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

Greg Torres

TWO CRUCIAL WINS FOR PPOA MEMBERS

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NO LAYOFFS!

Today, Director Lisa Garrett of the Los Angeles County Department of Human Resources officially notified the Sheriff’s Department that “a workforce reduction will not be required” as previously believed. NO LAYOFFS!

This optimal outcome is the direct result of the collaboration and coalition of labor organizations of which PPOA is a member — providing much needed political support for our arguments against further defunding of the Department and member layoffs.

PPOA members sometimes ask, “what is the union doing?” or “why pay dues?” This outcome is the answer. Without the support of our partners in labor, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFSCME District Council 36, Los Angeles County Probation Officers Union – Local 685, Los Angeles County Probation Managers Association – Local 1967, SEIU 721, Association of Los Angeles County Probation Supervisors of Los Angeles County – BU 702, and Local 1014 (Fire); PPOA and ALADS would have been fighting this battle for our members, alone. Being a member of PPOA brings you the benefits of not only what PPOA offers directly, but also the important benefits that come from the coalitions above. Unions are international and benefit millions of workers accordingly, recognizing that each step forward is a fight worth taking on. Rest assured, being a member of PPOA, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, the County Coalition of Unions, the Fraternal Order of Police, and the AFL-CIO, all play into protecting your working conditions, pay and benefits.

SENATE BILL 731 (BRADFORD) SHELVED BY CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE

Speaking of victory, during the last day of legislative session yesterday, Senate Bill 731 was NOT considered on the floor of the California State Assembly. Many special interests were fighting for consideration and passage of the measure on the last day of the 2019-2020 Legislative Session.

PPOA, working in conjunction within a broad coalition of labor organizations representing law enforcement professionals, fiercely lobbied against the flawed bill. Working only from bill drafts, your PPOA legislative experts and union leadership team joined numerous lobbying efforts to explain the faults of this bill and request a collaborative ear from Legislators. Thankfully, it appears we were heard. PPOA’s lobbying efforts focused on established relationships, partnerships with other organizations and education for the Legislators. Through the advocacy of many, Legislators developed the confidence to soundly reject this measure despite the suffocating weight of the moment. When all was said and done, our allies in the California Legislature stood with law enforcement and took action to shelve the bill and bring us into conversations in the future.

Labor organizations representing all classifications of public safety members have committed to working in good faith with Legislators next session to develop a process that makes sense. Not a single “police union” represented in this effort supports “bad apples” slipping through the cracks. PPOA, starting today, has already reached out to Legislators, looking to strengthen those collaborative relationships on this issue. A fair and impartial process to “certify” law enforcement professionals is welcome. Creating that process is in the details, which SB731, in its final writing, addressed poorly.

Today, we had a couple of major victories. Tomorrow we may not. PPOA, and all of the labor organizations listed above recognize tomorrow is another day and another challenge. As PPOA President Tab Rhodes continues to echo, you are not just a member of PPOA, but a part of the family. Today, we were informed of the good news that approximately 250 families — potentially thousands of people — will continue to have income and benefits in these historically difficult times. Today we were informed of the good news that no demotions will occur in October. Today, our members will not face “de-certification” from a committee, stacked against them. Today, is why you are a member of the PPOA family.

Recovery Continues for 18-Year LASD Veteran: ‘Whether I crawl, walk or run, I will get there’

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A male suspect who brutally attacked a station jailer at Lakewood Sheriff’s Station two years ago was sentenced this week to 16 years in state prison for the cowardly assault.
 
On August 10, 2018, James Keoni Kalaaukahi, 29, was being booked at the Lakewood Station jail when he sucker-punched a female custody assistant in the face during fingerprinting, grabbed her taser and dragged her by her hair into a locked cell. Despite being bloodied with two black eyes, a concussion, broken nose, cervical spine injury and torn wrist ligament, our heroic C.A. managed to activate a panic button. Responding sworn personnel tried to neutralize Kalaaukahi with pepper spray but were ultimately forced to use their firearms in order to save the life of the custody assistant. Both the C.A. and Kalaaukahi were transported to the hospital for treatment. PPOA Executive Board Member/Custody Assistant Tony Coleman and Executive Director Wayne Quint Jr. were at the hospital with the C.A. and her family that evening to extend support. “She is the embodiment of the C.A. position: strong, professional and courageous,” said Coleman.
 
The 18-year LASD veteran continues to deal with the effects of that traumatic assault. Her broken nose has been surgically repaired and her spinal surgery is scheduled for next month.
 
There is no doubt that her will to survive enabled her to stay in the fight until her backup arrived. The fact that our Custody Assistant has been able to return to work in a new assignment is testament to her perseverance and determination. Both of those attributes are evident in this excerpt from the Victim Impact Statement she courageously read in court:
 
“I will get better and yes my life has been altered but I am still here. I thank God for my work family — my heroes who came to my aide. I thank God for the prayers and support of those I know and those I met along the way. It hasn’t been an easy journey and two years into it I still have much recovery ahead... You beat me, held me captive, tried to kill me and attempted to strip all of my dignity away, but you didn’t win. With every ounce of my being, I crawled to my help line that day and I will continue to seek help for my journey ahead. As for today, whether I crawl, walk, or run, I will get there.”

Defend PPOA Members! Imperative Call to Action re: SB731

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Please contact, email, send social media message, and/or call the legislators below strongly urging a NO vote. Senate Bill 731, if passed as written, will be devastating for PPOA members, their families, and public safety in general. WE NEED YOUR HELP URGENTLY!
 
Assembly Member Laura Friedman (D-43rd district)
(916) 319-2043 / (818) 558-3043 
 
Assembly Member Jesse Gabriel (D-45th district)
(916) 319-2045 / (818) 346-4521 
 
Assembly Member Luz Rivas (D-39th district)
(916) 319-2039 / (818) 504-3911 
 
Assembly Member Miguel Santiago (D-53rd district)
(916) 319-2053 / (213) 620-4646  
 
Our profession is under attack and PPOA needs your help.
 
Senate Bill 731, authored by Senator Steven Bradford, will change the landscape of California Law Enforcement forever.
 
Bill explained:
SB731 is the bill introduced by Senator Bradford and would create a decertification process where an Officer’s POST certificate could be revoked. Additionally, it also removes qualified immunity from officers. Senator Bradford ignored law enforcement lobbyists’ work with the Governor’s office which supported compromising recommendations and instead, working with the ACLU, submitted amendments to the bill further attacking law enforcement.
 
SB 731 includes:
– An unjust de-certification process, that establishes a new 9-member Advisory Board within POST which on its face will have a built-in majority of anti-law enforcement bias members as follows:
  • two members who have substantial experience working at nonprofit or academic institutions on issues related to police misconduct
  • two members who have substantial experience working at community-based organizations on issues related to police misconduct;
  • one member who has been subject to wrongful use of force likely to cause death or serious bodily injury by a peace officer, or who is a surviving family member of a person killed by the wrongful use of deadly force by a peace officer,
  • one member shall be an attorney…with substantial professional experience involving oversight of peace officers
 
– the removal of protections of POBRA (Peace Officer Bill of Rights Act) under the de-certification commission process
 
– the removal of “Qualified Immunity” for law enforcement officers
 
– law enforcement officers becoming personally liable personally ($25,000) and permanent de-certification even in cases all laws were followed, use of force policies were complied with, and the employing agency and courts found NO wrongdoing.
 
– a professional commission with obvious bias toward law enforcement profession, and more restricting than other licensed professions like attorneys, doctors, and nurses.   
 
VOTE NO on SB 731!!
 
 

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

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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

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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.