In a recent article, publsihed by the San Jose Mercury News, a resident named Cecilia Kelleher asked police chief Mike Sellers three things:  (1) what kinds of impact the scandals were having on department morale, (2) what the chief was hearing from residents, (3) and what he was doing to keep his employees in line?

According to the reporter’s print, Sellers said “we pride ourselves in providing an excellent service…a dozen people have actually called him to express their support” but then Sellers wouldn’t answer the third question of what he was doing to keep his employees in line. Typical.  That’s likely because Sellers and City of Santa Clara management have actually done more to suppress and dissuade accountability than they have to instill it.  I remind you of a case where the City Manager, Julio Fuentes, city attorneys, and Sellers called in retired police chief Kevin Kyle to petition the Santa Clara Superior Court in suppressing from a jury disciplinary facts of at least one of its officers.

In fact, Chief Sellers’ lack of accountability extends way beyond the three officers mentioned in reporter Jason Green’s recent article, Santa Clara police chief acknowledges recent scandals involving officers.  A year ago, April 7, 2015, chief Sellers, ex-Mayor Jamie Matthews and soon-to-depart City Manager Julio Fuentes received five complaints against officers Deger, Stewart, Rush, Schneider, Larsen (Eldridge) and one complaint against the City itself for intentionally destroying evidence among other things.  Each one of these complaints was supported by expert testimony and investigations conducted by reputable, retired, police sergeants Steve Usoz (SJPD), Mike Yorks (Los Gatos-Monte Sereno and current POST instructor) and famed Los Angeles Senior Detective Supervisor (ret.) T.T. Williams.  At the time of complained incident, all three of those police experts had spent more time in law enforcement and investigations than each of the individual officers had spent alive.

In fact, limiting and destroying evidence that was known to be part of an ongoing investigation was admitted at trial by SCPD lieutenant Wahid Kazem and city IT manager Christopher Jackson who said the directive came from assistant city attorney Julia Hills after they received a Demand for Preservation of Evidence letter from attorney Michele Brenot and despite already established City and police department policies directing a minimum retention schedule for such evidence.  If chief Sellers wants to answer Ms. Kelleher’s question about what he is doing to discipline officers he can start with the six complaints that have bee sitting on his desk for almost a year now and respond to them as the city directs as either Sustained, Not Sustained, Unfounded, Exonerated, or No Finding.

Under Sellers watch as police management and Chief of Police there have also been the following incidents outside of the current Leipelt (middle left), Nguyen (bottom center), and Green (top right) matters…

• Clay Rojas (top left, image above) was sentenced to three years in prison for stealing data from police computers and providing data to friends with Hell’s Angels motorcycle club Mercury News Article
• Greg Deger (top center, image above) was the subject of internal disciplinary action and then was sent, unsupervised, to a call for possible domestic disturbance but testified that he’s never been trained to respond to those types of calls.  He admitted to intentionally breaking from department policy and then falsely accused a woman in her 60s of being a victim of domestic violence, he fabricated a story of pushing a woman to save her, and he lied about arrest charges trying to blame confusion on seasoned officer Chris Bell.  Read the complaint against Deger here:  Complaint – Deger – redacted
• Michael Seadler (center right, image above) was an officer with Santa Clara and both he and Rojas (above) appear to have been part of Santa Clara’s SET team that “raided Smith’s house”, a grandmother in Campbell, CA, and were named as participants of that raid in a 2011 federal law suit that extended through 2013.  In public records, Seadler was both employed as a Santa Clara police officer and arrested for possessing cocaine, drug paraphernalia, and at least 100 lbs of marijuana in 2011.  He was again arrested in May 2013 by Watsonville police after his ex-wife called them for help.  According to Shanna McCord of the Santa Cruz Sentinl, officers tested the substance as positive cocaine and arrested him for that and possessing paraphernalia and a straw used for snorting.
• Mike Horn (bottom left, image above) was part of a team of 14 Santa Clara police officers that responded when a 16 year old, 5’9″-120 lb, boy was at fire station #3 (Homestead & Kiely) called for help.  The first officer on scene, Jamie Ellis, is 5’1″ and about 110lbs, she wrote in her report that she immediately recognized young Calhoun as a drunk teenager.  Other officers wrote in their reports that they all surrounded Calhoun with shotguns and AR-15 rifles.  While a negotiator was speaking with Calhoun, Mike Horn fired two shots from his rifle striking the boy in his torso and head causing injuries so severe the teen required emergency surgery opening his skull to save his life.  After the boy lay on the ground wouded in the skull, officer Nathan Crescini let’s his dog loose on the boy ripping the kid’s side torso open (see Crescini below).  According to reports in the Santa Clara Weekly and TransparentCalifornia.com, 13 months after the incident Mike Horn had moved on to Roseville PD taking approximately a 30% cut in pay and benefits.  Incident ABC7 News
• Nathan Crescini (bottom right, image above) was part of a small team of officers looking for suspects when he came across a homeless man, Weaver, that was sleeping on grass and had nothing to do with the alleged incident – in fact he didn’t come close to fitting the description of the subject Santa Clara police allege they were looking for.  According to the complaint, the homeless man lay on the ground handcuffed when Crescini let his police dog loose on the man causing several injuries.  A federal jury found that Mr. Weaver’s rights had been violated by Crescini turning his attack dog on him.  Specifically that officers had (1) interferred with Weaver’s Constitutional right to be free from the use of excessive force, (2) that officers used threats, intimidation and/or coercion in violating Weaver’s civil rights, and that (3) Santa Clara police officer’s conduct was a substantial factor in causing harm to Weaver.  The jury’s verdict was delivered on June 27, 2014.  See: Weaver vs. City of Santa Clara.  After being letting his dog loose on the 16 year old boy (above, see Mike Horn) and being found by a federal jury to have violated Weaver’s civil rights, it’s not clear if Nathan Crescini is still on Santa Clara’s police force.