Corruption at the PD....Same shit different toilet

Suit: Crime stats fudged
Ex-SBPD clerk claims she was fired for refusing to alter records
Joe Nelson and George Watson, Staff Writers



SAN BERNARDINO - A former Police Department records clerk alleges in a lawsuit she was fired for refusing to falsify crime statistics.

In a lawsuit filed in San Bernardino Superior Court on April 25 and received by the city on Thursday, Jennifer Carrigan alleges that during her tenure as a records clerk, between August 2002 and January 2005, her supervisors, Capt. Steve Klettenberg and John Block, a manager in the police records department, instructed her to "delete and remove reports involving (police) officers" and to not include reports of certain offenses to influence the crime statistics.

"There were some reports involving officers that they wanted her to basically delete. She refused to do it, So they took action to get her fired," said Peter C. Beirne, a Pasadena attorney representing Carrigan.

Carrigan was frequently ordered to falsify crime statistics throughout her employment, Beirne said. He said she did not realize the impact it was having until November 2004, when she was told to remove about 1,200 cases mostly assaults and several questionable deaths from the Police Department's crime statistic data. When she was told to remove those cases as well as one naming a police officer, she finally mustered the nerve to refuse the orders of her superiors, Beirne said.

That refusal cost Carrigan her job, he said.

Klettenberg and Block, according to the lawsuit, were acting under the direction of former Police Chief Garrett
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Zimmon, also named as a defendant. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for wrongful termination, lost wages, emotional distress and mental anguish.

Zimmon, reached by telephone Friday, declined to comment.

"I really don't know anything about it," Zimmon said. "I wouldn't be able to comment even if I did."

Zimmon's contract with the Police Department was terminated after he went out on medical leave earlier this year.

His departure came as crime in the city came under heightened scrutiny in the wake of the apparent gang-related shooting death of 11-year-old Mynisha Crenshaw in November of 2005. In the same month, the city was ranked the 18th most dangerous in the nation by Morgan Quitno Press based on 2004 crime statistics.

The year before, the city ranked 16th most dangerous.

Klettenberg denied the lawsuit's claims.

"The whole thing is just bunk," he said Friday.

Beirne said Klettenberg ordered about 1,200 reports of criminal offenses, mostly assaults, removed from record in November 2004 to improve the city's crime stats.

Klettenberg said it didn't happen.

"I have no idea where those numbers came from," he said, declining to comment further because of the pending litigation.

Block could not be reached for comment Friday.

Carrigan, of San Bernardino, was fired from her job on Feb. 14. She had been on administrative leave since January 2005 when police learned she was carrying on a personal relationship with a parolee. The parolee was arrested on suspicion of drug possession outside Carrigan's home on Jan. 7, 2005. Carrigan confronted the arresting police officer, who learned of Carrigan's employment with the Police Department and reported her association with the parolee, records show.

According to Beirne, Carrigan informed police of her relationship to the parolee before her hiring, but she was hired anyway. Police are now denying Carrigan disclosed such information, Beirne said.

Carrigan also alleges in her lawsuit her reputation was tarnished when information was disseminated to third parties by police officials that labeled her a "drug dealer," "incompetent" and an "untrustworthy" employee. She also alleges her privacy was invaded when the city and police investigated details of her personal relationships in an effort to make her quit.

During an investigation, police learned Carrigan assisted the parolee in a traffic accident he had been involved in by accessing confidential records from the Department of Motor Vehicles, which Beirne said Carrigan was trained to do.

"She had already been instructed that she could help individuals by pulling up DMV information and helping them find out about accidents," Beirne said. "If there had been anybody else at the window, he would have gotten the same information. My client just happened to be at the window at the time."

A civil service board concurred with a recommendation to fire Carrigan, said City Attorney James F. Penman. He said the allegations made in the lawsuit are the same Carrigan made during her civil service hearings.

"It's my recollection that the (Police Department) was aware of her allegations prior to the (lawsuit) being filed, and they had already done an internal investigation and determined the allegations were not true," Penman said.

The civil service board historically has overturned terminations and other disciplinary action if it was later learned such actions lacked merit, Penman said.

However, in Carrigan's case, the board upheld Zimmon's recommendation for termination, and Penman doesn't believe the decision by the board will buckle in a courtroom.

"It's very rare for them to be overturned by the courts," Penman said.

When asked if he was aware of any complaints by police officers or civilian employees about manipulation of crime statistics at the Police Department, Penman said, "I can neither confirm nor deny other allegations."

While most city officials declined comment Friday due to the pending lawsuit, 7th Ward Councilwoman Wendy McCammack said she was aware of police departments in other jurisdictions altering statistics but never had heard of anything similar in San Bernardino.

"If that's the case, that would be a very sad commentary on former Police Chief Zimmon," McCammack said. "I would be appalled if it did happen in our Police Department. If it did, whoever was responsible for insisting that an employee manipulate statistics that way (should) be handled in whatever legal forum that action would require."

Mayor Pat Morris, who campaigned on promises to fight crime and revitalize the city, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Former Mayor Judith Valles, who downplayed crime as a major issue, defended the Police Department and denied any manipulation of crime stats occurred while she was in office.

"That is not done," she said. "That hasn't occurred."

The Rev. Reggie Beamon, a leader of a community group formed last year to seek solutions to San Bernardino's crime problem, said that while there's no immediate evidence the claims in the lawsuit are true, they support his belief that an independent body should have oversight of the Police Department.

"We don't know all the facts, but that's why we need oversight committees," Beamon said. "It should be given autonomy and the ability to investigate, like one they have in in Riverside. It alleviates that doubt of suspicion."


Zimmon left, but its the same shit different toilet....

thats San Bernardino...

grimey at its best!