Gascón Police Reforms Expanded

Stephen Downing

It’s called a Brady list and Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón is undertaking measures to put some real meaning into it.

In a recent letter to the LBPD – as well as other Los Angeles County law enforcement agencies – Gascón requested that Chief Robert Luna provide his office with the names of officers who have histories of misconduct that may affect their credibility in court.

Gascón’s Letter

Gascón supported his request stating: “A prosecutor has the duty to learn of any favorable evidence known to the others acting on the government’s behalf in the case.”

The letter – reviewed by the Beachcomber – continued: “When law enforcement fails to communicate impeachment information to the prosecutor, the prosecution remains accountable for the consequence. Such consequences can include sanctions and the reversal of convictions.”

Gascón’s letter of request is supported by two major court rulings that were never fully enforced by former District Attorney Jackie Lacey or acted upon by the Long Beach City Council’s Public Safety Committee, the city manager or LBPD Police Chief Robert Luna.

The Court Decisions

The first ruling, a 1963 US Supreme Court Decision – Brady v. Maryland – held that government’s withholding of evidence that is material to the determination of either guilt or punishment of a criminal defendant violates the defendant’s constitutional right to due process.

The Brady decision led to the establishment of what is called “Brady lists” or lists of members of the law enforcement community who may have credibility issues, which may include falsifying reports, tampering with or fabricating evidence, lying, attempting to coerce witnesses, bribery and other acts that compromise their credibility.

The second ruling is a 2019 California Supreme Court decision that came out of former L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell’s attempt to provide “Brady” lists to the District Attorney – and was sued by the deputy’s union to block his responsible and ethical effort to fully implement the Brady decision.

In that decision the court ruled that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, as well as other law enforcement agencies, can alert prosecutors that a deputy who might testify in a criminal case has a history of misconduct.”

The “Brady list” in the California case allows law enforcement agencies to provide (to the district attorney) “only the names and employee numbers of law enforcement personnel with impeachment information in 11 enumerated categories:”

1) Immoral Conduct

2) Bribes, Rewards, Loans, Gifts, Favors

3) Misappropriation of Property

4) Tampering with Evidence

5) False Statements

6) Failure to make Statements and/or Making False Statements During Departmental Internal Investigations

7) Obstructing an Investigations/Influencing a Witness

8) False Information in Records

9) Policy of Equality – Discriminatory Harassment

10) Unreasonable Force and

11) Family Violence.

The District Attorney also asked the LBPD to provide officer lists related to the release of internal investigations required by Senate Bill 1421 (SB 1421) which includes four categories of information available to the public through the Public Records Act (PRA).

1) Discharge of a firearm at a person

2) Use of force resulting in death or great bodily injury

3) A “sustained finding” of sexual assault against a member of the public and

4) A “sustained finding” of dishonesty.

Beachcomber Actions

Following the August 25, 2019 California Supreme Court decision, the Beachcomber wrote an email to City of Long Beach Public Safety committee members Councilwoman Suzie Price (chair) Al Austin and Daryl Supernaw on Aug. 27, 2019 that stated:

“As you may know, on Aug. 25 the California Supreme Court overturned a Court of Appeal ruling that barred former LBPD Chief and L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell from giving prosecutors the names of deputies whose disciplinary records included lying, taking bribes, using unreasonable force or engaging in domestic violence.

The Beachcomber strongly recommends that the Public Safety Committee, using that decision as its authority, recommend to the City Council that the city adopt policy that directs the Police Department to furnish to the city prosecutor and district attorney complete and on-going updated lists of all police officers who meet the criteria of the court decision and Senate Bill 1421.”

The Beachcomber received no response and the City Council has yet to take any action relative to the court decision.

However, a year later, April 21, 2020, Luna wrote a letter to the City Council and requested that the council “consider adopting a MOU with the District Attorney (Lacey), which states that each SB 1421 records request submitted to the LBPD by a third party will be made available to the District Attorney’s Office.”

Prior to the council acting upon that request the Beachcomber sent another email to the same members of the Public Safety Committee writing:

“There is a stark difference between releasing SB 1421 records requests to the DA made by citizens and the actual records of investigation and adjudication that the LBPD ultimately determines to be qualified for release.

“The Beachcomber would like clarification as to exactly what the elements of the MOU are intended to be and what the LBPD is asking the council to approve in terms of what is released and when.

“Additionally it is the Beachcomber’s experience that the LBPD classifies some dishonesty complaints as “conduct unbecoming” thus circumventing the mandate of SB 1421, as we believe was done in the overtime fraud case that is presently (and continues to be) in litigation between the Beachcomber and the city.

“In a matter such as this, how will the MOU policy with the DA work, as this kind of case classification – which involves Brady caliber dishonesty – are not posted on the LBPD website and thus, not provided to the DA?”

“The Beachcomber would also like to obtain comment as to why this policy request does not extend to the city prosecutor and why this matter has not been evaluated first by the public safety committee.”

Again, the Beachcomber received no response from Suzie Price, Al Austin, Daryl Supernaw or any other member of the City Council – or their staffs.

It is presently unknown what form the MOU eventually took or if it was implemented.

Will Gascón’s Request Produce Reform?

This current action by Gascón – if fully accommodated by the LBPD – may serve as a beginning for true reform within the LBPD if accommodated in the spirit of the court decisions and if reform is brought to the quality of investigations conducted by Internal Affairs Division.

The recent lawsuit the Beachcomber settled with the city https://beachcomber.news/content/lawsuit-exposes-lbpd-internal-affairs-c...

is but one example of the kind of reform required of the LBPD as well as the quality of investigators assigned to investigate officer misconduct.

The Beachcomber PRA lawsuit still pending with the city that involves overtime fraud is another “Brady” issue involving dishonesty that the LBPD hid under the guise of “conduct unbecoming an officer,” which circumvents the issue of dishonesty – leaving two sergeants free to offer court testimony without having their dishonesty exposed.

Perhaps the best example of many that have been reported by the Beachcomber over the years involves two LBPD officers who belong – but have avoided being placed on – the District Attorney’s Brady list in spite of overwhelming evidence that qualify them to be there.

But a corrupted accountability system that fails to pursue the truth and the refusal of both Chief Luna and DA Jackie Lacey to correct those failures has allowed them to continue business as usual:

The Miguel Contreras Excessive Force Case

On March 8, 2018 the Beachcomber published an article https://beachcomber.news/content/misplaced-loyalty that reported upon comments made by Officer (now sergeant) Michael Hynes while discussing a civil rights lawsuit that Thomas Beck, the distinguished civil rights attorney, won by a unanimous jury verdict that exposed perjury by Hynes and his Sergeant (now lieutenant) David Faris, in which the jury sustained a case of vicious brutality by Hynes described as follows:

“Hynes used excessive force by smashing his client’s elbow from behind using a two-handed swing of his baton and then battered him, delivering 17 baton blows to his body because “he refused verbal commands to lie on his stomach,” all of which was followed by Hynes then maliciously stomping on and grinding his foot into the hand of the accused’s companion, fracturing multiple finger bones.”

“Attorney Beck, was so offended by the overt nature of the officer’s lies proffered during testimony that he took the unusual post-trial step of filing a perjury complaint with the Long Beach Civilian Police Complaint Commission (CPCC) and the LBPD’s internal affairs division (IAD), the latter of which had already covered up the excessive use of force complaints made immediately following the incident.”

The City of Long Beach paid a jury award of $2.477 million to Hynes victims, Chief Luna ignored the evidence provided from the trial and replied to Beck that he “determined the allegations were “unfounded” meaning that what was alleged did not happen, in spite of the clear evidence provided in depositions and court testimony.

The Beachcomber subsequently reported an incident in which Officer Hynes – just prior to being appointed to the rank of sergeant told his peer group that “their duty as a Long Beach police officer is to “lie for the department.” He said, “If you do that, the department will support you.”

Sgt. Hynes concluded his peer briefing saying that the attorney (Beck), who won that trial “tried to put a Brady case on me for lying. The department backed me and did nothing.”

Hynes was qualified for the Brady list the day he was hired and his behavior since being hired is consistent with that background, which was also reported in the same Beachcomber article:

“Public records reveal that Michael Gabriel Hynes was hired by the LBPD in spite of having a criminal conviction for aggravated battery with serious bodily injury – for which he was sentenced to 180 days in county jail plus fines. This kind of criminal record would disqualify a police candidate in most police departments.”

Gascon’s Deadline

DA Gascon asked Chief Luna to “Please provide the list of names and/or employee numbers … within 30 days to the Discovery Compliance Unit…”

In emails to Chief Luna’s media relations unit the Beachcomber asked how the police department intended to respond to DA Gascon’s request.

Chief Luna’s spokesperson replied: “Our department received a request from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, dated Feb. 16, 2021. This is the first request of this kind from the District Attorney’s Office. Our department will continue to work in partnership with the district attorney’s office to foster transparency within existing personnel laws. Any questions regarding Brady List should be directed to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.”

In My Opinion

In its last issue the Beachcomber published the results of a year-long court litigation effort that exposed the incompetence and corruption of LBPD Internal Affairs investigations. [https://beachcomber.news/content/lawsuit-exposes-lbpd-internal-affairs-c...

If those in authority in Long Beach City Hall have the political will to ignore the influence of POA campaign money, make necessary reforms to conditions identified in that article and accommodate the spirit of Gascón’s reform efforts then true professionalism and transparency within the Police Department may become a reality.

If we get more of the same, then Gascón will have to enlist the aid of the state and federal attorney generals to bring a lawsuit and eventual consent decree in order to deliver our city from the corrupting influence of POA campaign money, racial bias and the hundreds of citizen complaints that are under investigated and/or covered up.

Once the deadline for submission to the DA’s office has passed the Beachcomber will ask Chief Luna – in the spirit of transparency and a demonstration of good faith to the community he serves – to make public the eleven-category list he provides to Gascón sans the names and identification numbers of the officers so identified.

Such a demonstration of good faith will serve as a positive demonstration of his intent to reform the LBPD as well as define the extent of help and support he will require from the City Council in order to succeed.

Stephen Downing is a retired LAPD deputy chief of police and a resident of Long Beach.
stephen.beachcomber@gmail.com

Category:

Comments

Wow, Am sure LBPD and the POA will not be complying with the DA request for that information, any time soon. They will fight this just like they fight all other request, with our tax dollars. Am sure they don't want the corrupt officers to be named in order to protect them so they can keep lying for them. SMH.. Question #1 why is officer Hynes “Public records reveal that Michael Gabriel Hynes was hired by the LBPD in spite of having a criminal conviction for aggravated battery with serious bodily injury – for which he was sentenced to 180 days in county jail plus fines. This kind of criminal record would disqualify a police candidate in most police departments.” even a PO in our city and why does Luna keep promoting him?!! Question #2 how is it even possible that LBPD has officer on the "Brandy List" and how many and why are they still employed.

Luna needs to be indicted for running a criminal organization along with all those who help him cover up and cover for corrupt PO's. Thanks again beachcomber and Stephen Downing for helping expose this corruption and corrupt PD . All we need now is for the DA to keep his word and start an investigation against this criminal organization and the people who run it. God help us all

The history of Police Reform proves it to be a booby trap laden sometimes deadly endeavor! Danger has never dissuaded Steve Downing or the Beachcomber! Honesty and good citizenship, so long out of fashion, demand we support their efforts in this fight against the LBPD’s efforts at coverup! GO DOWNING AND BEACHCOMBER!

Add new comment

Beachcomber

Copyright 2024 Beeler & Associates.

All rights reserved. Contents may not be reproduced or transmitted – by any means – without publisher's written permission.