The former director of Operation Phoenix has been placed on administrative leave, City Manager Fred Wilson confirmed Monday.
Wilson declined to comment further.
James Curtis IV, an attorney representing former program director Glenn Baude, called Wilson's action an attempt at scapegoating.
Prosecutors have brought two dozen felony charges against Michael Steven Miller, 48, a supervisor at one of the city's Operation Phoenix community centers, accusing him of molesting two young girls in recent months and another more than a decade ago.
Miller could face life in prison if convicted on all counts.
After Miller's arrest, the San Bernardino County district attorney's office investigated whether Baude, parks Director Kevin Hawkins or parks department employees Glenda Robinson and Curtis Brown had prior knowledge of Miller's possible sexual involvement with a minor or had violated state child abuse reporting laws. The district attorney's office announced Friday that there was not enough evidence to prove that they had violated any laws.
Curtis said Wilson placed Baude on administrative leave the next day.
"Mr. Baude has acted not only within the legal parameters that his job requires, but has acted ethically and above board through this entire sequence of events," Curtis said. "It seems that the city may very well be looking for a scapegoat."
Reach Chris Richard at 909-806-3076 or crichard@PE.com
2008-07-28
2008-07-27
Employee at Fort Irwin suspected of embezzling funds
BARSTOW — The Barstow sheriff’s station is looking into a case of possible embezzlement by an employee of a Fort Irwin contractor.
Ryan Kosiba, 27, a former employee of iAP World Services, Inc., disappeared with a total of $2,800 from the post, according to Deputy Sarah Levan, with the Barstow sheriff’s station.
Kosiba, who worked in iAP’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation Division, had access to two separate petty cash funds and was also entrusted with money to make preparations for special events, Levan said. Before the last day he was seen at work, which was July 15, Kosiba had been given a check for $1,500 to be used to prepare for a function, according to the Barstow sheriff’s station incident log.
That money, along with $1,300 in petty cash, was discovered to be missing after he failed to show up to work on July 16, according to the sheriff’s station incident log. Kosiba had the combination to the petty cash safes, and the check had been written out in his name to be cashed and used for event preparations, Levan said.
Initially, the post’s Criminal Investigation Command was handling the investigation, but when it became evident that the main suspect was a civilian, the CID handed the case over to the sheriff’s station, she said. The sheriff’s station received the report Thursday.
Barstow Police Department checked Kosiba’s last known address in Barstow but found it vacant, according to the sheriff’s station incident log.
If caught, he faces felony embezzlement charges, Levan said.
Hobie Hicks, human resources manager with iAP, said Kosiba is no longer employed there but could give no further information on an ongoing investigation. The company employs about 550 people at Fort Irwin and provides services ranging from servicing buildings to running the Fort Irwin Fire Department.
To report information relating to the case, call the Barstow sheriff’s station at 760-256-4838. To remain anonymous, call WE-TIP at 1-800-78-CRIME or leave information on the WeTip Web site at www.wetip.com.
Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or abby_sewell@link.freedom.com
Ryan Kosiba, 27, a former employee of iAP World Services, Inc., disappeared with a total of $2,800 from the post, according to Deputy Sarah Levan, with the Barstow sheriff’s station.
Kosiba, who worked in iAP’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation Division, had access to two separate petty cash funds and was also entrusted with money to make preparations for special events, Levan said. Before the last day he was seen at work, which was July 15, Kosiba had been given a check for $1,500 to be used to prepare for a function, according to the Barstow sheriff’s station incident log.
That money, along with $1,300 in petty cash, was discovered to be missing after he failed to show up to work on July 16, according to the sheriff’s station incident log. Kosiba had the combination to the petty cash safes, and the check had been written out in his name to be cashed and used for event preparations, Levan said.
Initially, the post’s Criminal Investigation Command was handling the investigation, but when it became evident that the main suspect was a civilian, the CID handed the case over to the sheriff’s station, she said. The sheriff’s station received the report Thursday.
Barstow Police Department checked Kosiba’s last known address in Barstow but found it vacant, according to the sheriff’s station incident log.
If caught, he faces felony embezzlement charges, Levan said.
Hobie Hicks, human resources manager with iAP, said Kosiba is no longer employed there but could give no further information on an ongoing investigation. The company employs about 550 people at Fort Irwin and provides services ranging from servicing buildings to running the Fort Irwin Fire Department.
To report information relating to the case, call the Barstow sheriff’s station at 760-256-4838. To remain anonymous, call WE-TIP at 1-800-78-CRIME or leave information on the WeTip Web site at www.wetip.com.
Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or abby_sewell@link.freedom.com
2008-07-19
Two Marines Charged in Secrets Theft
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO - Two Marine Corps reservists have been charged in connection with an alleged information theft ring that involved the compromise of classified files.
Gunnery Sgt. Eric L. Froboese and Master Sgt. Reinaldo Pagan were recalled to duty in June and charged a short time later as part of an investigation into the unauthorized sharing of secret Camp Pendleton files, Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Jason A. Johnston said Friday.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the men are accused of sharing the files with an anti-terrorism group of law-enforcement agencies in Los Angeles County.
Pagan was charged with dereliction of duty and orders violations. Froboese was charged with dereliction of duty, orders violations, conspiracy and wrongful transmission of classified information.
Johnston said the charges were made public Thursday. The two have been assigned to duty at Camp Pendleton pending adjudication of the case.
The Marine Corps said neither man would be made available for comment. Johnston said the two men have been assigned military defense attorneys but did not know their names.
The Union-Tribune first reported that a group of reservists was being investigated for breaching national security at Camp Pendleton.
In May, the newspaper reported that the alleged theft ring was particularly interested in FBI surveillance files on Muslim religious sites in Los Angeles, and that the Islamic Center of San Diego was monitored.
The charges against the two reservists follows testimony by Gunnery Sgt. Gary Maziarz, who said during a court-martial that he passed classified documents to several people, including a Los Angeles Police Department officer and a Los Angeles County sheriff's detective, according to published newspaper reports.
Maziarz, 37, said he acted out of patriotism. His testimony came in July 2007 during his court-martial on charges of theft and mishandling classified documents while he was a Marine intelligence analyst. He later pleaded guilty to mishandling more than 100 classified documents and passing them to at least four people.
Maziarz was sentenced to 26 months in exchange for information detailing the theft and hand-off of the top secret documents, and agreeing to testify against his alleged accomplices if they are charged. The plea deal bars Maziarz from talking with the media, the Union-Tribune reported.
Pagan and Froboese were not named in Maziarz's testimony.
© Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
2008-07-18
Man shot by S.B. County sheriff's deputies says he was not subject of search warrant
Rudy Silvain was at an elderly friend's home when San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies arrived Thursday afternoon to serve a search warrant.
Silvain, 20, who lives down the street from the home in the 17500 block of Pine Avenue, said he had been there only five minutes when the sheriff's helicopter began flying overhead about 4 p.m.
Silvain and the woman's granddaughter, Ramie Shaw, were talking near the garage when Fontana sheriff's deputies ordered them on the ground. They were complying when a pit bull reportedly ran out from between two homes and charged a deputy.
Silvain said he couldn't see the dog because he had both hands and one knee on the concrete.
"The dog -- I don't know where exactly the dog came from but I know it didn't come from behind me," Silvain said by phone Friday.
A sheriff's deputy fired at the dog but missed, hitting Silvain once in the upper leg, said Fontana police spokesman Jeff Decker.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said Silvain's injuries were not life-threatening and that he and the dog were in very close proximity during the shooting.
Silvain said he was shot seven times, but Decker said that information is incorrect, according to the Fontana Police Department investigation.
"There was only one shot that was fired and they recovered the casing at the scene," Decker said.
After he was shot, Silvain said sheriff's deputies handcuffed him until the paramedics began treating him for his wounded leg.
He was transported to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center but discharged himself from the hospital late Thursday night.
Silvain said the only reason he was at the house was to check on the grandmother of his late friend, Rachel, on the two-year anniversary of Rachel's death.
Silvain still isn't sure why he was shot because he wasn't the target of the narcotics search warrant. He did admit to smoking marijuana earlier in the day and took a drug test at the hospital.
The pit bull was quarantined and taken away by Animal Control, said Decker.
Ramie Michelle Shaw, 22, was arrested on suspicion of possession of narcotics and booked at West Valley Detention Center.
Reach Julie Farren at 909-806-3066 or jfarren@PE.com
Silvain, 20, who lives down the street from the home in the 17500 block of Pine Avenue, said he had been there only five minutes when the sheriff's helicopter began flying overhead about 4 p.m.
Silvain and the woman's granddaughter, Ramie Shaw, were talking near the garage when Fontana sheriff's deputies ordered them on the ground. They were complying when a pit bull reportedly ran out from between two homes and charged a deputy.
Silvain said he couldn't see the dog because he had both hands and one knee on the concrete.
"The dog -- I don't know where exactly the dog came from but I know it didn't come from behind me," Silvain said by phone Friday.
A sheriff's deputy fired at the dog but missed, hitting Silvain once in the upper leg, said Fontana police spokesman Jeff Decker.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said Silvain's injuries were not life-threatening and that he and the dog were in very close proximity during the shooting.
Silvain said he was shot seven times, but Decker said that information is incorrect, according to the Fontana Police Department investigation.
"There was only one shot that was fired and they recovered the casing at the scene," Decker said.
After he was shot, Silvain said sheriff's deputies handcuffed him until the paramedics began treating him for his wounded leg.
He was transported to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center but discharged himself from the hospital late Thursday night.
Silvain said the only reason he was at the house was to check on the grandmother of his late friend, Rachel, on the two-year anniversary of Rachel's death.
Silvain still isn't sure why he was shot because he wasn't the target of the narcotics search warrant. He did admit to smoking marijuana earlier in the day and took a drug test at the hospital.
The pit bull was quarantined and taken away by Animal Control, said Decker.
Ramie Michelle Shaw, 22, was arrested on suspicion of possession of narcotics and booked at West Valley Detention Center.
Reach Julie Farren at 909-806-3066 or jfarren@PE.com
S.B. County DA, police investigate reporting in Operation Phoenix molestation case
SAN BERNARDINO - San Bernardino police and the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office are conducting a joint investigation into whether several city employees violated California's mandatory reporting act by hesitating or neglecting to contact police regarding an Operation Phoenix community center director's alleged child molestations.
San Bernardino Police Chief Mike Billdt met with San Bernardino County investigators Friday to discuss e-mails sent by several city employees several days before police were called in to investigate.
Jim Morris, the mayor's chief of staff said the matter is best handled by the district attorney and police because there is a reasonable suspicion standard.
"If a reasonable person would have a suspicion that actual abuse or molestation of a child occurred, they have a mandatory duty to report that to law enforcement agencies," Morris said.
In the e-mails sent July 27 and obtained by The Press-Enterprise, employees discussed possible sexual molestations that eventually resulted in two dozen felony charges against Michael Steven Miller. The 48-year-old Highland resident and former director of Operation Phoenix's community center at 16th Street and Sierra Way is accused of molesting two young girls in recent months and another more than a decade ago.
Mayor Pat Morris said officials are also looking into allegations that Miller and another recreation supervisor not affiliated with Operation Phoenix engaged in a fight with BB guns.
San Bernardino police learned of the alleged molestations late in the day on July 1, said Lt. Scott Paterson. Police served search warrants late July 2 and arrested Miller on the afternoon of July 3.
But Miller's supervisor, Glenda Robinson, sent a June 27 e-mail to San Bernardino Parks and Recreation Director Kevin Hawkins and another city employee discussing the matter.
"I was just told that some former and current employees are planning on going to the city attorney's office to report Mike Miller's involvement in the BB gun incident and a possible sexual involvement with a minor during work hours," Robinson wrote in an e-mail to Hawkins.
Glenn Baude, director of Operation Phoenix, also sent a June 27 e-mail in which he told Hawkins he believed "there should be some level of discipline for the BB incident, possible sexual involvement I have heard nothing about but it should be investigated. Let's meet."
The e-mails may indicate Baude, Hawkins and two other city employees knew of Miller's alleged child molestations but allowed him to continue his work at the community center.
Baude referred questions to San Bernardino City Attorney James Penman. Hawkins and Robinson could not be reached Friday for comment.
"Certainly, our initial impression is that they do come within the mandated reporting statutes in the penal code," said Jim Hackleman, an assistant district attorney for San Bernardino County, said of the San Bernardino city employees who sent the e-mails.
Penman said new findings are made as the city continues to ask questions, interview people and study documents.
"The Mayor and Council are concerned that we get to the bottom of this entire situation," Penman said. "As we become aware of things that we were not aware of previously, we respond to them. We're looking into a number of things, and there could be a good deal more to be looked into yet. It's a work in progress."
On July 8, Miller pleaded not guilty to numerous counts of lewd acts upon a child. He is being held on $1 million bail at the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino.
Mayor Pat Morris, who called Operation Phoenix a crime-fighting plan for the city, said Miller's arrest "was a shock in the extreme."
Reach Michael Perrault at 909-806-3053 or mperrault@PE.com
San Bernardino Police Chief Mike Billdt met with San Bernardino County investigators Friday to discuss e-mails sent by several city employees several days before police were called in to investigate.
Jim Morris, the mayor's chief of staff said the matter is best handled by the district attorney and police because there is a reasonable suspicion standard.
"If a reasonable person would have a suspicion that actual abuse or molestation of a child occurred, they have a mandatory duty to report that to law enforcement agencies," Morris said.
In the e-mails sent July 27 and obtained by The Press-Enterprise, employees discussed possible sexual molestations that eventually resulted in two dozen felony charges against Michael Steven Miller. The 48-year-old Highland resident and former director of Operation Phoenix's community center at 16th Street and Sierra Way is accused of molesting two young girls in recent months and another more than a decade ago.
Mayor Pat Morris said officials are also looking into allegations that Miller and another recreation supervisor not affiliated with Operation Phoenix engaged in a fight with BB guns.
San Bernardino police learned of the alleged molestations late in the day on July 1, said Lt. Scott Paterson. Police served search warrants late July 2 and arrested Miller on the afternoon of July 3.
But Miller's supervisor, Glenda Robinson, sent a June 27 e-mail to San Bernardino Parks and Recreation Director Kevin Hawkins and another city employee discussing the matter.
"I was just told that some former and current employees are planning on going to the city attorney's office to report Mike Miller's involvement in the BB gun incident and a possible sexual involvement with a minor during work hours," Robinson wrote in an e-mail to Hawkins.
Glenn Baude, director of Operation Phoenix, also sent a June 27 e-mail in which he told Hawkins he believed "there should be some level of discipline for the BB incident, possible sexual involvement I have heard nothing about but it should be investigated. Let's meet."
The e-mails may indicate Baude, Hawkins and two other city employees knew of Miller's alleged child molestations but allowed him to continue his work at the community center.
Baude referred questions to San Bernardino City Attorney James Penman. Hawkins and Robinson could not be reached Friday for comment.
"Certainly, our initial impression is that they do come within the mandated reporting statutes in the penal code," said Jim Hackleman, an assistant district attorney for San Bernardino County, said of the San Bernardino city employees who sent the e-mails.
Penman said new findings are made as the city continues to ask questions, interview people and study documents.
"The Mayor and Council are concerned that we get to the bottom of this entire situation," Penman said. "As we become aware of things that we were not aware of previously, we respond to them. We're looking into a number of things, and there could be a good deal more to be looked into yet. It's a work in progress."
On July 8, Miller pleaded not guilty to numerous counts of lewd acts upon a child. He is being held on $1 million bail at the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino.
Mayor Pat Morris, who called Operation Phoenix a crime-fighting plan for the city, said Miller's arrest "was a shock in the extreme."
Reach Michael Perrault at 909-806-3053 or mperrault@PE.com
2008-07-16
Illegal arrests alleged
SAN BERNARDINO - A San Bernardino police sergeant has accused a narcotics team supervisor of illegally arresting two men without citing their crime, a violation of state and constitutional law.
Patrol Sgt. Mike Desrochers' accusation against narcotics Sgt. Bradley Lawrence arose from the events before a July 2 raid on an Eastside apartment complex.
Seven men were arrested on suspicion of possession of cocaine base for sale, possession of marijuana for sales, street-gang participation and conspiracy to distribute narcotics, court records show.
In a recorded conversation before a drug raid at the apartment complex, Lawrence asked Desrochers to jail two men, whom he had just detained after a traffic stop and keep them from making phone calls so they couldn't warn other suspects.
Minutes after the raid concluded, Desrochers e-mailed San Bernardino Police Department Assistant Chief Walt Goggin, claiming Lawrence detained the two men improperly by neglecting to arrest them for investigation of a specific crime before ordering them into the back of a police car and taking them to the city jail.
In the memo -- a copy of which was obtained by The Press-Enterprise -- Desrochers says the action "constitutes an illegal arrest." Desrochers accused the sergeant of similar, repeated violations in the past.
In an interview, he called the alleged detention without charge a violation of state laws on arrest procedure and "a rights violation at the very least."
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Peter Bibring said by phone that the actions described in the memo "violate the basic protections in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution against baseless arrest." The ACLU is investigating, he said.
Lawrence declined to comment Tuesday. Goggin said he couldn't discuss Desrochers' complaint because it's part of a confidential personnel investigation. The department does not tolerate the sort of actions Desrochers describes, he said.
Police union president Rich Lawhead said Tuesday that Lawrence is entitled to legal representation at the union's expense but had not requested it.
In an interview, Desrochers said he wrote to Goggin because Lawrence ignored legal limits on arrest powers.
Police records obtained by The Press-Enterprise show Lawrence detained the men about 90 minutes before the raid, in a traffic stop at East Temple Street and North Waterman Avenue. That location is about five miles from the targeted apartment complex in the 3200 block of East 21st Street.
Lawrence could have legally detained the men at the scene of the stop, Desrochers said. He said if the two men agreed to accompany Lawrence to another location, he would have been under no legal obligation to arrest them.
But the moment he invoked his police authority to take them to jail, the standard changed, Desrochers said. At that point, he said, Lawrence should have placed the suspects under formal arrest for investigation of specific charges before moving them against their will. Instead, Desrochers alleged, the narcotics investigator used a tactic that he has used before.
He put the suspects "on ice," a term Desrochers remembers from a jailer's booking form from another investigation Lawrence oversaw last September.
Desrochers said the memory of the booking sheet documenting that incident helped prompt his July 2 memo.
Desrochers first objected to Lawrence's actions in a pair of recorded telephone conversations obtained by The Press Enterprise and verified by Desrochers. Police departments routinely tape calls.
In the first recording, Lawrence tells Desrochers -- who as watch commander that day had authority over patrol operations -- that he and his officers have just detained two men whose homes they are preparing to search.
Lawrence says he's sending the men to the city jail with one of the patrol officers assigned to Desrochers, to be held without charges or phone calls "until we can get out to their house and go say good mor ... afternoon to the rest of their people."
Desrochers initially approves the detention, ending the conversation. Then he calls back.
"Tell me that story again. Is this guy in custody for something?" Desrochers asks.
"He ... he will be as soon as we get to his house to execute the warrant," Lawrence answers.
"What if you don't find dope?" Desrochers asks.
"I'll cross that bridge when I get there," the narcotics supervisor replies.
"I want you to know, that's going to be an issue with this guy being in custody with no charges," the watch commander says.
Desrochers presses Lawrence to get approval from the captain overseeing narcotics operations.
"Yeah, I'll tell him. I'll figure something else out then," Lawrence answers. He hangs up.
In an interview, Desrochers said the conversation alarmed him and doesn't represent "the way the department does business."
"The ends do not justify the means," Desrochers said. "We can't arrest somebody with no charges in the hope that we'll find something later at their house. It's wrong. It needs to be addressed."A log obtained by The Press-Enterprise and verified by three police sources shows the patrol car holding the two men next moved to the parking lot outside the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office at 3rd Street and Mountain View Avenue.
At that point, Lawrence hadn't completed paperwork for a search warrant or obtained a judge's signature on the search warrant required for the police raid. sources said.
The next record of the patrol car's movements comes shortly after 5 p.m., when it arrived at the address being searched. Police department records show the seven suspects, including the two detained from the car, were arrested minutes later
Ron Cottingham, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, agreed with Desrochers' explanation of arrest laws as they apply to the July 2 case.
"Transporting (suspects) when you have no charges for several hours may expose you and your department to a liability," he said in a July 10 telephone interview. .
Cottingham, a 30-year veteran of the San Diego County Sheriff's department, said instead of holding a person while gathering evidence, officers can cite Penal Code section 849, which lets police detain and release a suspect, then arrest him again. "In this process, there is a record kept, so you have a paper trail on it," he said. "You just can't put somebody in jail and then come back and say, 'Never mind. Go home.'"
In addition to his reservations about the July 2 detention, Cottingham questioned a San Bernardino jail record obtained by The Press-Enterprise from Sept. 19, 2007.
The record shows that then-Rialto resident Greg Parker was in custody. But the spaces on the form for recording when, where and why the person was arrested are marked either "unknown" or "pending." The final space, intended for the case number, reads "Unknown. Subject is on ice."
A police report shows Lawrence's squad had arrested Parker in connection with a narcotics-trafficking investigation. Parker said authorities didn't tell him that at first.
When police delivered him to the city jail before 4 a.m., jailers said an arrest warrant against him alleged a driving violation. Parker said he pays all traffic citations and knew he had no such warrants, a fact his attorney, Gary Wenkle Smith, later confirmed through a court records check.
Parker said in the first four hours after the cell door closed he pushed an intercom button repeatedly, asking to call his family. Jailers didn't allow him to call until 6 p.m., Parker said, minutes before transferring him to West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.
Arrestees are entitled to a call within three hours, Cottingham said.
Goggin, the assistant police chief, said he hadn't seen the booking record and could not comment. He said civilian jailers fill out the forms.
Reach Chris Richard at 909-806-3076 or crichard@PE.com
Patrol Sgt. Mike Desrochers' accusation against narcotics Sgt. Bradley Lawrence arose from the events before a July 2 raid on an Eastside apartment complex.
Seven men were arrested on suspicion of possession of cocaine base for sale, possession of marijuana for sales, street-gang participation and conspiracy to distribute narcotics, court records show.
In a recorded conversation before a drug raid at the apartment complex, Lawrence asked Desrochers to jail two men, whom he had just detained after a traffic stop and keep them from making phone calls so they couldn't warn other suspects.
Minutes after the raid concluded, Desrochers e-mailed San Bernardino Police Department Assistant Chief Walt Goggin, claiming Lawrence detained the two men improperly by neglecting to arrest them for investigation of a specific crime before ordering them into the back of a police car and taking them to the city jail.
In the memo -- a copy of which was obtained by The Press-Enterprise -- Desrochers says the action "constitutes an illegal arrest." Desrochers accused the sergeant of similar, repeated violations in the past.
In an interview, he called the alleged detention without charge a violation of state laws on arrest procedure and "a rights violation at the very least."
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Peter Bibring said by phone that the actions described in the memo "violate the basic protections in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution against baseless arrest." The ACLU is investigating, he said.
Lawrence declined to comment Tuesday. Goggin said he couldn't discuss Desrochers' complaint because it's part of a confidential personnel investigation. The department does not tolerate the sort of actions Desrochers describes, he said.
Police union president Rich Lawhead said Tuesday that Lawrence is entitled to legal representation at the union's expense but had not requested it.
In an interview, Desrochers said he wrote to Goggin because Lawrence ignored legal limits on arrest powers.
Police records obtained by The Press-Enterprise show Lawrence detained the men about 90 minutes before the raid, in a traffic stop at East Temple Street and North Waterman Avenue. That location is about five miles from the targeted apartment complex in the 3200 block of East 21st Street.
Lawrence could have legally detained the men at the scene of the stop, Desrochers said. He said if the two men agreed to accompany Lawrence to another location, he would have been under no legal obligation to arrest them.
But the moment he invoked his police authority to take them to jail, the standard changed, Desrochers said. At that point, he said, Lawrence should have placed the suspects under formal arrest for investigation of specific charges before moving them against their will. Instead, Desrochers alleged, the narcotics investigator used a tactic that he has used before.
He put the suspects "on ice," a term Desrochers remembers from a jailer's booking form from another investigation Lawrence oversaw last September.
Desrochers said the memory of the booking sheet documenting that incident helped prompt his July 2 memo.
Desrochers first objected to Lawrence's actions in a pair of recorded telephone conversations obtained by The Press Enterprise and verified by Desrochers. Police departments routinely tape calls.
In the first recording, Lawrence tells Desrochers -- who as watch commander that day had authority over patrol operations -- that he and his officers have just detained two men whose homes they are preparing to search.
Lawrence says he's sending the men to the city jail with one of the patrol officers assigned to Desrochers, to be held without charges or phone calls "until we can get out to their house and go say good mor ... afternoon to the rest of their people."
Desrochers initially approves the detention, ending the conversation. Then he calls back.
"Tell me that story again. Is this guy in custody for something?" Desrochers asks.
"He ... he will be as soon as we get to his house to execute the warrant," Lawrence answers.
"What if you don't find dope?" Desrochers asks.
"I'll cross that bridge when I get there," the narcotics supervisor replies.
"I want you to know, that's going to be an issue with this guy being in custody with no charges," the watch commander says.
Desrochers presses Lawrence to get approval from the captain overseeing narcotics operations.
"Yeah, I'll tell him. I'll figure something else out then," Lawrence answers. He hangs up.
In an interview, Desrochers said the conversation alarmed him and doesn't represent "the way the department does business."
"The ends do not justify the means," Desrochers said. "We can't arrest somebody with no charges in the hope that we'll find something later at their house. It's wrong. It needs to be addressed."A log obtained by The Press-Enterprise and verified by three police sources shows the patrol car holding the two men next moved to the parking lot outside the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office at 3rd Street and Mountain View Avenue.
At that point, Lawrence hadn't completed paperwork for a search warrant or obtained a judge's signature on the search warrant required for the police raid. sources said.
The next record of the patrol car's movements comes shortly after 5 p.m., when it arrived at the address being searched. Police department records show the seven suspects, including the two detained from the car, were arrested minutes later
Ron Cottingham, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, agreed with Desrochers' explanation of arrest laws as they apply to the July 2 case.
"Transporting (suspects) when you have no charges for several hours may expose you and your department to a liability," he said in a July 10 telephone interview. .
Cottingham, a 30-year veteran of the San Diego County Sheriff's department, said instead of holding a person while gathering evidence, officers can cite Penal Code section 849, which lets police detain and release a suspect, then arrest him again. "In this process, there is a record kept, so you have a paper trail on it," he said. "You just can't put somebody in jail and then come back and say, 'Never mind. Go home.'"
In addition to his reservations about the July 2 detention, Cottingham questioned a San Bernardino jail record obtained by The Press-Enterprise from Sept. 19, 2007.
The record shows that then-Rialto resident Greg Parker was in custody. But the spaces on the form for recording when, where and why the person was arrested are marked either "unknown" or "pending." The final space, intended for the case number, reads "Unknown. Subject is on ice."
A police report shows Lawrence's squad had arrested Parker in connection with a narcotics-trafficking investigation. Parker said authorities didn't tell him that at first.
When police delivered him to the city jail before 4 a.m., jailers said an arrest warrant against him alleged a driving violation. Parker said he pays all traffic citations and knew he had no such warrants, a fact his attorney, Gary Wenkle Smith, later confirmed through a court records check.
Parker said in the first four hours after the cell door closed he pushed an intercom button repeatedly, asking to call his family. Jailers didn't allow him to call until 6 p.m., Parker said, minutes before transferring him to West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.
Arrestees are entitled to a call within three hours, Cottingham said.
Goggin, the assistant police chief, said he hadn't seen the booking record and could not comment. He said civilian jailers fill out the forms.
Reach Chris Richard at 909-806-3076 or crichard@PE.com
2008-07-11
FISA compromise completes transformation of US into full police state
On Wednesday, the US Congress overwhelmingly passed legislation permitting government spying, including giving immunity to telecommunications companies involved in secret domestic surveillance programs. With the stroke of George W. Bush�s pen, the US is now a police state by definition.
The extent of the spying program, and its larger implications, have been revealed by Mark Klein, who blew the whistle on secret domestic spying program of Bush/Cheney�s National Security Agency (NSA) and AT&T: AT&T whistleblower: spy bill creates infrastructure for police state
The update of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, called the "FISA compromise," or more appropriately, the "spy bill," largely completes the triumph of the Bush/Cheney administration and a bipartisan criminal consensus. By convenient design, the FISA revision derails pending lawsuits filed against the Bush administration�s corporate spying partners (AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and Verizon), silences (the largely empty-to-begin-with) congressional investigations into the Bush administration�s illegal domestic spying program.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and the Democrats have now moved to silence all discussion about the issue.
Fear itself, a.k.a. spying itself
Between the false flag mass murder of 9/11 and the creation of the "war on terrorism," the USAPATRIOT Act and this new FISA revision, the Bush-Cheney administration and its enthusiastically complicit congressional partners have achieved total victory -- world war, open criminality, and the end of law itself.
It gives the US government unprecedented new spying powers and sweeping new legal cover for spying that goes well beyond even the original FISA law -- which itself was an abomination that already permitted the US president broad surveillance powers.
Given the fact that the US government is a wholly corrupted criminal organization by definition, the political spin over "oversight," warrants, the involvement of the inspector general, etc., is all the more transparently ridiculous: the operatives of such apparatuses do not investigate or punish their own. Nor do they voluntarily stop the lucrative and intoxicating criminal activity that is their lifeblood.
In fact, the debate over the spy bill is a red herring, clouding the larger central (purposely unaddressed) issue: the "war on terrorism" lie itself.
The mass murder of 9/11 was a false flag operation, orchestrated and executed by the Bush administration. The "war on terrorism" is a perpetual covert operation, an endless pretext for war and murder, supported by a bipartisan consensus. (See Who is Osama bin Laden? and Al-Qaeda:the database.) No 9/11, no "war on terrorism," no war in the Middle East. No "war on terrorism" lie, no dictatorial powers for the White House, and no beefed-up FISA.
Given that the "war on terrorism" is a lie, the need for unprecedented spying is also a lie. Just as 9/11 remains the endless pretext for endless war and terrorism, it also remains, in its countless propaganda manifestations, the justification for open totalitarian rule of force and intimidation within US borders.
The totalitarian criminal agenda is fully endorsed by neoliberal Democrats, including Barack Obama. According to the Obama campaign, "Senator Obama has said before that the compromise bill is not perfect. Given the choice between voting for an improved yet imperfect bill, and losing important surveillance tools, Senator Obama chose to support the FISA compromise."
The pro-surveillance Democrats, led by Senator Jay Rockefeller and Obama (whose lame hemming-hawing justifications can be read here) are repeating asinine lies, and groundless excuses.
In calling criminal spying and covert operations "important surveillance tools," Obama is showing his truest colors. Obama, whose politics and rhetoric have been consistently in line with the Bush/Cheney agenda on all of the most telling issues (war in Afghanistan, war on Iran, "terrorism," "homeland security," globalization, and most recently, other right-wing positions), is a smooth-talking and appealing front for the Bush-Cheney status quo. Obama and McCain, like Bush-Cheney, will continue to push the endless "war on terrorism" lie, and embrace every single criminal act conducted in the name of this propaganda construct.
All "homeland security"/Big Brother measures such as FISA, in any form, provides political cover for the US government to engage in criminal activity. Any politician, be it Bush/Cheney or Obama, who approves of any sort of "surveillance" is guilty of committing a criminal act, and of raping the Constitution along the way.
Cynical posturing and election-year flatulence from Obama�s legion of defenders and fans cannot hide what has happened, or who is responsible. The rape of the US Constitution is so overt and so egregious that it has set off a wave of outrage and backlash, spawning unusual new grassroots coalitions.
Clearly, however, the powers that be, including the Obama camp, have casually dismissed this relatively small portion of the US public out of its election-year calculations, regardless of how stridently they organize, blog, blow whistles or file lawsuits.
Senator Russ Feingold (whose own record on opposing the Bush administration is less than stellar) warned that the FISA revision "could mean millions upon millions of communications between innocent Americans and their friends, families or business associates overseas could now be legally collected."
It means much more than Feingold states, and it has for many years -- perhaps decades.
Spying: the pre- and post-9/11 norm
Returning again to the expos� by whistleblower Mark Klein, his detailed and stomach-turning expos�, which includes materials from the key court cases, exposes the fact that the NSA began breaking into local telephone circuits in 2001. As pointed out by Robert Parry, the current program may have been in place before 2001.
In other words, the spying program never had anything to do with international "terrorists," and everything to do with a larger police state agenda, including the power to identify, designate and destroy individuals whose opinions run counter to those of whichever Big Brother is "in charge." This is a long-planned program that 9/11 allowed to push to full fruition.
It is a well-documented fact that the US government�s spying capabilities are overwhelming, and that continuous illegal surveillance has always trumped congressional oversight, and the law itself. Obviously, the light reigning-in of criminal covert operations in the post-Watergate 1970s has been completely undone in the decades since.
Investigators such as former NSA operative James Bamford (author of the expos� of the NSA, Body of Secrets) and Mike Ruppert�s Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil have thoroughly detailed the pervasiveness and effectiveness of a wide range of spying and intelligence programs used by intelligence and law enforcement agencies. These include Echelon and PROMIS, which are used by operatives in criminal fashion, as ordered by high-level officials, specifically to get around all oversight.
Completely unaddressed throughout the years of noise over spying and FISA, the Total Information Awareness Program (formerly known as DARPA, and spearheaded by Iran-Contra participant John Poindexter) has found new life as the IARPA program.
Nobody is talking about IARPA. Nobody will.
Welcome to hell, again
The George W. Bush administration seized the White House in 2000 by way of an openly stolen election, then cemented its criminal power into place with the unprecedented 9/11 mass murder, and its two resulting abominations: the fabricated "war on terrorism" (the pretext for endless global war), and the USAPATRIOT Act (the full-scale destruction of the Constitution, and the militarization of the US homeland).
These continuing atrocities were the works of a bipartisan "war on terrorism" consensus, a full partnership at the top echelons, whose overriding agenda is the survival of the criminal racket known as the Anglo-American empire.
The deepening of the war and security state has continued unabated. Under a US Congress with a Democratic Party majority, nothing been done to stop, reverse or undo the world war, boundless US government criminality, open corruption, or the absolute and systematic rape of law itself. Now, particularly with a looming US presidential election, leading members of both political parties have shown their true colors: as flagrant proponents of military-intelligence/"homeland security," and enthusiastic destroyers of the Constitution.
In The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, Victor Marchetti and John Marks wrote in 1974, "The clandestine mentality is a mind-set that thrives on secrecy and deception. It encourages professional amorality---the belief that righteous goals can be achieved through the use of unprincipled and normally unacceptable means. . . .
"Today, exemplified by actions of the bipartisan US consensus, assisted by an acquiescent and dumbed-down populace, the clandestine mentality is not clandestine. "Professional amorality" is the norm---celebrated openly, and opposed by few."
In other words, your life and all of your communications -- from your emails, your web searches, medical records, and financial information, to your reading this article and clicking this web site -- has been "hoovered up" by the US government�s spying machine, to be used against you at some future time, if the powers that be so choose.
If 9/11, the USAPATRIOT Act, and the relentless destruction of law since 2000 have not already made it abundantly clear, a "Homeland Security" police state within US borders, courtesy of the spy bill, is now complete. Not even the trappings of a democracy remain.
The extent of the spying program, and its larger implications, have been revealed by Mark Klein, who blew the whistle on secret domestic spying program of Bush/Cheney�s National Security Agency (NSA) and AT&T: AT&T whistleblower: spy bill creates infrastructure for police state
The update of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, called the "FISA compromise," or more appropriately, the "spy bill," largely completes the triumph of the Bush/Cheney administration and a bipartisan criminal consensus. By convenient design, the FISA revision derails pending lawsuits filed against the Bush administration�s corporate spying partners (AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and Verizon), silences (the largely empty-to-begin-with) congressional investigations into the Bush administration�s illegal domestic spying program.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and the Democrats have now moved to silence all discussion about the issue.
Fear itself, a.k.a. spying itself
Between the false flag mass murder of 9/11 and the creation of the "war on terrorism," the USAPATRIOT Act and this new FISA revision, the Bush-Cheney administration and its enthusiastically complicit congressional partners have achieved total victory -- world war, open criminality, and the end of law itself.
It gives the US government unprecedented new spying powers and sweeping new legal cover for spying that goes well beyond even the original FISA law -- which itself was an abomination that already permitted the US president broad surveillance powers.
Given the fact that the US government is a wholly corrupted criminal organization by definition, the political spin over "oversight," warrants, the involvement of the inspector general, etc., is all the more transparently ridiculous: the operatives of such apparatuses do not investigate or punish their own. Nor do they voluntarily stop the lucrative and intoxicating criminal activity that is their lifeblood.
In fact, the debate over the spy bill is a red herring, clouding the larger central (purposely unaddressed) issue: the "war on terrorism" lie itself.
The mass murder of 9/11 was a false flag operation, orchestrated and executed by the Bush administration. The "war on terrorism" is a perpetual covert operation, an endless pretext for war and murder, supported by a bipartisan consensus. (See Who is Osama bin Laden? and Al-Qaeda:the database.) No 9/11, no "war on terrorism," no war in the Middle East. No "war on terrorism" lie, no dictatorial powers for the White House, and no beefed-up FISA.
Given that the "war on terrorism" is a lie, the need for unprecedented spying is also a lie. Just as 9/11 remains the endless pretext for endless war and terrorism, it also remains, in its countless propaganda manifestations, the justification for open totalitarian rule of force and intimidation within US borders.
The totalitarian criminal agenda is fully endorsed by neoliberal Democrats, including Barack Obama. According to the Obama campaign, "Senator Obama has said before that the compromise bill is not perfect. Given the choice between voting for an improved yet imperfect bill, and losing important surveillance tools, Senator Obama chose to support the FISA compromise."
The pro-surveillance Democrats, led by Senator Jay Rockefeller and Obama (whose lame hemming-hawing justifications can be read here) are repeating asinine lies, and groundless excuses.
In calling criminal spying and covert operations "important surveillance tools," Obama is showing his truest colors. Obama, whose politics and rhetoric have been consistently in line with the Bush/Cheney agenda on all of the most telling issues (war in Afghanistan, war on Iran, "terrorism," "homeland security," globalization, and most recently, other right-wing positions), is a smooth-talking and appealing front for the Bush-Cheney status quo. Obama and McCain, like Bush-Cheney, will continue to push the endless "war on terrorism" lie, and embrace every single criminal act conducted in the name of this propaganda construct.
All "homeland security"/Big Brother measures such as FISA, in any form, provides political cover for the US government to engage in criminal activity. Any politician, be it Bush/Cheney or Obama, who approves of any sort of "surveillance" is guilty of committing a criminal act, and of raping the Constitution along the way.
Cynical posturing and election-year flatulence from Obama�s legion of defenders and fans cannot hide what has happened, or who is responsible. The rape of the US Constitution is so overt and so egregious that it has set off a wave of outrage and backlash, spawning unusual new grassroots coalitions.
Clearly, however, the powers that be, including the Obama camp, have casually dismissed this relatively small portion of the US public out of its election-year calculations, regardless of how stridently they organize, blog, blow whistles or file lawsuits.
Senator Russ Feingold (whose own record on opposing the Bush administration is less than stellar) warned that the FISA revision "could mean millions upon millions of communications between innocent Americans and their friends, families or business associates overseas could now be legally collected."
It means much more than Feingold states, and it has for many years -- perhaps decades.
Spying: the pre- and post-9/11 norm
Returning again to the expos� by whistleblower Mark Klein, his detailed and stomach-turning expos�, which includes materials from the key court cases, exposes the fact that the NSA began breaking into local telephone circuits in 2001. As pointed out by Robert Parry, the current program may have been in place before 2001.
In other words, the spying program never had anything to do with international "terrorists," and everything to do with a larger police state agenda, including the power to identify, designate and destroy individuals whose opinions run counter to those of whichever Big Brother is "in charge." This is a long-planned program that 9/11 allowed to push to full fruition.
It is a well-documented fact that the US government�s spying capabilities are overwhelming, and that continuous illegal surveillance has always trumped congressional oversight, and the law itself. Obviously, the light reigning-in of criminal covert operations in the post-Watergate 1970s has been completely undone in the decades since.
Investigators such as former NSA operative James Bamford (author of the expos� of the NSA, Body of Secrets) and Mike Ruppert�s Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil have thoroughly detailed the pervasiveness and effectiveness of a wide range of spying and intelligence programs used by intelligence and law enforcement agencies. These include Echelon and PROMIS, which are used by operatives in criminal fashion, as ordered by high-level officials, specifically to get around all oversight.
Completely unaddressed throughout the years of noise over spying and FISA, the Total Information Awareness Program (formerly known as DARPA, and spearheaded by Iran-Contra participant John Poindexter) has found new life as the IARPA program.
Nobody is talking about IARPA. Nobody will.
Welcome to hell, again
The George W. Bush administration seized the White House in 2000 by way of an openly stolen election, then cemented its criminal power into place with the unprecedented 9/11 mass murder, and its two resulting abominations: the fabricated "war on terrorism" (the pretext for endless global war), and the USAPATRIOT Act (the full-scale destruction of the Constitution, and the militarization of the US homeland).
These continuing atrocities were the works of a bipartisan "war on terrorism" consensus, a full partnership at the top echelons, whose overriding agenda is the survival of the criminal racket known as the Anglo-American empire.
The deepening of the war and security state has continued unabated. Under a US Congress with a Democratic Party majority, nothing been done to stop, reverse or undo the world war, boundless US government criminality, open corruption, or the absolute and systematic rape of law itself. Now, particularly with a looming US presidential election, leading members of both political parties have shown their true colors: as flagrant proponents of military-intelligence/"homeland security," and enthusiastic destroyers of the Constitution.
In The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, Victor Marchetti and John Marks wrote in 1974, "The clandestine mentality is a mind-set that thrives on secrecy and deception. It encourages professional amorality---the belief that righteous goals can be achieved through the use of unprincipled and normally unacceptable means. . . .
"Today, exemplified by actions of the bipartisan US consensus, assisted by an acquiescent and dumbed-down populace, the clandestine mentality is not clandestine. "Professional amorality" is the norm---celebrated openly, and opposed by few."
In other words, your life and all of your communications -- from your emails, your web searches, medical records, and financial information, to your reading this article and clicking this web site -- has been "hoovered up" by the US government�s spying machine, to be used against you at some future time, if the powers that be so choose.
If 9/11, the USAPATRIOT Act, and the relentless destruction of law since 2000 have not already made it abundantly clear, a "Homeland Security" police state within US borders, courtesy of the spy bill, is now complete. Not even the trappings of a democracy remain.
2008-07-10
Obama Votes to Silence Debate and Pass FISA
by John Nichols
Arizona Senator John McCain did not bother to show up for Wednesday's Senate votes on whether to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to absolve George Bush of responsibility for initiating an illegal warrantless wiretapping program and to provide retroactive immunity to the telecommunications corporations that violated the privacy of their customers in order to collaborate with a lawless president.
But that's O.K., Illinois Senator Barack Obama cast the votes that McCain would have.
In addition to joining the majority in a 69-28 Senate vote to approve legislation that the American Civil Liberties Union describes as "a Constitutional nightmare," Obama backed a key move to silence debate on the FISA bill.
During a day of decisions on amendments, cloture and formal approval of the FISA rewrite, Obama cast several votes in favor of failed amendments to limit certain forms of retroactive immunity for the telecommunications corporations. But, in the essential votes on whether to advance and pass the unamended bill, the senator from Illinois broke the majority of his Democratic colleagues -- including New York Senator Hillary Clinton -- as they worked to keep the debate open and block final passage.
In the case of the cloture vote, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president sided with Republicans who argued that the essential Constitutional questions raised by the White House-backed FISA legislation did not merit extended or thoughtful debate.
Seventy-two senators backed the move to end the debate, while 26 sought to keep it going. Two senators - McCain and ailing Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy - missed Wednesday's votes.
Those 26 "no" votes on cloture were cast by Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders and 25 Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin, Obama's Democratic colleague from Illinois, and Clinton, Obama's primary competitor for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Leading the fight to keep the debate about the FISA rewrite open were Connecticut Democrat Chris Dodd and Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold, the two senators Obama promised earlier their year to work with in an effort to block this assault on the Constitution and corporate responsibility.
Said Feingold, "I sit on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, and I am one of the few members of this body who has been fully briefed on the warrantless wiretapping program. And, based on what I know, I can promise that if more information is declassified about the program in the future, as is likely to happen either due to the Inspector General report, the election of a new President, or simply the passage of time, members of this body will regret that we passed this legislation. I am also familiar with the collection activities that have been conducted under the Protect America Act and will continue under this bill. I invite any of my colleagues who wish to know more about those activities to come speak to me in a classified setting. Publicly, all I can say is that I have serious concerns about how those activities may have impacted the civil liberties of Americans. If we grant these new powers to the government and the effects become known to the American people, we will realize what a mistake it was, of that I am sure."
Unfortunately, while Obama once promised to work with Feingold, he wasn't listening on Wednesday when the Wisconsin senator explained to his colleagues that granting retroactive immunity to the telecommunications corporations would effectively block the ability of Congress and the courts to address not just massive corporate wrongdoing but attacks on the privacy rights of Americans.
"If Congress short-circuits these lawsuits, we will have lost a prime opportunity to finally achieve accountability for these years of law-breaking," said Feingold, who flatly rejected Obama's argument that, while unappealing in some aspects, the FISA rewrite was somehow acceptable as a whole. "That's why the administration has been fighting so hard for this immunity. It knows that the cases that have been brought directly against the government face much more difficult procedural barriers, and are unlikely to result in rulings on the merits."
Russ Feingold was speaking the truth about a moment in which the ACLU said the Senate was on the verge of passing "an unconstitutional domestic spying bill that violates the Fourth Amendment and eliminates any meaningful role for judicial oversight of government surveillance."
But Barack Obama did not want to hear it.
John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written The Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.
Copyright © 2008 The Nation
Arizona Senator John McCain did not bother to show up for Wednesday's Senate votes on whether to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to absolve George Bush of responsibility for initiating an illegal warrantless wiretapping program and to provide retroactive immunity to the telecommunications corporations that violated the privacy of their customers in order to collaborate with a lawless president.
But that's O.K., Illinois Senator Barack Obama cast the votes that McCain would have.
In addition to joining the majority in a 69-28 Senate vote to approve legislation that the American Civil Liberties Union describes as "a Constitutional nightmare," Obama backed a key move to silence debate on the FISA bill.
During a day of decisions on amendments, cloture and formal approval of the FISA rewrite, Obama cast several votes in favor of failed amendments to limit certain forms of retroactive immunity for the telecommunications corporations. But, in the essential votes on whether to advance and pass the unamended bill, the senator from Illinois broke the majority of his Democratic colleagues -- including New York Senator Hillary Clinton -- as they worked to keep the debate open and block final passage.
In the case of the cloture vote, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president sided with Republicans who argued that the essential Constitutional questions raised by the White House-backed FISA legislation did not merit extended or thoughtful debate.
Seventy-two senators backed the move to end the debate, while 26 sought to keep it going. Two senators - McCain and ailing Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy - missed Wednesday's votes.
Those 26 "no" votes on cloture were cast by Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders and 25 Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin, Obama's Democratic colleague from Illinois, and Clinton, Obama's primary competitor for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Leading the fight to keep the debate about the FISA rewrite open were Connecticut Democrat Chris Dodd and Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold, the two senators Obama promised earlier their year to work with in an effort to block this assault on the Constitution and corporate responsibility.
Said Feingold, "I sit on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, and I am one of the few members of this body who has been fully briefed on the warrantless wiretapping program. And, based on what I know, I can promise that if more information is declassified about the program in the future, as is likely to happen either due to the Inspector General report, the election of a new President, or simply the passage of time, members of this body will regret that we passed this legislation. I am also familiar with the collection activities that have been conducted under the Protect America Act and will continue under this bill. I invite any of my colleagues who wish to know more about those activities to come speak to me in a classified setting. Publicly, all I can say is that I have serious concerns about how those activities may have impacted the civil liberties of Americans. If we grant these new powers to the government and the effects become known to the American people, we will realize what a mistake it was, of that I am sure."
Unfortunately, while Obama once promised to work with Feingold, he wasn't listening on Wednesday when the Wisconsin senator explained to his colleagues that granting retroactive immunity to the telecommunications corporations would effectively block the ability of Congress and the courts to address not just massive corporate wrongdoing but attacks on the privacy rights of Americans.
"If Congress short-circuits these lawsuits, we will have lost a prime opportunity to finally achieve accountability for these years of law-breaking," said Feingold, who flatly rejected Obama's argument that, while unappealing in some aspects, the FISA rewrite was somehow acceptable as a whole. "That's why the administration has been fighting so hard for this immunity. It knows that the cases that have been brought directly against the government face much more difficult procedural barriers, and are unlikely to result in rulings on the merits."
Russ Feingold was speaking the truth about a moment in which the ACLU said the Senate was on the verge of passing "an unconstitutional domestic spying bill that violates the Fourth Amendment and eliminates any meaningful role for judicial oversight of government surveillance."
But Barack Obama did not want to hear it.
John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written The Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.
Copyright © 2008 The Nation
2008-07-03
Rudy Silvain was at an elderly friend's home when San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies arrived Thursday afternoon to serve a search warrant. Silv
SAN BERNARDINO - A supervisor at the city's inaugural Operation Phoenix community center was arrested Thursday on suspicion of molesting a child there, jolting leaders who hail the facility as a crucial component to their holistic crime-fighting plan.
Detectives jailed Michael Miller, a former San Bernardino police volunteer, only hours after the city put him on administrative leave.
The 48-year-old Highland resident turned in his keys to the youth center at 16th Street and Sierra Way before being arrested in Redlands.
Story continues below
Although doors stayed open Thursday -- with children listening to music and sifting through crayons -- some activities were postponed as officials dealt with the arrest.
"This is a shock in the extreme," said Mayor Pat Morris, who created Operation Phoenix around tenets of crime suppression, intervention and prevention, the last of which involves opening community centers for underprivileged youth.
Morris and his staff put Miller in charge of recreation programs at the center after it opened in its permanent location last year.
Children as young as 5 years old could learn crafts, take literacy classes and play sports.
"I think we have to keep this in perspective; this is an incident involving an individual," Morris said. "As far as we knew, he was a healthy, qualified and well-trained professional with all the right motivations and instincts."
Police learned of the possible molestation Monday, said San Bernardino police Lt. Scott Paterson. The child's age and sex were not released.
Wednesday night, detectives obtained search warrants for the Operation Phoenix center and Miller's home near the Highland/San Bernardino line.
Paterson would not say what evidence was recovered.
Investigation continued through Thursday, and Paterson said there no was indication whether the allegation was isolated or part of a larger pattern.
The case will be submitted to the district attorney's office for review early next week.
No one would comment Thursday at the suspect's home, a light blue stucco house with dark trim and an American flag flying on an outside pole.
A sign hanging outside read, "The Millers - Mike and Debbie."
A sport utility vehicle pulled up, a man asked a reporter to leave and "The Millers" sign was taken down from the front of the home.
Nine Years With City
Miller has been with the city for nine years, serving as a Police Department volunteer as well as a community service supervisor.
Jim Morris, the mayor's chief of staff, said he had a hands-on role with a small staff of aides.
In an interview for the opening of the second Operation Phoenix center earlier this year, Miller trumpeted the projects as "safe havens," and said he gives his cell phone number out to children and takes an active role in their lives.
"The community develops a trust in you," Miller said in May.
The Rev. David Rhone, pastor of the First Church of the Nazarene, which donated a former sanctuary building for the Operation Phoenix Center, said no neighborhood parents had asked Thursday about the allegations against Miller.
"I have deep sympathy ... and I hope that the allegations are not true," Rhone said.
Miller was expected to be booked late Friday into the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino. Bail and arraignment information were not immediately available.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call detectives at 909-384-5717.
Staff writers Chris Richard and Dan Lee contributed to this report.
Reach Paul LaRocco at 909-806-3064 or plarocco@PE.com
Detectives jailed Michael Miller, a former San Bernardino police volunteer, only hours after the city put him on administrative leave.
The 48-year-old Highland resident turned in his keys to the youth center at 16th Street and Sierra Way before being arrested in Redlands.
Story continues below
Although doors stayed open Thursday -- with children listening to music and sifting through crayons -- some activities were postponed as officials dealt with the arrest.
"This is a shock in the extreme," said Mayor Pat Morris, who created Operation Phoenix around tenets of crime suppression, intervention and prevention, the last of which involves opening community centers for underprivileged youth.
Morris and his staff put Miller in charge of recreation programs at the center after it opened in its permanent location last year.
Children as young as 5 years old could learn crafts, take literacy classes and play sports.
"I think we have to keep this in perspective; this is an incident involving an individual," Morris said. "As far as we knew, he was a healthy, qualified and well-trained professional with all the right motivations and instincts."
Police learned of the possible molestation Monday, said San Bernardino police Lt. Scott Paterson. The child's age and sex were not released.
Wednesday night, detectives obtained search warrants for the Operation Phoenix center and Miller's home near the Highland/San Bernardino line.
Paterson would not say what evidence was recovered.
Investigation continued through Thursday, and Paterson said there no was indication whether the allegation was isolated or part of a larger pattern.
The case will be submitted to the district attorney's office for review early next week.
No one would comment Thursday at the suspect's home, a light blue stucco house with dark trim and an American flag flying on an outside pole.
A sign hanging outside read, "The Millers - Mike and Debbie."
A sport utility vehicle pulled up, a man asked a reporter to leave and "The Millers" sign was taken down from the front of the home.
Nine Years With City
Miller has been with the city for nine years, serving as a Police Department volunteer as well as a community service supervisor.
Jim Morris, the mayor's chief of staff, said he had a hands-on role with a small staff of aides.
In an interview for the opening of the second Operation Phoenix center earlier this year, Miller trumpeted the projects as "safe havens," and said he gives his cell phone number out to children and takes an active role in their lives.
"The community develops a trust in you," Miller said in May.
The Rev. David Rhone, pastor of the First Church of the Nazarene, which donated a former sanctuary building for the Operation Phoenix Center, said no neighborhood parents had asked Thursday about the allegations against Miller.
"I have deep sympathy ... and I hope that the allegations are not true," Rhone said.
Miller was expected to be booked late Friday into the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino. Bail and arraignment information were not immediately available.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call detectives at 909-384-5717.
Staff writers Chris Richard and Dan Lee contributed to this report.
Reach Paul LaRocco at 909-806-3064 or plarocco@PE.com
2008-07-01
Key figures in San Bernardino County's 1990s corruption cases
Current officials in San Bernardino County have long tried to improve the county's image after a high-profile public corruption scandal in the late 1990s. Here are the central figures from that scandal, which included top public officials accepting bribes.
JAMES HLAWEK
Sentenced to three years' probation and fined. San Bernardino County's administrative officer from 1994 to 1998, he pleaded guilty in 1999 to accepting bribes in exchange for helping Norcal Waste Systems Inc. and businessmen Ronald Canham and Richard Tisdale get millions of dollars in county contracts.
Story continues below
HARRY MAYS
Sentenced to two years in prison and fined. A former county administrative officer and later a consultant to Norcal, Mays was convicted of bribing Hlawek to get the company landfill contracts worth $200 million.
Story continues below
WILLIAM "SHEP"
McCOOK
Story continues below
McCook was accused of paying bribes to Hlawek. In exchange, Hlawek helped McCook gain county approvals for billboards on county land. McCook was acquitted in federal court in August 2004 of the charges; a California court later ruled it would be double jeopardy to try him on similar state charges.
JERRY EAVES
Former county supervisor pleaded guilty in 2004 to conspiring to violate California's Political Reform Act by failing to disclose gifts -- free hotel stays in Las Vegas provided by McCook. Eaves was fined $10,000 and ordered to serve three years of unsupervised probation.
JAMES HLAWEK
Sentenced to three years' probation and fined. San Bernardino County's administrative officer from 1994 to 1998, he pleaded guilty in 1999 to accepting bribes in exchange for helping Norcal Waste Systems Inc. and businessmen Ronald Canham and Richard Tisdale get millions of dollars in county contracts.
Story continues below
HARRY MAYS
Sentenced to two years in prison and fined. A former county administrative officer and later a consultant to Norcal, Mays was convicted of bribing Hlawek to get the company landfill contracts worth $200 million.
Story continues below
WILLIAM "SHEP"
McCOOK
Story continues below
McCook was accused of paying bribes to Hlawek. In exchange, Hlawek helped McCook gain county approvals for billboards on county land. McCook was acquitted in federal court in August 2004 of the charges; a California court later ruled it would be double jeopardy to try him on similar state charges.
JERRY EAVES
Former county supervisor pleaded guilty in 2004 to conspiring to violate California's Political Reform Act by failing to disclose gifts -- free hotel stays in Las Vegas provided by McCook. Eaves was fined $10,000 and ordered to serve three years of unsupervised probation.
2008-06-30
Assistant county assessor arrested
SAN BERNARDINO — Adam Aleman, the county assessor's second in command, was arrested Monday on six felony counts in connection with fabricating false county records, officials confirmed.
Aleman, 25, was charged with three counts of preparing false evidence and one each of offering forged or altered documents as evidence, destruction of public records and vandalism over $400, according to the District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit.
Aleman allegedly tampered with documents submitted to the Grand Jury for its investigation into the assessor’s office and destroyed the hard drive of a laptop computer issued by the county to Assessor Bill Postmus during his tenure as Board of Supervisors.
He was arrested in Rancho Cucamonga at 10:45 Monday without incident and booked into West Valley Detention Center, according to Deputy District Attorney John Goritz. Bail is set at $150,000 and the investigation is ongoing.
The assessor’s communications officer Ted Lehrer issued the following statement in response to the arrest: “This office is just hearing the news regarding the charges issued today against an employee in the office of the County Assessor by the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office. At a more appropriate time, this office may comment further on these allegations.”
Aleman was put on paid leave April 10, after investigators from the District Attorney raided the assessor’s office, taking pictures and seizing computers.
The arrest preceded Monday’s release of a Grand Jury investigation into the assessor’s office, which uncovered questionable practices by Aleman.
Though it’s against county policy to send or receive messages with political content, the Grand Jury found 91 e-mails over a two-week sampling period that were sent to Aleman by campaign organizations for national political candidates.
The Grand Jury report also states that Aleman did not meet the minimum requirements for his job, which typically include a four-year degree or high school diploma and relevant work experience, but obtained a waiver from the Board of Equalization. To help him obtain his undergraduate degree, the assessor’s office paid more than $8,000 in tuition, which is eight times the amount the county allows and was not directed at training which particularly furthered Aleman’s job skills.
Lehrer’s statement said that the arrest will not interfere with daily functions of the assessor’s office and that they will remain open for business as usual. He said Harlow Cameron will continue to hold the position of assistant assessor, though it’s not yet definitive for how long.
Brooke Edwards may be reached at 955-5358 or at bedwards@vvdailypress.com.
Aleman, 25, was charged with three counts of preparing false evidence and one each of offering forged or altered documents as evidence, destruction of public records and vandalism over $400, according to the District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit.
Aleman allegedly tampered with documents submitted to the Grand Jury for its investigation into the assessor’s office and destroyed the hard drive of a laptop computer issued by the county to Assessor Bill Postmus during his tenure as Board of Supervisors.
He was arrested in Rancho Cucamonga at 10:45 Monday without incident and booked into West Valley Detention Center, according to Deputy District Attorney John Goritz. Bail is set at $150,000 and the investigation is ongoing.
The assessor’s communications officer Ted Lehrer issued the following statement in response to the arrest: “This office is just hearing the news regarding the charges issued today against an employee in the office of the County Assessor by the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office. At a more appropriate time, this office may comment further on these allegations.”
Aleman was put on paid leave April 10, after investigators from the District Attorney raided the assessor’s office, taking pictures and seizing computers.
The arrest preceded Monday’s release of a Grand Jury investigation into the assessor’s office, which uncovered questionable practices by Aleman.
Though it’s against county policy to send or receive messages with political content, the Grand Jury found 91 e-mails over a two-week sampling period that were sent to Aleman by campaign organizations for national political candidates.
The Grand Jury report also states that Aleman did not meet the minimum requirements for his job, which typically include a four-year degree or high school diploma and relevant work experience, but obtained a waiver from the Board of Equalization. To help him obtain his undergraduate degree, the assessor’s office paid more than $8,000 in tuition, which is eight times the amount the county allows and was not directed at training which particularly furthered Aleman’s job skills.
Lehrer’s statement said that the arrest will not interfere with daily functions of the assessor’s office and that they will remain open for business as usual. He said Harlow Cameron will continue to hold the position of assistant assessor, though it’s not yet definitive for how long.
Brooke Edwards may be reached at 955-5358 or at bedwards@vvdailypress.com.
2008-06-27
AT&T Whistleblower: Spy Bill Creates 'Infrastructure for a Police State'
Mark Klein, the retired AT&T engineer who stepped forward with the technical documents at the heart of the anti-wiretapping case against AT&T, is furious at the Senate's vote on Wednesday night to hold a vote on a bill intended to put an end to that lawsuit and more than 30 others.
[Wednesday]'s vote by Congress effectively gives retroactive immunity to the telecom companies and endorses an all-powerful president. It’s a Congressional coup against the Constitution.
The Democratic leadership is touting the deal as a "compromise," but in fact they have endorsed the infamous Nuremberg defense: "Just following orders." The judge can only check their paperwork. This cynical deal is a Democratic exercise in deceit and cowardice.
Klein saw a network monitoring room being built in AT&T's internet switching center that only NSA-approved techs had access to. He squirreled away documents and then presented them to the press and the Electronic Frontier Foundation after news of the government's warrantless wiretapping program broke.
Wired.com independently acquired a copy of the documents (.pdf) -- which were under court seal -- and published the wiring documents in May 2006 so that they could be evaluated.
The lawsuit that resulted from his documents is now waiting on the 9th U.S. Appeals Court to rule on whether it can proceed despite the government saying the whole matter is a state secret. A lower court judge ruled that it could, because the government admitted the program existed and that the courts could handle evidence safely and in secret.
But the appeals court ruling will likely never see the light of day, since the Senate is set to vote on July 8 on the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which also largely legalizes Bush's warrantless wiretapping program by expanding how the government can wiretap from inside the United States without getting individualized court orders.
Klein continues:
Congress has made the FISA law a dead letter--such a law is useless if the president can break it with impunity. Thus the Democrats have surreptitiously repudiated the main reform of the post-Watergate era and adopted Nixon’s line: "When the president does it that means that it is not illegal." This is the judicial logic of a dictatorship.
The surveillance system now approved by Congress provides the physical apparatus for the government to collect and store a huge database on virtually the entire population, available for data mining whenever the government wants to target its political opponents at any given moment—all in the hands of an unrestrained executive power. It is the infrastructure for a police state.
Neither the House nor the Senate has had Klein testify, nor have telecom executives testified in open session about their participation.
The bill forces the district court judge handling the consolidated cases against telecoms to dismiss the suits if the Attorney General certifies that a government official sent a written request to a phone or internet provider, saying that the President approved the program and his lawyers deemed it legal. Judge Vaughn Walker of the California Northern District can ask to see the paperwork, but would not be given leeway to decide if the program was legal.
Photo: Mark Klein in the offices of his lawyers in San Francisco. Credit: Ryan Singel/Wired.com
See Also:
* Mark Klein Documents
* Why We Published the AT&T Docs
* Spying in the Death Star: The AT&T Whistle-Blower Tells His Story
* Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room
* Telecom Amnesty Flip-Floppers Got More Telecom Dollars
* Senate Debates Spy Bill with Telecom Amnesty
* Obama Supports Telecom Amnesty Bill
* House Grants Telecom Amnesty, Expands Spying Powers
[Wednesday]'s vote by Congress effectively gives retroactive immunity to the telecom companies and endorses an all-powerful president. It’s a Congressional coup against the Constitution.
The Democratic leadership is touting the deal as a "compromise," but in fact they have endorsed the infamous Nuremberg defense: "Just following orders." The judge can only check their paperwork. This cynical deal is a Democratic exercise in deceit and cowardice.
Klein saw a network monitoring room being built in AT&T's internet switching center that only NSA-approved techs had access to. He squirreled away documents and then presented them to the press and the Electronic Frontier Foundation after news of the government's warrantless wiretapping program broke.
Wired.com independently acquired a copy of the documents (.pdf) -- which were under court seal -- and published the wiring documents in May 2006 so that they could be evaluated.
The lawsuit that resulted from his documents is now waiting on the 9th U.S. Appeals Court to rule on whether it can proceed despite the government saying the whole matter is a state secret. A lower court judge ruled that it could, because the government admitted the program existed and that the courts could handle evidence safely and in secret.
But the appeals court ruling will likely never see the light of day, since the Senate is set to vote on July 8 on the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which also largely legalizes Bush's warrantless wiretapping program by expanding how the government can wiretap from inside the United States without getting individualized court orders.
Klein continues:
Congress has made the FISA law a dead letter--such a law is useless if the president can break it with impunity. Thus the Democrats have surreptitiously repudiated the main reform of the post-Watergate era and adopted Nixon’s line: "When the president does it that means that it is not illegal." This is the judicial logic of a dictatorship.
The surveillance system now approved by Congress provides the physical apparatus for the government to collect and store a huge database on virtually the entire population, available for data mining whenever the government wants to target its political opponents at any given moment—all in the hands of an unrestrained executive power. It is the infrastructure for a police state.
Neither the House nor the Senate has had Klein testify, nor have telecom executives testified in open session about their participation.
The bill forces the district court judge handling the consolidated cases against telecoms to dismiss the suits if the Attorney General certifies that a government official sent a written request to a phone or internet provider, saying that the President approved the program and his lawyers deemed it legal. Judge Vaughn Walker of the California Northern District can ask to see the paperwork, but would not be given leeway to decide if the program was legal.
Photo: Mark Klein in the offices of his lawyers in San Francisco. Credit: Ryan Singel/Wired.com
See Also:
* Mark Klein Documents
* Why We Published the AT&T Docs
* Spying in the Death Star: The AT&T Whistle-Blower Tells His Story
* Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room
* Telecom Amnesty Flip-Floppers Got More Telecom Dollars
* Senate Debates Spy Bill with Telecom Amnesty
* Obama Supports Telecom Amnesty Bill
* House Grants Telecom Amnesty, Expands Spying Powers
2008-05-25
Officers' names involved in critical incidents must be disclosed, attorney general says
The public generally has a right to know the names of police officers involved in critical incidents, including those involving lethal force, according to a recently released opinion by the state Attorney General's Office.
The opinion is a reversal in fortune for media access advocates who have battled the issue in the courts for years.
At the heart of the issue is balancing the public's right to keep watch over the men and women responsible for enforcing the law and the rights to privacy and security of the law enforcers themselves. The opinion, released Tuesday by California Attorney General Jerry Brown, was rendered in response to a request from Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco.
Brown reasoned that the California Supreme Court's 2006 decision in Copley Press Inc. v. Superior Court of San Diego did not overrule the "central holding" of a 1997 California Appellate Court decision New York Times Co. v. Superior Court that a peace officer's name is generally subject to disclosure.
The court ruled in the New York Times case that the name of an officer involved in an incident must be disclosed if the disclosure would not reveal confidential information from an officer's personnel file or endanger the integrity of the investigation or the safety of the officer. The Copley case was more restrictive, ruling that an officer's name may be kept confidential if it is sought in connection with information pertaining to confidential matters such as an internal investigation or disciplinary proceedings.
In the wake of the 2006 Copley decision, numerous law enforcement agencies across the state denied public records requests for the names of police officers, basing their denials on the 2006 Copley decision, which they interpreted as prohibiting them from disclosing disciplinary records and from opening disciplinary hearings to the public because the proceedings are considered confidential personnel records.
Many cities, including Los Angeles, have argued that the Copley decision simply does not allow the names to be made public.
But releasing the name of an officer involved in a critical incident, such as a shooting, would "merely communicate a statement of fact that the named officers were involved in the incident," Brown wrote. Disclosing the information would not reveal confidential information in an officer's personnel file or imply any judgment on the officer's actions, Brown argued.
Brown noted the public's interest in the identities and activities of its law enforcement officers has been repeatedly upheld by the courts.
"The public's legitimate interest in the identity and activities of peace officers is even greater than its interest in those of the average public servant. 'Law enforcement officers carry upon their shoulders the cloak of authority to enforce the laws of the state. In order to maintain trust in its police department, the public must be kept fully informed of the activities of its peace officers,'" the Copley decision said, quoting the New York Times decision.
In his opinion, Brown notes there may be certain circumstances where the potential danger to the officer or to the crimefighting mission would outweigh the public's right to know the officer's identity.
A situation involving an undercover officer or an incident involving a gang member where there is a significant risk of retribution against the officer from other gang members, Brown said a law enforcement agency could make the argument there is a "clear overbalance on the side of confidentiality," but barring that, the name of the officer must be released.
Legislation to reopen disciplinary hearings and records of police officers to the public floundered in a key state Assembly committee last year, failing to get a single vote after being faced with adamant opposition by law-enforcement groups.
Sponsored by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, the legislation drew opposing testimony from dozens of police officers from Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Fresno, Berkeley and Modesto. Many of the officers argued that disclosure of officers' personnel information would put their lives in jeopardy.
Contact the writer: 714-796-7829 or kedds@ocregister.com
The opinion is a reversal in fortune for media access advocates who have battled the issue in the courts for years.
At the heart of the issue is balancing the public's right to keep watch over the men and women responsible for enforcing the law and the rights to privacy and security of the law enforcers themselves. The opinion, released Tuesday by California Attorney General Jerry Brown, was rendered in response to a request from Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco.
Brown reasoned that the California Supreme Court's 2006 decision in Copley Press Inc. v. Superior Court of San Diego did not overrule the "central holding" of a 1997 California Appellate Court decision New York Times Co. v. Superior Court that a peace officer's name is generally subject to disclosure.
The court ruled in the New York Times case that the name of an officer involved in an incident must be disclosed if the disclosure would not reveal confidential information from an officer's personnel file or endanger the integrity of the investigation or the safety of the officer. The Copley case was more restrictive, ruling that an officer's name may be kept confidential if it is sought in connection with information pertaining to confidential matters such as an internal investigation or disciplinary proceedings.
In the wake of the 2006 Copley decision, numerous law enforcement agencies across the state denied public records requests for the names of police officers, basing their denials on the 2006 Copley decision, which they interpreted as prohibiting them from disclosing disciplinary records and from opening disciplinary hearings to the public because the proceedings are considered confidential personnel records.
Many cities, including Los Angeles, have argued that the Copley decision simply does not allow the names to be made public.
But releasing the name of an officer involved in a critical incident, such as a shooting, would "merely communicate a statement of fact that the named officers were involved in the incident," Brown wrote. Disclosing the information would not reveal confidential information in an officer's personnel file or imply any judgment on the officer's actions, Brown argued.
Brown noted the public's interest in the identities and activities of its law enforcement officers has been repeatedly upheld by the courts.
"The public's legitimate interest in the identity and activities of peace officers is even greater than its interest in those of the average public servant. 'Law enforcement officers carry upon their shoulders the cloak of authority to enforce the laws of the state. In order to maintain trust in its police department, the public must be kept fully informed of the activities of its peace officers,'" the Copley decision said, quoting the New York Times decision.
In his opinion, Brown notes there may be certain circumstances where the potential danger to the officer or to the crimefighting mission would outweigh the public's right to know the officer's identity.
A situation involving an undercover officer or an incident involving a gang member where there is a significant risk of retribution against the officer from other gang members, Brown said a law enforcement agency could make the argument there is a "clear overbalance on the side of confidentiality," but barring that, the name of the officer must be released.
Legislation to reopen disciplinary hearings and records of police officers to the public floundered in a key state Assembly committee last year, failing to get a single vote after being faced with adamant opposition by law-enforcement groups.
Sponsored by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, the legislation drew opposing testimony from dozens of police officers from Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Fresno, Berkeley and Modesto. Many of the officers argued that disclosure of officers' personnel information would put their lives in jeopardy.
Contact the writer: 714-796-7829 or kedds@ocregister.com
2008-05-21
As America Collapses US Government Secret Plans Revealed
Posted by indglass on May 21, 2008
A secret meeting of Congress discusses immanent martial law.
B.A. Brooks
The United American Freedom Foundation
March 13, 2008
On March 13th 2008 there was a secret closed door meeting of The United States House Of Representatives in Washington. In the history of The United States this is only the fourth time a secret meeting was held by the house. Even though Representatives are sworn to secrecy by House Rules XVII, some of the members were so shocked, horrified, furious, and concerned about the future of America by what was revealed to them inside the secret meeting, that they have started to leak this secret information to independent news agencies around the world. The mass media said almost nothing about the secret meeting of the House, mentioning only one of the items being discussed. (The new surveillance techniques that are going to be used by the U.S. Government to watch all American citizens). The story was first released in a newspaper out of Brisbane, Australia revealing the contents of the secret U.S. Government meeting and plans for America including all of it’s citizens. Shortly there after, David J. Meyer from Last Trumpet Ministries found it and made it more available for the world to see.
Here is what was revealed:
- The imminent collapse of the U.S. Economy to occur sometime in late 2008
- The imminent collapse of the U.S. Government finances sometime in mid 2009
- The possibility of Civil War inside the United States as a result of the collapse
- The advance round-ups of “insurgent U.S. Citizens” likely to move against the government
- The detention of those rounded up at The REX 84 Camps constructed throughout the United States
- The possibility of public retaliation against members of Congress for the collapses
- The location of safe facilities for members of Congress and their families to reside during massive civil unrest
- The necessary and unavoidable merger of The U.S. with Canada and Mexico establishing The North American Union
- The issuance of a new currency called the AMERO for all three nations as an economic solution.
Except for a few hundred thousand U.S. Patriots, most Americans have no clue what has really been going on within The United States over the past 100 years, and the sad thing is that most do not want to know the truth. The further you look into the rabbit hole, the deeper it gets. Go to any currency conversion site and convert U.S. dollars to Euros so you can see for yourself the massive decline of the dollar. Look at how much money is and has been spent on the Iraq War to date, ($12 billion per month). Look at our currency and when it stopped being backed by gold.
The Federal Reserve is not federal but a private bank who does not have Americans best interests at heart. We no longer have any manufacturing really based out of America and there is no way that our economy can survive this incredible strain very much longer. The IRS strong arms every American yearly with income taxes, yet there are no laws saying an income tax is to be paid.
The CIA is involved in everything from global drug trafficking and covert military missions, to assassinations around the world and including U.S. Soil. Look at JFK for instance. It did not take long after JFK announced that he was going disband the CIA that he was shot in Texas. America’s new StasiThe Department Of Homeland Security is and has been slowly eradicating our rights for a few years now. based organization called
House Bill H.R. 1955/S-1959 was read by the senate and then sent to DHS for some reason, but is now back and sure to pass. Once passed, this bill introduced by Jane Harman (D/CA), will be the proverbial last nail hammered into every American patriots coffin. H.R. 4279 or the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008 which was recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, will give the government draconian powers to do just this. This legislation gives the government the power to seize property that facilitates the violation of intellectual property laws. The legislation also mandates the formation of a formal Intellectual Property Enforcement Division within the office of the Deputy Attorney General to enforce this insanity…
It has been revealed that F.E.M.A. has been building internment camps all over America granting Halliburton a massive $385 million dollar construction contract to make this happen. Most of these sites only need refurbished because they are mostly closed prisons, old WW2 internment camps still intact and other facilities taken over by the government. Some people have referred to them as F.E.M.A. Death Camps where the infamous Red list/Blue Lists will be used to decide who goes where.
Whether you believe that The NWO/Illuminati/Globalization is real or not, there is a lot of proof that exposes definite plans or plots by the rich, political and religious elite to bring on an era of the end times. It is almost like some individuals are trying to make bible prophecy come true in their own sick and twisted ways. Not to mention that the world only has about 10 to 15 years of drinking water left before the wars fought for oil today will be fought for water in the near future. It has been said that these powers want to depopulate the planet of over 30% of it’s human inhabitants in the coming years. Examine all of the executive orders that have been signed into place allowing the president to basically become dictator in control of all government from tribal to federal in the event of any national emergency.
If you did not know, In late 2006, Congress revised the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act to make it far easier for a president to declare martial law. Those changes were repealed at the end of this January as part of Public Law 110-181 (HR 4986), the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (signed into law by President Bush on January 28, 2008). Unfortunately it is not the great victory in which one might think because of the total militarization of all local and State police forces all across America.
Will there be martial law? Is martial law coming soon to America? When you see law enforcement being armed with automatic weapons, bullet proof vests and riot gear in small towns that have not had a murder or crime in years, then you have to ask yourself why.
The United States has more people locked up in prisons today than Russia and China combined. It comes out to one in every hundred Americans is behind bars. Our once great country that our ancestors fought and died for has become exactly the tyrants they were fighting. Fascists! When has America ever used words like Homeland? Never!
If you spend a few weeks reading all the info, watching the videos and following the links at The U.A.F.F., you will then have a better understanding of what has led to The Decline And Fall Of America. Remember that Knowledge is power! Learn, look, listen, read, share, prepare, train, stock up on food and water supply for one year.
Fill your pantry with non perishable foods, medicines, cooking oils, tinned meats and veggies. Flour, oats dried corn peas, beans and lentils.. Teach your self how to preserve food for storage. Check out your local potable/ drinking water supplies, non perfumed chlorine bleach is a good sterilizer for water, about 2 teaspoons full per 2 gallon bucket, stirred well and allowed to stand for at least 24 hours with a lid on it or until it no longer smells of bleach. Boiling water helps but it is not always enough to kill off the bacteria which can resist high temperatures.
Americans have been warned for years of the things to come, but have blindly looked away from the truth, which has been available for all to see. There are no more excuses not to prepare for the possible future. The time to act is now before it is too late. Check The United American Freedom Foundation for daily updates and news you won’t see in the mainstream media.
2008-05-20
Bohl: No charges filed against local publisher
Prosecutor’s office claims lack of evidence
May 23, 2008 - 10:50AM
RYAN ORR Staff Writer
VICTORVILLE — No charges will be filed against a local newspaper publisher who was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of residential burglary, Chief Supervising Deputy District Attorney Gary Roth said Friday.
“We have declined to file criminal charges and decided there was insufficient evidence to prove the ‘intent to steal,’ element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt,” Roth said.
Raymond Pryke, publisher of Valley Wide newspapers, was arrested on May 8, for allegedly breaking into a house owned by Artisan Real Estate, a company he is currently suing.
Employees of Artisan Real Estate were checking on a house when they discovered Pryke and a locksmith attempting to change the locks, said Cindy Beavers, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
According to officials, after the locks were changed, Pryke entered the home in the 25800 block of Rancho Street and took undisclosed property from within the vacant home.
Pryke, 85, said he could not comment on the case, but that he was planning on checking himself into to Loma Linda University Medical Center next week.
“I’m under a lot of stress and am going into Loma Linda for a physical examination because my blood pressure is way too high,” Pryke said.
Pryke was ordered to pay $3 million after San Bernardino County Sheriff Gary Penrod’s wife, Nancy Bohl, sued him for libel relating to articles about her and her company in Pryke’s newspapers.
The judgment was overturned in the 4th District court of appeals and the case was sent back to the superior court to be tried again. It is slated to start July 7.
Ryan Orr may be reached at 951-6277 or rorr@vvdailypress.com
May 23, 2008 - 10:50AM
RYAN ORR Staff Writer
VICTORVILLE — No charges will be filed against a local newspaper publisher who was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of residential burglary, Chief Supervising Deputy District Attorney Gary Roth said Friday.
“We have declined to file criminal charges and decided there was insufficient evidence to prove the ‘intent to steal,’ element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt,” Roth said.
Raymond Pryke, publisher of Valley Wide newspapers, was arrested on May 8, for allegedly breaking into a house owned by Artisan Real Estate, a company he is currently suing.
Employees of Artisan Real Estate were checking on a house when they discovered Pryke and a locksmith attempting to change the locks, said Cindy Beavers, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
According to officials, after the locks were changed, Pryke entered the home in the 25800 block of Rancho Street and took undisclosed property from within the vacant home.
Pryke, 85, said he could not comment on the case, but that he was planning on checking himself into to Loma Linda University Medical Center next week.
“I’m under a lot of stress and am going into Loma Linda for a physical examination because my blood pressure is way too high,” Pryke said.
Pryke was ordered to pay $3 million after San Bernardino County Sheriff Gary Penrod’s wife, Nancy Bohl, sued him for libel relating to articles about her and her company in Pryke’s newspapers.
The judgment was overturned in the 4th District court of appeals and the case was sent back to the superior court to be tried again. It is slated to start July 7.
Ryan Orr may be reached at 951-6277 or rorr@vvdailypress.com
2008-05-19
Contracts to NANCY K BOHL A PSYCHOLOGICAL CORPORATION (FY 2000-2007)
This was pulled from Google's cache. The search was performed on May 8, 2008. The link now points to something different. I looks like someone might have wanted to remove this info from the database. Or maybe i just don't know how to use it.
Summary
Total dollars: $16,600
Total number of contractors: 1
Total number of transactions: 1
Top 5 Products or Services Sold
Education Services $16,600
Top 5 Contracting Agencies Purchasing from Contractor(s)
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center $16,600
Top 10 Contractors
NANCY K BOHL A PSYCHOLOGICAL CORPORATION $16,600
Summary
Total dollars: $16,600
Total number of contractors: 1
Total number of transactions: 1
Top 5 Products or Services Sold
Education Services $16,600
Top 5 Contracting Agencies Purchasing from Contractor(s)
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center $16,600
Top 10 Contractors
NANCY K BOHL A PSYCHOLOGICAL CORPORATION $16,600
2008-05-12
San Bernardino clerk begins jail term for embezzling amusement park tickets
SAN BERNARDINO - A fired San Bernardino clerk began a four-month jail term Monday after being sentenced for embezzling nearly $30,000 worth of amusement park tickets.
Diane Lee Huston, 49, twisted her arms, shook nervously and declined to make a statement while standing before San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge John Martin.
Huston pleaded guilty April 14 to grand theft by embezzlement, six months after a city inventory revealed discrepancies between her log books and corresponding receipts.
"She basically swiped the tickets and sold them at a discount," Deputy District Attorney Sean McNally said.
Martin also ordered Huston to serve five years probation, instead of the usual three, to give her additional time to pay more than $54,000 in restitution, the amount requested by the city of San Bernardino.
"It's going to be what, a couple hundred years?" Martin said of the restitution payments. "I know you don't have a job and you're going to jail."
Her sentencing report said that Huston, who worked nine years for the city, ran its discount ticket program for the last three years while working in the human resources department.
"(Huston) took advantage of a position of trust when she took an enormous amount of amusement park tickets," the report said. "It took planning on her part to go undetected."
Huston denied taking the money to support a drug and gambling problem in a sentencing report provided by the county's probation department.
"It is believed she was not telling the truth," the report states.
An Oct. 15 search warrant served at her Riverside apartment showed that officials seized three glass pipes used to smoke methamphetamine and a baggie containing less than one ounce of marijuana.
In the sentencing report, Huston is quoted as saying that she is ashamed, embarrassed and sorry. She said would take responsibility for her actions.
Her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Isaac Rees, said only that his client and the city had reached a resolution that benefited both sides.
Huston's boyfriend, Kevin Timothy Trunnell, 49, also is charged in the case and remains a fugitive, court records show.
Reach John F. Berry at 909-806-3058 or jberry@PE.
Diane Lee Huston, 49, twisted her arms, shook nervously and declined to make a statement while standing before San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge John Martin.
Huston pleaded guilty April 14 to grand theft by embezzlement, six months after a city inventory revealed discrepancies between her log books and corresponding receipts.
"She basically swiped the tickets and sold them at a discount," Deputy District Attorney Sean McNally said.
Martin also ordered Huston to serve five years probation, instead of the usual three, to give her additional time to pay more than $54,000 in restitution, the amount requested by the city of San Bernardino.
"It's going to be what, a couple hundred years?" Martin said of the restitution payments. "I know you don't have a job and you're going to jail."
Her sentencing report said that Huston, who worked nine years for the city, ran its discount ticket program for the last three years while working in the human resources department.
"(Huston) took advantage of a position of trust when she took an enormous amount of amusement park tickets," the report said. "It took planning on her part to go undetected."
Huston denied taking the money to support a drug and gambling problem in a sentencing report provided by the county's probation department.
"It is believed she was not telling the truth," the report states.
An Oct. 15 search warrant served at her Riverside apartment showed that officials seized three glass pipes used to smoke methamphetamine and a baggie containing less than one ounce of marijuana.
In the sentencing report, Huston is quoted as saying that she is ashamed, embarrassed and sorry. She said would take responsibility for her actions.
Her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Isaac Rees, said only that his client and the city had reached a resolution that benefited both sides.
Huston's boyfriend, Kevin Timothy Trunnell, 49, also is charged in the case and remains a fugitive, court records show.
Reach John F. Berry at 909-806-3058 or jberry@PE.
2008-05-10
Bohl: Could printing critical reports land you in jail?
A truly astonishing - and disturbing - story has been quietly unfolding in the High Desert and our downtown courts.
The latest twist in the story broke in the back pages of The Sun earlier this week. An 85-year-old, quirky newspaper publisher and multimillionnaire named Raymond Pryke was arrested for allegedly hiring a locksmith to help him burglarize a house.
Sound bizarre? You ain't seen nothing yet.
A little lower in our story, we mentioned that Pryke had been embroiled in a drawn-out legal battle with Sheriff Gary Penrod's wife, Nancy, over allegedly libelous stories against her and her corporation.
The Sheriffs was the arresting and jailing agency on Pryke's alleged burglary.
But now, a Press Enterprise story you can see here brings up a number of shocking new details.
1) The day of Pryke's arrest, he was scheduled to be in court for his case defending himself against the allegations made by Penrod's wife.
2) Judge Kenneth Barr issued a protective order preventing Pryke from publishing information about the case before trial. This is what we in journalism call, with great revulsion, "prior restraint." It's a notoriously difficult thing to achieve in courts, and when it is, it is often struck down by higher courts. Having the power to muzzle the press ante publication is dangerous ground. Richard Nixon tried, unsuccessfully, to impose prior restraint on the New York Times to prevent publication of the Pentagon Papers.
3) In 2005, Superior Court Judge Christopher Warner slapped Pryke with a $3 million judgment for refusing to divulge then-anonymous sources and for "impugning" Penrod's wife's character and that of her corporation. This alone is shocking, seeing that public figures (and yes, the Sheriffs wife qualifies) virtually never win libel cases against the press. California also has a shield law protecting journalists from being forced to divulge sources.
4) Predictably, a Riverside appeals court composed of three outside judges threw out Warner's judgement against the newspaperman, concluding that Pryke was protected by California's reporter shield law (gee, ya think) and that Warner had "abused his discretion," strong words between courtrooms.
5) According to the Press Enterprise, Warner wrote as part of his 2005 judgement, "The articles impugn the character, integrity and reputation of (Penrod's wife, Nancy) Bohl and her corporation."
Think about that logic for a moment. Since when do articles that "impugn" public people possibly working with public funds become grounds for ruinous court judgements against the newspapers? The articles in part claimed Penrod's wife's company received favored contracts thanks to her husband's position, something that has not been proved.
Can you imagine if publishers of articles that met those grounds - impugning public people and corporations - were routinely successfully sued by deep-pocketed public officials? Bye bye democracy.
Perhaps Pryke's arrest was a coincidence. Perhaps some deputies who had no idea who he was simply followed the law and put him in jail for burglarizing a house with the help of a locksmith.
Or perhaps the 85-year-old Pryke, purported to be worth well over $10 million, wasn't really burglarizing a home the day before he had to be in court in the case of his life.
I can't say what exactly is going on here. What I can say is that if the free press is pounded into compliance by local policing forces and/or stripped by courts of First Amendment protections to print freely and critically on public people and agencies, then the bedrock principles on which the nation was founded are in peril.
Without question, this issue should be receiving robust front-page and back-page (strong news coverage, strong editorial stances) attention from all local newspapers. Silence and inattention are the enablers of injustice, and if injustices are to occur here, they can stand only if left in the dark.
Frankly, I can think of no greater domestic threat than that of the state (government, courts, police, etc.) abandoning its fidelity to the principle of a free and vigorious press and instead using the power of government institutions to bully the press into submission.
I don't know if that is happening in this case, but the ingredients are clearly present.
Posted by Robert Rogers on May 10, 2008 12:53 PM
The latest twist in the story broke in the back pages of The Sun earlier this week. An 85-year-old, quirky newspaper publisher and multimillionnaire named Raymond Pryke was arrested for allegedly hiring a locksmith to help him burglarize a house.
Sound bizarre? You ain't seen nothing yet.
A little lower in our story, we mentioned that Pryke had been embroiled in a drawn-out legal battle with Sheriff Gary Penrod's wife, Nancy, over allegedly libelous stories against her and her corporation.
The Sheriffs was the arresting and jailing agency on Pryke's alleged burglary.
But now, a Press Enterprise story you can see here brings up a number of shocking new details.
1) The day of Pryke's arrest, he was scheduled to be in court for his case defending himself against the allegations made by Penrod's wife.
2) Judge Kenneth Barr issued a protective order preventing Pryke from publishing information about the case before trial. This is what we in journalism call, with great revulsion, "prior restraint." It's a notoriously difficult thing to achieve in courts, and when it is, it is often struck down by higher courts. Having the power to muzzle the press ante publication is dangerous ground. Richard Nixon tried, unsuccessfully, to impose prior restraint on the New York Times to prevent publication of the Pentagon Papers.
3) In 2005, Superior Court Judge Christopher Warner slapped Pryke with a $3 million judgment for refusing to divulge then-anonymous sources and for "impugning" Penrod's wife's character and that of her corporation. This alone is shocking, seeing that public figures (and yes, the Sheriffs wife qualifies) virtually never win libel cases against the press. California also has a shield law protecting journalists from being forced to divulge sources.
4) Predictably, a Riverside appeals court composed of three outside judges threw out Warner's judgement against the newspaperman, concluding that Pryke was protected by California's reporter shield law (gee, ya think) and that Warner had "abused his discretion," strong words between courtrooms.
5) According to the Press Enterprise, Warner wrote as part of his 2005 judgement, "The articles impugn the character, integrity and reputation of (Penrod's wife, Nancy) Bohl and her corporation."
Think about that logic for a moment. Since when do articles that "impugn" public people possibly working with public funds become grounds for ruinous court judgements against the newspapers? The articles in part claimed Penrod's wife's company received favored contracts thanks to her husband's position, something that has not been proved.
Can you imagine if publishers of articles that met those grounds - impugning public people and corporations - were routinely successfully sued by deep-pocketed public officials? Bye bye democracy.
Perhaps Pryke's arrest was a coincidence. Perhaps some deputies who had no idea who he was simply followed the law and put him in jail for burglarizing a house with the help of a locksmith.
Or perhaps the 85-year-old Pryke, purported to be worth well over $10 million, wasn't really burglarizing a home the day before he had to be in court in the case of his life.
I can't say what exactly is going on here. What I can say is that if the free press is pounded into compliance by local policing forces and/or stripped by courts of First Amendment protections to print freely and critically on public people and agencies, then the bedrock principles on which the nation was founded are in peril.
Without question, this issue should be receiving robust front-page and back-page (strong news coverage, strong editorial stances) attention from all local newspapers. Silence and inattention are the enablers of injustice, and if injustices are to occur here, they can stand only if left in the dark.
Frankly, I can think of no greater domestic threat than that of the state (government, courts, police, etc.) abandoning its fidelity to the principle of a free and vigorious press and instead using the power of government institutions to bully the press into submission.
I don't know if that is happening in this case, but the ingredients are clearly present.
Posted by Robert Rogers on May 10, 2008 12:53 PM
2008-05-08
Bohl: Dispute over house lands publisher in jail
Raymond Pryke arrested on suspicion of burglary
Stacia Glenn, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 05/08/2008 12:26:43 AM PDT
APPLE VALLEY - A real estate dispute landed a newspaper publisher known for making accusations about Sheriff Gary Penrod's wife behind bars Wednesday.
Raymond Pryke, 85, of Apple Valley was arrested on suspicion of residential burglary. He was booked into West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga. Bail was set at $50,000.
Employees of Artisan Realty went to check on a house in the 25800 block of Rancho Street just before lunch and found Pryke and a locksmith changing the locks.
They looked on as Pryke entered the house, locked the door and stole several items from the house, San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said.
She declined to say which items were stolen because of the ongoing investigation.
"Deputies discovered that Pryke had no legal claim to the property and refused to provide documentation proving Artisan Realty did not own it," Beavers said.
Tristan Pelayes, Pryke's attorney, could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
Pryke is publisher of Valleywide Newspapers, a chain of eight High Desert weeklies.
He was sued in 2000 by Nancy Bohl, Penrod's now-wife.
Pryke ran articles saying Bohl, a psychotherapist and owner of The Counseling Team International, gave Penrod confidential information about sheriff's employees undergoing treatment.
An article also claimed her counseling business only secured a contract with the Sheriff's Department because of her relationship with Penrod.
A judge ruled in 2005 that the articles impugned the integrity of Bohl and The Counseling Team and ordered Pryke to pay $3 million. An appeal last year overturned the decision.
Stacia Glenn, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 05/08/2008 12:26:43 AM PDT
APPLE VALLEY - A real estate dispute landed a newspaper publisher known for making accusations about Sheriff Gary Penrod's wife behind bars Wednesday.
Raymond Pryke, 85, of Apple Valley was arrested on suspicion of residential burglary. He was booked into West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga. Bail was set at $50,000.
Employees of Artisan Realty went to check on a house in the 25800 block of Rancho Street just before lunch and found Pryke and a locksmith changing the locks.
They looked on as Pryke entered the house, locked the door and stole several items from the house, San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said.
She declined to say which items were stolen because of the ongoing investigation.
"Deputies discovered that Pryke had no legal claim to the property and refused to provide documentation proving Artisan Realty did not own it," Beavers said.
Tristan Pelayes, Pryke's attorney, could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
Pryke is publisher of Valleywide Newspapers, a chain of eight High Desert weeklies.
He was sued in 2000 by Nancy Bohl, Penrod's now-wife.
Pryke ran articles saying Bohl, a psychotherapist and owner of The Counseling Team International, gave Penrod confidential information about sheriff's employees undergoing treatment.
An article also claimed her counseling business only secured a contract with the Sheriff's Department because of her relationship with Penrod.
A judge ruled in 2005 that the articles impugned the integrity of Bohl and The Counseling Team and ordered Pryke to pay $3 million. An appeal last year overturned the decision.
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