Who directed a Fullerton attorney to try to block the District Attorney’s access to police records in a murder case?
Late last month Orange County’s District Attorney filed a motion to review the personnel records of ex-Fullerton Police Officers Manual Ramos and Jay Cicinelli, currently on trial in the death of Kelly Thomas. The DA is seeking to undermine the credibility of a defense witness, FPD Cpl. Stephen Rubio, who earlier testified that neither of the men acted outside of department policy the night that Thomas was severely beaten and never regained consciousness. Prosecutors in the case will only have access to the parts of the records involving the officers’ interactions with Kelly Thomas on July 5, 2011.
Presiding Judge William Froeberg ruled for the prosecution on December 27, to allow the DA’s team to see the records. These records will presumably show that both officers were fired for their actions, casting doubt on Cpl. Rubio’s testimony in court that neither man violated department policy by first threatening, then beating Kelly Thomas…
This is the same city and police Chief that sang the praises of the “Office of independent Review”. An entity that has failed miserably in it’s supposed charge of holding several law enforcement agencies accountable and compliant in at least minimal standards of police ethics. Harassment, intimidation, deliberate reputation destruction, deliberate property destruction, heinous privacy violations, attempted murder, obstruction, fraud, perjury etc. occur while OIR claims to be holding this Mafia Trash police community accountable.
Good, Police need to have POBRA taken away from them. It has become a weapon and a threat to be used against the public and threatens public safety.
The DA and Defense have already worked out a deal to remove “training” as an issue. Rubio’s blatant false testimony will be be stricken and the records will not be shared with the jury or the public.
The winners? Probably the City which needs protection from both Ramos/Cicinelli and Ron Thomas.
Well, I didn’t get that quite right. Here’s the quote from the Register:
“And, Superior Court Judge William Froeberg agreed to allow excerpts from the department’s training manual to be presented to jurors, but the evidence will come with a limiting instruction it is not be considered as a statement of law.”
So training will be admitted and Rubio may still be in trouble for his BS – except that Chief Danny may have told him what to say. The FPD has a way of collaborating on testimony.
Two more examples of obstruction by our fine US police community
(1)
http://gothamist.com/2014/01/03/drunk_cops.php
(2)
http://m.civilbeat.com/articles/2013/12/31/20777-hawaii-police-union-wants-officer-misconduct-records-kept-confidential/