Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers AssociationLos Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association

Greg Torres

LASD detective worked for free to catch 1996 killer of Covina grandmother in nursing home

by

COVINA, Calif. (KABC) — Persistence and dedication by a Los Angeles County Sheriff Department detective cracked a cold case murder that haunted him for 24 years.

Detective Joe Purcell was one of the first detectives on the scene on Jan. 19, 1996. Mary Lindgren, 67, had been brutally beaten, raped and murdered at a retirement home in Covina.

 

“In a business where you see bad all day every day, it was really remarkably terrible,” Purcell told Eyewitness News. “This was a little old lady… everybody has a mother, it was terrible.”

RELATED: Cold case cracked: Arrest made in 1996 murder of Covina woman in nursing home

Purcell retired in 2009 but was later hired back to work cold case murders.

“The fact that my mom’s case was the first cold case coming up that he would be working, to me was fate, a blessing, godsend. I couldn’t ask for a better human being,” Don Lindgren said of Detective Purcell. “It stuck with him all these years.”

“It never went away,” Purcell said. “I’ve had this case on my desk since 1996.”

Lindgren returned to the scene of his mother’s murder with Eyewitness News the day after her alleged killer, David Bernal, was arrested by Purcell and his team of investigators with LASD.

“I believe he came, probably walked up through here where there’s easy access from their parking lot,” Lindgren said.

The killer entered Mary’s room through a sliding glass door on the first floor of her retirement home. Mary had been weakened by a massive stroke seven years prior to her murder, with no hope of fighting back.

“They really didn’t want me to identify or even see the body,” Lindgren said. “I couldn’t even recognize my own mother. That’s how bad somebody beat her and now we know who that somebody is.”

For more than two decades, Lindgren, his two sisters and their families wondered who would do such a thing and why.

 

“It’s been 24 years, six months — and today would have been the 19th day,” Lindgren says.

Over the years, there had been hundreds of leads.

Lindgren prayed at his mother’s graveside year after year hoping for the clue that would help Purcell and LASD find her killer.

“We had hundreds of leads that did not pan out, and we left no stone unturned,” Purcell said.

This year, while hot on the trail of Mary’s killer, LASD faced severe budget cuts. On the chopping block, all but one of the department’s 13 cold case detectives. Purcell was off the job, right as they closed in on Mary’s alleged killer.

“The combined experience of the unsolved unit detectives is over 500 years, and as of July 1st ,they were dismissed because of budget cuts,” LASD Homicide Captain Kent Wegener told Eyewitness News.

“He hasn’t been employed here since July 1st ,yet he still comes to work every day to finish this case,” Wegener said of Purcell.

“He wasn’t getting paid anymore,” said Lindgren. “But he stayed on my mom’s case and worked it for free.”

The lead that cracked the case came with a new search for a DNA match — familial DNA meant to find a relative of the killer.

Finally, a hit came. Adolpho Bernal, who served prison time for rape, was the father of 46-year-old David Bernal.

“His father had been in prison for a rape charge and so his DNA was in the CODIS database,” said Purcell, who credits the department’s crime lab for unraveling the science behind the decades-old mystery.

 

Ultimately, a surveillance team surreptitiously collected a saliva sample from the younger Bernal when he was bringing trash cans back in at his El Monte home. Investigators say it is a match to the DNA collected from Mary Lindgren 24 years ago.

“I pretty much screamed, ‘We got him, Mom,'” Lingren recalls. “We got him, thank you.”

“It really is incredible,” said Purcell of the familial DNA testing technique. “It’s just changed the face of law enforcement these kinds of sciences. It’s stunning, it’s remarkable.”

Lindgren got the call about Bernal’s arrest on Thursday as he was taking sunflowers to his mother’s grave.

“A dragon fly came up and landed on the flowers as I was holding them,” said Lindgren. “So, to me, that was a sign. Mom knew.”

“These cases deserve to be worked and cases do go unsolved, they go stale,” Purcell said. “Justice is justice whether it takes five minutes at the scene or 25 years.”

David Bernal made his first appearance in court Friday, but his arraignment was delayed and he did not enter a plea.

For Lindgren, his sisters and Mary’s three grandchildren, a cloud has been lifted.

“We can start remembering the beautiful things, beautiful memories,” Lindgren said. “God bless Joe Purcell.”

County Supervisors Finalize Vote to Place ‘Defunding’ Initiative on November Ballot

by

August 4, 2020 — Today, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors finalized the vote about a proposed ballot initiative seeking to “redistribute” funding away from public safety. If approved by LA County voters this November, public safety resources for the Sheriff’s Department, the District Attorney’s Office, and County Probation would be significantly cut.
 
In a 4-1 (Supervisor Barger again standing alone as the NO vote) decision this afternoon, the Board of Supervisors voted to place this ballot measure with a proposed County Charter amendment on the ballot for the November 2020 election. This will ultimately require voters to decide whether to endorse a reconfiguration of allocations for LA County budget priorities, which would represent a potential 10% defunding of public safety. These funds would then be reallocated to “address racial injustice, over-reliance on law enforcement interventions, limited economic opportunity, health disparities, and housing instability.”
 
 
PPOA President Tab Rhodes again addressed the County Supervisors via phone during the online hearing this morning. Below is the statement from President Rhodes:
 
“The Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association represents over 9,000 current and retired County employees. Our members who live and work in this community, remain profoundly concerned about this motion, and very much opposed to this charter amendment, which could have a devastating effect on county residents and the unionized employees of Los Angeles County.
 
PPOA continues to emphasize we are not just representing a law enforcement viewpoint, but also a LABOR perspective as well as a genuine concern for the detrimental impacts this amendment will have in the community. PPOA is first and foremost a labor organization, and while we represent sworn peace officers in three County agencies, we also represent numerous classifications of non-sworn unionized members including Dispatchers, Custody Assistants, Criminologists, Security Officers, and Crime Analysts, some of whom are facing irreparable financial uncertainty and harm as a result of this motion. 
 
As for general comment, your offices have been provided a comprehensive legal analysis of the proposed motion outlining the failures of this Board to adhere to your own established rules, negotiated bargaining rights, and the law. County Counsel has commented with concerns regarding the legality of the proposed motion. The CEO has expressed concerns with the uncertain financial plight our County faces as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our labor partners in the County Coalition of Unions and the Los Angeles County Federation have expressed their formal opposition to this proposed charter amendment. I have personally had conversations with each of you and/or your staff, identifying many of the unintended consequences which would impact the citizens of Los Angeles County.
 
PPOA, joining with the LA Times Editorial Board, our brothers and sisters in our labor coalitions as well as many civic organizations, emphatically oppose this motion. We strongly urge the Honorable Supervisors of the Board to put aside the emotions of this moment, live up to the expectations and responsibilities of the constituents who put you in office, and govern through analysis and careful consideration.”
 
While the causes of the increased emotion levels within today’s society are numerous (COVID-19 isolation, police reform protests, unemployment, no school, etc.) many elected officials are taking advantage of “the moment,” pushing their progressive social change agendas, much to the detriment of Los Angeles County and California in the long term. We are sincerely grateful to our current and retired PPOA members who volunteered their time and participated in opposing the Board of Supervisors’ ill-advised action through the numerous emails and willingness to speak during the meetings.  

PPOA President Addresses County Supervisors’ Continued Efforts to Redistribute Law Enforcement Funds

by

July 28, 2020 — This morning, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting included the continued discussion about a proposed ballot initiative seeking to “redistribute” funding away from public safety. If approved by LA County voters this November, public safety resources for the Sheriff’s Department, the District Attorney’s Office, and County Probation would be significantly cut.
 
In a 4-1 (Supervisor Barger again standing alone as the NO vote) decision this afternoon, the Board of Supervisors voted once more to place this ballot measure with a proposed County Charter amendment on the ballot for the November 2020 election. This will ultimately require voters to decide whether to endorse a reconfiguration of allocations for LA County budget priorities, which would represent a potential 10% defunding of public safety. These funds would then be reallocated to “address racial injustice, over-reliance on law enforcement interventions, limited economic opportunity, health disparities, and housing instability.”
 
 
PPOA President Tab Rhodes and a number of concerned PPOA members addressed the County Supervisors via phone during the online hearing this morning. This is the statement from President Rhodes:
 
“My name is Tab Rhodes, I am President of the Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association. PPOA continues to be profoundly concerned about this issue, and very much opposed to this last minute approach to a charter amendment, which could have a devastating effect on county residents. Ballot box budgeting is nothing more than a complete abdication of your elected responsibility as fiduciaries. We agree with the LA Times, it’s ‘a bad idea and poor substitute for careful study, deliberation and decision making.’
 
We strongly urge the Honorable Supervisors of the Board to scrutinize the in-depth legal opinion provided to each of your offices by ALADS yesterday, which hopefully reiterates a few of our concerns.
 
Additionally, WHY should unionized county workers, who through this pandemic have been considered ESSENTIAL as disaster service workers by definition, NOW face potential layoffs? 
 
PPOA, to protect our members, and the jobs of other union members of Los Angeles County, we join our brothers and sisters as partners in labor coalitions as well as many civic organizations, in opposition of not only this motion, but if need be in defeating this dangerous ballot measure in November.”
 
Due to time constraints placed on public comments, this 1-minute statement was a summary of the full letter President Rhodes mailed to the Board of Supervisors today. 
 
We are sincerely grateful to PPOA members who volunteered to express opposition to the Supervisors during public comment this morning. Calling in to the weekly meeting can be a lengthy, frustrating experience, and we appreciate our members’ dedication and perseverance. We also want to thank countless PPOA members who answered our call to action last week and generated HUNDREDS of emails to the Board of Supervisors to ensure that our opposition to budget redistribution was duly noted.

Seeking Members to Call County Supervisors Tomorrow (7/28/20) *Phone Calls Needed During Public Comment*

by

PPOA is seeking active and/or retired members and/or your family and friends willing to address the LA County Board of Supervisors regarding an important public safety matter.
Background: On Tuesday, July 21, 2020, Supervisors Solis and Kuehl presented a motion seeking to “redistribute” at least 10% of County funding away from public safety through a ballot measure presented to the voters in November of 2020. Make no mistake: this measure, if passed would significantly cut public safety resources for the Sheriff’s Department, the District Attorney’s Office, and County Probation and put the safety of community members at risk.
This ballot measure will ultimately require the voters to decide whether to endorse a reconfiguration of allocations for LA County budget priorities, which would represent a potential defunding of public safety of “at least 10%.” These funds would then be reallocated to “address racial injustice, over-reliance on law enforcement interventions, limited economic opportunity, health disparities, and housing instability.”
PPOA is asking for help at the Board of Supervisors meeting tomorrow, July 28, 2020. We are looking for anyone willing to telephonically address the Board of Supervisors during public comment with a 1-2 minute statement against this motion.
If you are interested in helping with a few words to help defend our communities and protect our jobs, please contact Greg Torres (gtorres@ppoa.com), for additional information. For those uncomfortable with preparing speeches, PPOA will gladly prepare a 1-2 minute statement that can simply read on the phone during “Public Comments” at the meeting. “Comments” are allowed for a one-hour block of time and will be taken at the virtual Board of Supervisors meeting tomorrow (July 28, 2020) from approximately 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM.