to go through any public process of discussion and vote by the city council.

City Hall could have restored more of the trust that's been lost in it, not to mention the police department, by coming up front and inviting an outside agency to conduct a probe of what happened as has been done in other cities. Then maybe the public would find it easier to believe that there was nothing to hide or being hidden. Because the only way to get any type of accountable probe out of Hudson is for the city council and mayor to make it clear to him that his job depends on it and that goes for his legal counterpart in the city attorney's office as well. And it's not clear whether or not there's enough collective leadership on the dais to deliver that message to the council's direct employees and back it up with teeth.

But no, the city went strictly inhouse after doing nothing at all for a couple of days, having the police department conduct the internal investigation, while it was being run by its top management employee left once Leach went on medical leave. An individual who could have very well wound up being investigated himself for covering up Leach's accident. Similar allegations were raised later on by one of the department's detectives who submitted a claim for damages which went essentially unaddressed except through rejection of his claim.

Then Hudson assigned himself the final voice on this inhouse probe even though he could very well have some questions to answer about what happened including before Feb. 8 involving himself, Leach and the police department. That said, it's just really hard to get all that excited and jazzed that City Hall's involvement in any cover up was cleared by its own investigation.

The department itself has experienced a serious loss of public trust which was already flagging a bit in the wake of the arrest and prosecution of at least five of its police officers within a 14 month period. A phenomenon that some attribute to a lack of leadership within the RPD, something which if it's the case would also be investigated but not by anyone who may have questions to answer regarding this problem as well.

The majority of police officers and civilian employees aren't involved in any cover up or the Leach incident nor have they been arrested and/or prosecuted for criminal acts but they are left holding the bag because key individuals in the department's management and that of the city refuse to break their own code of silence and take responsibility for what has happened to cause serious problems and the loss of public trust in the department. And not just from the Feb. 8 incident but from any misconduct or micromanagement by former or current elements of City Hall which preceded that incident and perhaps even contributed to the incident itself and its cover up. These individuals dread public disclosure much more than the reality that they have essentially sold out the vast majority of employees at the police department through their actions first and then their silence and set them up to bear much of the cost of the distrust their own actions have generated.

While it might be too early to state exactly what this cover up is and exactly when it began, it's never too early to be asking some serious questions, many of which still await answers which this blog has done since day one. But many city residents in different forums have been asking these very same questions as well from the beginning and along with this blog and Salvador Santana's blog, are still awaiting answers to even the most basic questions. The hope clearly being that as time passes, people's emotions and memories will fade and then no one will be paying attention when City Hall releases a few terse statements about the Hudson probe. Will there be answers to any of the following questions (taken from a larger list)?



1) Did Brad Hudson mandate that Leach be tested for drugs and alcohol intoxication as mandated by the city' s own policy which requires its employees who crash city-owned vehicles to be tested as soon as possible? A simple yes or no to this question (if not the test results) from Hudson or his designee is allowable for public release under state law.

2) Did Hudson, City Attorney Gregory Priamos, the city's outside law firm (which is likely, Best, Best and Krieger) or the city council fully investigate the allegations that former Riverside Police Officers' Association President Det. Chris Lanzillo make involving the Leach incident and cover up before rejecting his claim? Why was the claim not stayed until the probe being conducted by Hudson was completed since the allegations were related to the probe's purpose?

3) Did Hudson fully investigate the claims of problems made against Leach referred to in the above December 2005 email before Leach's contract went to the city council for a vote that same month?

4) Were Hudson and Priamos honest about any concerns or questions that might have been raised about the involvement of alcohol in the accident?

5) Why was the report written by Sgt. Frank Orta that was released by City Hall in the ahem, interest of transparency missing a signature by a "reviewer" of his report? Why was it handwritten? Was there a signed copy?

6) Why won't the city release the 911 recordings made of phone calls by motorists and the phone records of city-issued phones assigned to police employees including upper management and high-ranking employees at City Hall? It's not the CHP after all, that's blocking these records from being released, it's the city possibly through taking public records and cloaking them in an internal investigation so they become confidential by intent.

7) Why won't the city release any CAD incident sheets in relation to the purported traffic stop conducted by two patrol officers involving Leach on Arlington and Rutland? Again, it's not the CHP that is withholding this information, it's the city.




These are a few of the long laundry list of questions that still remain unanswered to this day, which is frustrating for many people because there's no legal reason why they can't be answered and in the cases of this missing information, why it can't be released. If Hudson is truly interested in public trust and transparency of his process, then he would produce these answers.

My role is not to explain why he doesn't do the right thing or provide excuses for him and defend his actions, my role is to hold his feet to the fire and those of the individuals who disappear behind closed doors twice a year to perform performance evaluations on his work conduct and product. I get inquiries all the time from city residents wondering why Feb. 8 and its aftermath were allowed to happen, why City Hall and the police department are allowed to investigate themselves and whether or not they will ever know the truth about what happened and just as importantly how long it's been happening. Hudson's already answered that question in the press and public forums and the answer is no. In fact when directly asked by individuals at a public forum in Orangecrest if he knew about prior problems about Leach, Hudson quickly demurred. But then what does he have to say, given that the probe he heads has already cleared him? One of those so-called confidential findings that he did throw out at a forum or two was that City Hall had been cleared.

This blog's is not for City Hall nor does it advocate or speak for anyone in City Hall. In fact, a few people there wish it would go away. But Hudson, Priamos, etal really don't need anyone to advocate or speak for them, because they make fairly generous six figured salaries to do their jobs, which require at least rudimentary communication skills including with the public.

And another thing, these individuals in positions of power apparently have plenty of money to hire people including in one notorious case 10 years ago, a public relations firm, to speak for them. They have funds that allow the hiring of legislative aides including one who freely called one woman, "the biggest bitch around" during a city council meeting break and high-ranking employees are allowed to call women "liars" (but then city council members, past and present have done that too, not exactly the best role models for their direct employees). Why when the city's laying off employees, that high ranking management employees are assigned more than one city-owned take home vehicle (given that Leach has had about eight high-priced Chrysler 300s including the one he crashed and some city management employees have had more than one)? But then that's a whole separate line of questioning on the accountability of financial expenditures.

Likewise, I don't agree with Salvador Santana's assertion that the anonymous woman who called Mayor Ron Loveridge to report the accident on the morning of Feb. 8 did it out of envy or as an enemy of the police chief when asking who she is, as the woman scorned. One might argue it's premature to attribute a motive for her actions. It's difficult to say what her motive may have been for placing the call. It would have been because of those things, it could have been a person who felt it was her civic duty to report what had happened to the mayor or felt it was the right thing to do or was concerned about what she witnessed or a combination of different reasons. There's been an assumption made of her motives for calling or whistle blowing through jumping to conclusions. The truth is, we may never know as city residents why she called Loveridge except to know that at the end of the day that doesn't matter, it just matters that she did.

But even though she did, Loveridge also tried to facilitate the task of keeping Leach's accident under wraps while and after he had received some answers himself. After all, did he announce what had happened the day he found out about it? No he didn't. Did he announce it the next day? No he didn't. City Hall admitted that there had even been an accident only because of the tremendous outside pressure that media outlets put on them keeping their phone lines burning to find out what had happened. And as far as the news of the accident went, the concern about the cover up followed quickly on its tail as it should have given what's transpired since.

Waiting for the truth wouldn't have done any good here because on its own volition, City Hall wasn't planning to ever release it until the incident got away from its ability to contain it and took on a life of its own. In large part because individuals probably refused to let it be buried figuring that maybe there's just too many things wrong that have been hidden away already. And somewhere there are likely individuals who took the risks that most of us do not to make sure that the public wasn't left in the dark this time. The public should return that favor by picking up the mantle and by being diligent about asking the questions that need to be asked, many times if necessary, and be vigilant in search of their answers. Remind the individuals at the offices in the police department and at the 'Hall that they work for the city's residents and not the other way around. Until that's done, it will be difficult for either City Hall or the police department to gain back public trust in the wake of what's happened.


Actually, the CHP probably isn't withholding anything from the public on its own accord but has probably been ordered or advised to do so by Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco, which if this the case isn't all that surprising. It's well and good to urge for the public release of the CHP's criminal investigation but the CHP isn't the party to ask, any inquiries should be sent to Pacheco if he issued some form of gag order on the CHP. The probe will answer some of the questions involve Leach and perhaps the police department but won't be useful in explaining what happened in City Hall due to its limited scope. Its primary value will be in providing voluntary (and thus not confidential) interviews by police employees including those who were at the scene of Leach's traffic stop which might shed some light on any decision making that took place by higher ups about how Leach's traffic stop would be conducted. The investigation which matters more from a civic perspective is the "sweeping" probe that could wind up doing a lot of sweeping, underneath the rug and what this blog has been asking for since nearly day one is an independent investigation of the incident and its aftermath, outside of City Hall.


Access to public records is better explained here including a fairly good template of what a CPRA letter should look like. But a former newspaper reporter once told me this: A record doesn't become restricted from the public unless a judge says so. Meaning that often times, public entities will try to bluff people into believing that a record's not public because they believe that person or entity doesn't have the financial resources to obtain the legal resources to prove them wrong in court. Ask most activists in Riverside who have dealt with civic issues and they will tell you this is true along with their own frustrating and often protracted experiences with obtaining public records they should, by state or federal law, receive up front.


Santana writes some pretty insightful comments about what's going on at the Fox Theater, with its management issues involving one of the city's latest high-priced consultants. The one who is supervised by Deanna Larsen, the head of Development (a department which has seen a mass exodus of employees including since she's arrived) and she, through Asst. City Manager Belinda Graham is working under Hudson. There might be issues with the Fox Theater management like Santana raises including its treatment of alternate media outlets. Maybe if this blog dealt with other issues of the Fox than the public funds used to subsidize it, I would have learned how rude this individual may or may not be first hand but this person was hired at huge cost to the city precisely because of how he manages the theater which is after all, owned by the city.

Maybe closing access to alternate media outlets is part of the plan outlined to this consultant by those who hired and manage him while he works here. Maybe hiring someone who has poor skills when relating to non-mainstream media outlets wasn't seen as a detriment by Larsen, Hudson and City Hall. Something to think about anyway when covering the ongoing issues with how the Fox Theater is being handled or mishandled. At any rate, how this individual treats Santana or other media outlets isn't hurting his ability to remain employed at considerable taxpayer expense. He'll keep his job because he's been doing his job as it's been laid out before him when he was given the expectations he has to fulfill to honor his side of the contract.


Yes, the truth is a great thing and it may set us all free some day but the truth is, about the truth, that it isn't free and it rarely comes to you simply by waiting for it to appear or waiting for authority figures to provide all the answers that you seek. It's be a nice world if it worked that way and it would be part of a democratic and just society if governmental administrative employees and officials were truly accountable to the people they served all of the time. But often enough, it just doesn't work that way and the truth is often something that needs to be searched for hard to find when it comes to local government, much harder than it should be.

Unfortunately most of the time as a city resident you have to search for it and fight for it, and this sordid example of an appalling lack of accountability in this city is just another example of that essential truth. Because the only reason that the city residents who pay the salaries of everyone involved in this mess have found out any truth at all is not because it was given out like candy to children who behave themselves and don't ask questions. No, people know about Leach's accident and the involved cover up because City Hall was pressured to ultimately to release a small amount of information about a much larger incident that refused to stay buried because perhaps some people out there didn't believe that should be its final outcome.



Is parking at Riverside's Fox Theater really needed?

The Waiting Game Continues in River City

Everyone's sitting on pins and needles awaiting the outcomes of the two ongoing but very different investigations into what happened with former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach's car and whether or not he violated any criminal or vehicle codes when he crashed it into a fire hydrant and light pole and then drove on two rims until pulled over by patrol officers from his own department. City Hall has been fairly quiet recently on the issue since its top administrator cleared it of any involvement in this incident, not long after the ink dried on the undisclosed contract papers between its top administrator and his hired consultant from Best, Best and Krieger. Hudson hasn't answered any questions including whether or not he ordered Leach to be tested for drugs or alcohol intoxication pursuant to a city policy that requires that process be followed with any city employee who crashes a city-owned vehicle. But he's cleared City Hall of any involvement in any cover up.

As you know, the California Highway Patrol already completed its criminal investigation into Leach's actions on Feb. 8 and has forwarded its investigation and recommendations to Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco. He hasn't made any announcement on whether his office will charge Leach with a criminal violation and if so, which ones but apparently he's made sure that no other party can obtain a copy of the CHP's criminal probe until he makes his decision. If he decides to charge Leach, the report would then be made available but if he nixes on filing criminal charges then will that same report ever see the light of day? That's a difficult question to ask during an election year when many politicos try so hard to make just the right impression on their voters. And there are quite a few that have tied in their vote with whether or not Pacheco files criminal charges against Leach.

It doesn't seem as if Pacheco will authorize the release of the CHP report if he declined to prosecute Leach and if the CHP recommended that charges be filed against Leach who face it did admit to being under the influence, albeit of prescription medicine he received in relation to his back surgery. And under the law, it's illegal to drive while under the influence of any legally prescribed medication. As everyone knows, the police department didn't even do a field sobriety test let alone test Leach for being under the influence of anything including alcohol despite the fact that officers thought he had been drinking in the period before an apparent huge memory loss. And everyone also knows that the department waited for nearly two days before going oh, we need to farm this investigation out to the CHP in the interest of accountability and fairness. By the time the CHP did get it, its spokesman agreed that they were already behind the ball which would compromise their investigation. And face it, the department's management farmed it out only when their phones were ringing off the hook from various media outlets and other people who had gotten wind of what was unfolding in front of them. After all, Monday the day after the Super Bowl was a bit quieter for the department, which would have provided time during a relative period of tranquility to hit the CHP up for the favor of investigating the top cop.

But of course as we all now, that didn't happened.


And why not, is what cover ups are made of, self-protection in the shield of confidentiality and isolation although even within hours, the attempts to cover it up were coming unraveled. But the police department, city manager's office and even a tipped off mayor at City Hall had no desire for anyone to know anything about what happened with the police chief. Because after all, did Mayor Ron Loveridge in between gigs as the president of the League of Cities ever issue a press release to the media or the city residents, stating listen folks, this woman called me this morning, she told me this and I asked Brad the man to look into it and this report is what I got and here it is....No, the report came a little bit later and not in its entirety as it turned out but what little was publicly released was due to the city being pressured under growing allegations that it was trying to cover the whole affair up.

Loveridge was just another in a line of management level personnel who was willing to sell out an agency of 600 employees, most of whom had nothing to do with this, in order to keep a damper on this unfolding story. But the problem is, the best way to erase growing public sentiment about a cover up going on isn't to participate in building a cover up to shield a cover up. City Hall discovered that fact a little bit late.


If Pacheco decided not to file charges going against recommendations by the CHP to do so, then perhaps it would not be in the best interest in an election year to reveal the contents of that investigative file. If he didn't file charges and was following a CHP recommendation not to, then it's likely that the report would be cleared for quick release to news media outlets and other interested parties. The same would apply if Pacheco did file criminal charges either DUI or hit and run or both against Leach. He's a head prosecutor but he's also a politician up for reelection this year.

The CHP's investigative report would include interviews with the officers who were present at the traffic stop involving Leach where the decision was made not to conduct a field sobriety test or DUI evaluation on him despite evidence that one was indicated including substantial memory loss by Leach and heavy damage to his car which indicated that he struck an object or two in another distant location. Sgt. Frank Orta, a recognized DUI expert, wrote in his report basically that yeah, Leach had been drinking, no, he didn't seem to remember much except driving in some field and okay, the car was missing some tires and suffered fender damage but what am I going to do with that? Hmmm, I think I'll file it as a "traffic collision" report and recommend no further action than sticking it in storage somewhere. However, it's unlikely that Orta experienced that exact thought process. No, he probably had help from elsewhere and perhaps being the expert, maybe he did say that Leach was drunk and needed a DUI evaluation and maybe someone with more hardware on his uniform than he had, thought to himself, Leach drunk and needing a DUI evaluation, I don't really like that answer. And if that happened, then it had to be someone somewhat higher on the police department's food chain than Orta or probably even his own supervisor. One piece of evidence that might shed some light on that are the records for the city issued cell phones and which ones were used to make or receive phone calls from other phones during the duration of the original incident and its aftermath.

Especially phone calls made or received by city issued phones assigned to employees who either weren't there or alleged that they didn't know about the incident at the time. At least one city issued phone that was assigned to someone allegedly fell within both of those two categories and was also allegedly used during the incident possibly twice. But the city has engaged in the tactic of taking information that's covered by the public information acts and cloaking it within an internal investigation in an attempt to make it not available or restricted from public disclosure. Why would it do this, with the answer of course being, to protect itself. There's no other reason to transform information that's public into being that which is restricted and private unless some form of self-protection is involved by Hudson and probably others involved in that decision making process.

Orta wrote a brilliantly worded summary of another traffic stop involving a car being driven on three flattened tires that involved Officer Grant Linhart who had stopped Leach's car and Officer Jorge Selpulvada who had responded to the 911 calls involving the original car accident at Central and Hillside. In that case, the two officers conducted a DUI investigation and then arrested the man who probably wasn't a police chief, and took him to be booked at county jail on those charges. Placing him in the back seat of the squad car in handcuffs rather than allowing him to ride in the front seat and taking an unsafe driver off the streets. At both that stop and the one involving Leach two weeks earlier, Lt. Leon Phillips had been on duty as watch commander. Phillips who was promoted to lieutenant on July 1, 2008 to fill the position vacated by Lt. Ken Carpenter's retirement apparently like Orta lawyered up after the incident started causing a public uproar.

The only history of the traffic stop at Arlington and Rutland involving Leach the morning after Super Bowl Sunday was in Orta's somewhat inadequate report, given that the CAD incident report which should have detailed that stop was never released to the public by City Hall. The only reason why City Hall had released any part of the report at all was because it had hoped to put all the complaints and concerns and discussions about cover ups and subterfuge away, believing all of that to be just so unseemly. But the opposite happened instead because when Orta's report was released publicly, it generated more concerns and questions, than answers and resolution to the cover up speculation. And then City Hall clamped down along with the police department's management and released not another word. If a pin dropped in the basement of City Hall, you could hear it on the seventh floor, it's so quiet in that building.

And that leads right into the second investigation, which was unilaterally launched by City Manager Brad Hudson probably in hopes of thwarting any chances that outside agencies might decide to launch "sweeping" investigations of their own if they saw a scandal ripening in an apathetic city that didn't at least try to self-investigate under the guise of promoting accountability where it's clearly absent. This investigation was created and financed behind closed doors with apparently even the city government being locked out of such a crisis of public confidence by its own employee. Hudson decided to provide "independent oversight" in the form of Best, Best and Krieger attorney (and former District Attorney) Grover Trask. But it's pretty hard to be "independent oversight" when under the contract of the city manager's office. One need only witness the behavior of Community Police Review Commission Chair Peter Hubbard who also works for American Medical Response to realize that.

But before anyone gets too excited about any probe of Hudson's promoting public accountability, you have to refresh your memory over the two standard rules of inhouse investigations.



1) to protect those they should be investigating

2) to punish anyone at risk of generating exposure of #1)



Usually #1 is a priority immediately at the beginning of any inhouse probe and #2 starts not too long after the probe begins usually in order to help ensure #1 when that gets a little tough. That's just how these investigations go, and that strategy's fostered by their very secrecy. As soon as these investigations are started, they are deemed confidential which makes it more difficult for anyone outside them to know what's going on, including whether or not these investigations themselves become cover ups for the cover ups they are purportedly investigating. And so it is with Hudson's probe as Hudson has made that clear at various public forums that no one would know who did what to whom. In this case, it is pretty clear that this will keep the city residents of Riverside who feel betrayed and upset with what has transpired forever be in the dark of what took place during the Hudson probe and what it uncovered. Or actually much more accurately in this case, what got covered up.

The public will never know who's being investigated and why and if people targeted by the probe are being investigated for the right reasons or for the wrong ones. The public will never know who was discovered to be responsible for the cover up that took place that date (but the public already knows that any prior cover ups will go uninvestigated since they make it difficult for City Hall it was completely in the dark about what was going on) and if those individuals will be held responsible or whether they'll be shielded from that because of the secrecy of this probe. If any inhouse management employees apply for the chief's position, the public will never know what role any one of them played if they did indeed play one in the cover up purportedly being investigated by the probe or any cover up that took place earlier than Feb. 8.

If employees of the police department who had information on any cover up surrounding Leach were afforded the rights of whistle blower protection pursuant to city policies and procedures as well as federal and state law, the city residents will also be kept from knowing if the city properly followed those laws and procedures or it violated them. And in the case of federal laws, if any violations take place, that could prohibit or restrict the city's ability to receive federal funding. Mayor Ron Loveridge who is the king or president of the League of Cities addressed a conference in Washington, D.C. about the federal government loosening access to its monies to help the cities climb out of the recession. Yet someone needs to tell Loveridge that if Riverside's violating any federal laws including in an inhouse probe, then that water tap to that money can just be turned off.

It's very impressive to see the whistle blower protection guidelines posted all over the city including inside one of the police department's roll call rooms but it would be considerably less impressive if the city violated these and other relevant laws when conducting the purported Hudson probe. Then people would need to start asking serious questions about why any of these laws were violated and those questions wouldn't go away in time for next year's city council elections. In fact, violating these types of laws is an excellent way of inviting an outside, beyond-your-control investigation from some other agency which would dampen Hudson's inhouse probe somewhat. And the truth is that if the city were really interested in finding out the truth and in being accountable with it to city residents, the city itself would have invited the outside probe as has been the case in other jurisdictions. If you want answers, then you don't rely on those provided by someone working for you whose own actions should have come under scrutiny almost immediately. You ask someone to investigate for you who has no personal or professional ties with any of the involved entities or parties. Someone that you can't control or manipulate through a financial arrangement. But as everyone knows, Riverside didn't opt to do that. It could have done that but as everyone has seen, certain actions were taken by the city administration to effectively counteract that process.

But by keeping the probe inhouse and especially inside Hudson's office, the city has assured that whatever transpired on Feb. 8 will not include any real examination of Hudson's office nor any other corner of City Hall. In fact, what was one of Hudson's only public statements on his top secret probe? That City Hall had been cleared of any role in the cover up and that it was all contained inside the police department. That might or might not be true regarding the Feb. 8 incident but what about all the others? And what about the fact that it's likely that this incident stemmed from serious problems already existing inside the department including its dysfunctional management by elements inside City Hall. Including some of the same elements that have been encharged with performing this exercise in self-investigation or perhaps self-protection.

City Hall through Hudson said that it released information on the Feb. 8 incident when it released Orta's six-page report, yet it omitted the relevant CAD incident information for the traffic stop and Orta's report had apparently failed to be done properly on a department issued computer which would have provided it with a more accurate time stamp. And it was also apparently unsigned at least the copy released from City Hall although a copy signed by a member of the department's highest management is rumored to exist somewhere. If that's true, then why didn't City Hall release that copy? Did City Hall not have it or did it feel that it was critical to release a copy of the report without any signature? Many questions but few answers, which again is the purpose of an inhouse probe as well to focus its attention usually not where the problems are really located.

That appears to be business as usual in Riverside while a city waits to exhale.






The federal and state law enforcement agencies are issuing a $200,000 reward hoping that will lead to the arrests of individuals responsible for targeting the Hemet-San Jacinto Gang Task force. State Attorney General Jerry Brown and other law enforcement officials gathered at the press conference which was invitation only at Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco's new building.

Hemet Police Department which is headed by former Riverside Police Department Commander Richard Dana, has been already hit hard with losing up to 25% of its police officers to budget cuts by the Hemet City Council along with a violent crime rate that is increasing at a high rate in the past several years. Dana attended the news conference with representatives of his department.





Inside Riverside comments on the upcoming Riverside County elections that are coming up this June.



The real cool annual air show at Riverside Municipal Airport will be held next Saturday, March 27 all day. Don't miss it.

Public Meetings

Tuesday, March 23 at 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. The Riverside City Council will meet again at City Hall. This agenda at least part of it will be up for discussion and vote.

This lawsuit is going to be discussed in closed session. American Medical Response might be receiving another gift in its dream of having a monopoly on Basic Life Services Support care and transport in Riverside instead of having to face the free market of a capitalist society.





Wednesday, March 24 at 5:oo p.m. The Community Police Review Commission is set to hold its monthly exercise in expressing hostility at conducting open meetings that might be attended by (gasp) community members. The agenda's not available yet but it will probably be packed with agenda items that are at least 3-4 months old since they hold meetings only once monthly now and never really get much done.

Remember the time's been moved up earlier because some of the folks on the commission really don't like it when community members show up to their diminishing roster of meetings.

Riverside Appeals one Judge's Decision and Awaits Rod's

All city hall is doing is giving the voting public an opportunity to vent in the hopes that the city leaders will look as if they are doing something as they are throwing the police department to the wolves. It took the city 2 days before the CHP was brought in (instead of the A.G.) and 11 days for them to issue a statement, which was a blanket denial. Yet nothing has been done about this incident. The city is protecting the chief, and letting the public go after the troops. I have no respect for any of them.



----- "Guest" at Press Enterprise





I can understand why you are mad Cassie (because of your previous experience with law enforcement), but did you honestly think that City Manager Brad Hudson, or City Attorney Greg Priamos would actually give you the time of day let along answers to your questions. Don't expect anything different from Assistant City Manager Tom DeSantis, or the city council members. Like the old saying goes, "you can't fight city hall." Granted having the A.G. handle the case is a noble idea, but lets face it, the feds don't want any part with this because if they did, they would have taken over the investigation a long time ago. So good luck in getting your answers.


---Another "Guest"

You can Hear Pins Dropping All Over the 'Hall

Ask a few simple questions to the powers that be at City Hall and do you get some simple answers in return? Do you receive any answers to these simple questions at all? The answer through silence is of course not when it comes to what's been going on in this city in the aftermath of the Feb. 8 vehicle accident and subsequent traffic stop involving former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach's city owned vehicle that somehow suffered fender damage and lost two of its wheels forcing the car to be driven on two rims as it threw up sparks while traveling down Riverside's roads.

Some of the questions below are those which have been recently asked which still have received no answers from inside City Hall.


1) Whether or not Leach was tested for drug or alcohol intoxication by City Manager Brad Hudson's office pursuant to city policy that requires that to be done with any city employee who crashes a city-issued vehicle.


2) Why the police report released by City Hall involving Leach's incident was incomplete including only the CAD incident report from the initial "traffic collision" at Central and Hillside and not any CAD information pertaining to the traffic stop allegedly at Arlington and Rutland three miles away.

3) Why the city made a decision on the claim filed by Det. Chris Lanzillo that contained allegations of misconduct and cover up by acting Police Chief John DeLaRosa before having even having completed its purported "sweeping" Hudson probe. A legal decision which doesn't exactly enhance the value of this inhouse probe.

4) How thoroughly investigated are or will be individuals inside City Hall including Hudson and City Attorney Gregory Priamos who are outside the purview of any Riverside Police Department investigators involved in an administrative review.

5) Why in this stage of the investigation is Hudson so eager to claim that he has exonerated City Hall and that the cover up comes solely from inside the police department? Who interviewed Hudson as part of the probe to gather information on whether or not he was involved in any way with the ongoing situation involving one of his department heads? "Who" being besides Hudson.

6) Whether or not Hudson, DeSantis or Priamos knew of any past problems involving Leach including allegations made through correspondence received by the city council in late 2005.

7) Whether the elected officials knew the extend of micromanagement being done by Hudson and DeSantis involving the police department since their joint arrival in mid 2005.

8) Whether elected officials knew how extensively some of their current and former dais mates were involved in the operations of the police department during the past several years.




And there's been a lot of commentary among the public in lieu of the answers to these and other questions that should be coming out of City Hall even if the community leadership has pretty much been quiet about it. People have commented on where the leadership is coming and who is in charge inside the power structure, the city council or the city manager. How else can anyone be put in charge of investigating the outcome of some serious inside the police department that might be at least partly stem from Hudson's office? Yet, that's what City Hall did and one of Hudson's first actions was to clear City Hall from any involvement in the cover up involving Leach. An action that surprised few city residents as it turned out.


The above are just some of the basic questions which have been asked by more than a few people and have yet to be answered by a very quiet City Hall. As Dan Bernstein stated in one of his columns, Hudson ducked some of these questions at the chief's community forum being held at Orange Terrace Community Center on March 10. So essentially because he's in charge of the grand probe, he's allowed to clear himself, City Hall and duck answering questions that involve his own knowledge not to mention his own involvement in the police department. But then it's been a long time since City Hall has been transparent to anyone most especially its constituents.


Still, it's interesting to pose the questions to the people on the dais particularly Mayor Pro Tem Steve Adams who looked like he was trying really hard to break out of his chair and respond with some of his social commentary that he's well known for sharing which makes it clear he really wishes those pesky city residents would just stay home. He spent more time speaking just during the March 16 meeting as Mayor Ron Loveridge spent at the past three. But Adams remained fairly calm even though there's been allegations raised of his own involvement in the police department's operations. He's apparently on a list of elected officials who had ordered that more police officers be assigned to neighborhoods in their wards while running for reelection so they can look "tough on crime", a practice referred to as "political deployment". Not to be confused of course with "political emergency hirings" which is a different subject.

Let the Auditions Begin

Community leaders who for the most part have been silent on the cover up and the Hudson probe are scrambling to audition for the community designated slots that Hudson has inferred that he might be including on his panel to interview the finalists in his search for the next chief. And yes, you have to audition for a spot because you can't be critical at all of City Hall and hope to gain a spot on the approval list which means you have to soften your rhetoric a lot. I've been fielding a lot of questions from city residents on why this segment of Riverside's leadership has been so quiet in the wake of what's happened in this city and not asking the questions that they should be for those they purport to represent who are asking those questions instead. And the sad thing is that if this dynamic didn't exist, so wouldn't a lot of Riverside's problems involving inappropriate behavior which only gets checked when the city's residents threaten to overrun their community leadership who then have to decide what to do next so they won't be left behind.

But Hudson hasn't committed to actually adding any community leaders or members for that matter to his panel along with business leaders, city employees, law enforcement experts and representatives of the Human Resources Department because dangling those positions as a carrot to keep the leaders from criticizing is enough for now. It would be interesting if any of these leaders considered what kind of police department the next police chief will be inheriting when he or she is finally hired. If the police department is experiencing serious structural problems including in its command staff, what will a new police chief be able to accomplish? Do these leaders chosen for any panel really want to sign on to the chore of hiring a puppet to be placed into the police department and manipulated by other people including Hudson's office? Because what exactly would an independent thinking chief be able to do if he's hamstrung by his or her boss? And that's not considering some dynamic issues within the department itself.

Will the current command staff including those under suspicion for participating in the cover up surrounding Leach's accident and previous issues work with the new chief or undermine him especially if he or she comes from the "outside"? What if a new chief comes in and wants to vote most or all the command staff off of the island? Will a new police chief have any autonomy in hiring, promoting or firing individuals in his department or will he have to ask Hudson and/or DeSantis for permission just to breathe?

But people are asking whether or not the police department should be disbanded and handed off to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department or the outside federal and state agencies should be called in to investigate it again. Interesting given that the current State Attorney General Jerry Brown is hitting Riverside today for a joint press gig with District Attorney Rod Pacheco regarding the recent raids conducted on the motorcycle gang.

Most of these suggestions are being tossed out in various forums because of the vacuum of information coming from City Hall and not very much communication on this issue between city residents and community leadership and most of the rest of the city. People see all this inaction with energy being expended on cementing what many people feel is a cover up and want outside action.





Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein offers up some suggestions on how to hire a police chief As his column stated, there were lots of suggestions and many of those centered around the conduct that will be expected of the next police chief along with a lot of doubt and skepticism involving the trustworthiness of the management personnel inside the police department and at City Hall. I suggested that at the city council meeting and Adams squirmed in his seat and his face turned that interesting shade of crimson that it does when he's not happy. But surely the city government including an absent mayor and Adams who had charge of the gavel must realize that they're in the middle of a serious situation. And that silence in this case is not exactly golden but it does speak volumes.

The Buck Ends With Pacheco

The California Highway Patrol has handed off its investigation report on Leach to the Riverside County District Attorney's office for its head, Rod Pacheco to make a decision on whether or not criminal charges will be filed against the former chief and he'll have to make it with his own reelection bid coming to a conclusion in less than three months. It's not clear at this point what kind of investigation the CHP was able to do having only been assigned to do it two days more than 24 hours after the accident. It's also not known whether or not the agency recommended that criminal charges be filed against Leach and if so, which ones. Mums the word at any rate from the CHP probably as a result of some gag order it received from Pacheco's office.

So what will happen next? Will Leach be charged with DUI and/or hit and run misdemeanor charges? And what will the reaction be to Pacheco's decision whatever it may be? And what bearing will Pacheco's decision have on City Hall's own ongoing "sweeping" inhouse investigation?

Meanwhile, Back at the 'Hall

Mayor Ron Loveridge was a no show at the city council meeting on March 16. Here was where he was at instead.


But someone on one of the comment threads of another article had this to say to him.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Why do we never hear the name Ron Loveridge. Isn't he the Mayor of Riverside? It seems that all these years we have had these Police problems, he has been the Mayor. Yet we never seem to hear from him. Is he tough enoughe to handle Police administrators? Its part of the job. Get involved or your legacy will reflect a serious weekness.

The Election Papers are In

The races are set for the upcoming District Attorney and county judge elections in both inland counties. Much more excitement ahead, maybe.

Election Year Lawsuit Struck Down in Courts

Speaking of elections, an Orange County Superior Court judge vetoed a lawsuit filed by Riverside involving traffic congestion on the railroad tracks that's related to ports in Southern California.


Councilman Steve Adams talks about what he sees as the #1 issue in the city which is different from most people who think it's the recession and the high unemployment rate but to each his own. The lawsuit was also trumpeted heavily by former Councilman Frank Schiavone who was running for election at around that time.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Riverside City Councilman Steve Adams said he doesn't see the ruling as a major setback.

The suit asked for "fair-share contributions" to grade separation projects. To collect them, Adams said city officials want the port to levy a $50 charge per cargo container -- small enough that it needn't be passed on to consumers, but capable of generating hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

The container charges would go into a fund to pay for Inland railroad grade separations, highway improvements and other transportation fixes.

With as many as 128 trains a day passing through Riverside and some studies attributing thousands of annual deaths in the region to poor air quality, "Failure is not an option and neither is quitting," Adams said.

"This is the No. 1 issue confronting our region."

Inland economist John Husing questioned the city's decision to take on the issue in court, particularly at a time when the recession has slowed shipping and train traffic. According to Husing's data, the number of containers coming through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach dropped 25 percent from 2006 to 2009.

Husing said that instead of filing lawsuits, Riverside should work with legislators on a container fee bill.

Riverside also sued the port and city of Long Beach over an expansion plan there. That case is still pending.




The city council actually voted in closed session to appeal this decision, with the legal fees continuing to be paid by the city residents' money. Maybe they should ask city residents if we want to support pumping more money during a period of time when city employees face layoffs, more positions frozen and library and community center hours are slashed into this farce.



Wildomar gets its new shiny police cars.



A councilman in Lake Elsinore pleads not guilty to DUI charges stemming from a traffic stop and field sobriety evaluation administered to him by police officers.

The Code of Silence Continues at City Hall

Time to tell the public the truth. You think? Yet City Hall still refuses and upholds a code of silence that could outdo that found inside just about any law enforcement agency.

The above was most recently stated by Press Enterprise Columnist Cassie MacDuff in her column discussing the latest developments in the ongoing saga which began when former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach crashed his car. MacDuff usually focuses her writing on the numerous political scandals populating the other Inland Empire county, San Bernardino but has focused on Riverside's very own scandal in a couple of her columns.


(excerpt)

Former Riverside Police Officers Association president Chris Lanzillo alleged that then-Assistant Chief (now Acting Chief) John De La Rosa was notified "almost immediately" about Leach's crash and was complicit in covering it up.

City officials have receded behind a wall of silence.

I wanted to ask City Manager Brad Hudson, City Attorney Greg Priamos and De La Rosa what kind of confidence the public will have in the results of the Internal Affairs investigation, since it means the department is investigating itself.

I wanted to ask whether it would have been better to ask the state attorney general to do the probe.

I wanted to ask whether the police department has an official policy on preferential treatment for community leaders suspected of drunken driving or other crimes.

I wanted to ask how many other officials have gotten the kind of preferential treatment Leach got.

None of them returned my calls on Monday. Hudson had his executive assistant tell me he wouldn't comment because of Lanzillo's claim.

Lanzillo's not the first to say that Asst. Chief and now acting chief, John DeLaRosa played a prominent role in the cover up that took place after Leach crashed one of his city-issued Chrysler 300 vehicles, lost two of the tires and then drove on the rims until stopped by two patrol officers from inside his department. But what does the city have to say about these allegations? Including that DeLaRosa and the police management delayed turning over the noninvestigation of Leach's "traffic collision" to the California Highway Patrol

The city first hid behind the so-called "sweeping" probe being conducted by City Manager Brad Hudson and now it's expanded the wall it's hiding behind to include Lanzillo's claim that it has already rejected including apparently his allegations against DeLaRosa. But MacDuff raises an important issue that's been raised by many city residents, not that anyone at City Hall or running the police department appears to be listening. Oh what a difference it would have made if this had happened at this point in 2011, when incumbent city officials had been filling out papers for reelection bids and had begun raising money for their campaign chests in earnest. Perhaps then, the ones who should be investigated wouldn't have been assigned the task of leading the investigation.

Even as the department's investigation continues with its process of interviewing its employees as part of this sweeping probe which appears to be expanding, what's left unanswered is who is interviewing those individuals including Hudson, Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis, City Attorney Gregory Priamos over at City Hall? Who's interviewing some past and current elected officials to ask them what they knew about a cover up that might have begun way before Feb. 8. Maybe start with the former councilman who once lived with Leach?

And while they think about what transpired in the past, are they interviewing any current or former command staff members including one who sent an email to the city council and mayor about five years ago alleging problems with Leach dating even back then? Are they interviewing representatives from any outside law enforcement agency who ever probed the Riverside Police Department about what they investigated or observed, including federal, state or county grand jury agencies?

Most people distrust the probe being conducted by City Hall because they aren't nearly as clueless as the city appears to think. Many people believe that a command staff member or two or more knew what had happened with Leach and participated in issuing orders for the cover up to take place. Many people believe that Hudson, his office, Priamos and possibly an elected official or two or more knew or should have known what was taking place.

Many people believe like MacDuff pointed out, that perhaps an outside probe would be more trustworthy for really finding out what happened with Leach, not only on Feb. 8 but during other alleged incidents where he was either stopped by law enforcement officers or given rides home from bars or there places including somewhere in Victorville by members of the command staff or other individuals. Many people have asked how Hudson who was Leach's boss could have really been in the dark when all this was allegedly taking place. Hudson and DeSantis had insisted that neither knew about the Feb. 8 incident until an anonymous caller alerted Mayor Ron Loveridge's office about Leach's accident within hours after it and the traffic stop took place. He and DeSantis said that department management violated some sort of disclosure policy requiring the city manager's office to be notified directly after someone "high profile" had a runin with police officers.

Hudson and DeSantis didn't volunteer information about whether or not Leach was tested for alcohol and drug intoxication by the city as required by another policy in place for employees in car accidents. But then of course, they didn't volunteer information about a lot of things and since they can't easily interview themselves, a lot about their past conduct involving the police department will naturally be excluded from this ahem, "sweeping" probe as well any information that could be forthcoming from Priamos or individuals inside his office.

This is unfortunate indeed but again, if these issues are being neglected now, they certainly won't be so around election time next year when it's likely that the situation surrounding the handling of the Leach incident as well as this probe could be front and center as an issue to be discussed and debated at forums held during the next election cycle impacting four current council members next year.



More to Come...

Muni Wi Fi Outages Continue

[If this appears on your wireless connection to ATT Metrofi or ATTMETROFREE, you're not alone. Outages involving both networks have hit large portions of Riverside and are well into their second month after some rain storms knocked out much of the hardware equipment citywide. As for repair and restoral of service dates, your guess is as good as mine. Most of the outages appear as limited connectivity. Others including a wide swath of eastern downtown appear to manifest themselves as acquired and quickly dropped IP addresses impacting internet access which may or may not be related to the larger outages.]





Riverside's city council tackles the decision of what to do with its convention center in downtown. Some differing visions by former and current elected representatives were provided.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

Riverside Councilman Mike Gardner, who represents downtown, said he expects there will be "substantial" interest in expanding the convention center. However, questions of timing, size and funding must be answered first, he said.

The consultant's report suggests more than 600 additional hotel rooms that could be reserved for convention center users would be needed to support a 100,000-square-foot convention center, but Gardner said that sounds like a big number.

"If you're that big you're almost competing with Ontario or Long Beach," he said. "I don't think that's where Riverside wants to be, to compete for that size convention."

Dom Betro, Riverside councilman until Gardner unseated him in 2007, said the convention center needs a modest expansion. The city should be doing it now while construction costs are low rather than putting its efforts behind a developer's planned Hyatt hotel, he said.

"I think it's right to do it," Betro said. "It just should come first."

An officer-involved shooting in Riverside.


Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein writes more about the ongoing battle over which defense firm gets the conflict panel contract for Riverside County's Superior Court. Maybe they should take it to a vote.

"No coverup..." states Acting Chief John DeLaRosa Involving Leach's Accident

"I'm working on it, no cover up!!"

---Acting Riverside Police Chief John DeLaRosa in an email given to the Press Enterprise addressing concerns about the cover up of former chief, Russ Leach's accident.

No Cover up by Police Management...states Police Management After Hudson Clears City Hall in His Probe

(Anyone see a pattern here?)

The revelation that there were allegedly no attempts by police management to cover up the Feb. 8 vehicle crash and traffic stop involving former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach was made public through a news article published by the Press Enterprise involving the filing of a claim for damages by one of the department's employees. Incidentally, this assertion was revealed to the public not long after Hudson had cleared himself and others in City Hall of essentially the same thing which shows that there's a rush for the involved parties to make sure they clear themselves of any involvement in any cover up rather early in this inhouse investigative process. Just to set the record straight of course.

But don't get excited about these released announcements just yet.

Given that this latest revelation of no coverup involving the police management was indirectly made through public exposure of an email by a member of the police department's management, many people who heard or read about it appear to be taking it all with a grain of salt and more than a little bit of skepticism given that there are serious indications that point to another conclusion. That being that it was cover up central in River City within minutes, hours and then some after the incident first unfolded on that early morning. The questions that could help shed some light on what happened have yet to be answered by those who one would think would have those answers. Don't expect that to change soon unless the entities involved suddenly discover who they are supposed to be accountable to and serve which are the city's residents.

The conclusion reached by many individuals is that the officers who responded to complaints made to 911 about Leach's city-issued vehicle being driven through Riverside on its rims were directed to essentially ignore the whole situation by individuals higher up in the department's organizational structure who didn't want anything to be known about this incident outside the department or perhaps outside City Hall as well. Because even if it really took that long for City Hall to find out about it as it claims, when it did, it didn't exactly tell the constituents served by it what had happened. Instead, the silence from inside the 'Hall continued alongside that of its police department until it became quite clear that the incident wouldn't remain buried where it belonged. City Hall's silence became a greater part of that which it would later claim to be investigating inside the police department after the incident could no longer be contained while allowing concerns about its own code of silence to go unanswered.


The RPD's organizational chart ( as of Feb. 22, 2010) gives you some idea of the chain of command that is followed at least from the middle level of supervision and on upward. If you look under the bottom list of watch commanders, you'll find the name of one of them, Lt. Leon Phillips. Phillips who's been a lieutenant since July 2008 worked as the watch commander on the graveyard shift or "A" watch during the Feb. 7/8 shift. His supervisors are in the following order, Capt. Meredyth Meredith who is the Central/West captain who reports to Deputy Chief Pete Esquivel (from Department Operations) who reports to Asst. Chief and now acting chief, John DeLaRosa. Sgt. Frank Orta who crafted the lovely slip of a traffic report worked as the Central Neighborhood Policing Center supervising sergeant during the graveyard shift on that same day the incident took place and was dispatched to the scene at some point. He supervised the two officers, Jeremy Miller and Grant Linhart who were involved with Leach's traffic stop and probably wished they were anywhere else once they learned who was driving the car that had attracted a lot of attention with the sparks flying up from its rims.

This is the chain of command that Orta's report would have traveled in search of a rather elusive "reviewer's" signature. So what happened? An allegation was raised that one member of this chain of command did sign off on the report on Feb. 8. However, by the time the city released its copy to the Press Enterprise which posted it online, all the "reviewer" signature sections were blank. The city has not submitted any copy of the report with a "reviewer's" signature on it to the public. If one exists, then it's being kept under wraps and if that's the case, then why would that be done?

So if the report had been signed, why was the public issued a copy of it without a signature? And if it was never signed by a "reviewer" then why was that allowed and why didn't anyone on this chain of command then not sign it? And what about anyone else pulling out a city-issued ball point pen and lending a signature to it, if Phillips, Meredith, Esquivel and DeLaRosa weren't available to sign off on it for whatever reason? But then there's so many questions just about Orta's efforts at writing a report of the "traffic collision" surrounding Leach's accident, they would fill a book and by the end of this month, maybe a set of encyclopedias.

The only thing missing from the department's management, DeLaRosa, Hudson and City Hall are any answers to these questions and others that have been raised in different venues. And the only mechanism the city set up to answer them is its so-called internal "sweeping" probe commanded by Hudson which as we've all been told is totally hush hush and not for our eyes and ears although we're paying for its cost. That's kind of like saying that the joke's on us. And that's the only real truth so far, is that the public will never really know who did what, when and why. Not to mention the true role played by anyone in City Hall during this whole mess. But that's by design and intent and is not accidental.


There's a couple interesting allegations and comments made by Det. Chris Lanzillo through his claim and/or other city and police representatives made in the news article that was published over the weekend.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

In an e-mail sent the day after the crash -- obtained by The Press-Enterprise through a public records act request -- De La Rosa responded to the suggestion of a department cover up of the case by writing, "I'm working on it, no cover up!!"

Lanzillo also claims De La Rosa later urged officers not to post Internet comments about the crash, and became upset when Lanzillo asked what took him so long to bring in the CHP.

"He then called the complainant a 'lone wolf out there by himself," the claim reads, "obviously referencing perceived disloyalty on the part of complainant for failure to support De La Rosa's actions."

As you know, the day after the accident was Tuesday, Feb. 9, the day when the world was about to come crashing down on Leach and the police department when it became clear that the efforts to contain Leach's accident and subsequent traffic stop were going to prove to be unsuccessful. That afternoon, the police department through DeLaRosa had made its belated decision to farm off the noninvestigation of Leach's filed away "traffic collision" to the CHP for further investigation at about the point their phones began ringing off the hooks from media outlets calling them to ask what's up with Leach and his car which had shot off enough sparks for a Fourth of July gala. And by the way, where was the investigative report on the suspected DUI related crash?

Oops, what DUI investigation? No wait...it was a mere traffic collision stemming from an ill-fated right turn on a street...okay it was not where he was stopped afterward by officers after his crash...but...

It kind of went on downhill from there.

City Manager Brad Hudson hadn't yet announced to the public that he had intended to take over and launch some "sweeping" probe of the police department through its internal affairs division and have it reviewed by Best, Best and Krieger attorney, Grover Trask who would serve as Hudson's idea of "independent oversight". That wouldn't come until over 24 more hours later when it became abundantly clear to City Hall that the liquid in the pot they were trying to cover had boiled over. So that individuals within there had to start thinking about their own jobs and their own skins.

Oh no, we were never notified, no siree. Oh yes, we were supposed to be but...it never happened...pursuant to policy...yeah right, we didn't know anything...would you like to see our latest Riverside Renaissance project? Oh and that last problem we had, it was the Community Development Department's/police chief's/miscommunication from City Hall's fault...Yes, that's right...and we've got a bridge to show you...the Columbia overpass just this way...

Monday, Feb. 8, had been so much quieter than the days that followed, that perhaps some of the city and department's leaders look back on that day as the last day when the public was still in the dark about what was going on. Which is where the public belonged because the public after all, is supposed to be in the dark about what goes on in this city. You ask too many questions in public forums and you open yourself to verbal insults from the dais by elected officials, city employees referring to you while conducting city business as the "biggest bitch around" or a "liar" or an "instigator" or "almost a criminal".

The traffic collision report involving Leach had been handwritten and neatly filed away somewhere even as Mayor Ron Loveridge came asking around after receiving some phone tip through his secretaries that the chief had been involved in some traffic accident. Loveridge of course was digging up information on this tip he had received while he was in Sacramento so that he could immediately issue a press release to the city's residents about what had happened, that a city department head had crashed a city-owned vehicle and had been stopped by police officers a while later. All in the interest of public disclosure and transparency. Actually, his intentions were probably no different than some others in high places elsewhere who had received the news earlier which was to keep the situation under wraps as long as possibly, preferably forever. It's a little difficult to complain of a cover up and stand behind an investigation into a said cover up when you're likely planning to do a little covering up of your own. After all, City Hall once had to hire a high-priced public relations firm just to learn how to talk to people.

Because if Loveridge knew something was up on Monday, Feb. 8, why did it take his office so long to respond? Why didn't he tell the public what had happened and demand an investigation that's just a tad more accountable than the one being done by City Hall? Okay, we all know it's not an election year for him but it would have been the appropriate action to take, given that an incident of that magnitude wasn't going to stay under wraps for long.

To date, Loveridge has yet to issue an official statement about personally wanted to get to the bottom of this mess and produce a public accounting of this incident and its aftermath. And any reference to the inhouse investigation being done by Hudson doesn't fall under that category. He's not even expressed his relief that Hudson had officially cleared City Hall and all its denizens from being involved in the cover up that took place surrounding Leach's accident. Which is really easy to do when you're in charge of the investigation. In fact, the way you can always test the integrity of an inhouse investigation is by how quickly those in charge of the investigation clear themselves and/or those who employ them. In this case, it didn't take Hudson through his own probe very long to do that and to announce it in a public forum held in the Eastside earlier this month. If you put 30 days or less for Hudson to issue that pronouncement in any informal betting pools, be prepared to collect your winnings, that is if anyone took that bet against you.

"We are Family"

The RPD Public Relations Division channels Sister Sledge

I found the quote allegedly made by DeLaRosa about Lanzillo being some form of "lone wolf out there by himself" interesting in part because of the curious publicity campaign launched by the upper management of the police department within days of the news breaking about the incident involving Leach and his medical retirement placement on medical leave. That's when representatives of the police department allegedly went to community meetings and roll call sessions to preach this message about unity and family, in other worlds preaching the gospel of the blue code of silence to all the department's officers while telling community members that no such things existed just accountability, light and transparency. It's curious how the message spread outward by several department representatives in community meetings was to reach out to them to draw community members and police officers into some collective fold with the emphasis being on family and reconciliation to get their minds off of the breach of trust between the department and the public that had just taken place as well as that which had occurred between the department's officers and their management.

Whereas inside the much more insulated and isolated department, the message appeared to be more focused on coming together and keeping your problems within that family, in other words solidifying that insulation and isolationthat's part of police culture. a curious message to send to officers while again telling the public that no such culture and its resultant code exists.

DeLaRosa allegedly visited roll call sessions surrounded by most or all of the members of his command staff who apparently weren't exactly thrilled to be there portraying the "happy" family while admonishing officers not to speak to bloggers or to the press about what had happened. If the police department's upper management were truly interested in openness and transparency (meaning the opposite of the cover up that DeLaRosa stated wasn't happening in an email), then why would they be so concerned about anything officers might say to anyone outside the department? What was there not to talk about if everything involving Leach's accident and traffic stop had been put out in the open? What needed to be hidden or as some might come out and call it, covered up?

Why was it so important to engage in these publicity campaigns after the situation involving Leach first erupted? Especially if you're telling everyone that everyone agrees with you and those who don't are just "lone wolves" as if that were the case, would publicity campaigns like these really be necessary unless you're dealing with a larger crowd of skepticism? It was a bit bewildering I heard for community members to be hit upon by this message of family and reconciliation at community meetings across the city only after this situation happened. Many people who witnessed it still don't know what to make of it. Those who are a bit on the cynical side, who have become more jaded view it as a campaign to perpetuate more of the same cover up. Some say, why did the department want us to buy into this family and reconciliation shtick only when it got itself in a bit of trouble?



(excerpt)

Several council members said Friday that they would defer judgment on De La Rosa until the two investigations are complete. Hudson could not be reached for comment.

"If it were known that a senior member of the Police Department had acted wrongly," Councilman Mike Gardner said, "it would give me concern to increase their level of command."

City officials have said they were not notified of Leach's crash until an anonymous call was placed to the mayor's office around 9 a.m. Monday -- six hours after the incident -- although protocol dictates top city management should have been called.

It's clear that most of City Hall is deferring to the inhouse probe being conducted by Hudson even though many city residents seem to be distrustful of City Hall right now. Many people wonder if City Hall and any of its denizens knew about prior problems with Leach and covered them up and whether any of them were involved in the current situation and cover up either during or after the fact. But if City Hall had been paying any attention to the escapades of the past several years, it wouldn't have handed any internal probe of the police department off to Hudson or his assistant city manager, Tom DeSantis. It should have known that both city employees are hopelessly conflicted out by prior conduct involving the police department. But then it's always been a question that city residents have asked in terms of who leads who? Does the city council lead the city manager or as some have suspected, the other way around? It's a fair question given that the city council has voted away much of its powers and responsibilities as a financial accountability mechanism for the city's administration.

Gardner's statement is interesting because he clearly understands the seriousness of the situation of hiring an individual from the police department to next lead the department if they were complicit in a cover up surrounding Leach but most of the city residents have said that they wouldn't think there would be any room for any such individual whoever they might be in a clean police department at all if they were involved in any misconduct surrounding the Leach incident. If dirty conduct took place surrounding the Leach incident, then why would those who masterminded it whoever they might be still be employed? The issue wouldn't or shouldn't be whether or not to promote them to a top spot but whether to keep them employed in the police department and/or City Hall at all. After all, this is a city government that would have a zero tolerance philosophy about corruption, right? Oh wait, they can't tell anyone.

Was city management really not called while the Leach incident played out on the city streets of Riverside? Hudson and DeSantis came out strong in a recent article in the daily newspaper that they weren't informed as required under policy by the police department's management about what happened with Leach. The city manager's office claimed that it was not informed until the Loveridge had asked it to look into a phone tip his office had received. What might clear up all this confusion and some of these concerns and questions would be if the city would release the records of phone calls made on city-issued phones during the time during and after Leach's accident and traffic stop. This would include more than several city employees including at City Hall. Hudson and DeSantis might have a better chance of proving they were as clueless as they claimed to be if they facilitated releasing this list which of course, would include any phone calls made during that time period by their own city-issued phones. So far none of this information has been released to the public although it could be, most likely because the city facilitated by Priamos' office has made this releasable information confidential in the guise of slipping it into the internal probe being instituted by Hudson. The release of information from the city has been somewhat scant and has only yielded more questions.


But still City Hall and the police department's management want everyone to trust in their probe and its outcome.



The CHP has pretty much completed its investigation of Leach's car crash which was belatedly farmed off on it by the police department's management more than 24 hours after the incident. As predicted, the city will not release the findings until Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco makes his decision whether or not to file criminal charges against Leach either for driving under the influence and/or hit and run. The rumors are that Leach might be facing a DUI charge but it remains to be seen what will happen exactly and how Pacheco's decision will impact his election bid for a second term as the DA, given that he's been subjected to much criticism from different corners.

If Pacheco doesn't file charges, there would be some pretty loud and vigorous protesting against him and his office by city and county residents who are already upset that Leach received special treatment by officers in his own agency. But how will they feel if they perceive that Leach received special treatment by the DA's office? And how will Pacheco's decision on whether or not to prosecute impact the city's own internal probe of the incident?

Most of what's going to happen in this ongoing saga involving the attempted cover up still lays ahead in the days, weeks and months to come.

More Commentary on the Latest Chapter of the Leach Incident

The discussions on the latest development in the situation stemming from former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach's accident and traffic stop are being held here. Many comments on the implications of this ongoing incident on the police department as well as at City Hall. There' s probably been nearly a thousand comments written in connection with Press Enterprise stories since the news first broke. None of them very nice, in fact many of them are calling for the entire command staff or police department to be replaced as long as calling for federal and/or state investigators and the replacement of just about everyone inside City Hall. Which isn't surprising because the last time that happened was the last time the city replaced a police chief.

The 2000 departure of former chief, Jerry Carroll took a city manager, a city attorney and most of the city council with it. The city didn't do many recruitment searches to fill these positions at the time except for Carrolls which it did with interim police chief, Robert Luman and then later Leach. It merely elevated assistant city attorney Gregory Priamos and Asst. City Manager Larry Paulson up to fill the top spots though only Priamos still looms today. It's alleged that when City Manager Brad Hudson was brought in from his job in Riverside County, he wanted to bring along his own personal choice for city attorney but in that case, the city council and mayor didn't roll over and Priamos was able to keep his position. That situation allegedly has led to an icy relationship between two of the city council's direct employees and that cast an interesting angle on the enigmatic behavior of Priamos at one meeting when he was inadvertently referred to as the city manager and blithely referred to it being insulting.


A couple of house cleanings of sorts is what's needed, is what most people who have anything to say about it and aren't afraid of having City Hall think badly of them.


(excerpts, Press Enterprise)



The command staff and city hall are in bed together. Don't you think that DeLaRosa called city officials about this when it happened. Check the phone records of Brad Hudson, Tom DeSantis, Greg Priamos and Mayor Luv along with the city council members. They had to know for liability purposes to protect the city. The feds have a lot of work to do at city hall if they want to clean up the city. Call in the Sheriff to run the P.D. until the investigation is complete.





You're missing the point Mr. "Just the facts", it's your entire command staff that has brought you to this point in life. From the Sgt. to the deputy chief need to be held accountable, along with the city council, city attorney and city manager for this fiasco. The problem is that this smells of a cover-up and the only way to find out how far this went up is to bring in the F.B.I I don't fault the officers on-scene, they took direction from the higher ups. And the B.S. the city leaders are trying to push on us is nothing short of an insult to the residents that they did not know about the crash. They should bring in the Sheriff until this mess is sorted out.





Wow, so many disturbing posts on this site make me think we do need another federal investigation of the RPD. Are these mostly from officers or other employees of the department? I hope not because they are embarrasing to the residents of Riverside. Mayor, City Council? Are you reading this?





I was wondering how long the beat cops of Riverside were going to hold their mud after suffering so much indignity because of this Chief's actions. At some point they are going to have to make a clean break of this mess in order to get past the stigma and feel decent again about doing their jobs.
The Chief brought this upon himself and was aided by a few high level accomplices. Sadly, the RPD is having to suffer a black eye for his and their abuse of power. At some point you have to call things as they really are. Continuing to shield this Chief and his immediate cronies will only prolong the pain and continue to bring shame on the department.




It's not the police who are shielding the Chief, it's the city manager, city attorney and city council that are running interference for the chief. Why else would it take 2 days for an outside agency to be called in to invesitgate the crash. Why else would it take 11 days for city hall to issue the only statement on the crash, with no one taking responsibility and passing the blame on others. It's time for the Justice Department to look into city politics.



It's people like you that are missing the point. Everyone keeps placing blame on the police, but they take their orders from city hall. Do you really believe city hall knew nothing about the accident. That they were not informed about the incident. The city manager and city attorney have still not given an official statement other then to deny they were notified about the crash.





As a resident of Riverside, I am ashamed that there is a culture within our police department that would encourage or tolerate this type of unethical behavior. DO THE RIGHT THING! We definitely need to clean house and NO ONE within the police department should be considered to lead our police department, need new blood and need to clean house. The residents of Riverside deserve better than what our current police administration has given us.




Why are you only blaming the police department. Don't you think our city officials are up to their eyeballs in this. They knew about the crash, but have never taken responsibility for this. Don't just blame the police department when this goes all the way to city hall. It's people like you that think a band aid will solve the problem when the cut goes deeper.




Lets face it, if the beat cops had done their job, there would have been nothing for the higher ups to cover up. In this case the corruption began at the bottom. Had the cops who responded done their jobs, Leach would be out of a job and there would be no cries of "cover-up" and the resultant corrupt officials who are shielding him. If some beat level cop let a superior talk him into covering this up, he should be out of a job for lack of moral fortitude.




Well I happen to know a few guys that work for the Corona Fire Dept and the RPD and CPD and if one of them is DUI the citing officer just calls the wife or girlfriend and lets them go. It always happens-nothing new. I'm just glad they are finially going public.





These sentiments have appeared in other venues as well. Most people aren't buying what the police department and City Hall are selling and they probably aren't settling down nearly as quickly as this city would like.







Two out of three candidates in the Riverside County District Attorney's race this June have have filed their final papers.


For those who received an email purportedly from the Riverside County fire chief warning of a pending large earthquake, it wasn't authorized by him.

Public Meetings

Tuesday, March 16 at 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. the Riverside City Council meets at City Hall to discuss this agenda. Actually most of the agenda items are on the consent calendar so there won't be much to discuss during the evening session. For entertainment purposes, appearing at the meeting will be Mayor Pro Tem Steve Adams. Alas, never a dull moment when he's leading a meeting.