iePolitics Commentary: Sheriff Hoops, Part 2

Sheriff Rod Hoops let’s continue from my last posting.
I do not want our readers to think that misconduct such as the credentials falsification issue with Sheriff’s Captain Bart Gray is nothing but an aberration.
It is actually the opposite. In other words it happens quite frequently.
Not only are special accommodations made for [...]

Suspect whose beating by San Bernardino police was caught on videotape is released from custody

SAN BERNARDINO – The barbershop owner who was the subject of a videotaped beating by San Bernardino Police Department officers was released from custody Friday, according to the lawyer who is representing his longtime girlfriend. Darren Johnson, 43, who was struck repeatedly with a baton while being arrested at a [...]

Operation Phoenix and ACORN, sitting in a tree

Earlier this week, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was caught on video trying to help set up a brothel for underage immigrant girls (thirteen 13-15 year olds) in San Bernardino where the profits would go to support the political career of an aspiring politician. In [...]

SanBernardinoCity: Sheriff Hoops Fouls San Bernardino

It was requested of this reporter to pay a visit to the Arden Guthrie area of San Bernardino by some concerned residents on August 7th of 2009. There were reports that S.M.A.S.H. team was gearing up at a local Target parking lot and the residents were concerned that, due to complaints [...]

Investigation into “on ice” allegations against San Bernardino police sergeant reopened

SAN BERNARDINO – Police Chief Keith Kilmer has hired an outside investigator to review an Internal Affairs probe into a sergeant accused of keeping people “on ice,” according to multiple sources close to the investigation.The decision reportedly came after Deputy Public Defender Sam Knudsen sent a letter to the new [...]

Racial hate group activity on increase in region

Fueled by anger over the economy, immigration and the election of President Barack Obama, white supremacists have been increasing in number in the Inland region and throughout California during the past year, local and national experts say.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate activity, reports 84 known hate [...]

Officers Lack First Amendment Right to Complain About Supervisors

Complaints by police officers about their supervisors’ conduct are not protected by the First Amendment, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday.
Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, writing for a divided panel that affirmed a judgment in favor of the city of San Bernardino, said the dispute was [...]

Attorney for family of man killed by SB police calls for investigation

Relatives of a 23-year-old man shot and killed in a restaurant parking lot May 2 by San Bernardino police have a retained an attorney, saying the man was unarmed during the incident.Officers shot Christopher Robert Mason of San Bernardino in the parking lot of a Denny’s at 702 E. Highland [...]

Ending the Drug War Would End the Violence

The news media are rife with stories about Mexican drug cartels operating throughout the United States and drug-related violence threatening U.S. cities near the border. Americans are becoming reluctant to cross into Mexican towns for fear of getting caught in the crossfire.
Do we need another reason to end the [...]

Inland police adjust to vehicle search limits set by Supreme Court

Inland police agencies may have to revamp some policies in the wake of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited officers’ ability to search the vehicle of someone they have arrested who poses no threat.
Some Inland officials say there will be little impact on the ability of police to do [...]

Lab ordered to turn over list of cases handled by analyst under investigation

A Riverside County judge ordered a forensics laboratory on Wednesday to disclose a list of more than 3,700 Riverside County criminal cases that were handled by a lab analyst whose work is the subject of a multistate investigation.
In an Indio courtroom, Judge Jorge C. Hernandez ordered Riverside-based Bio-Tox Laboratories to [...]

Police kill another innocent victim via high-speed chase

RIALTO–Authorities now say that a police chase was involved in a deadly early Sunday morning crash.
San Bernardino officers were attempting to stop a Lincoln Town Car when the driver took off down Foothill Boulevard. The driver ran a red light near Riverside Avenue crashing into another car.
Killed was a passenger in [...]

San Bernardino Police Kill Mental Patient

SAN BERNARDINO – Meki Samatua said she called police to her home late Wednesday to help control her mentally ill brother, who was running through the halls and yelling in a threatening manner.
Her intent was to get Penimina Sue to the hospital, she said.
“He only make noise, but never strike you,” Samatua [...]

SB police captain files claim against city

San Bernardino: A police captain filed a claim this week, accusing two city leaders of trying to sabotage his promotion because he supports the embattled police chief.Capt. Brian Boom also claims the officials – City Councilwoman Wendy McCammack and City Attorney James F. Penman – copied and destroyed his personnel [...]

San Bernardino police deliver second no confidence vote in top brass

The San Bernardino Police Officers’ Association tonight delivered an overwhelming no confidence vote in the administrative brass, the second such vote in six months, and called upon the mayor to replace Police Chief Michael Billdt by March.
Out of the 339 rank-and-file officers, 190 turned out for the vote against [...]

Police “High-Speed Chases:” Another Innocent Life Taken

A 67-year-old San Bernardino woman died early Saturday when a man fleeing police slammed into her car, police said.
Ruby Lene Johnson was driving a 1995 Toyota Camry west on Base Line at about 12:30 a.m. when a speeding 2007 Scion traveling north on Mount Vernon Avenue ran a red light and [...]

Ex-SoCal officer pleads guilty in violence case

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.—A former police officer has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of hitting his girlfriend and putting a gun to her head.
Gregory White Jr. pleaded guilty Friday to corporal injury charges and will serve 60 days in jail and participate in domestic violence court. An assault with a firearm charge [...]

Michael Steven Miller, Formerly of Operation Phoenix, in Court Today

Mike Miller, the Operation Phoenix community center manager charged with child molestation, appeared Wednesday before Judge John Martin in San Bernardino Superior Court.
Michael Steven Miller’s Case Report
Arrest of Phoenix Center Manager: Full Report
Glenn Baude reflects on Operation Phoenix events

Former director of San Bernardino’s Operation Phoenix retires
Ex-director of San Bernardino’s Operation [...]

San Bernardino Police Study Put on Hold

SAN BERNARDINO – City Hall officials are holding off on a plan to give a local criminologist and a former police chief an inside look at the Police Department.

Back in court: Sheriff’s depupty accused of assault, threats while off duty

A preliminary hearing was postponed Wednesday for a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy facing four felony counts for allegedly assaulting and threatening a tow-truck driver in an altercation on the 10 Freeway east of Indio.

Backgroun

Retired SB Police Det. Blair “Chris” Christopher Hall

The criminal trial for a retired San Bernardino police detective suspected in his wife’s death last year at the couple’s Calimesa home was postponed to January, according to Superior Court records.
Defendant Blair “Chris” Christopher Hall appeared for a jury trial Wednesday in Riverside Superior Court. However, Judge Michele D. Levine granted a defense request for [...]

San Bernardino Police Sgt. Bradley Lawrence

In the 10 weeks since San Bernardino authorities placed a police sergeant on paid administrative leave, he’s attended leadership classes at city expense and entered city facilities, records show.
Police union President Rich Lawhead said he’s also received reports of Sgt. Bradley Lawrence using computers on weekends at a secure narcotics squad facility that is separate [...]

Lawsuit expected from woman shot by San Bernardino officer Ryan Thornburg

An attorney for a schizophrenic woman, who was shot and injured in May by a San Bernardino police officer after she allegedly charged him with a weightlifting bar, said today that a civil claim will be filed within a month.

Review of San Bernardino Police Department policies sought

Two San Bernardino city councilwomen called Friday for an immediate review of Police Department policies, but the police union president said any such review must include the authority to impose changes.