Mesa Arizona Police Department suffers with civil rights violations, discriminatory & corrupt policies against their own officers * Rebuttal Letters posted * Update: Lawsuit filed Federal Court *EDitor's EDitortial

NATION CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
KEITH M. KNOWLTON, L.L.C.
4409 South Rural Rd., Suite 201
Tempe, Arizona 85282-7072
TEL (480) 755-1777
FAX (480) 755-8286
Attorney for Plaintiffs
Keith M. Knowlton - SBN 011565

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

Pat Foster, an individual, James J. Schweisthal, an Individual, Lorelei Delaney, an individual, Juan Padilla, an individual Jenine Thomas-Kroehnert, an individual, Perry D. Coffer, an individual, Tina Nesbitt, an individual, Anthony J. Fajardo, an individual, Guy Anthony Adams an individual, Plaintiffs, vs.City of Mesa, a body politic and the Mesa Police Department, a subdivision of the City of Mesa; Defendants.

Case No. COMPLAINT(Civil Rights)

Plaintiffs, as and for their complaint against Defendants, and each of them alleges as follows:
GENERAL ALLEGATIONS


1. All of the acts, occurrences and events which comprise the subject matter of Plaintiffs' Complaint took place in Maricopa County, Arizona, and the amount in Controversy satisfies the minimum subject matter jurisdictional requirements of this Court.

2. Plaintiffs Pat Foster, an individual, James J. Schweisthal, an Individual, Lorelei Delaney, an individual, Juan Padilla, an individual Jenine Thomas-Kroehnert, an individual, Perry D. Coffer, an individual, Tina Nesbitt, an individual, Anthony J. Fajardo, an individual, and Guy Anthony Adams an individual are or were police officers for the City of Mesa (hereafter referred to collectively as “Plaintiff Officers”) and at all relevant times herein were residence of Maricopa County, Arizona.

3. Upon information and belief, it is alleged that Defendant City of Mesa, is a body politic existing in Maricopa County, Arizona, and a political subdivision of the State of Arizona at all times relevant to the acts, occurrences and event which comprises the Complaint.

4. Upon information and belief, Defendant Mesa Police Department (“hereafter “MPD”) was and is a duly constituted division of the City of Mesa, at all times relevant to the acts, occurrences, and events which comprise the Complaint.

5. Upon information and belief, it is alleged that at all times relevant to the acts, occurrences and events comprising the Complaint herein, Defendants City of Mesa and the MPD acted by through their employees.



COUNT ONE

VIOLATION OF CIVIL RIGHTS



6. The allegations set forth above are fully incorporated herein by this reference.

7. Upon information and belief, the Mesa Police Department has policies, practices and procedures that result in gender, racial and religious discrimination and desperate treatment in the Mesa Police Department's transfer practices and grievance process. Upon information and belief the Mesa Police Department does discriminate in the transfer and grievance process on the bases of religion, race and gender.

8. It is Mesa City Policy to consider each applicant for employment on the basis of his or her qualifications for the job and without regard to race, religion, sex, marital status, age or nation of origin. Section 901-a-1 of the City of Mesa Charter. Pursuant to the Mesa Police Department General Order 201, ”[e]very effort will be made to insure that appointments, promotions, reclassifications, transfers, compensation, training, layoffs, termination's, or factors determined to be free of discrimination.

9.Officer Foster is an African American police officer who has been employed with the Mesa Police Department since September 12, 1992. He has been hampered and blocked in his career opportunities for reasons not related to job performance. Officer Foster has a nearly flawless work record including numerous commendations (department and citizen) and above average too exceptional work reviews/ratings. Officer Foster has been denied transfers that would aid his career because of his race and/ upon information and belief the religious preferences of those making the transfer decisions.

10. Specifically, Officer Foster was denied a transfer to the gang unit from his present position on the community action team. The following officers, who had less seniority, GLO experience and/or less job related training were transferred over Officer Foster to the gang unit and other more prestigious positions, by Lt. Johnston over the past three years: Officers M. Beaton, K. Baggs, J. Bellows, L. Hall, T. Bradbury, R. Campbell, D. Baca, M. Davis, T. Intrieri and K. Kost. Some of these lesser-qualified individuals are of the same religious background (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (“LDS”)) as Lt. Johnston.

11. Officer Foster was denied a transfer to SCAT (Special Crimes Apprehension Team) in violation of the Affirmative Action policies of the Mesa Police Department. Officer Foster applied for the transfer but was not granted the full process as other officers were. Sgt. Solomon told him that the squad was “afraid” of him because he was perceived as one who would be “quick to file a racial discrimination complaint.” Officer Foster had never before filed such a complaint. Further, Sgt. Solomon is LDS as are a majority of the other supervisors in this unit.

12.Officer Foster applied for the CID (“Criminal Investigations Division) unit and was passed over by the following junior and less trained officers: Officers G. Beck, E. Grasse, E. Chamberlain, T. Serenka, M. Soleberg, G. Nesbit, M. Myers, D. Kaufmann, K. Carroll, M. Melendez, K. Baker and H. Rankin. Officer Foster has never been given been given a reason for his non-selection and being passed over for transfer for less qualified officers.

13. Sgt. James J. Schweisthal is a Caucasian male working in the Mesa Police Department in the patrol division. He has been employed with the Mesa Police department for 15 years. He also served as a Sergeant in CAT. He has been passed over for 7 transfers and one lieutenant spot. Less trained and experienced supervisors received the transfers and promotion.

14. From 1997, several minority officers supervised by Sgt. Schweisthal have attempted to gain transfers to SIU. This includes Officers Foster, Anaya and Officer Rivera. This unit is made up of gang detectives and narcotic detectives. Officers are given take home cars and pay increases from overtime. Sgt. Schweisthal has attempted to assist these officers in their transfers and has been criticized for not supporting his superiors' actions to impair the careers of these officers. Further Sgt. Schweisthal has not received transfers because the person making the decision was LDS and selected less qualified and trained LDS officers. For example, Sgt. Schweisthal applied for a transfer to the Falcon bike unit. A LDS lieutenant chose a white male LDS officer who Sgt. Schweisthal actually trained when the officer came into the department. This same lieutenant had a grievance filed against his supervisor (who was LDS) when the supervisor chose the lieutenant over a much more experienced black sergeant. The grievance was dismissed because Mesa's personnel rules do not allow grievances for transfers.

15.This policy is discriminatory and denies officers the ability to challenge discriminatory practices in transfers. This policy violates the due process clause of the 14 amendment. This inability to grieve transfers has made it possible for little despots to grow in the police department. Men in positions of power regarding transfers who use that power to harm peoples carriers so that they can promote less qualified individuals that they prefer. This lack of grievance policy allows discrimination against minorities, women and individuals, in certain circumstances, because they are not LDS.

16. Lorelei Delaney was an officer with the Mesa Police Department who resigned in August of 1999. She experienced harassment from the Mesa Police Department and filed an EEOC complaint. Rather than pursue the complaint she attempted to work as a volunteer. At first she was informed she would be able to work as a volunteer with the Mesa Police Department, but since has learned, upon information and belief, that she has been blackballed and told she will not be able work with the Mesa Police Department in any capacity.

17. Officer Juan Padilla is a Hispanic male who has experience discrimination in the assignments he received as a Mesa Police Department because of his race. He would be assigned arrears to patrol to avoid being near other Hispanic officers. Further, he was removed from the Field Training Officer program because he went over Lt. Hargas's head to complain about problems with the Mesa Police Department's overtime policy. He was forced to resign as an FTO, which resulted in a loss of 5% of his pay. He was forced to resign, not because of job performance, but because he complained about an unfair and unjust policy of the police department that was depriving officer's of valid overtime pay. This created an air of intolerance and fear for reprisals if anybody complained about Police Department actions.

18. Officer Jeninne Thomas-Kroehnert is an African American woman. In March of 2000, she was transferred from Sex Crimes to Patrol due to an alleged lack of teamwork. The stated reasons for the transfer were untrue because her case clearances were adequate and equal to every other detective in the unit. The transfer took place in April of 2000. On April 24th she was advised a complaint had been filed against her for an alleged failure to contact a victim of sex crime's mother who only spoke Spanish. She had asked other officers in the department who spoke Spanish (she did not) to contact the mother. Those officers documented their efforts to contact the mother although they were unable to make contact. She was suspended for three (3) days without pay even. This punishment was discriminatory because no other detective in the Sex Crimes Unit would have had a complaint brought against them for such a matter or been so disciplined.

19. Officer Perry D. Coffer is a Native American male. He resigned in February of 1998 after being singled out for harassment by Sgt. Ivey. Sgt. Ivy brought several complaints against Officer Coffer including one criminal complaint for destruction of a License Plate Cover while removing an expired license plate. Officer Coffer resigned when Sgt. Ivy was appointed to do the internal affairs interviews regarding the complaints, which Sgt. Ivy was instrumental in bringing against Officer Coffer. Officer Coffer has sought to have this matter reviewed by the City of Mesa and to have the actions of Officer Ivy investigated and disciplined, but to date no investigation or disciplinary action has taken place. Officer Ivy is not an internal affairs officer or detective.

20. The City of Mesa and the Police Department deprived Officer Coffer of a fair and impartial investigation. This action shows that the Mesa Police Department allows supervisors who file complaints against individual officers to be the investigator of the complaint and to make recommendations to the department on discipline. This is inherently unfair and unjust and a deprivation of due process rights under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

21. Officer Tina Nesbit is a Caucasian woman, who in July of this year, was denied transfer to the SONET because she was not “one of the beauties.” The officer who made this discriminatory conduct was not disciplined for such a remark or for using beauty as a basis for analyzing a female officer's qualification for a transfer.

22. Officer Anthony J. Fajardo is a Hispanic male who was hired by the Mesa Police Department on December 4, 1987. Over the past 13 and ½ years he has been denied all requested transfers except two. He has been passed over for transfers even though officers who are less qualified or have less experience have received those positions. The officers picked over Officer Fajardo have the following things in common; they are white males, and in most cases, LDS.

23. Officer Guy Anthony Adams has been a Mesa Police Officer since 1986. He was singled out for discipline by an LDS supervisor, Captain John Brewer for showing a brief portion of a sexual video at a meeting as a practical joke. Officer Adams, after the investigation and being placed on a one-year probation, was transferred to a unit under John Brewer's control. He was transferred to this unit even though there were other units that wanted him and in which there were openings. John Brewer thereafter exposed Officer Adams to unwarranted charges and complaints. While in that unit he was subject to an internal affairs investigation and discipline because he had a relationship with a woman who was married to a man John Brewer's knew through his church. The investigation and discipline was inappropriate because the relationship did not take place while Officer Adams was on duty and the woman was not a police officer.

24. As a result of new charges and complaints made by Lieutenant Todd Thomas after the investigation of his relationship with the women, a contract was entered into between the Police Department and Officer Adams. The Contract was drafted by Roy Skaggs and Officer Adams agreed not to sue the department if the department, acting in good faith, would let him carry out the terms of the probation he was currently on and take no other disciplinary action against him.

25. After the contract was signed, Captain Brewer and Lieutenant Todd Thomas immediately breached the contract by creating a hostile working environment. These individuals placed false documentation in his file and began writing Officer Adam up for discipline for policy violations.

26. Officer Adams was then demoted from sergeant and transferred to a unit under the control of Sergeant Mike Ivey. Sergeant Ivey created a hostile working environment for Officer Adams by challenging every report and questioning every action. This action of Sergeant Ivey breached the contract and caused Officer Adams severe emotional distress. The distress was so serious that it caused Officer Adams to have a nervous breakdown and later to be suspended pending a psychological evaluation.



27. Upon information and belief, the above actions taken against Officer Adams would not have happened if Office Adams were LDS. Other LDS Officers under John Brewer, including but not limited to Dan Merrill have committed far serious acts and have not been as severely disciplined.

28. In committing the above referenced actions, the City of Mesa and the Mesa Police Department, through its polcymaking personal, acted under color of state law, and engaged in conduct through polices, practices and procedures that were the proximate cause of violating Plaintiffs' rights under the First and Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, including his right to be free from unreasonable seizure and due process under the 14th Amendment, due process clause of the United States Constitution. Defendants did not have probable cause to violate these constitutional rights.

29. Upon information and belief, it is alleged that Defendants maintain a policies and/or practices and procedures which were followed by supervisors of the Mesa Police Department, and that such policy, practice and or procedures were the proximate cause of violating of Plaintiffs rights under the Constitution of the United States of America. Specifically, Defendants have deprived Plaintiffs of their constitutional protections not to be discriminated upon based on gender, race and religion. Defendants have created a situation in the Mesa Police Department where individual officers are regularly discriminated against in transfers and grievance processes.

30. As a result of the Defendant' actions alleged above, and in violation of Plaintiffs rights under Federal law, Plaintiffs have suffered damages, endured pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, all in an amount to be determined at trial.

31. In committing the above reference actions, the individual Defendants, and each of them, acted with a conscious disregard of the personal rights of Plaintiffs, and are therefore liable to Plaintiffs for punitive damages.

32.

Plaintiffs are entitled to bring this cause of action against the Defendants pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

33.Plaintiffs are entitled to recover his attorneys' fees incurred in this matter pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b).

34. The breaches of Plaintiffs constitutional rights have been ongoing and are occurring at this time. The policies and procedures of the Mesa Police Department and the supervisors contained therein will continue to deprive officers of their constitutional rights.


COUNT TWO

BREACH OF CONTRACT

35. All the proceedings numbered paragraphs are incorporated herein by this reference.

36. Defendants breached there contract with Plaintiff Adams by not acting in good faith to all him to prove himself while on probation. This action has caused damage to Plaintiff including but not limited to lost income, damage to reputation and emotional distress. The damages are in an amount that will be established at the time of trial.

37. Officer Adams is entitled to his attorneys' fees and costs under A.R.S. § 12-341.01.



WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs pray that judgment be entered in their favor and against Defendants as follows:



1. For compensatory and consequential damages, including defamation, pain and suffering, emotional distress and such other damages as may be proven at trial;

2. For punitive damages;

3. For attorneys fees incurred in this matter;

4. Interest from the date the damages became or become liquidated to the date of judgment, all with interest thereon until paid, plus accrued and accruing costs; and

5. To grant such other and further relief as the Court feels is just under the circumstances.



DATED this _____ day of December 2000.



KEITH M. KNOWLTON, L.L.C.





By: ________________________________



Keith M. Knowlton



Attorney for Plaintiffs



4409 S. Rural Rd., Suite 201



Tempe, Arizona 85282

If you think I passionately dislike Mormons after reading this web site, you are drastically mistaken.

I feel that for SOME things, Mormons get undue heat because they are frequently misunderstood and all to often, they are victims of discrimination. Overall, they are family and community oriented and are very dedicated to the well being of family and other members of the LDS church.

ON THE OTHER HAND...cliques exist within the Mormon Church, and those Mormons who are a part of these cliques often do great injustices to others, non Mormons. All the writings on this web site are from personal experiences of injustices perpetrated by these cliques that have gone awry.

Although I (and countless others) have been victimized by Mormons, both economically and criminally, in NO WAY do I feel that the Mormon Church advocates such behavior.

I do feel, however, that the Mormon Church needs to make more of a concerted effort to go after, re-teach, or reprimand the church's bishops and stake leaders around the world who impress upon others that they are above everyone else. A concerted effort should be made by the Mormon Church hierarchy to teach that committing crimes, lying or cheating others, or defending fellow Mormons who exhibit those tendencies, is wrong. These behaviors are contrary not only to the mores of society in general, but to the scriptural writings of the church itself, surely a deterrent to everlasting life in heaven in accordance with the tenets of the faith.



In a much publicized 1997 letter to Mormon church members, the First Presidency said: "Members of the church are under special obligation to seek out and then uphold those leaders who are 'wise,' 'good,' and 'honest.'" Advocacy by the Mormon Church for its members to follow this course of conduct is indeed exemplary.

Lastly, I have the highest regard for almost every Mormon I know personally. It is commonly the ones in political positions and the big shot lawyers and businessmen that give Mormons a bad name. You know who you they are.

Ed Magedson - Founder
Consumer Advocate, Civil and Human Rights Activist
badbusinessbureau.com
www.ripoffreport.com

This email is a rebuttal to RipOff #2654.
It was sent by Ken at kenngo1969@netzero.net.

Mesa Arizona Police Department suffers with civil rights violations, discriminatory & corrupt policies against their own officers * Rebuttal Letters posted * Update: Lawsuit filed Federal Court *PUBLISHER EDITORIAL (#2654)

They filed the following rebuttal to the above Rip-Off Report:

Their email: kenngo1969@netzero.net
Their name: Ken
Their relationship to the company: Supporter

Rebuttal:
The complaint against the Mesa Police Department is either the most poorly written complaint in the history of law, or it was badly transcribed.

It is riddled with errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, and style. While I am unaware of what documentation may exist to support the complaint, it also seems rather long on allegations but short on specifics.

If the errors in the document and the seeming lack of specifics originated with Plaintiffs' representatives, I wish the Plaintiffs luck. Considering the lawyer(s) they hired, they're going to need it.

On June 30th both the Arizona Republic and the Mesa Tribune ran articles on the DPS investigation regarding allegations of discrimination by the Mesa Police Department against their own officers. DPS found no bias.

Below is a letter to the Editor that was submitted by Rip-offReport.com in response.
The 700 word letter was printed in it's entirety by the Arizona Republic, but a 300 watered down version was printed in the East Valley Tribune.

DEAR EDITOR
Your article of June 30 about the City of Mesa having DPS do an investigation of the Mesa Police Department's internal employment practices reports that DPS basically found NO wrong doing and NO discrimination in those practices.

Give me a break! That's about as reliable as the report Mesa prepared of investigating itself.

The City of Mesa gives DPS only the information the City of Mesa wants to give to DPS. If DPS used the information from the 1,000 page report we've all heard so much about, which is purportedly what the City of Mesa came up with by itself, what a joke! What a publicity stunt!

Several officers had claimed to me, the Mesa investigation report that the city released to the media had substantial parts of their statements omitted.

How could DPS do a proper investigation without interviewing any of the police officers who filed the complaint and experienced the discrimination first hand? Imagine that! A five month investigation by three DPS investigators without any complaining party being interviewed! With "investigative" methods like that, no wonder so many innocent people today are wrongfully incarcerated.

DPS, all 3 of you, why don't you start interviewing each officer who has been victimized by discriminatory practices within the Mesa Police Department? It's a sad state of affairs coming from an agency like DPS, which many had felt was one of integrity.

I personally picked up and organized many of the officers' reported claims long before the lawsuit was ever filed. I have spoken with some of the officers at length and with others at the attorney's office. There is no way DPS could have come to the conclusion it did had the investigation been conducted properly.

DPS, please reconsider and talk with the actual victims themselves and actually read the Board of Inquiry report. Then give us the results. I'm sure you will not come to the conclusion that no discrimination occurred.

The Mesa Police Department's Chief Strauss states there has been no discrimination within the Mesa Police Department and has cleared her high ranking officers of any wrongdoing. Yet the Board of Inquiry report shows minority officers such as Pat Foster being passed up for transfers he was qualified for on over twenty occasions.

The report reveals that Juan Padilla was subjected to unwarranted investigations and gossip while those that supervised him said he is a tenacious and skilled in the line of duty. Other minority officers have stated they were told things such as they are lazy, arrogant or have poor skills in a given area to keep them out of the special units.

One minority officer was referred to as a loud mouth Puerto Rican from New York in the Board of Inquiry. There exists no doubt from the report that the comment was made: the discrepancy is, who made it.

The Board of Inquiry even stated the department needed to apologize to several officers, two minorities and another of faith diverse from the person he had issues with. If no wrongdoing was found, who will restore the reputations of these officers?

The report is ripe with evidence of disparate and discriminatory treatment in disciplinary practices and transfers to specialty units, even to the point that on many occasions no process was used to make choices, and minorities were locked out of the opportunity to even compete for these positions. Officers

The repeated identification of Mesa's corrupt collection of civil servants as "a Mormon clique" is both correct and unfortunate. Yes, the worst and most obvious criminals--and don't kid yourself, that is the ONLY accurate description, from the City Manager to the police officers of rank, including the chief--ARE LDS. So are most of the finest people in this community, and most of my best friends here. The operative and far more stinging and much more accurate title is "clique"...for they have manipulated the courts and the city administration to the point where so-called "civil servants" are merely rubber stamps for the old, well-established scions of families who, more than a century ago, established predominance here with the gun, the rope, and the bible. Unfortunately, this "wild frontier" has changed, and they are now a fairly tiny minority, outnumbered by local Catholics by around three to one. But they cling to power, and bleed the rest of us daily. Want a villain? OK, these folks are rotten to the core, and real justice, real secular justice, is something of which they cannot even conceive. But the real culprit? It's us! The 70-90% of us who do not vote, and refuse to "get involved" and press for meaningful reforms and ethical standards forged not in the 12th Century, but in the 21st...we are the ultimate reason why the filth here has not yet been cleaned up, or even looked at in the cleansing light of truth.

Mesa and its police department are beyond repair. The entire city government needs to be purged, in the old Soviet sense, and if necessary, via the same means.

THIS IS A CITY GOVERNMENT WHICH SURVIVES ON CRIMINAL FRAUD!!! It is their business, from the fat slob dyke Mormon police chief to the scumbag city manager, to the sniveling cowards they call cops. Find these weasels something constructive to do, like making license plates.

I am tired of hearing lies from people who, if they had to get jobs on their merits, couldn't hold down places at car washes.



NFL STADIUM? Really? In this cesspool, with these CROOKS administering their mormonized hogwash imitation of law???? How about a plain, flat-out concentration camp? These incompetents couldn't run that properly, either, if any honor or decency or honesty was involved. This whole thing is not even the tip of an iceberg. Handle it through the department?

Ha! Is anybody stupid enough to think those lowlife scumbags would do anything that has ANYTHING to do with justice or THE RIGHT???? Only for the same ratbags who made this city the pile of crap it is!

Burn 'em! Burn 'em good! Bankrupt this town, and merge it with someplace not run by these crummy, fifth-rate imitation Nazis.

Based upon what I have seen and investigated on my own, this matter goes much deeper than the lawsuit infers. This department is effectively stealing from the community it purports to protect, defrauding citizens en masse, and now it has become apparent, they will stab their own officers in the back--perhaps even literally--to keep the lid on a century and a half of corruption by the same twelve or so families who have caused the very rot that permeates every inch of Mesa.

Good luck in this lawsuit. Many non-officers who have felt the pernicious sting of this kind of demented, criminal conduct should join in this proceeding. Mesa P.D. is a petty, vindictive, fourth-rate organization, incompetent at best, malicious in virtually all things.

Unfortunately, the courts here provide no recourse to citizens. They are largely owned and controlled by the same collection of monsters
who have been working hard to destroy the city.

Your suit is but a tiny fragment of the truth. But it needs to proceed, if only to expose how far the putrid tissue goes.

Very nice to sue these insects for damages.



Anti-Mormon? Who's that? How about pro-justice?



Mesa P.D. is far more revolting than anyone seems to want to admit.



The community really needs to replace the entire department, and most of its minions need to be incarcerated. We're not talking about clumsy or just incompetent: these are the worst, most revolting, dishonest, predatory criminals
any of us have ever seen. They need to start seeing the inside of prisons.



Never, ever trust Mesa P.D. with ANYTHING.

This is a very tiny part of how this
department works.

Rather than having anything to do with actual crime solution or prevention, this department has been the enforcement arm of the ancient and dishonorable city "civil servant" end of administration.

In the field, fraudulent charges are an hourly event, falsified probable is the rule, not the exception, bad judgement is mandatory.

The Brown and Markley cases, in which mis-identification and falsely sworn testimony figure to cost the city millions, could have been easily avoided HAD ONE HONEST MAN BEEN PART OF THE PROCESS.



But whatever one's differences with the LDS
religion, the problem is corruption. The religion is merely the meeting point for the GOBN. Hopefully, a nice cozy federal penitentiary will be their final meeting place.

People who destroy public institutions with this kind of rot need to feel the pain of their errors. And let's not hear any talk about how we dissenters in this mess are "destructive"... This is rot. It has to be gotten rid of.

A lawsuit is only a beginning. Major prosecutions of the criminals involved must follow, and they must be brutal and relentless, just as were the actions of the perpetrators.

Crime is crime. It is much worse when cops
do it, at the behest of the City Manager. The
sentences should be MUCH MORE SEVERE.

So nine police officers got shafter because
they weren't tight with the Latter Day Saints?

This is nothing! The way this department
treats citizens, and avoids doing anything
about crime, that is disgusting!

I have been arrested eleven times in this town.
When you break it all down, what I am guilty of,
near as I can tell, is living in Mesa. And sometimes walking in the wrong neighborhoods.

I've been charged with public drunkeness (when I
hadn't been drinking), resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and at least three I forget.

I haven't been convicted yet.

Maybe it is because I am Latino, and I look like it.

I am third generation American, too, and I speak almost no Spanish. Most of my Anglo friends are more fluent than I am.

I had a gun pulled on me one night while jogging in my running suit. Cop said: "Why are you running? What are you running from?" I was right on the sidewalk, with the high-visibility reflective panels and all the stuff designed to make it obvious I was there.

I am having a tough time making it. I have kids. I work two jobs. My wife works. We pay taxes. How come I have had fingerprints taken constantly, spent hours and hours with this CRAP, and don't even have a place to send a complaint about it??

I need to get out of this town, and I am having trouble getting rid of my house. I can smell
meth cooking at night, sometimes even during the day, and when I report this to the cops, they do nothing.

I hate drugs. They killed my brother. But I have been drug tested by these cops five times or more.

Discrimination against cops? What the HELL is that for?

Are they not STUPID enough?

What kind of place is Mesa, anyway??

I have been there twice, got harassed both times by local cops. I am a real ordinary,
50 year old guy. About the worst thing I do,
ever, is maybe go ten m.p.h. over the limit, once in a great while, when my attention lapses momentarily. But I have never even had a legitimate ticket.

Is it my beard, maybe? My delivery truck?
I had to change my work schedule around and swap
assignments just to NOT go to Mesa. And guess what? The driver who goes there now got stopped, too.

The "charges"??? Making a wide turn (I wasn't, but I was moving the box bed REAL slow because I had a feeling maybe some of my load had come loose, and was about to pull over and check it ), and "lane shifting" (I WAS shifting lanes, because I had a tough time finding the shop I was looking for, but all turns were legal and signaled), which is NOT illegal.

Scared the hell out of me!

All I know is, there is something WAY wrong
here. And now that I read these reports, I know
it isn't just me.

I have a funny feeling, I keep hearing stuff and have seen things: maybe they just don't
want anybody honest. The sure as hell are way too aggressive.

I don't much mind the disrespect of my rights,
but that last s.o.b. pulled a gun on me.

I am never going back there.

To paraphrase Rod Serling's screenplay for 7 DAYS IN MAY:

"These would be good cops in some places...the kind that GOOSE STEP."

The structure and pressures here are so byzantine. These police never put shoe leather to ground, where it might do some good, and they fire their guns casually, rather than even scuffle with so much as the smallest or youngest "suspects". And they have a horrible habit of putting anyone convenient and/or poor in jail and sweating out charges based on bogus incarceration. Probable cause/reasonable cause here is a ridiculous joke.

If you want to make what passes for a police department into a genuine laughing stock, follow the Mesa example. That seems to be the only act they are good at. They sure as hell can't do legitimate police work.

I do not live in Mesa, but I have visited family members there many times. Not surprisingly, EVERY SINGLE TIME I have encountered the police in some kind of fake, trumped-up adversarial situation. Each was more ridiculous than the last.



Perhaps the weirdest was when I was stopped on Power Road, after leaving Superstition Springs Mall, and essentially accused of having an "unlawfully licensed vehicle" and having stolen the packages in my car. The police said their reason for stopping me was that I was slowing down at each corner. Which I was, since I was unsure of my turn. Among other fictitious bon-bons tossed out: I "worked" in Arizona (I have not lived in Arizona for more than ten years) and should have had Arizona plates on my car (which was a rental, anyway)... I was asked for all the receipts on my packages, which were Christmas gifts. Among these was a quart of expensive brand, wrapped and not open or leaking. It was "suggested" I was drinking and driving.



I became extremely annoyed, since I had a Thanksgiving party to get to, and over an hour had passed.

When I kept insisting I had to go, it was insinuated that I would be charged with "resisting arrest".

Now realizing what was actually happening--and looking at the four police cars now gathered around the scene--I called on my cell phone to my attorney back in Wisconsin, and left a message that I would be in Arizona for a while because I would have to sue the city of Mesa.



The ridiculous moron with whom I was dealing then threatened me with everything short of bloody murder.



To make a long story short, my frozen food mostly melted, I missed most of a family get together, and the fraudulent and criminal charges discussed all had to be dropped because I refused to budge before these morons.



If you are a citizen of this town, you need to ask yourself why this corrupt, bloated monstrosity is growing as crime figures likewise climb.

The reason: there is NO relationship. These cops do NOT do law enforcement. They are fake, top to bottom, performing some puppet dance which has nothing to do with keeping the community safe.



I will never go to Mesa again. I will never spend money there again. To meet my family, I will go elsewhere.





Want to know why Mesa, Arizona, is in a deficit financial condition?

Decent people can't even go there! Crook proliferate, and unfortunately, the worst of them are the motley collection of garbage your city manager calls police. Not only does this parasitic collection of scoundrels suck up money directly and profusely, they are chasing people like me away, forever.



The solution? My suggestion? Clean up the personnel and the system, and it begins with putting most of these jerks and their city manager out to pasture and finding someone actually interested in improving your community.



This is so obvious, more so to outsiders, I think, than to the locals, who may be so accustomed to this rape of reality that they think it is normal. It isn't.



If you want to see more "snowbird" dollars, Mesa, clean up your act.

Mesa, and I sincerely believe, all of Arizona
is inherently incapble of any kind of meaningful
reform or improvement in its form of secular justice.

Vast sums are spent to incarcerate and harass people, yet thievery in the open is cheered and advocated.

Voter complaints are high, but turnout is low.

I am leaving (my "suggestion") for precisely these reasons.

My uncle was exiting his apartment in Mesa and was attacked by a group of teenagers. He was injured and they were not..but my uncle was arrested and held in jail for weeks on very high bail. My uncle would never harm anyone, and in fact DID NOT harm anyone. The little punks that did this are just bigger punks now...nothing happened to them. My uncle won his suit against the Mesa police but he got very little in the way of compensation for financial damages done to him because of this incident, let alone any other kind of compensation. If I were to return to my homestate of AZ I would not be moving myself and my tax dollars to Mesa.

Good luck.

I do not think this will work. Mesa P.D. and
the city government have some kind of
special "halo" of protection.

I was born there, and now live less than half an hour away. I do not even visit my aging parents there any more. I have been offered drugs many times on the street, and have been essentially "attacked" by the local police for some of the most ridiculous crap imaginable. And, no, I do not understand their insanity, though I have watched it grow for more than three decades.

It isn't just the Mormon influence, there is
something even uglier here... Something to
do with attempted coverups and corruption and
downright predatory behavior, and I do not
really even have a clue what it might be. All I can say for sure is that it has gotten continually worse.

I am encouraging everyone I know who still lives there to leave the city to its own devices.

It looked uglier every time I went back, and about 1999, a grotesque incident near Horne and Main involving a teenager made me so ill I decided to NEVER come back.

I do not think corruption is the right word. Maybe satanic is a better term. It is way
beyond ordinary corruption.

The discrimination here is in so many layers, it defies description. I saw, close up and personal, criminals performing their "work" openly as police drove by, and others basically
brutalized for no sensible reason I could figure
out, maybe hair length or skin color or...I honestly do not know. What I surely know is that this entire town has ceased making sense, and the Police are a large part of that.

Sounds to me like officer Ivey and any number of these sniveling, putrid, gutless COWARDS need to be someplace else, doing something appropriate for them. Like breaking rocks in prison, for example.



I was the victim of a scam in Los Angeles by Ramparts Division officers who act very much like your Mesa, Arizona FILTH.

Luckily, the two scumbags who got the ball rolling finally got nailed and prosecuted. You need to do the same in Mesa. Nice to talk about civil remedies, but that is nowhere near enough for criminals like these.



I have some experience with these pissbags. An Officer Gaffney (I wrote the fraudulent ratbastard's name down as soon as he stopped me) was one, Officer Cantrell was another(same deal). Those lying, fraudulent cretins actually falsified police reports, and I had to spend three days in your city straightening out their various lies, in two separate incidents several years apart. Point is, what Mesa, Arizona has is a Police Department with no honor, integrity, courage, intelligence, or honesty AT ALL... Kind of like Ramparts Division, L.A.P.D., now under RICO and RUCO scrutiny, and in which several major fraud convictions have been forthcoming. Such scum-sucking animals need to be put in cages or worse.



Mormon? What the hell is that? Who cares? Your Fascist, dung-eating city manager, the TOAD Mayor, Keno Hawker, and the slimesucking putrid scum Dennis Donna, your police chief, apparently aren't Mormons. The problem is CRIMINALS. And don't kid yourself: this is nothing new. Execute the bastards!!!!

Mesa sucks.

Clear enough?

It is nothing more nor less than a crooked sewer, sucking wind. I left for that reason. So does anyone else with any brains or guts.

The scum who are left deserve to deal
with this ridiculous collection of turds.

Corrupt city officials, corrupt cops?
You all are correct and justified in your opinions and if any of you think that you can do anything to change it your sadly mistaken. You have no idea just how long "they" have been infiltrating our government offices. Not to mention the taking of our children.

I know for a fact that MARICOPA COUNTY has been not operating with the best interest of they residents and it started back in the late 60's and after 40+ years of setting the stage they have complete control of Mesa.

How many murder's take place in this town? too many. How many entire families have been found murdered? TOO MANY!!!

Ever heard of the the TOWER OF BAAL, and the people associated with it. Read about in the Book of Morman/Bible and if you don't see any similarity than your not being honet with your self.

Their is strenght knowing that some day they to will get their just reward. Patience is a virtue. It really is. Just make sure your living in the valley when "they" finally get there.

Mesa needs to be opened up and
examined, and most of the city government
contents discarded with the speed typical
to sewage disposal, and for the same reasons.



These police just murdered another kid,
a 15-year-old. Like the sniveling, whining
children these scumbags are, they will make
their exuses ("He had a knife, maybe, we
were sooooooo afraid"....), thus blaming
the entire affair on circumstances with which
no citizen could prevail or even survive.



I have stepped on dog turds I respect more
than Mesa city government.

One thing they
cannot do, and do not try: law enforcement.



Don't kid yourself: this kind of thing
eventually does come out. Most Mesa citizens
know and hate these cowards.



Shoot a kid carrying a knife? Right!



Gutless! Gutless! Gutless!



I submit this through a friend.

It may surprise most people who live in the Mesa area to know that the majority of the population is Catholic, however most of us Catholics take the political stand of putting our heads in a hole and our tails in the air. I have yet to receive a call from my priest on election day to see if I need a ride to the polling place or to even make sure that I have voted on maters of interest to the Catholic community. Our laws in this community are voted in by a Mormon majority turn out in the poles. Working over twelve years on election boards was quite educational.

We have had several honest young men in my area attempt to make a difference as Mesa police officers, but found that our judicial system did not support their efforts. It is a shame when the good officers are so frustrated that they leave the force. I don't believe that this is a problem that is exclusive to the Mesa area nor are the claims of corruption in Mesa government new news to most of us. As long as I can remember, it has been a factor here and you learn very young what lines are not to be crossed. The Mesa Government is a private club not easily entered by the religious of politically challenged.

One interesting fact that I have just learned is that dark haired young men who are wishing to earn a days wages by waiting at a well known day labor pick up point are ticketed for loitering, however if you are three fare haired young men who make your living at selling drugs across the street from this pick up point, you are free to conduct your business with no interference. I guess that I will find out what the price of wishing to work is when I take my son in law to court to pay his ticket for loitering.

When you murder a 15-year-old,
no matter HOW demented, you have
a special question to answer, and
that question is simple: WHAT KIND
OF MONSTER ARE YOU?

Mesa may have many good, stalwart
officers. But there is no answer
for this. Maybe he was a "crazy
beaner"...yeah. But he was a BABY.

How can you scum sucking filth
justify this?

Don't give me legal crap. Just
tell me: how would you feel if
that had been your son?

I enter this through my friend,
Fredo, whose English is better
than mine. Answer that, scum
filth, and maybe SOMEBODY will
believe your endless lies.

Not me. Not in this life.

Why do you do NOTHING about the
drug dealers in my neighborhood,
near Main and Stapley?

Answer that and maybe you have
hope.

I do not think you pissbags
and scum can or will.

Fuck you. Mesa P.D. is a
poison, and so are their
flunky kissyboy associates.

What is the usual term for the flunkies of
lowlife criminals? They are usually called
"petty criminals".



What is the name for those who constantly lie
under oath and on official reports? Perjurers,
or more bluntly, liars.



Is anyone surprised that an instituion so
full of incest, nepotism, corruption,
outright fabrication, and BLOODY MURDER,
even of CHILDREN, conforms to these
parameters?



There we have it: Mesa P.D. in a nutshell.



Accuse them of discrimination? That this
department has not been subjected to ANY
real cleanups or meaningful investigations,
with genuine citizen input, in its entire
history, tells the tale.

Discrimination and monstrous lies are their businesses, that and kissing the butts of the local "old guard". They serve no other purpose.
The genuine calumny is that they evince
the audacity to refer to themselves as
a law enforcement agency.

Some mistakes. This is NOT a "Mormon
thing". It is a "corruption thing".



It only begins with the overpaid City
Manager and his "stability pay" b.s. Every
cop here STARTS at about $40,000, way more
than anywhere else in the area, and three or
four times what these people are worth. They
are a kind of power aristocracy, totally
unresponsive to the realities of the community,
and callous to the citizens to a fault.



Mormons are only about 10-20% of the
population, by the way, not a "majority" by
any stretch, and the honest LDS members I met
in Mesa loathed this police department even
more than I did, taking them as a personal
embarrassment. One of their brethren told
me horrifying things about the Mikelle Biggs
"investigation" and the surrounding coverups
which almost made me physically ill, then
showed me documents and photos (no, I don't
know where he got them) which chilled
me to the soul.

I left town within a
few weeks, mortified that I had settled
there to retire.



Then this little Mexican-American kid
got murdered... These people have no
ethics at all, and apparently do not
even understand the word. I was disgusted
when Romley's bogus "investigation" let
them not only off the hook, but whitewashed
the whole episode.



Discrimination against their own officers
for "NBM"? (NOT BEING MORMON) It is
there, perhaps. But it is more likely
screwing decent men for NOT being dishonest.

Having lived in Mesa most of my life, I can unequivocally state that the Mesa Police department is not a legitimate Law Enforcement agency, rather, it is a tax collecting racket. The police troll for offender's of the highest paying "crimes" like unregistered vehicles, parking tickets on unpaved lots, etc. I have been pulled over for having simple marker lights burned out, and "swaying" in the lane, always fluff reasons. Further proof exists in the daily appearance of photo radar speed-traps. The purpose of these vans on the side of the road was supposed to be so that the officers could be in the nieghborhoods "protecting the community". Instead, they spend their time pulling people over for meaningless infractions checking for expired tags and uninsured motorists. The city courts are a farce, and a mockery of the American justice system, if they can even be compared to what real courts are intended to be. How a lawyer can sit on the bench of one of these courts so sanctimoniously, in parody of what a court should be, and still sleep at night is a real mystery. Finally, in a town of around 400,000 you would expect the place to be relatively quiet, but instead these officers were recently involved in five shootings in LESS THAN 5 weeks killing a teenage boy, and an early-twenties woman, among others. I believe this not to be a case of Mormons discriminating, etc., but of corruption, greed and poor city planning and management. The city government has lost the scope and purpose of protecting it's citizens and has become a ruthless, heartless organization, whose only purpose is self-perpetuation and gluttony. You should see the new gaudy fire station that must have cost at least $2 million...outrageous!

I am not sure what happened, but in my more
than thirty years here, Mesa's city government
in general, and especially the police, took
some kind of terrible nose dive about 1990-'92.

The city, quite aside from the obvious
corruption and open criminality, has become
seedy and obviously substandard. City
institutions can be accessed only by
"special" people... The police department
and the local courts are like some kind of
sick joke, a parody of justice and law
enforcement. And this idiotic trend
to steal land and put up this ridiculous
"art center" is so patently absurd that
it LITERALLY makes me ill.

I know first-class, fully-qualified, heavily credentialed people who have applied for municipal positions, who never even got a call back or an opportunity to test or interview, while
the person hired were, to be charitable, unworthy of ANY kind of employment, but well-connected with what passes for the Mesa gentry. This is most especially true of their police department and anything close to the city manager's office.

The city gets dirtier and uglier, illegal aliens all over the place, open sale of drugs everywhere...and yet most of my friends, each more legitimate than the last, have tales to tell of being unnecessarily hassled and annoyed by the so-called "police" on the most demented grounds.

The murders in August of 2003 by these criminals define them better than I possibly
could.

I used to work at Luke Air Force Base, and then for a while up near McKellips. All of a sudden, I began to be stopped by police for the very strangest reasons...having my directionals on for what they considered "too long", pulling into a parking lot to look at my tires, and for, of all things, driving with my lights on during the day.

When a police department gets so gutless and useless that they are not trained to disarm a child, rather than fire 15 rounds--missing five times, by the way--there is something terribly wrong, and it cannot be solved by ordinary reforms.

Sicker still, they are bragging about their ludicrous conduct, as if they had somehow done something productive to protect the community.

I am too old to start a revolution, and I am so deeply propertied and invested here that I will find it difficult to depart. But I will. I have to.

Police departments like this one are beyond hope, and worse, they are just a symptom of the deeper rot.

This has nothing to do with Mormons. You think Mormons are racist? Listen to yourself grouping millions of people in together as a group titled "Mormons". This is crooked law enforcement which a large percentage of happen to be of the Mormon faith. You would say the Mormon leadership, how about the leadership that happens to be Mormon? I have said it before and I will say it again, that is just like saying that Catholics are the Mafia.

When will you leave your ill conceived opinions about this church and see that the problem is those particular men? You have quite a quorum of hate mongers here. Did you know being a minority doesn't mean that you can't be a bigot? Did you know that hating Mormons makes you a bigot? No, I didn't think so. Mormons come from every walk of life. I am a minority of mixed blood and a member of this church. I am one of six children in my family four of which are adopted, we are every race, and no race, and none of it has every mattered at church.

If the things that are going on are really happening then the men in charge of this atrocities really do need to be punished. Whatever it takes... jail time, losing their jobs, whatever. Punish them to the full extent of the law. I totally agree. But they are not my church, they are just members of it. If you have a racist in your church can I call you racist too?

My father died when I was three, here in Salt Lake City. My family believes he was allowed to bleed to death after being shot, because of his known hatred for the police. When I was born he was in jail, by all accounts sometimes he was in jail more than he was out. I could blame the cops for not calling the ambulance sooner, I could blame the man who shot him, who was black. I could hate they entire black race because one of them killed my father. But I don't.

When are you all going to look and see that you can hate a person who did you wrong without hating everyone of their faith? And that behavior like you have exhibited demeans you more than them.

Editor

You absolutely make me sick with this forum. No, you don't hate Mormons, but you are egging on the people who do. You are creating a way for them to all air their filth. This isn't the only anti-Mormon sight on this forum. There are several of them. And all of them are riots of hate for my people. So are you going to sit happily by and allow this? Are you going to figure that you are the gun, and the bullet actually did the killing? Your forum is a tool, and you are letting it be put to an awful use. I guess you are probably afraid to be called a Mormon lover if you stop these threads from happening, huh? Kind of like in the old days when people defended blacks and were called n*gger lovers. I guess it is easier on you to allow this to happen to us because it is a religion not a race issue. Do not be confused or try to justify what you are doing. You are being a tool for hatred. Just because it isn't you who is writing it doesn't make it acceptable. I don't think you would allow the KKK to post their garbage here, would you? So tell me how is this different? Why don't you post the actual story and limit the hate filled spewings of the ignorant bigots?

Emily,

In case you have forgotten, you have used this forum for quite a while defending the Mormon faith. It is your right as guaranteed under the Constitution.

Your last paragraph to ED was totally uncalled for. Why? Because he has provided a forum for people to air their grievances. AND for those who disagree to post their comments as well. Just as you have done for months with Garth (yes, I have read all the reports).

You do not live here. You have no idea how long this has been going on in the city of Mesa. I live less than one mile from the southern border of this festering cesspool of a town, and I avoid it like the plague. If even half of the reports about Mesa I have read here are true, then it truly is a city that should rot in hell. Right along with the temple which sits smack dab in the middle of one of the worst crime areas of the Valley of the Sun.

About once a week you see a news report about an apartment fire that was cause by a meth lab. Crime here is on a rampage with no end in sight. Sherrif Joe Arpaio (the joke of Arizona) says he is doing a good job, but the crime rate continues to climb.

It is a fact that if you are a Mormon business owner in Mesa, you are held in favor of the corrupt machine that runs this town. If not, then you are run out of business by the city.

There is no major industry anymore in Mesa. Motorola finally got fed up and closed one of it's largest facilities here. Wait, I take that back. There is still one large industry: drug dealing. It takes place on almost every street corner, in plain daylight. Reports of drug activity to the police do not bring any investigations or arrests. I think the cops actually make a profit from the dealers for not busting them.

Read the report about the person who was shot by a Mesa police officer. Granted, they were probably burglarizing the new home, but deadly force most likely was not needed. Turns out the officer that did the shooting was recently busted for pulling over women late at night and sexually molesting them. Great police force, huh?

Oh, and before you call me a bigot also, my wife is LDS. I go to church with her at least twice a month. No, I am not a member, nor do I plan on becoming one anytime soon. Although i believe in the basis of religion, I do not believe LDS is the only true church.

I have talked to several members of my ward, and they too agree that this group of "good ol boy Mormons" needs to be dealt with. Unfortunately, they are so well rooted, nobody wants to stand up to them. The corruption goes all the way up to the DA, the City Manager, and the upper ranks of the police force.

I for one applaud ED's efforts with the RipOff Report. I was able to recover money from a company that ripped me off by using false advertising. I will stand by this website, and the freedoms provided by the Constitution, for which I gave 6 years of my life defending.

Most of Mesa's legitimate citizens, and many
of her former honest citizens who have left
because of criminal harassment by the police
and other flunkies of the local "executive
government", would really appreciate an
honest and thorough update on what has
happened in this lawsuit.

We saw the murders in 2003 by Mesa P.D.,
the Mikelle Biggs coverups, the regular
perjury in the courtrooms of scam judges like
Eppich and some of the County Judges,

Rick Romley's repeated coverups, the scams
and scandals of sexual behavior of all extremes,
the current councilman Whalen who stole all the
undercover funds, the fracas over the city's
illegal use of "eminent domain", the fraud
and perjury which underpinned, in particular,
the Brown and Markley cases and followup lawsuits, the ongoing "GOBN" ripoffs with
city towing contracts, and all other sorts of
fraud and misinformation in this horrible
monstrosity of a misrun municipality. What we
want is to see the city charter changed,
democracy finally imposed after 150 years,
and that all begins with these people being
sued and/or prosecuted out of existence,
preferably both.

This and the other pending lawsuits would
be a good start.

PLEASE contact the attorneys involved, I
have tried and gotten nowhere. I really
need to see some of these liars and monsters
taught some kind of lesson.

I hate criminals. Which is why I so loath
the "City of Mesa"... They seem hell bent,
especially the "police department", to employ
NO ONE but crooks.

My husband is a Mesa Police Officer, and it makes me sick to think he puts his life on the line every day to keep you (people who have posted here)and your families safe. And, no, we are not mormon.

TINA: My husband is a Mesa Police Officer, and it makes me sick to think he puts his life on the line every day to keep you (people who have posted here)and your families safe. And, no, we are not mormon.

REID: With an attitute like this, it's no wonder the Mesa Police Department is so full of hatred and corruption. I'll bet your husband shares this same attitude. If it truly makes you sick Tina, why doesn't your husband just quit his job?

Does your husband really care more about protecting those who come forward with the truth, regarding the possible corruption of his colleages, than you? What does your not being Mormon have to do with anything?

From the sound of it, your husband along with his fellow police officers, aren't doing such a great job at keeping the residents of Mesa "safe."

If your husband actually cared about you Tina, he would consider leaving the occupation he hates so much for you and your family. It makes absolutely no sense for your husband to work in an occupation he does not believe in.

And, no, I am not a Mormon either. JMHO.

I am with you EDitor this has to STOP and STOP NOW!

One can COUNT on the GOOD THE BAD and the UGLY to be reported on Rip Off Report. What we have here is the BAD and the UGLY!

Reid, don't project my comments onto my husband. You don't know anything about me or my husband, or the Mesa Police Department for that matter. Do you have inside information that you are somehow getting there in Hawaii?? My husband walks through the doors of that department on a daily basis, and he loves his job and protecting people. I think the lifesaving award he received for saving a complete stranger from setting himself on fire is proof of that. You don't know a single thing about our lives, or what we have given back to the community. You know nothing about the sacrifices we have made in our lives because of his love for his job. Do you know what it's like to miss your son's 1st birthday party, becasue you have been called out on a homicide?? My husband does. Do you know what it's like to miss Christmas, Thanksgiving, and other major holidays with your family?? That is a way of life for us. Do you think he does it for money?? Because it is a fact that Mesa Police is one of the lowest paid departments of all the major cities in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. My husband is not full of hatred, nor is he corrupt. I am the one who is left at home with a three year old son, wondering on a daily basis if my husband is going to come home at the end of the day, because there are sickos out there who hate him without even knowing him. You could only wish in your life to be half the hero that my husband is.

Tina, I'm assuming that your husband wasn't drafted into police-work. I would even bet you dollars-to-donuts that he WANTED to be a cop. And I would hope that you knew what you were signing up for when you said your "I dos."

Does he deserve some credit for performing a job that jeopardizes his life? Of course! And if he is as noble as you portray him, then I'm sure he is an asset to the community.

The nobility of the law enforcement profession, however, does not excuse civil rights violations. Were the complaints under this report to be nothing more than "I hate pigs" or other such drivel, then I too would be made ill. But such is not the case. These complaints allege violations of rights protected under the law.

We grant our peace officers the right to apply the force of government and they, in return, are obligated to respect the very rights that define "freedom." When they fail to do so,they must be brought to answer for their transgressions. Anybody who is made ill by this process lacks an understanding of the place policemen hold in our society.

By the way, have fun arguing with Reid! Be sure to eat your Wheaties . . .

Tina,

I have never been to Mesa, and have no plans on going there based on what I have read. As Patrick from AZ said, “If even half of the reports about Mesa I have read here are true, then it truly is a city that should rot in hell.” This would make the Mesa PD a very bad organization to come in contact with for sure.

I wanted only to comment on your complaints about missing birthdays and holidays. I am an air traffic controller at the busiest airport in the world. Because we (I and my fellow controllers) have been given the charge of making sure that you and your fellow travelers are safe all of the time 24/7, I personally have not had Christmas off in 18 years. The same goes for Thanksgiving, New Years and hundreds of my 2 children's events.

But like you said, “That is a way of life for us.” I couldn't agree more. If your husband wants these precious times off, then he, like me, could go and get another job. But we love what we do too much, correct?

I hope your husband stays safe.

Tina,

I am a full supporter of law enforcement. Most officers often work long hours for low pay to protect the citizens of this country, all while putting their lives on the line. If your husband is an ethical officer, then I applaud his efforts to protect the community.

Unfortunately, almost every large police department in this country has some corrupt officers. In Mesa, it's worse than usual as the corruption is at the upper levels of the department, along with the City Manager. Most new officers that join Mesa PD are not aware of the problems.

Therefore, I have some questions for you, and I hope you answer them honestly:

1) How long has your husband been with Mesa PD?

2) During his tenure, has he received promotions on a normal basis (does not apply if he is new to the force)?

3) Has he seen any instances of any wrong doing on the part of the department, or has he ever been asked to falsify a police report?

4) If he works for Mesa PD, why do you live in Scottsdale? Why not live in the town he is sworn to protect?

If your husband is an ethical cop, I hope he soon realizes just what drives the City of Mesa, and looks elsewhere for employment in the law enforcement community (except for the Sheriff's Dept of course, but that's another story). I look forward to your responses.

Oh, and by the way, you know what makes me ill? A mentally disturbed 15-year old boy with a knife being gunned down by Mesa PD officers. There was no reason lethal force was necessary in this case. Two grown men against a 15-year old kid? What is it with the Mesa PD and the use of lethal force these days?

How long has DH been with MPD? Over 10 years now. Has he ever been promoted? Absolutely...more than once. Has he seen any instances of any wrong doing on the part of the department, or has he ever been asked to falsify a police report? Absolutely not!!!

Why don't I live in Mesa?? I do....you think I put my home address on anything I do online?? No...and you shouldn't either.

And if you think a mentally ill 15 year old deserves some kind of special treatment by police, or that he doesn't have the capacity to kill my husband, or you, or anyone else for that matter, do the names Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold ring any bells???

Either DH has been witness to wrongdoing and has not told you (or you are not being honest), or he has had the blinders on for 10 years.

I see no reason to hide my identity on the internet. I don't post my full contact information here, so I am not worried. Why did you feel the need to do so originally, then come out on your second post and confirm your location?

As far as Madrigal is concerned, no I don't think he deserved "special" treatment due to his mental state. I do believe, however, that lethal force was NOT necessary that day.

It's quite unfortunate for Arizona, but the Mesa Police Dept. and many other cities police depts. here in Arizona are NOTORIOUSLY KNOWN for corruption and unfairness - usually to the arrestee or victim.

Looks like that corruption and unfairness has spread to the officers of these police departments and I truly have to say I feel nothing. The law of karma always manages to make it's way full circle and I believe in my heart this is exactly what's happening now.

Arizona is one of the WORST places to live or work because of antiquated laws and people thinking they're better than others. It's a fact real businesses have been forced closed by the Mormons of Mesa. This problem won't ever go away, and it will be one of the major reasons why people will run from this godforsaken state.

Let us not forget that the two young men mentioned by Tina were ARMED with guns. They had already committed murder. I am not sure if the officers that arrived on scene were aware that there had been murder committed but I am relatively sure that they knew that those young men had guns.

Also there is one hell of a difference in guns and a knife. There are less than lethal rounds that are available. Had it been your 15 year old son would your opinion differ? I am not condemning the police at all. I am questioning there tactics. I am grateful for the protection the men and women of the various police forces here in the valley provide.

I am amazed sometimes when I hear the apologists, liars, and smokescreen makers
for the criminals in the Mesa Police Department
and those like Prosecutor Ron Harris, who have
made LIVINGS out of perjury, obstruction of
justice, insider dealing, and corruption overall.

The below "found" internet item (thusly
identified) makes CLEAR that this is not
just a few flakes with some sort of half-baked
conspiracy theory. It IS a conspiracy, although
the parties involved just consider it "business
as usual"...both happen to be true. CRIMES are
the most accurate description of the general
"the hell with the community, let's just look
good and take home ALL the MONEY" attitude
which drives the local power clique.

Frontpage | Related Articles July 24, 2005 Hispanic News (HN) published by HISPANIC, Phoenix, AZ, USA

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American Hispanic Legal Defense Center Investigation of Mesa Police Department et al

April 29, 2004

James Garcia, Board Chairman

Arizona POST

Tom Hammarstrom, Executive Director

Lyle Mann, former Acting Director

Dear Chairman Garcia;

At its March 16 meeting, East Valley LULAC established the East Valley LULAC Police Review Committee to deal with complaints forthcoming from former Mesa Police Officers who stated were terminated without cause but simply because they are not Mormons or members of the Good Old Boys' Club.

Six former Mesa Department police officers along with other Mesa police officers who are being interviewed for a series to run in Hispanic.cc became members of East Valley LULAC and were appointed to the committee chaired by myself. Over the last 45 days, the former Mesa police officers have met with me as the committee collectively investigated the internal operations of the Mesa Police Department.

East Valley LULAC has now completed its first review investigating and documenting incidents in our opinion should have been reported to POST to determine if further action is required by POST.

The purpose of this letter is to formally request East Valley LULAC be scheduled to make a presentation before the POST Commission at their next meeting. At this meeting, East Valley LULAC will present our findings and ask the POST Commission to ask the Mesa Police Department for their response.

This I will believe will be a first step in making change within the Mesa Police Department. This will demonstrate to the total Mesa community the unfairness to Hispanic police officers and to non Hispanic police officers who support the Hispanic police officers.

Arizona Revised Statutes does not require state police departments to report all infractions of individual police officers to POST for review to determine if a police officer can maintain their Post certification.

This is a serious lapse in law. East Valley LULAC after the May 19 POST meeting will ask state legislators to change the one word “may” to “shall.” This one word change will then mandate all infractions made by Arizona police officers be reported to POST so Post can determine if police officer certification should be revoked.

As you are aware, without POST certification, a police officer can not serve as a police officer in any Arizona police capacity.

According to former Mesa Police Officers, the list of non reporting by the Mesa Police Department of all causes that would decertify police officers is known by many within the Mesa Police Department but the Mesa Police Department protects its members of the Good Old Boys' Club as evidenced by the non reporting to POST. For non members of the Good Old Boys' Club, discipline is determined by the chief and he alone, without outside review or accountability to anyone in the city or citizens of Mesa, controls every aspect of discipline.

At a higher level, East Valley LULAC is looking at federal and state consent degree actions that will require the Mesa Police Department to have an independent police authority take over operation of the Mesa Police Department.

In our due diligence we discovered the State of California issued a consent degree taking over the operation of the Riverside Police Department.

East Valley LULAC has asked our attorneys if Arizona has this enabling legislation.

If Arizona has this authority, East Valley LULAC will request Arizona POST ask the Arizona Attorney General to issue a Consent Degree taking over the operations of the Mesa Police Department.

In interviews with police officers who no longer work with the Mesa Police Department, it was revealed the Mesa Police Department up until the year 2000 was controlled by Mormons (LDS) and after 2000, the Mormon influence began to decline with the department now controlled by the "Good Old Boys'" club.

Clearly, Hispanic Mesa Police Officers are not members of the "Good Old Boys' Club."

This not only extends to Hispanic Mesa Police Officers but non Hispanic Mesa Police Officers who have been disciplined for speaking out in support of Hispanic Mesa Police Officers.

This unfair management of the Mesa Police Department is the cause of the "Code of Silence" that everyone who used to work for the department or still works there has to comply with or face being ostracized resulting in unfair discipline and no promotions.

Clearly, there is a un-level playing field in the Mesa Police Department and Hispanics or anyone not being a member of the "Good Old Boys' Club" is dealt unfair discipline and put on probation which is readily used to control any police officer's action and behavior. All of this hinders and prevents promotion of a deserving officer.

To gauge the level of the un-level playing field, East Valley LULAC turned to information provided by former Mesa Police Officers to see if a pattern of practice is evident in non reporting of items that should have been reported to POST such as Mesa police officers who can not testify in court because of perjury on their records thus not in compliance with "Brady Letter" requirements, officers arrested with DUIs, officers guilty of domestic violence, aggravated assault, insurance fraud, drunk and disorderly, and so forth with all not being reported to Arizona POST.

Incidentally, none of the above abuses were made by any Hispanic police officer, only by members of the Good Old Boys' club and its protected class.

Clearly, if this "Good Old Boys' Club" operates within the Mesa Police Department, one can easily conclude this is the cause of the Mesa Police Department's deplorable attitude to the Hispanic community. If this attitude prevails within the Mesa police department toward Hispanic police officers and even toward non Hispanic police officers who believe this is an injustice and disciplined for being an advocate for correcting this injustice, how could any reasonable person not believe this anti-Hispanic attitude found within the Mesa police department is not the root cause of the poor relationship with all the recent incidents taking actions against the Hispanic community.

This pattern of practice will clearly show the Good Old Boys' Club protects its members and throws non members to the wolves.

The Mesa LULAC Citizen Police Review Committee will continue to review every disciplinary action of the Mesa Police Department to determine if Mesa Police Officers who buck the "Good Old Boys' Club are disciplined unfairly.

All discipline handed out to a Hispanic police officer or any police officer who is disciplined for speaking out as an advocate for Hispanic police officers will be detailed in a new section within Hispanic.cc and the information will be emailed to thousands of Mesa households in our increasing data base.

As for a better relationship with the Hispanic community, if the Mesa Police Department really wants a good relationship with the Hispanic community, the Police Department should have parity with Mesa in all affirmative action requirements. This means if the Hispanic population of Mesa is 40%, then 40% of each category of police positions should be Hispanic. This is particularly important at the levels of commanders, lieutenants, and sergeants for it is these officers who have daily contact with the Hispanic community, but of course, the chief sets the tone and stage of the entire department. It would not matter if the deputy and assistant chiefs, commanders, lieutenants, and sergeants were all Hispanics if the chief was of the same belief as the present Gilbert chief of police.

Unfortunately, the Mesa Police Department lacks parity. This follows the mayor's and city manager's attitude toward Hispanics and is evident in the absolute management control style of the mayor and city manager. This can be readily seen in of 59 City of Mesa upper management positions, only 3 are held my minorities. A litmus test of blatant discrimination.

If the City of Mesa is ever going to establish a better relationship with the community, the Mesa Police Department must have Hispanics in upper management at the same percentage of Hispanics in the total Mesa community.

Then and only then will the Mesa Police Department stop instructing their police officers to "Go fxxx with the Mexicans," as a former police officer once said who is now the Gilbert chief of police.

As for Gilbert and Apache Junction, East Valley LULAC has begun to duplicate what is being done in Mesa to assure Hispanics are treated in Gilbert and Apache Junction with the fairness of the rule of law and the same as non Hispanic residents of those towns.

I believe every city and town in Arizona has similar problems as we have found in Mesa. LULAC is the largest civil rights organization in the United States and has a fiduciary responsibility to level the playing field for Arizona Hispanic police officers that in turn will benefit every Arizona police agency's relationship with the Hispanic community.

As for entry level positions in Mesa, even here the discrimination practice can be found.

According to former Mesa police officers, an illustration of the use of the interview board on hiring of police officers includes this question: "Tell us about your life experiences."

According to former police officers, this question is asked to determine if a prospective police officer is Mormon (LDS). This is an indirect way of the prospective police officer stating he served on a "mission" and everyone knows if the prospective police officer answers with "I served on a mission........." then he automatically goes to the top of the list.

All of this I lay at the feet of the mayor, city manager and all other council persons who continue to misrepresent the real cause of a very poor relationship with the Hispanic community.

Particularly Councilman Mike Whalen, since he was once a police officer and member of the Good Old Boy's Club. In addition, after listening to his non support for the Day Laborers' Center by stating he would not support it until the United States government does something about the immigration problem identifies his non support of the Hispanic community.

The mayor's and city manager's office of diversity claim significant achievements in affirmative action and reaching out to the Hispanic community. The mayor stated in the last campaign debate, parity with the city's work force shows significant gains in minority representation. What he did not say is nearly all minorities are in lower classifications of employment and not in upper management positions. This is misrepresentation of facts and is defined as: fraud. The mayor in his re-election campaign stated he does not support the day labor center and affordable housing. Translation: Hispanics will not be represented in his administration.

Misrepresentation is evident every where the City of Mesa addresses Hispanic concerns. The City's hidden agenda is to provide just enough superficial assistance to portray a city that cares about the Hispanic community is evident with Mesa Vice Mayor Dennis Kavanaugh's ad hoc committee to assess Mesa's Police Department policies concerning equipment, training and investigations involving use of force and will do nothing to address the real problem of a poor relationship with the Hispanic community.

Another classic case of red herring to misrepresent the City's real attitude against Hispanics by not addressing the root causes of poor relationships with the Hispanic community.

It is East Valley LULAC's contention the Mesa Police Department discriminates against its own police officers and this discrimination is the root cause of the poor relationship with the Mesa Hispanic community.

By identifying all police officers who were protected and not reported to POST will expose a police department that protects members of the Good Old Boys' club while disciplining Hispanic police officers for simply being Hispanic.

The former Mesa Police Officers appointed to the East Valley LULAC Police Review Committee are members of East Valley LULAC.

East Valley LULAC now provides the following information obtained from former Mesa police officers of infractions Mesa police officers have committed and should have been reported to POST for its review to determine if these police officers should remain police officers:

John Werner had been involved in a unit on the Department called Evict. In that unit he was indicted on nine felony counts of misuse of public money and misuse of public funds. (see Maricopa County Superior Court #CR 1995-091132) John Werner was a Lieutenant at the time and as a part of his plea, plead to six misdemeanors and was then demoted to the rank of Sergeant. He then took a voluntary demotion to the rank of officer. The Mesa Police Department took him off the street and placed him in an office position where he was able to carry out the last two years for his retirement. The Mesa Police Department then hired him back as a civilian to work the same job at a higher rate of pay with a criminal record. Now with this extensive criminal background remains in charge of the most sensitive portion of the department - computer information services. Carl McCormies, Mike Collins, David Mouser who are now Sergeants on the department were also involved in the scandal.

Sergeant Mike Campbell was involved in an altercation with a subordinate detective. Campbell used a traffic barricade to assault the detective. Campbell was given 3 days off without pay and the detective was not sanctioned. Campbell committed an aggravated assault and it should have been investigated as such. Aggravated assault is a felony.

Sergeant Larry Keiser is currently under investigation for false documentation and has been disciplined in the past for similar charges. Falsifying documentation is a class 3 misdemeanor.

Sergeant Mike Ivey has a history of horrendous mood swings where he throws chairs at employees. He has complaints of sexual harassment and no discipline was given. He continues to display extremely poor officer safety by putting officer's in situations where injury is a result, however no discipline in given. He has had detectives complain to his superior about mean and un-ethical conduct. Several detectives refused to work for him in August of 1992. Two of them voluntarily left the gang unit so they would not have to work for Ivey. There is documentation in a recent investigation that leads to the belief that Ivey is less than completely truthful. This investigation is currently in litigation so details are not available. An investigation was conducted through the human resources office and the findings were in Ivey's favor. This type of continual harassment shows a pattern and practice by Ivey that is discriminatory at the very least. This should have been investigated by Internal Affairs and if Ivey was found to be less than truthful, he should have been disciplined and the findings sent to POST. Ivey's conduct was never investigated by the Department's Internal Affairs Unit.

Sergeant Glenn Shough sexually harassed (See IA case 99-98) a female employee to the point he was rubbing the inside of her leg. Chief Strauss' interpretation of this was that he was just trying to 'show her she was doing a good job.' The employee was reduced to tears because of Strauss' comments. Shough remains a sergeant today in charge of a specialty unit.

Public Information Officer Tim Gaffney is known to have violated state law by illegally using the computer to obtain information on a private individual. He was also documented for issues involving his overtime claims.

Sergeant Warren Solomon, see cases (2000-020, 2001-012, 2001-16) was investigated for charges from untruthfulness, creating a hostile work environment for female employees, excessive force and assaulting another officer. Solomon assaulted a detective by grabbing him around the neck and throwing him to the ground. This was aggravated assault. Some of these charges were sustained, others were covered up. How can a man with this type of record and a known aggressive temperament still be an employee of the department, let alone a supervisor. His record of conduct was never sent to POST for review.

Sergeant Mike Ivy has received numerous complaints including one where he threw a chair at another officer, has yelled and screamed at subordinates and was nicknamed "The Bully" by a fellow sergeant. Sergeant Mike Ivy released medical information about a Mesa police officer's psychological condition which is a violation of law and a similar circumstance in Avondale resulted in a 5 million dollar lawsuit against Avondale. He was never investigated for the law violation even though complaints were made to supervisors.

Sergeant Paul Manson trespassed at Poston Junior high (See IA complaint # 2001-168) and the school wanted him charged for his actions. The department covered this case up and he still works as a sergeant for the police department. He is presently on the lieutenant's list.

Chuck Baker was demoted for falsifying time sheets and overtime slips. The Mesa Police Department demoted him and he was able to retire.

Ron Swart removed items during search warrants that were not listed in the warrant calling these items trophies. He was never criminally charged and remains on the SWAT Team.

Sergeant Carl McCormies is an investigator in Internal Affairs. He was involved in the same scandal Werner was indicted on. McCormies had a dispute with Sergeant Mike Johnson. It is alleged that McCormies said that he did not want an officer coming to his unit because he is a loud mouth Puerto Rican. This case was reviewed by a board of inquiry. There was never a finding in the case. McCormies denied saying it and it was dropped. This should have been investigated as a discrimination case and also a case of untruthfulness. McCormies should have been investigated for untruthfulness and a polygraph should have been administered. This was never done.

Sergeant Dave Mauser, a sergeant involved in the same scandal removed property without permission from the City Mauser is on the lieutenant's list and will probably be promoted by Donna, even though most know he should have been charged and terminated for his actions.

Dean Milsaps, retired Sergeant was seen at a party smoking Marijuana. Within six months to one year after being demoted was back working as a Sergeant.

Chris Cartilano had complaints of sexual harassment driving while under the influence and hit and run.

Dick Elliget sex scandal where numerous employees of the Mesa Police Department were involved. This included wife swapping and child pornography.

Wayne Hill had numerous complaints of sexual harassment and stalking charges. Wayne hill was never demoted and was medically retired. In fact the last case the department was working on Wayne Hill the woman he was stalking killed herself. And left the blame on the department for the lack of assistance.

Rick Davis was found in the presence of known prostitutes and taking pornographic photos with them at Saguaro Lake. The prostitutes in this case were awaiting trial for prostitution.

Dan Merrel was disciplined for untruthfulness and destroying city property. Dan Merrel wrecked a police car while transporting a prisoner out of town. Dan Merrel had traveled one hundred miles off course to complete a side job. Commander Brewer fought to keep Dan Merrel employed and he was able to keep his job.

Roy Skaggs while driving a city vehicle was involved in an accident. He attempted to pay off the subject he hit and after exchanging information left the scene that is a Mesa Police Department Policy Violation. It was also known an odor of alcoholic beverage could be smelled on his breath. Officers were not allowed to speak with Roy Skaggs until four to six hours later. After the investigation the officer investigating was ordered to purposely leave information out of the report.

Gary Vankilsdonk was involved in an affair with a woman who was going through the Mesa Police Department Academy. Gary is married and his wife is an employee of the Mesa Police Department as well. When this affair occurred Gary Vankilsdonk at the time was Detective and teaching at the academy. The Department learned of the affair and ultimately fired the woman. Shortly after the woman was fired, Gary Vankilsdond was promoted to the rank of Sergeant.

Glen Shough who is a Sergeant with the Mesa Police Department while work in the Traffic Unit sexually harassed Deana Cantrell. The Mesa Police Department investigated this incident after it was brought to their attention. During the investigation it was learned that Glen had been untruthful. He was transferred to the Support Services Unit and was charged with Unsatisfactory Performance. The allegation of sexual harassment and untruthfulness was dropped by the Department. Deana Cantrell felt betrayed by the Department, however felt there would be retaliation if she persuade this case any further.

Dave Kline was working one evening when he was approached by a citizen. The citizen gave him a diary that was his daughters stating she was involved in a relationship with a twenty-one year old man, she was twelve or thirteen at the time. Dave Kline kept the diary and failed to write the report. Several weeks later a second call on this incident was taken and it was learned Dave Kline failed to take a report. This was investigated and originally no discipline was going to be given. It was then investigated further and Dave Kline was given one week off without pay. He was not taken out of his special working assignment nor was he taken off the SWAT unit. No probation was given.

Don Duhig is currently a Sergeant with the Mesa Police Department. He is currently on extended probation because he has failed to meet the minimum qualifications and job requirements for the position. He has had numerous complaints against him however he is able to continue to carry out the position of Police Sergeant. He was just allowed to bid for a new shift, not only was he able to bid he was able to bid out of his old district which was Falcon Field he bid to Central.

Tim Gaffney was serving as a traffic officer. While in this unit he was putting in for court overtime that was unauthorized. Per the Mesa Police policy the officer who is scheduled for court will call in to the respected division where court is being held to ensure his testimony is needed. Tim Gaffney would not call in and would just show up, finding out his testimony was not needed he would leave and collect two hours of overtime for city court and three hours for superior court. This was done against policy and while a complaint was being written up against him by his supervisor he was transferred to another supervisor. During Tim Gaffney's transfer all documentation that was in his file disappeared. Tim Gaffney also had another officer run a computer check on a subject that had built his pool. With the information he retrieved off the computer he confronted the subject in an off duty capacity, this was done against policy and had committed a felony, however it was not investigated. Tim Gaffney was then promoted to the position of Public Information Officer.

Coy Johnston had numerous reports that he did not complete stashed in his locker. The then went to Chief Strauss and told her he was stressed out and needed a transfer. He was placed into a position for two years dealing with the Police Olympics. After his two years he was then transferred back to CID without having to test or doing any time in patrol.

Marc Therre was arrested in Gilbert for domestic violence assault. Marc worked out a deal and took a plea for domestic violence disorderly conduct. He is still currently employed by the department.

Darlene Sheltron has a known affiliation to the Hell's Angles outlaw motorcycle gang and the department has kept her as an officer against policy.

Rob Scantlebery-Tony Boyle and Todd Harvey while in an intoxicated state committed criminal damage and disorderly conduct while in Tempe, Arizona and remain in the department.

Randy Lineberger committed felony Insurance Fraud and was indicted on such charges, however he remains on the department. Randy is close to his twenty year mark and it looks like the department is going to let him retire before he is convicted.

Addendum 1: Request POST ask all State of Arizona police agencies report to POST all certified police officers in their employ who have been indicted and/or convicted of a misdemeanor or felony.

Jon Garrido

President

American Hispanic Legal Defense Center

Lastly, I am in receipt of the following:

Dear Mr. Garrido:

This message is to confirm my receipt of your Email dated 4/29/04 containing allegations related to the Mesa Police Department. Per your request I have scheduled an opportunity for you to address the Board during the May 19, 2004 meeting….

If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at (602) 223-2514.

Sincerely,

Tom Hammarstrom
Executive Director
Arizona POST

---------------------------------

It should be noted that the selfsame Deanna
Cantrell listed above is one of the officers
on the department most often accused of
inappropriate, criminal conduct, to include
perjury, hundreds of false police reports,
and a general path of criminality. She parlayed
her "complaint" (I have met her, I would as
soon sexually harass a pile of mud...this jerk
must have NO taste, in addition to lack
of judgement) into a promotion to sergeant.
So goes life in this cesspool.

Meantime, crime--especially methamphetamine
manufacture and distribution--reaches a
level in Mesa that is destroying the community.
Anyone see any similarities to NERO????

This is what Maricopa County "justice" is made
of... Notice the names of the perpetrators,
and count on NOT ONE of them being called
to account.

WHAT THE EVIDENCE WILL SHOW

Anant Kumar Tripati is an East Indian, a racial Minority who is a Citizen of the Fiji Islands.

Tripati owned Legal Research Associates (LRA) in Beverly Hills, California.

LRA provided litigation support to in excess of 7,500 lawyers.

LRA had 60 lawyer and paralegals on contract.

Tripati developed and owned ARVITA®, an Artificial Human Intelligence Software (AHIS) worth at least $40,000,000 which Dean Chatfield stole on June 24, 1992. Donald Conrad and Terry Blake had accompanied Dean Chatfield and were present at the time Chatfield stole the AHIS.

Tripati had $4,900,000 in assets.

Tripati earned $1,500,000 a year in gross income.

LRA worked on controversial issues.

Tripati obtained in excess of 150,000 documents about Maricopa County targeting racial minorities for law enforcement activities, not investigating complaints made by the general public regarding employee misconduct and paying people hush money. These documents had signatures of Richard Romley as well as some of these showed approval by Betsey Bayless, Ed King, Tom Rawles, Don Stapley, and Mary Rose Wilcox.

Tripati was preparing to challenge these practices.

Archuleta, McKay, Chatfield, Mesh and Romley knew of these potential challenges.

The amount in dispute exclusive of interest and costs exceeds $150,000,000

Gunn Mckay, Dean Chatfield, Terry Blake, Donald E. Conrad, Richard Mesh, Richard Romley, Ronald Harris, Vincent Tolino, Gerald Grant, Teresa Archuleta, Ed King, Betsey Bayless, Tom Rawles, Don Stapley, Mary Rose Wilcox, of Maricopa County are all citizens of the State of Arizona who acted under "Color" of State Law and pursuant to the authority of Maricopa County.

Tripati recorded all conversations he had with people and made recordings of his conversations with Archuleta.

On March 27 of 1992, Archuleta in a tape-recorded call advised Tripati that Mckay, Chatfield, Mesh, Blake, and Archuleta had a meeting in which they agreed to send people to search LRA, close business, and forfeit Tripati's assets.

Romley approved this.

On 6/24/92, without probable cause or without consent, Chatfield, Conrad, Blake searched LRA, removed property from LRA and brought these properties to Arizona.

No California Judge had allowed Chatfield, Conrad, Blake to take property. They contacted a Richard Goldston who went to a California Judge and on July1, l992 lied to the California Judge to obtain an order, allowing the property to be brought to Arizona.

Without probable cause Ronald Harris file forfeiture which was later dismissed.

Tripati saw Chatfield take ARVITA® (AHIS) disc , other computer files and 150,000 pieces of evidence.

One goal of the search and seizure was to destroy the very evidence on the on going corruptions in Maricopa County, take away other properties and shut-down Tripati's business.

Chatfield arrested Tripati June 24, 1992 and took him in his custody.

Chatfield, Conrad, Blake, Mesh, Harris, Romley, McKay, Tolino and Grant lied to the Governor. They did not tell the governor that Chatfield had made the arrest. This is because Tripati could not be called a fugitive.

Tripati was held for 115 days before arraignment.

According to Mckay, "sand nigger" Tripati must be stopped.

All this was done by defendants because Tripati is of East-Indian, a racial minority who was in the process of exposing misconducts and corruptions within the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.

Knowing that the practices were wrong, Grant, Romley, Mckay, Tolino, Harris had Chatfield, Blake and Conrad engage in these wrong-doings.

Romley could have stopped this by establishing policies. Of course he failed to do.

It is often these named defendant's policy to retaliate against those who challenge their policies and practices.

Defendants have the policy of treating racial minorities harsher than the Whites.

Since Tripati posed a threat to their practices and policies established by Romley, he was punished and locked up for 52 1/2 years.

Romley has authorized and approved a code of silence in Maricopa County which mandates every employee cover-up for other employees. This code of silence was enforced in this case.

Romley has established a policy of cover-up in Maricopa County which was enforced in this case.

Evidence will clearly show those named defendants falsified, manufactured, destroyed and withheld evidence to prevent the jury from hearing all the evidence and the real truth about the case.

Richard M. Romley, Betsey Bayless, Tom Rawles, Ed King, Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox had received thousand of similar complaints before Tripati's jury trial. They did nothing. Instead, they paid people hush money in exchange to stop complain.

On June 24, 1992 Tripati saw Chatfield take the 150,000 documents, and other files with evidence. Defendants under federal rules, were required to produce these materials that related to this lawsuit. They did not produce the materials and withheld them from the jury because these materials proved Tripati's claims. Tripati repeatedly asked their lawyers for the documents but they did not produce them.

To prevent this jury from reviewing this case, Teresa Archuleta, upon the instructions of defendants lawyer Jeffrey Alan Bernick, as well as Conrad, McKay, Chatfield, Harris, Blake, Tolino, Grant and Romley destroyed the 150,000 pages and other materials.

They did this only after the federal magistrate ordered they produce the documents.

Defendants acted in accordance with the policies of Maricopa County.

Defendants acted knowingly, intentionally, deliberately and with evil motive.

Tripati is seeking the $40,000,000 damages for ARVITA® $1,500,000 a year for his loss of income, costs for the loss of his business, and punitive damages.

Betesy Bayless, Tom Rawles, Ed King, Mary Rose Wilcox, Don Stapley, and Richard M. Romley could have prevented the conduct, had they not provided for representation at County expense of County employees, not paid punitive damages, established and maintained necessary policies and enforced them.

Defendants acts were willful.

Defendants conspired to engage in these acts and their conspiracy was racially motivated to deny Tripati equal protection and privileges.

17+ years in Mesa, and I have seen
a lot. Too much, actually.

The lady above asserts her husband
"puts his life on the line" for
we mere mortals. That's a lie, plain
and simple. I have never seen or eve
heard of a Mesa cop risking as much
as chapped lips for an ordinary citizen.

Pump ten or so bullets into a little
kid with a "knife" which wouldn't make
a decent letter opener, maybe. Lie
and cover up and exaggerate to make
marginal and bogus cases, this I saw
in Mesa every single day.

"Lives on the line...." Maybe in New
York or Chicago, but in Mesa, we're
discussing a criminal element and
another tip-of-the-iceberg specimen
of massive corruption.

Gutless liars, those I have encountered.

There may be some fine officers on the
department, but I sure as hell never met
any.

This town has tolerated this for WAY too
long.

Mormon Schmormon. It's about thievery,
cowardice, and corruption, on a massive,
constant scale.

Mesa Councilman Rex Griswold announced the
other day, upon the advance notice of "Chief"
Dennis Donna's retirement as chief lap dog
and head liar for Mesa P.D., that there would
be a "nationwide search" for this replacment.
Really, Rex? What B.S.! What it will be is
the short-term dig for another groveling,
cover-up oriented, lap puppet for the weasel
city manager and his jerk predecessor, Charles
Luster, just as it has always been. "Nationwide
Search".... Hilarious, if it weren't for the low
and increasingly loathsome rats this overblown,
too-big, overpaid collection of murdering and
perjuring thugs has already attracted. Another
"putt-in-his-hands" worm like the last several
is hardly what this criminal organization requires.

"Purgative" or "revolution" is more like it.

I notice they've returned to their tired old
habit of pumping multiple bullets into unarmed
opponents, with no normal law enforcement effort,
and calling the weasel Rick Romley to "clear"
the demented perpetrators.

What Mesa P.D. actually NEEDS is a gallows,
with about five of these slime serving as the
first users.

Did you notice their pack of lies about a
recent "meth bust" handed to them on a platter
by Ohio police? The lying scum are taking credit
for busting half-a-dozen addresses upon which
they were given full information well more than
16 years ago. They ignored that information,
of course. I know. I provided it, and it almost
got me killed. Don't kid yourself, Mesa;
what you have is not even a decent joke.

Want a quick word to sum up this department?
I can suggest "worthless", which isn't strong
enough, "gutless", which is correct, but still
not strong enough. "Chickenshit" pretty much
fills the bill, but doesn't describe the open
rot and seeping pus of corruption one smells
wherever these filth are involved.

This lawsuit has been around for about
five and a half years, and has apparently
been settled or some kind of agreement and
compensation reached. Any details??

Also, and perhaps far more important: The
Brown case, one of multiple miscarriage
of justice/obstruction/false identification
cases in which Mesa becomes regularly
embroiled due to their gross incompetence,
has generated very little citizen interest
or newspaper copy recently. The Brown
and Markley cases are mentioned in many
reports here on THE RIP OFF REPORT.

Are there any more recent details?

Whitewashes, coverups, lies, evasions,
and "truth avoidance" are pretty much the driving forces of Mesa poltics.

How are they able to suppress information
on these important matters?

And WHY doesn't the local media try
harder to cover real events like these?

In any event, I, and I am SURE many other
visitors here, would appreciate fresher
information, if any can be found.

My name is Leo. I am sad to say, I am
native to Mesa, a Hispanic-American natural
born citizen of the United States, as was my
father. I am also a former member of the LDS
Church, persuaded by the activities of the
City of Mesa to be ashamed of my association
with this city and its Police. And lately,
I have walked away from my religion and
also the religion of my father.

The "hard core" of this department and much
of this poor city is the result of inbreeding,
dementia, and incest.

This police department has no courage, no
manhood.

The more I know about them, the more
sick I become.

Mending will not help.

They are so sick.

The latest reports I have are that some kind
of "under the table" or "off the books"
settlement was made between the police
department's LDS ultra-right wing Nazis
and the plaintiffs, albeit how much of their
stolen money changed hands is not public.
Work rules were changed, some of the
inbred, degenerate crimnals moved around,
but the same slime and their nepotistic
and incestuous and perjuring work habits
remain in place, or, in short, none
of the primary criminals had to suffer
anything, nor did they even apologize for
their criminal conduct.

It's revolting that they get away with
this, but then, this is a city where
multiple craven cowards can shoot a child
ten or twenty times and just walk away,
provided the chi---------ts in question
work for this town.

Justice will happen. But the truth will
probably not come out until long after
most of the salient statutes of limitations
on these evil monsters and their
disgusting crimes have passed.

I get a charge out of whatever LDS
"spokesliar" above notes the "anti-mormon"
message. No one cares about the
religion. The MOVEMENT--and it is
a movement--is about getting rid of
corruption.

I'd "cut and paste" my sources here,
but there is some degenerate feeb
following me around the internet
who doesn't recognize where the sources
are listed. I am fairly sure "Steve"
either escaped from a mental institution,
or works for Mesa P.D.--most likely,
BOTH.

Sorry to present you with the truth, Tina,
but the esteemed and venerable city of Mesa
and its latest in a long line of demented
jerk city managers (an LDS member, by the way)
are not even related to protecting ANYONE.

Cops in Mesa are parasites and liars. If you husband is anything else, he needs to give up his absurdly high paycheck and go to work for someone legitimate, rather than the criminal conspiracy which is now paying him.

Scumbags are scumbags. Sorry. But that's how it is.
If you can prove that crime in Mesa is even impacted by this idiotic "police department", step forward.
That would make ONE "citizen" of the absurd
and disgusting sewer in the desert who "believes"
in the yokel apparatus. But I don't think you can or WILL do that.

This is a coward's department. That's why crooks
like Lines and the other inbred nepotists and
graft-takers persist: they make cases against
citizens rather than face any of the thousands
of real crooks in this disgusting and filthy
town. That's why all the meth labs, all the
illegals, and all the murders these degenerate
cowards commit. And, sorry dear, they ARE
murders. Why and how would these sniveling
chickens deal with REAL criminals? Why, that
would involve DANGER. Ooooooooh. Poor
sissy babies might get an owie! And that's
why their criminal apologists and the corrupt
attorneys who represent them made some
minor compromises, re-employed a few
officers previously treated unfairly, and
made a lot of illegal, under-the-table arrangements in this bogus "settlement".

If you'd like, though, please sue me for libel.
Of course, that will NEVER happen. These
cowards couldn't possibly win a fair and open
suit at ANY level; shoot unarmed children, yes,
but win any kind of controversy against someone
who's actually AWAKE? The chic_______s won't
even dare try. Because, again, folks with
NO honesty and NO integrity CANNOT win
any valid contest.

The city manager is at least as much a jerk.
Why he got so excited about a few off-color
remarks and bad jokes when this department
needs what amounts to a purge of its
chronic criminal element I am sure has something
to do with his being raised in the same obscene
cult in which many of these dimwitted filth
were. And that's absurd. More import, like
Mesa P.D., it's corrosive and irrelevant.

You pretty much define yourself with
your idiotic "stamp my feet and scream"
attitude. Read some of the facts. I guess if your husband pulls down 50K a year or so--and is worth maybe a tenth of that--you have plenty of
reason to hang on. But don't pretend that has
anything to do with these slime actually
being even worthwhile.

Mesa has finally not only fired (albeit apparently without even having to sacrifice
his retirement benefits) one of its "officers" but saw to it that he was prosecuted,
and just today, convicted for sexual assault, supposedly for fondling female "suspects" some four years ago, prosecutors claim. There were several so-called "victims" of MATT DRIVER'S alleged misconduct.

But what one wonders, when one has seen the degenerate filth which constitutes
"standard operating procedure" in Mesa, if perhaps this wasn't either a sacrificial lamb or part of some larger coverup in which this chronic perjurers and criminals are engaged.

I learned the hard way: If Mesa P.D. officers SWEAR to it, and a County Prosecutor takes it to court, the only thing ANYONE can be sure of
is that it does not threaten the inbred dementoes who own Mesa's devious and dishonest "city government".

Chances of anything they say being true is iffy at best. And let's face it, one has to question
the ethics and even the sanity of judges who know they daily deal with perjuring slime and do NOTHING. More's the pity: the citizens
don't care enough to take the actions necessary to rid themselves of these parasites, which they should've done 30 years ago or more.

Doubt their stupidity? Take a look at their imbecilic "Art Center"...and remember the gentrified lie of the liars who proposed and
scammed it into existence: "You can't lose money unless you really, really spend money. And of course, that should be someone else's money!"

Read this, Keno Hawker, and enjoy.