PALOS VERDES ESTATES
POLICE DEPARTMENT:
A Non-enforcement Culture of
Corruption & Laziness
INTRODUCTION: With the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department now having received international attention for negligence and arguably corruption, the longstanding problem of non- and selective law enforcement no longer is an issue about which merely local residents complain. What has become clear is that the PVEPD under Jeff Kepley’s weak oversight, through ignorance, indolence, and/or malice, has misconstrued and mangled the meaning of the word “discretion.” Indeed, as it relates to his officers’ sworn duty to enforce laws effectively, there is outright, rampant abuse of discretion at all levels of the PVEPD, and this has gotten our City into serious legal trouble. Furthermore, at a $7.5 million/year cost (vs. Sheriff quoted at $3.4 million/year), the PVEPD puts the City at risk of bankruptcy by consuming 55% of the entire City budget and over 99% of the City’s property taxes.
PVEPD SYSTEMIC MISCONDUCT
PVEPD Scare Tactics Backfired. Ahead of the March 7, 2017 Measure D/Parcel Tax vote, PVEPD union head Sgt. Steve Barber reportedly engaged in subterfuge and other tactics apparently designed to scare PVE residents into voting “Yes” for a parcel tax on all our PVE homes estimated at $70-90 million over 12 years. Despite complicity from PVE City officials Dahlerbruch and councilpersons, voters saw through the City’s fake news, determining NOT to vote to tax their own homes via an escalating, unnecessary tax. The PVEPD’s blatant attempts to intimidate or alternatively propitiate PVE voters by becoming omnipresent on NextDoor.com, combined with its unprecedented show of force at the March 14, 2017 PVECC meeting, only exposed their true characters further. Steve Barber’s late September 2017 speech to the City Council (click here), in which he vehemently opposed ANY cuts to PVEPD personnel, left nobody unsure that the officers’ focus was on protecting their own bank accounts took vs. protecting PVE residents or the City’s budget.
PVEPD Union Onetime Head Steve Barber: opposed any cuts to staffing at the PVE Police Department.
Make no mistake of the fact that PVE taxpayers as a whole were neither disinterested nor duped. Extraordinary voter turnout (within 1% of 32-year record and ~ 50% higher rate than the prior two votes) coincided with close scrutiny of the group that coincidentally was illegally posting lawn signs and would have received essentially all of these hard earned resident savings – the PVE Police Department. From voters’ own experiences and what they learned from others troubled by the PVEPD’s behavior, there is no question that PVEPD misconduct played a role in the vote’s fortunate outcome.
“False Attribution” of Peaceful PVE to PVEPD Peace Officers. Surprisingly, even after highly publicized, incontrovertible evidence of systemic PVEPD law non-enforcement (e.g., Bay Boys – click here, Big Orange Cycling Gang – click here), some in PVE reflexively still advocate keeping the $7.4 million/year PVEPD (vs. $3.4 million/year w/ 12% more patrol hours, contracted LASD). Ask yourself, “Can I cite just one episode where the PVEPD engaged in an extraordinary, or even exceptional act of law enforcement?” Not once, despite dozens of inquiries, has a single PVEPD advocate been able to give even one example of such an accomplishment. Combine that with the documented fact (click here) that having the deeply staffed and experienced LASD protect PVE would save the City $4 million in the first year — eliminating nearly 100% of the $4.2 million structural budget deficit caused by the PVEPD itself.
This easy, law enforcement enhancing budget solution played a significant role in Measure D failing – why transfer $70-90 million of PVE taxpayer money into a police department’s pockets if you simply do not need to do so? Why not instead save all that money for your own retirement, your family’s regular needs or your kids’ education? It is important for residents to recognize that PVE is uniquely fortunate not to require a huge law enforcement budget due to the City being inherently safe. This is due to its remote location away from freeways/dangerous regions, few/narrow entry points, ocean and famously efficient Torrance PD protected borders, and mature/affluent demographics that do natural subdues resident lawbreaking. So ask yourself, “Why is PVE spending 99% or more of its property taxes, nearly 60% of its budget and 400% of what RPV pays per resident on its LASD police force, especially during a budget crisis?
“Can You Site PVEPD Misconduct, Law Non-Enforcement? “ A reasonable rejoinder to a request for examples of PVEPD excellence would be one asking for an example of PVEPD misconduct and/or negligence. Well, this is an order that many in PVE can fulfill, and in shocking abundance. Yet, by what the Coalition has learned from resident in-person discussion and online chatter, it is evident that a subset of PVE taxpayers still remains unaware of the true character of the City’s sworn law enforcement officers. For any of you who perhaps think that it may work to your benefit by having a local police department with whose officers you think you are “friends,” remember that law non-enforcement is a two edged sword. You personally could be the one harmed by these PVEPD officers’ repeated determination not to enforce the law, whether it be at the hands of a trespassing assailant or belligerent cyclist (see below).
In order to shine some sunlight on what “the PVEPD does wrong,” the Coalition highlights below just the most serious of dozens of verified (witnessed), undisputed (by PVEPD/PVE) and documented (formal reports) episodes of PVEPD misconduct — collected almost entirely from only a few households in one small neighborhood of the Malaga Cove region. If this is a representative sample of PVE as a whole, imagine how ubiquitous is law non-enforcement citywide.
Bay Boys Lawsuit Documents Longstanding PVEPD Law Non-Enforcement and “Indifference”: Details have emerged during the Bay Boys lawsuit (click here) of intentional, systemic law non-enforcement by Jeff Kepley and his officers. The lawsuit was preceded by an article in the Guardian (click here) that led to our fine city of PVE gaining international infamy and shame due solely to the PVEPD’s misconduct. None of this was a surprise to the Coalition, as we have posted on this website a deep “case file” proving precisely this problem for nearly half a decade. Indeed, it was only a matter of time before the PVEPD’s determination to dishonor their oath to enforce the law finally drove a victim to sue the City.
9 Hour Response Time to Urgent Call for Help by PVE Resident Being Assaulted by Foreign Trespasser: see Aaron Belda, Steve Barber and Hazel Menendez sections below. It is important to note that despite the obvious bias that comes from PVEPD internal affairs investigations being conducted by the PVEPD’s own officers on their friends, two counts of misconduct relating to dispatcher Menendez’s decision not to dispatch a squad car were sustained against her. It is also very important to note that despite the high probability that within the LASD’s Lomita station under Capt. Beringer such a potentially fatal act would lead to immediate dismissal, some 4+ years later Menendez continues to be the person who could answer your call to save your life from an attacker.
Non-Resident Drives Wrong Way into Oncoming PVE Traffic, her Passenger Assaults Filming PVE Resident Witness Carrying Baby on Back; PVEPD Pursues False Charges Against PVE Resident: see Luke Hellinga, Steve Barber and Sean Tomlins sections below. The Coalition has collected myriad, documented examples of the PVEPD favoring non-resident “peers” to officers over prosperous PVE residents.
DUI Marijuana Smoking Driver Not Cited, Much Less Arrested: see Tony Gonzalez section below. This PVEPD officer, paid over $140,000 in total compensation in 2015, determined to allow a driver who Gonzalez himself stated openly was exhibiting probable cause of DUI of marijuana to drive away through our City without even a citation for the crime, much less an arrest.
Illegal Man-made Fires & Fireworks Launched Over Malaga Cove Homes Not Cited or Mis-Cited: In the midst of perhaps the worst drought in S. California history, the PVEPD has witnessed but not cited a multitude of infractions involving illegal fires, fireworks and even incendiary sky lanterns launched to float over homes around Bluff and Malaga Coves. In one case, a PVEPD officer caught an illegal fireworks launcher (shooting large explosives over residents’ homes) but incompetently wrote on the citation a violation of a PVEMC section dealing with removing plants/trees without City permission (it is likely this impeded prosecution). In the case of illegal sky lanterns over Malaga Cove homes, PVEPD Officer Kyle Shea (on 05/18/2016 in middle of drought) determined not to enforce the law because the non-resident violator had launched the floating ball of fire as part of a prom proposal (you can’t make up things like this).
PVEPD Biased to Cover “Cyclists’ Backs,” Issuing Few Biker Citations Despite Rampant CVC Violations while Pursing False Claims Against PVE Motorists: see Jeff Kepley section below, and also click here. In one example, a Malaga Cove area resident was accused falsely of attempted vehicular manslaughter as retribution by a Big Orange cyclist to whom the PVE resident expressed discontent over illegal cycling; the PVEPD aggressively pursued the PVE resident despite a) no evidence to support the false claim and b) much evidence of Big Orange making numerous, similar false claims against other PVE residents. Jeff Kepley has proven, though the cyclists’ own written statements and Kepley’s own actions/in-actions, to be a supporter of illegal cyclists abusing PVE’s roads and other resources.
Countless Other Examples of PVEPD Misconduct/Negligence: In the spirit of focusing on the more egregious behavior of the PVEPD, we excluded above a large collection of other documented PVEPD habitual misconduct. This includes the following:
- lawsuits filed against the PVEPD/PVE for Civil Rights racism/Antisemitism within the PVEPD (see Sroggins/Siounit cases below);
- illegal ALPR (license plate recognition) related non-enforcement;
- illegal noise (PVEMC Chapter 8.28) non-enforcement;
- illegal parking (PVEMC Chapter 10.40.30) non-enforcement;
- illegal drone/UAV (PVEMC Chapter 8.24 and 2016 FAA rules) non-enforcement;
- PVEPD refusal to enter Bluff Cove to enforce narcotics and other lawbreaking, and
- many, many more non-enforcement examples as the PVEPD’s corrupt and indolent unprofessionalism runs through the department virtually as a matter of unwritten policy.
PVE City Government Finally Conceded What Really Appeared to Be Behind PVEPD’s Jeff Kepley “On Leave”: Was Kepley Was Creating Paper Trail for Disability/Tax-free Retirement Benefits?
Jeff Kepley’s Dubious “Stress Leave”/Vacation Cost PVE Taxpayers ~ $70,000.00: Since the man hired to be the strong, effective head of law enforcement in a city of nearly zero hard crime became so “stressed” that he dubiously had to go on leave, he is estimated to have cost PVE taxpayers approximately $70,000.00 as of his official “retirement” announcement in late August 2017 (click here). To put this in perspective, the city is scrambling to save a $1,000 here and a few $1,000 there (see photo above) to plug a $4.1 million/year “structural” budget deficit. Adding Kepley’s insult to his department’s injury, this budget deficit forcing PVE to drain precious City reserves was caused almost entirely by the PVEPD $7.5 million/year budget costing approximately $4 million/year more than the $3.4 million/year quote offered by the LA Sheriff (which included in that lower price 12% more patrol service hours).
Prelude to Sudden Termination of Kepley’s Position as PVEPD Chief: On April 25th, Jeff Kepley appeared quite healthy in his seat next to Treasurer Lozzi for the first half of the City Council meeting (click here for video replay). However, as seen from photos below, by the time Victoria Lozzi stated her firm view that the City “needs” the “Feasibility Study from the Sheriff as a baseline” (here at 2:27), Kepley had left the Police Chief’s seat for the rest of the meeting. The very next day, despite not a single word regarding Kepley’s imminent departure at the City Council meeting the prior night, City Manager Tony Dahlerbruch sent written notice to the PVEPD staff informing them Kepley was no longer their Acting Chief of Police (see below). However, as has been seen before with our City Manager, Dahlerbruch did not want PVE’s voting taxpayers to become equally informed, especially since Kepley would be taking over $22,000 out of taxpayers’ pockets during his sudden, five-week “stress leave”. Dahlerbruch and the City Council know all too well after the PVEPD POA’s failed lawn sign campaign that PVE voters are acutely sensitive to shenanigans within the budget-busting, $7.5 million/year police department. Only when forced by this website’s E-mail alerting PVE residents over a week later did the City confirm that Kepley’s prior position as Chief had terminated.
City Manager Dahlerbruch Continues to Hide Material Information from PVE Taxpaying Voters: Dahlerbruch & the City Council hoped five weeks would slip by without any leak to the taxpaying public of Kepley’s position terminating via his now 3-MONTH, $50,000+ “stress leave”; the Coalition labeled Kepley’s position as terminated, again being the truthful party
What Is the “Sheriff Feasibility Study”? A Sheriff Feasibility Study (SFS) is the next step that a potential Sheriff-protected city takes after obtaining a quote such as the $3.4 million/year LASD proposal received but hidden by Tony Dahlerbruch five-six months before the March 7, 2017 Measure D vote. Reportedly according to Tony Dahlerbruch himself (click here and see bottom of Page 5), it would take PVE two-four months to complete its own Sheriff Feasibility Study. Click here for an example of a Sheriff Feasibility Study conducted for the city of Santa Paula, California, and which was completed in under two months (March 8 – April 28).
The Meeting Before the Meeting: According to multiple sources close to the situation, the Kepley-Dahlerbruch relationship took a very, very bad turn for the worse ahead of the April 25th PVECC meeting related to Kepley’s intended lack of participation at an all-departments “pre-presentation” in the City Manager’s office. We are confident that upon City Manager Dahlerbruch surpassing his threshold of tolerance for Kepley’s poor performance, Dahlerbruch properly, finally rebuked Kepley in extremely direct terms. This confrontation reportedly set the stage for Kepley’s blindsiding Dahlerbruch with his notification that he “needed” to go on leave due to stress (e.g., hypertension). A source has confirmed that PVE councilwoman Jennifer King was particularly outraged at Kepley for this dereliction of duty by the City’s chief law enforcement officer, possibly considering a “legal response.”
Kepley’s Unethical Strategy: Tax Free Retirement? As early as May 4th, the Coalition reported on this site and elsewhere that the evidence supported the theory that Kepley selfishly had bailed out of a sinking ship both in petulant defiance of newly assertive “boss” Dahlerbruch and to document “disability” to assist his rumored imminent retirement (which reportedly already privately had been informed to Dahlerbruch but not announced to PVE residents.) Reportedly, Kepley was engaged through late August 2017 in combative negotiations with the PVE City Council over whether his retirement will be classified as normal or medical. Assuming he accomplished the latter, Kepley will be able to take from PVE taxpayers not only ~ three quarters of a million dollars in compensation over 3 years, including ~ $70,000 at the end of his tenure when he determined not to show up for work, but also again when he pays less taxes on his retirement/pension income. How can any PVE resident vote to spend over 1/2 the City budget on a police department whose most senior officer treats PVE taxpayers with this level of disrespect?
Dahlerbruch’s Judgment Goes from Bad to Dangerous: As is patently obvious now, Dahlerbruch/the PVECC recklessly or negligently failed to obtain a Sheriff Feasibility Study between the September 2016 date of receiving the LASD $3.4 million quote and the March 2017 Measure D Parcel Tax vote. Had Dahlerbruch prudently procured the study during that five-six month period, the City could have placated the PVEPD by sincerely portraying the effort as a mere contingency plan in the “unlikely” event Measure D were to fail. However, now with Measure D’s failure a fait accompli, Dahlerbruch neglecting to complete the study has put the entire City in a much more precarious position vis-a-vis the PVEPD.
PVE Government Hid the One Crucial Fact from Voters: For the six months preceding the 2017 Measure D vote, Tony Dahlerbruch never gave voters the straight story on cost/benefit
Sheriff Feasibility Study Must Be Procured Immediately: As is obvious to any prudent, risk managing individual watching this budgetary debacle unfold, the City must not waste another day in obtaining the LASD Feasibility Study relating to the $3.4 million/year Sheriff quote. As of today, we residents have already lost well over ONE YEAR since Tony Dahlerbruch received this quote at under 1/2 the cost of the PVEPD, including four months having passed since the City Council knew with certainty that the City is officially in a budget crisis. In order to prevent any “unintended and irreversible consequences,” the City can follow Tony Dahlerbruch’s own belated, conditional recommendation made in his April 25, 2017 staff report (click here and see bottom of Page 5): “the City Council make it publicly clear that the Phase I study is for informational and data collection purposes, not expressing an intent.” Again, though, it must be emphasized that had Dahlerbruch prudently procured the Feasibility Study in late 2016 well before the voluntary tax underlying Measure D predictably failed, the City would not be anywhere near this bind in the first place.
City Council in Material Breach of its Fiduciary Duties of Due Care and Loyalty: PVE voters, finally now informed by the Coalition of the previously hidden $3.4 million Sheriff quote (w/ 12% more patrol service hours), are even more likely to be logical and vote down this unnecessary tax burden. Despite this probable risk to the budget, the City Council perilously determined on April 25th to defy PVE’s very own Treasurer’s prudent guidance that “we need that Feasibility Study from the Sheriff.” This reckless judgment now has put PVE residents in the unnecessarily vulnerable position of prospectively relying for many months on police officers scheduled to report to work while knowing (after a failed second parcel tax vote in April 2018) they will be replaced by the Sheriff. This inaction apparently led by fmr. Mayor Jennifer King is a flagrant breach of the City Council’s fiduciary duties of due care and loyalty to each and every resident. If Jennifer King’s game plan is to put the City into perilous straights intentionally to scare residents into voting to tax themselves, we here in Palos Verdes Estates all have a much bigger problem on our collective hands than Tony Dahlerbruch’s incompetence.
The Coalition must note that it does not make these claims against the PVEPD lightly; to the contrary, every claim made on this website is documented and remains undisputed despite (since 2012) an outstanding request herein for formal rebuttals. These claims are factual.
PVE Police Dept. Wall of Shame Members:
(out of approximately 50 PVEPD employees)
——————————————————————————–
John Eberhard Wall of Shame Induction (click me)
Aaron Belda Wall of Shame Induction (click me)
David Hinig Wall of Shame Induction (click me)
Jeffrey Kepley Wall of Shame Nomination (click me)
Erick Gaunt Wall of Shame Nomination (click me)
Steve Barber Wall of Shame Nomination (click me)
Hazel Menendez Wall of Shame Nomination (click me)
Kenneth Ackert Wall of Shame Nomination (click me)
Tony Gonzalez Wall of Shame Nomination (click me)
Luke Hellinga Wall of Shame Nomination (click me)
Mark Velez Wall of Shame Nomination (click me)
Steven Lebeau Wall of Shame Nomination (click me)
Alex Gonzales Wall of Shame Nomination (click me)
Sean Tomlins Wall of Shame Nomination (click me)
David Drapeau Wall of Shame Nomination (click me)
Sean Crisfield Wall of Shame Nomination (click me)
Bradley Lemmon Wall of Shame Nomination (click me)
PVEPD Embarrasses PVE Residents and Impairs Property Values Due to Intl. Notoriety: The widely reported Bay Boys lawsuit (click here) filed against Jeff Kepley and the rest of PVE government was merely the most recent embarrassment we have suffered here in PVE due to our incompetent officers’ misconduct. Despite consuming nearly 60% of the entire City budget and over 99% of all residents’ property taxes combined, the $7.3 million flowing into the PVEPD hasn’t been enough for them to behave honorably. See below for two lawsuits filed by the PVEPD’s own officers against the City for racism and anti-Semitism.
PVEPD Sued By Its Own Police Captain for Being Racist vs. Blacks (Kevin Scroggins v. PVE: Case No. BC446138, filed 09/23/2010; click here)
PVEPD Sued By Its Own Officer for Being Abusive Anti-Semites (Benjamin Siounit v. PVE, Case No. BC499984 , filed 01/28/2013; click here)
Many PVEPD officers born, raised and living outside PVE’s conservative, high-property tax paying culture evidently “relate” and thus actually sympathize with those law breakers who share with these officers a lower sense of public civility and who place a far lower value on law abidance. This helps explain the confounding and corrupt behavior of many PVEPD officers refusing to issue citations to, much less arrest, misdemeanor and felony law breakers within our fine City. Manifestations of this out-of-sync PVEPD mentality include, amongst myriad examples, PVEPD officer(s) a) guiding an alleged female victim of the Bay Boys to make a citizens arrest herself (rather than the PVEPD making the arrest), b) supporting the interests of (rather than bringing in for questioning/arresting) a non-US citizen who trespassed upon, assaulted, and obstructed the call for police assistance by a PVE resident (see Belda below), and c) merely issuing verbal warnings (rather than citations/fines) to law breakers who repeatedly damage the peace and tranquility entitled by law to PVE residents and visitors.
WHAT IS MOTIVATING THIS PVEPD ABUSE? Residents’ dominating explanation for the PVEPD’s habitual aversion to effective law enforcement is its collective desire to maintain the status quo of being massively overpaid (~ $170,000/year in total compensation is not abnormal; click here) by staying under the radar, disturbing as few lawbreakers as possible in the process. The Coalition, and now countless PVE residents, was appalled to discover that the PVEPD consumes 99.3% of all of the cumulative property taxes paid by hard working PVE residents. Take a moment to let sink in precisely what has been approved by Kepley’s friend, City Manager Tony Dahlerbruch, and the PVE City Council. This scandalous act basically amounts to an unprecedentedly massive $6.6 million/year (click here) transfer of wealth from the PVE taxpayers (click here for Page 17) to non-residents associated with the PVEPD who drive into our city every single day to take nearly every single penny of our property taxes and then return home outside PVE to spend it.
PVE Employees Shockingly-High Compensation (click hyperlink)
The obviously overpaid and overstaffed (see photo above) PVEPD shows up for perhaps the safest and lowest workload police officer job in the country. There naturally (due to remote location away from freeway/inner cities and elderly/affluent demographics), and not due to any particular effort or approach by the driving-in-circles or parked PVEPD, occurs in PVE a miniscule amount of hard crime (click here for PVE stats and then compare here to Redondo Beach and here to Hermosa Beach). Further making an expansive/expensive police department totally unnecessary is the scarcity of even very few misdemeanors outside garden variety vehicular violations and outstanding warrants.
You will struggle to find another city in the USA any LESS in need of an expensive police department. Click on link above to see why the PVEPD is overpaid to do almost nothing.
Thus, officers have enormous financial incentive to “play nice, quiet and stay under the radar,” issuing few citations and thereby reducing the odds of any sunlight being shined by those cited on the PVEPD’s status quo of an absurdly high ratio of compensation-to-risk. Alternatively, some believe that there is actual malicious intent driving officers’ overt discrimination against the very law abiding residents whose legal right to law enforcement lies at the core of the justice system. Officers’ behavior fitting this profile include Aaron Belda, Steve Barber, Erick Gaunt, Tony Gonzalez, Steve Lebeau, Alex Gonzales and Hazel Menendez.
DISCRETION DEFINED. While police officers have “discretion” to recognize that a law breaker has committed the forbidden act inadvertently (and not through negligence or outright disregard for the code as with Desire Kocarslan), they are not supposed to enforce selectively legal codes and ordinances passed by legislative branches of a local, state or federal government. Such behavior is indeed the definition of “corruption,” as it unfairly favors one party (the law breaker/criminal) over the other (the community members impaired). If a law exists that a citizen is not permitted to commit a certain act, and such act is committed to the detriment of others in the community, a non-corrupt police officer issues a citation as the most effective means of inhibiting repeat or copycat offenses. At the risk of stating the obvious, this is why speeding and parking tickets are issued nationwide.
Judge Rules Ultra Vires/Illegal or Invalid Dahlerbruch City Govt 2-Year Crusade vs. Residents (click hyperlink)
Corruption & Negligence of Tony Dahlerbruch (click hyperlink)
THE BUCK STOPS WITH CHIEF JEFF KEPLEY & TONY DAHLERBRUCH. Jeff Kepley tolerated, if not encouraged his officers’ misconduct as described on this webpage. Tony Dahlerbruch tolerated, if not encourged, Jeff Kepley and his officers massively excessive compensation and tepid law enforcement (in 2013, Dahlerbruch actually defended sustained police misconduct as being committed in “good faith.”) Kepley had incentive to protect his own cushy setup of getting compensated ~ $225,000/year to commute Mon-Fri up from La Habra to “manage” what sadly amounts to an overstocked fraternity house.
In line with this, Jeff Kepley shunted aside the simple concept of governance in order to satisfy various PVEPD officers’ desire to maintain property tax cash transfer into his department’s pockets, while also feeding his and others’ need to feel some semblance of power. With officers such as Alex Gonzales, Tony Gonzales, Steve Barber, Aaron Belda and Steve Lebeau, frail egos fragilely supported by little but the badges pinned on their shirts plays a corrupting role as well; indeed, these public servants fear deep down they would command zero respect in other societal and occupational venues, as their skills seem confined to the low-paid Uber driver talent of driving around cars between various points in the City.
Word around town is that Mark Velez, who shockingly is allowed to run a law firm defending law breakers while also being a public law enforcer, undermined Kepley at every opportunity.
SUMMARY: Taxpayers reasonably expect that the police department will enforce written laws in a manner that discourages both repeat offense by the violating party, and others who become aware of the impactful, negative consequence levied upon those already caught. Without impactful law enforcement executed via material consequence (punishment), law breakers shall have no incentive to cease their antisocial deportment. This is the simple truth that Jeff Kepley negligently has chosen to ignore in favor of trying to win a popularity contest with those imposters who report to him. Kepley’s job also may be at high risk if Mark Velez, passed over repeatedly for the chief’s job, has his way with Tony Dahlerbruch and the City Council.
CHARTER INDUCTEE ONTO
PVE POLICE DEPARTMENT WALL OF
SHAME
JOHN EBERHARD
Fmr. PVE Chief of Police, John Eberhard
At the bar instead of putting criminals behind them.
JOHN EBERHARD: for allegedly overseeing, if not directing, alleged police misconduct, John Eberhard was the first to be inducted onto the PVE Police Department Wall of Shame. While it has been said that even oblivious Tony Dahlerbruch “encouraged” John Eberhard’s sudden resignation after recognizing John Eberhard’s obvious incompetence, it is John Eberhard’s dishonesty that had been a better kept secret until his final days at the helm. It is sad that John Eberhard’s father (Coach Gil Eberhard), whose name graces a PVE baseball field, must look down on his corrupt son with the utmost in paternal disappointment. John Eberhard’s beleaguered wife Cindy Eberhard, son Dalton Eberhard and daughter Peyton Eberhard, as well as his niece Kristi and nephew Brian, must be acutely ashamed at sharing the Eberhard name with John Eberhard.
NOTE FROM SITE TO WALL OF SHAME OFFICERS: All those listed on this page are encouraged to contact the site immediately if he/she would like to provide a signed, notarized affidavit exclusively disputing accusations made against him/her. Such affidavit then may be made available on this site, allowing the public to consider “his/her side” of the story.
Palos Verdes Estates hires interim police chief Hinig, John Eberhard pension spike and education questioned (October 2013)
Palos Verdes Estates Police Chief John Eberhard Denies Pension Spiking Rumors (September 2013)
EVIDENCE AGAINST WALL OF SHAME INDUCTEES AND NOMINEES FOR THEIR ALLEGED POLICE MISCONDUCT IS HEREBY PRESENTED; YOU, THE PUBLIC, SHALL BE THE JUDGE. Note: Official corroborating evidence, including conclusive written statements and oral testimony in court made by the involved parties, has been and will be made available to site viewers seeking validation of all matters on this post. Unsurprisingly given the veracity of the claims against the Wall of Shamers, at no time since this site’s 2013 launch has any party offered the site any evidence refuting the claims against them, much less disproving them.
——— STEVE BARBER ———
INDUCTED ONTO WALL OF SHAME
INDUCTED for SHAME: Sergeant Steve Barber
for Supporting Falsification of Witness Testimony (as alleged) and systematic law non-enforcement; request for investigation pending (Unknown – Present); based on presumed discrimination alongside Chief Eberhard, Steve Barber’s shameful supervisory behavior actually led to the District Attorney being presented an unsubstantiated charge of robbery against the PVE residing victim of assault for using the voluntarily offered assailant’s phone to call for police assistance, which itself never arrived (see Hazel Menendez below).
The approval sign-off that cemented corruption charges
UPDATE (09/2017): Steve Barber is alleged to have engaged in police misconduct, including making critical, inappropriate statements to a resident reporting a crime about the resident’s mental state.
UPDATE (03/2017): Steve Barber, as head the PVEPD union he heads, solicited on NextDoor.com (using a fraudulent account that claimed PVEPD HQ address as his residence) and elsewhere for residents to receive “Yes on Measure D” signs that were illegally placed in PVE public parkway. To say the least, for a PVEPD sergeant to be complicit, or worse direct, the breaking of a City law against such sign placement makes a mockery of the very law enforcement oath to which he and his cohorts swore.
Illegally Placed PVE Police Officer Association Signs: even City Councilman Jim Vandever was complicit in breaking the law, placing Barber’s Measure D sign on public parkway in front of his home on Paseo del Mar.
UPDATE (06/28/2016): Steve Barber was videotaped (click here) witnessing and permitting, over the course of nearly one hour, repeated criminal acts by the Big Orange Cycling Gang that led to PVE resident motorists being backed up over 2 miles along PV Drive West/PV Blvd. Barber admitted that enforcing the law was not even being considered by him and his colleagues, instead themselves dedicated to the peace and tranquility of illegal protesters with a history of abusive behavior toward PVE resident motorists. For more on Barber and Chief Jeff Kepley’s support of the illegal biker gang, click here.
UPDATE (02/24/2016): Steve Barber, in a questionable act of police misconduct, asked for personal information of a PVE resident (even though she was with her infant child), thereafter following her to her home in what could be considered a stalking fashion, presumably to learn where she resided.
UPDATE (06/06/2015): Steve Barber apparently is such an unskilled detective that an 11-year old boy was able to trick him into believing a preposterous story of a supposed kidnapping attempt (click hyperlink). The silly tale that the child concocted was obvious as such to just about everyone communicating with the coalition, but that didn’t stop Steve Barber from embarrassing our City throughout the county while squandering more of PVE’s scarce resources on the “ghost hunt.”
Steve Barber’s Ghost Kidnapper & Ghost Kidnapping Van
BARBER COMPENSATED ALMOST AS MUCH AS COMPTON CITY ATTORNEY! In near-lowest crime in USA city Palos Verdes Estates, PVEPD “Traffic Cop” Steve Barber (http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2012/palos-verdes-estates/barber-steven/ ) is compensated virtually the same as the at-risk-daily-of-assassination, highly trained and educated Compton City Attorney (http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2011/compton/cornwell-craig-j/ ). How can the PVE City Council justify compensating a man whose skillset leads to the job of guiding light traffic around a car commercial film shoot at a rate of over $170,000 per year?
——— DAVID HINIG ———
INDUCTED ONTO WALL OF SHAME
Fmr. PVE Chief of Police, David Hinig:
PVE’s rid of him after a few months of dishonor
DAVID HINIG: David Hinig was a lock to be inducted onto the PVE Police Department Wall of Shame for allegedly making false or misleading statements in response to a public inquiry while in possession of self-contradicting evidence, in addition to appearing to condone alleged police misconduct by Aaron Belda, Erick Gaunt, Steve Barber and Hazel Menendez. The men, women and children of Palos Verdes Estates collectively genuflect to God that this horribly dishonest and disingenuous man David Hinig has left our fine city, now unfortunately in the bumbling hands of Jeff Kepley.
CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATOR? The long record of civil rights violation allegations against David Hinig is extremely disconcerting. On April 22, 1997, after the cost to the City of Arcadia rose into the tens of thousands of dollars, the honorable U.S. District Judge Robert J. Kelleher entered a judgment and order against co-defendant David Hinig as Arcadia Chief of Police for violation of the Civil Rights Act (Case # 2:94-cv-04571-RJK). Previously in June 1995, Judge Kelleher denied defendants’ motion to dismiss the case. On July 21, 2003, David Hinig was served again in a lawsuit in which he was named a co-defendant for alleged violation of the Civil Rights Act (Case # 8:03-cv-00301-SJO-MLG). On December 15, 2003, David Hinig was served in yet another lawsuit in which he was named a co-defendant for alleged violation of the Civil Rights Act (Case # 2:03-cv-07179-ABC-Mc). Astoundingly, on April 7, 2006, yet another case alleging civil rights violation was filed against co-defendant David Hinig, this time in the Superior Court of California (Case # BC350368). Source: Bloomberg Law dockets. This is the man that the PVE City Council chose to protect our residents? More details that expose David Hinig as the shameless man that he is viewed to be are available by E-mailing ankur@savepvefromtonyd.com.
REJECTED BY RIALTO? Soon after the judgment and order against David Hinig in a case against him et. al. for violation of the Civil Rights Act (see above), it appears clear that Hinig sought to salvage his career by reportedly attempting to become Chief of Police of the Inland Empire city of Rialto. However, after a thorough background check by the decision maker similar to Tony Dahlerbruch but in Rialto’s “city administrator” position, David Hinig’s application was rejected in favor of Michael Meyers, who served as Rialto’s Police Chief from 1998-2005. Thus, while Hinig apparently was not qualified enough to lead a town in the Inland Empire, the PVE City Council and Tony Dahlerbruch’s questionable judgment and perhaps less thorough vetting process put David Hinig in charge of protecting ours.
——– AARON BELDA ——–
INDUCTED ONTO WALL OF SHAME
INDUCTED for SHAME: Detective Aaron Ledesma Belda
* FOREIGN TRESPASSER ASSAULTS PVE RESIDENT VICTIM;
* PVEPD DOES NOT RESPOND TO CALL FOR ASSISTANCE;
* TRESPASSER ASSAULTS & INJURES PVE VICTIM;
* TRESPASSER FLEES CRIME SCENE, PASSING POLICE STN.;
* CORRUPT AARON BELDA FAVORS TRESPASSING ASSAILANT;
* NON-CORRUPT JUDGE’s ACTIONS:
1) IMPEACH BELDA’S JUDGMENT & BIAS,
2) AFFIRMS PVE VICTIM DEPICTION OF CRIMES, &
3) ORDERS ASSAILANT TO STAY AWAY FROM VICTIM
Aaron Belda, the subject of multiple internal affairs investigations in 2015 alone, was inducted onto the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department Wall of Shame for Falsification of Witness Testimony (as alleged), and presenting to the District Attorney for consideration an unsubstantiated robbery charge against the peacefully residing PVE victim of trespassing, assault and obstruction of a call for police assistance; request for investigation pending (Unknown – Present);
Aaron Belda, in an act of apparent bias and discrimination, falsified repeated, written and verbal victim-corroborating witness testimony. This detailed, written and reiterated testimony clearly exhibited that the phone properly and legally obtained and used by a defenseless, naked PVE assault victim to call for never-dispatched police assistance was not taken by force (robbery) from trespassing/attacking assailant.
Appallingly, no warrant for the arrest of the assailant ever was issued by the PVEPD, which waited nearly five days to assign the investigation to Aaron Belda, who then waited until days later to conduct his assailant phone and E-mail interviews (the latter of which included Aaron Belda wishing the assailant “Happy Halloween to you too”). The assailant never was called into PVEPD for in-person questioning.
Making this even more shocking was that Belda had evidence in his possession of assailant acknowledging in writing that the attack had caused injury to the PVE victim, though assailant claimed unintentional (“I never meant to hurt you or harm you in any way …”). The witnessed crimes committed by the trespassing assailant were so serious that the assailant immediately hired a criminal defense attorney who has represented clients criminally accused of murder, manslaughter, and public beating/assault, including one imprisoned within months of the PVE crimes for kicking his wife in the ribs and attempting to choke her.
Finally, adding insult to injury, Aaron Belda submitted for consideration to the District Attorney a charge against the PVE residing victim for robbery despite non-existent evidence around such a preposterous claim, itself coming from obviously false and self-contradictory claims of the desperately-seeking- a- defense assailant.
Both witness and victim described in detail the transfer of the phone on the victim’s own property being the sole result of a voluntary offering from trespasser. Further supporting victim and witness truthful testimony is evidence possessed by Belda provided directly by the self-contradicting assailant/trespasser. The assailant/trespasser a) originally before being court served, admitted to the trespassing in not one but two separate written communications, b) described the phone as offered voluntarily from outside-the-spa assailant’s hand to victim standing defenselessly naked in middle of victim’s spa, c) originally before being court served, labeled this offered phone as “lost” in writing the night of the attack and d) originally before being court served, did not report the phone as robbed/stolen or even missing (the phone was never found and may still be in possession of assailant).
Again, the phone in question was offered to victim (to read an E-mail thereon) indisputably, but then wisely was used defensively by the victim (as recorded by PVEPD) to call for never-arriving PVEPD assistance. Consequently, that defensive act then precipitated the trespasser’s attack of the PVE residing defenseless victim (to obstruct the call for police assistance, successfully) and then flee the scene of the crimes. It is this trespasser, assailant and obstructer of police assistance who Aaron Belda determined to assist, instead of the PVE resident attacked and who he swore an oath to protect.
DISCIPLINARY ACTION RECOMMENDED: Aaron Belda should look at himself in his rear view mirror during his 1-2 hour drive home to Valencia, and ask himself the following three hypothetical questions:
“How must my now-ex wife Katrina Belda (formerly Katrina Lopez; divorce filed 02/2014 after alleged 10/2013 sexual-related incident with married woman Nadia ), irrespective of my fidelity or infidelity to her (Nadia?), or mother Jeannette Belda Schurz or grandmother Virginia Belda or aunt Deborah Belda Neilson feel when she reads how I treated someone I promised to protect in PVE just as I promised to protect her — a woman who could have been in the PVE victim’s position instead, attacked by a trespassing “ex” of Katrina Belda who in addition to the assault also stopped the Santa Clarita Police & Sheriff’s Department from arriving to her protection?”
“How would I feel if while I was away, my now-ex wife Katrina Belda, irrespective of my fidelity or infidelity to her (Nadia?), after a long day at work was enjoying privacy in our spa, but then late one night one of Katrina’s “ex’s”, who by his own written admission knew he was not now her boyfriend and that he had been told explicitly she didn’t want to see him, trespassed and then did to her what I allowed to happen with impunity to this PVE resident victim?”
“How would I feel if, after the Santa Clarita Police & Sheriff’s Department failed to dispatch assistance to my now-ex wife Katrina Belda’s emergency trespasser call, a detective from that department presented a charge of robbery against my wife Katrina Belda, irrespective of my fidelity or infidelity to her (Nadia?), for accepting a phone offered to her by her trespassing “ex” and which she used to call this same department for assistance, which never arrived?”
UPDATE (08/2016): Within one week of the conclusion of an internal investigation of Aaron Belda, this corrupt police officer filed a falsified police report against the informant of the information that led to such investigation. Such falsification included Belda fabricating the claim that the informant had placed himself in an obstructing position so close to the squad car that the informant allegedly could access firearms and the computer display inside the car. However, the District Attorney apparently recognized that Belda had fabricated this claim given the fact that at no time did Belda, who was being recorded and thus was limited in how he could falsely depict his actions, claim to have requested the informant step away from the squad car. This misconduct led to yet another internal investigation of Belda.
UPDATE (05/08/2015): PVEPD Captain Mark Velez concluded this only the most recent internal investigation of Aaron Belda regarding the April 19, 2015 “Malaga Cove School Drone Incident” – during which Aaron Belda determined recklessly to jump the city street curb/field border in order to drive across the Malaga Cove School soccer field being used by adults and children and then drive his squad car onto its basketball court in response to an unfounded complaint of a 4-ounce, $30 toy quad-copter being used illegally. Per a letter from PVEPD Chief Jeff Kepley, the formal investigation in finalized, concluded form determined that a) Belda (shamefully) had an “inadequate understanding” of the simple, longstanding PVE Municipal
Excerpt from determination letter from of just one of multiple 2015 Internal investigations of Aaron Belda
Code (Chapter 8.24) that he is highly paid to enforce, leading to Belda’s wrongly informing the family they could not fly the toy, and b) Belda should have considered using the alternative approach of perfectly accessible city streets, with Belda’s indiscretion forcing the PVEPD to conduct “further training in driving discretion and citizen approaches.”
———- KENNETH ACKERT ———-
NOMINATED FOR WALL OF SHAME
Kenneth Ackert: Falsification of a PVEPD Incident Report put him on Wall of Shame
NOMINATED for SHAME: Corporal Kenneth Ackert
for Falsification of a Police Report (as alleged), request for investigation pending (Unknown – Present); Ken Ackert, based on presumed discrimination in order to buttress a related investigation, falsified a police incident report by claiming an association between the reporting party to a crime and the criminal himself. Ackert had no reasonable basis for conveying this false information to PVEPD dispatch, particularly in light of the fact that the PVE resident he falsely claimed associated had himself reported the videotaped crime to the PVEPD only minutes earlier. Ken Ackert also was the target of a civil lawsuit brought by PVE resident Cynthia Ahearn (see below).
PVEPD Corporal Kenneth Ackert: target of lawsuit by PVE resident Cynthia Ahearn
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NOMINATED for SHAME: Sergeant Erick Gaunt
for Falsification of Victim Testimony (as alleged), request for investigation pending (Unknown – Present); Erick Gaunt, based on presumed discrimination, falsified witness corroborated victim testimony that the assailant, reactively and immediately upon viewing and hearing the victim calling for PVEPD protection, violently assaulted the naked victim in a successful attempt to criminally obstruct the call for police assistance, subsequently fleeing the scene of the crime unstopped by the PVEPD officers not dispatched but stationed only three minutes away. Instead, Erick Gaunt falsely reported to the District Attorney in a falsified summary of the victim’s statement that the assailant entered the spa fully clothed in “an attempt to retrieve [assailant’s] telephone” [vs. victim and witness repeated, clear statements that motive was to quickly and immediately obstruct call for police assistance] … while waiting for the arrival of the PVEPD” [vs. no victim or witness statements ever made that the attacker waited whatsoever, but instead fled the scene of the crime immediately upon determining that the PVEPD stationed only three minutes away was soon to arrive].
Erick Gaunt doing what he does best:
protecting (his appetite) + being served BY the public
Again, as Erick Gaunt knew, it was logistically impossible for the trespasser to have been “waiting for the arrival” of the police department a) that the trespasser illegally succeeded in obstructing becoming sufficiently informed (see Menendez below) of its need to arrive in the first place and b) with which the trespasser avoided contact by fleeing (vs. “waiting” at) the scene of the crime. Furthermore, Erick Gaunt determined not to present for D.A. consideration the victim-described and witness-supported assault or obstruction of a call for police assistance, despite the latter actually being recorded live by the PVEPD recording system. Instead, guided by then-Chief of Police Eberhard (himself supervised by Tony Dahlerbruch), only the minor charge of trespassing was presented, with the probable understanding that the District Attorney’s docket was far too crowded with repeat offender violent crime prosecution to address this relatively minor, sole charge involving a first time criminal.
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NOMINATED for SHAME: Hazel Menendez, sustained on two counts of police misconduct in January 2013 following request for internal affairs investigation (Unknown – Present); despite receiving the PVE home residing victim’s address while this naked victim was being assaulted by a trespasser (so violently that the call disconnected after PVEPD obtained victim’s address), Hazel Menendez determined not to dispatch a squad car to the victim’s residence, allowing the assailant to flee without being apprehended. As an apparent resident of Torrance, Hazel 
Menendez’s police misconduct was the subject of Internal Affairs Investigation # 12-004 conducted by Sgt. Steve Barber, concluding with two counts against her sustained, but shockingly Torrance-residing Hazel Menendez remains employed by PVEPD in line with alleged corruption by fmr. Chief John Eberhard. Since her police misconduct, Hazel Menendez has on multiple occasions (relating to other matters) had contact with the PVE victim, but only attempted to offer some semblance of apology for her negligent acts nearly two years belatedly, and only then disingenuously due to her being the subject of yet a second internal investigation into her conduct.
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Capt. Mark Velez: Conflicted and discriminatory law enforcer who formed corrupt alliance in 2012 with Aaron Belda?
NOMINATED for SHAME: Captain Mark Velez for purportedly systemic conflict of interest and alliance with Aaron Belda during 2012 corruption incident (see above). Details to follow.
Captain Hunch? Mark Velez, supported one link up the chain of command by Chief Jeff Kepley, relaxed in the shade at this highly frequented PVEPD loitering spot until chased off by a disgusted PVE resident (lower PV Drive West and Via Almar, one convenient block from station)
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NOMINATED for SHAME: Chief of Police Jeffrey Marlin Kepley for repeated exhibition of weak and ineffective leadership when he headed the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department. Given that Jeffrey Kepley never had been in the chief/senior-most management position at any police department, and had been captain in La Habra for only three short years, it should not be a surprise to the PVE City Council and Tony Dahlerbruch that Jeff Kepley failed in his
position. The family of Jeff Kepley, including his father James Kepley, wife Cheri Kepley (formerly Cheri Ann Mohagen), Cheri’s mother Shirley Mohagen and father Keith Mohagen, his daughter Kristen Kepley and son Brandon Kepley, both of La Habra and Sonora, may find themselves ashamed to be related to the man upon learning how he has essentially and inertly supported corruption and other misconduct within the PVE Police Department, as defined on this post.
UPDATE (08/2017): Jeff Kepley’s position as head of the PVEPD formally terminated after it informally terminated in late April 2017.
UPDATE (06/28/2016): At Jeff Kepley’s direction, Steve Barber was videotaped (click here) witnessing and permitting, over the course of nearly one hour, repeated criminal acts by the Big Orange Cycling Gang that led to PVE resident motorists being backed up over 2 miles along PV Drive West/PV Blvd. Barber admitted that enforcing the law was not even being considered by him and his colleagues, instead themselves dedicated to the peace and tranquility of illegal protesters with a history of abusive behavior toward PVE resident motorists. For more on Barber and Chief Jeff Kepley’s support of the illegal biker gang, click here.
“PVEPD has our backs” writes Michael Barraclough, one of three co-leaders of the Big Orange Biker Gang that rampantly has broken the law throughout PVE
Specifically, Jeff Kepley’s lengthening list of underperformance included the following:
- Aaron Belda Menace to PVE: Determination to put the residents of PVE at risk by continuing the employment of corrupt officer Aaron Belda (see above). On June 18, 2014, Chief of Police Jeff Kepley was provided the first of a mountain of detailed, irrefutable documentation of Aaron Belda’s corrupt misconduct dating back to at least 2012. Such documentation includes a courtroom transcript that contains incriminating admission by the trespassing assailant who Aaron Belda favored vs. the assailant’s PVE residing victim, leading to the Judge’s essentially impeaching the corrupt conclusion of Aaron Belda (by stating that he believed the victim and directing the assailant to maintain a restrained distance from victim). Furthermore in an unrelated incident, in early 2015 Chief Jeff Kepley reportedly was provided detailed testimony from a husband and wife who alleged the wife was a sexually-related victim of Aaron Belda; an investigator reportedly hand picked by Kepley to investigate (clear his boy) Aaron Belda decided that the alleged victim could not prove her story. Only several months later, in yet another unrelated incident, the PVEPD internally investigated Aaron Belda for alleged misconduct at the Malaga Cove School (see above). Despite all of the above, in addition to other potential misconduct by Aaron Belda that may be unknown to the Coalition, Chief of Police Kepley determined to maintain the residents of PVE being at risk of Aaron Belda (until the Coalition is informed otherwise).
- Steve Barber Menace to PVE: Determination to put the residents of PVE at risk by continuing the employment of corrupt and inept detective Steve Barber (see above). Essentially, Sgt. Steve Barber approved of the corrupt 2012 acts by Aaron Belda described in detail above. Furthermore, Steve Barber has exhibited inept, poor judgment that unnecessarily terrified caring PVE parents during the summer of 2015 (see above). Despite the above, in addition to other potential misconduct by Steve Barber that may be unknown to the Coalition, Chief of Police Kepley determined to maintain the residents of PVE being at risk of Steve Barber (until the Coalition is informed otherwise).
- Refusal to Enforce the Law: Determination not to require his officers enforce the PVE Municipal Code and California
Penal Code effectively via citation. In just the first year of Jeff Kepley’s tepid oversight of the PVEPD, there has been documented a multitude of incidents wherein he, along with Captain Tony Best, have determined to encourage a culture of non-enforcement of the law via impactful consequences, such as fines and/or citation. As is predictable, those non-impactfully punished lawbreakers have continued fearlessly to break the same law(s), putting Palos Verdes Estates residents at continued risk of physical and other harm. Those observing what appears to be systematic non-citation of proven law breakers are concluding increasingly that Jeff Kepley, potentially in concert with City Manager Tony Dahlerbruch, attempted to skew downward the public statistics of the true level of crime in PVE, possibly to buttress support for inconceivably high compensation currently being paid for their services.
Welcome to Jeff Kepley’s Version of Palos Verdes Estates
Jeff Kepley Under Investigation: As the Coalition desires to understand what could be motivating Jeffrey Kepley’s mismanagement of the Palos Verdes Police Department, it placed Jeff Kepley under investigation as of June 19, 2015. As part of this inquiry, any and all parties with information that may assist this endeavor are encouraged to E-mail ankur@savepvefromtonyd.com. Information may be delivered anonymously and off the record.
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NOMINATED for SHAME: Luke Hellinga, for repeated failure to enforce the PVE Municipal Code and California law via citation, combined with alleged conduct unfitting an officer related to the Belda/Menendez incident (see above). Wife Sarah Hellinga, bless her soul at the Kings Harbor Church, should be ashamed of her husband’s feckless deportment in refusing to be a real law enforcer who has real impact on the community.
Luke Hellinga has exhibited an apparent disgust for doing his job – engaging in impactful actions to enforce the law. As reported by just one PVE resident from his own experience (there must be myriad more on top of this), the following is a sample of Luke Hellinga’s aversion to exerting small amounts of energy to engage in effective law enforcement:
- February 2016: Luke Hellinga receives incontrovertible evidence of two Redondo Beach residents driving on the wrong side (left lane) of Paseo del Mar against traffic, thereafter committing three additional crimes (including assault/battery of a PVE resident and thereafter filing a false report of a crime); Hellinga, with apparent approval from both Sgt. Steve Barber and Chief Jeff Kepley, determines neither to issue a traffic citation nor arrest either criminal.
- December 2014: Luke Hellinga, responding to multiple resident complaints of virtually an entire lane of Paseo del Mar (at PVDW) being blocked by over 10 illegally parked cars of guests to a private party, causing near head-on collisions as cars were forced to swerve into oncoming traffic, issues not a single parking ticket, much less orders the towing of the law breakers.
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November 2013: Luke Hellinga, responding to a resident complaint of a law being broken, arrives to witness personally Chapter PVE Municipal Code 8.28.030 being violated; Hellinga, however, despite truly dozens of documented PVEMC violations by this resident, issues no citation.
- October 2012: Luke Hellinga, in response to learning that a PVE resident whose call for PVEPD assistance had been obstructed permanently (phone submerged in water) by an attacking trespasser, defends the PVEPD’s Hazel Menendez’s decision not to dispatch a squad car to the victim’s known/recorded address by asking victim, “Why didn’t you call back?”
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NOMINATED for SHAME: Tony Gonzalez, for failure to enforce the PVE Municipal Code via citation. This highly paid officer (click hyperlink showing over $170,000 in 2013 total compensation), despite being witness to admitted law breaking, in addition to having access to PVEPD evidence of indisputable repeat legal violations, has shown himself determined not to enforce the law.*
UPDATE (07/24/2016): Sgt. Gonzalez determined, as part of his notorious reputation for law non-enforcement, not to issue a citation (much less arrest) for what was apparently a driver DUI of marijuana (HSC Section 11364 violation, amongst others). Gonzalez developed probable cause to search for illegal marijuana use and possession, but after brief pleadings by the driver Gonzalez merely gave him a parking ticket, allowing the driver to continue dangerously through PVE driving under the probable influence of the drug.
Tony Gonzalez, fully aware that this law breaker in just several weeks had been videotaped in the act of violating the law at least twice and warned by the PVEPD of her offenses on multiple occasions, essentially breached his sacred oath to the citizens paying his six-figure compensation.* As a result, Tony Gonzalez, presumably due to corruption or indolence, put an entire community and visitors thereto at serious risk of potentially deadly physical harm (click hyperlink).
Tony Gonzalez – definitely NOT a serious law enforcer; this Magilla of a man seems dressed to audition for the job perfectly matched to his simian mind (Disney Jungle Cruise tour guide)
Tony Gonzalez committed these acts with the explicit or tacit support and approval from both Captain Tony Best (Worst?) and Chief Jeff Kepley, both acutely made aware of the risks to the community’s wellbeing from this repeat offender. To get at the root of Tony Gonzalez’s negligence/corruption, a PVE resident in July 2015 asked him why he wasn’t doing his highly-paid job of law enforcement by issuing citations. The answer may shock you (one just can’t make this stuff up): “Where I live, people who are bothered by others breaking the law work things out themselves.” Gee Tony, then why would anyone need a police department to enforce laws, via citation or otherwise, in the first place? So Tony Gonzalez believes that in PVE, as in his own ‘hood, if a resident is being impaired by another who refuses repeatedly to obey the law, that impaired party (instead of obtaining an impactful PVEPD consequence) should just hop over to that guy’s house and what, hit him over the head with a bat?
Tony Gonzalez – instead of enforcing the law effectively via citation, here this barely evolved human finishes a friendly conversation about vintage BMW restoration with the law breaker
Tony Gonzalez
* Refusal to Enforce via Citation
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2nd Grade arithmetic and reading comprehension remains beyond the mental limitations of Alex Gonzales and Steve Lebeau; Crib Sheet for monkeys: “NO” = illegal; “Parking” = stopped; “9” really doesn’t equal “10”; and “PM” happens when that big yellow ball falls into the ocean.
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* Refusal to Enforce via Citation
NOMINATED for SHAME: Sergeant Steven Lebeau (2001 – Present)
July 2015: Sgt. Lebeau, in no uncertain terms, stated that he was a supporter of non-law enforcement via citation. Specifically, Lebeau supported the non-citation of a clear violation of the law on the evening of 07/15/2015, when two officers, Shea and Lemmon, personally witnessed the particular law being broken. Moreover, Lebeau intentionally misrepresented the particular code itself, falsely claiming that the circumstance of the violation (being seated in a vehicle claiming to have misplaced keys) negated the law. There is no provision in the law for an exclusion based on this or any similar circumstance – a fact of which Lebeau is fully aware. Thus, Sgt. Steven Lebeau favored the interests of the (non-PVE residing) law breaker over those of the residents to whom he has sworn a duty to enforce all laws, and not just the ones he is in the mood to enforce at a particular moment in time.
Chief Kepley directs wasting our tax dollars on snaring PVE residents in a stop sign trap on the one City street w/ nearly zero cross traffic but a convenient block from PVE Police Department HQ (Via Almar/ lower PV Drive West); God forbid his officers actually exert effort and take risks
Steve Lebeau’s apparent aversion to enforcing the law (as described above) does not drop so low as to keep him from his well known hiding spot a block from the PVEPD station. When it comes to the lightweight lifting of a stop-sign trap, Steven Lebeau (see photo above), Luke Hellinga and even a massively (over)paid police captain, Mark Velez seem more than content to park in the shade, fire up their smart phones and perhaps catch a resident out of the corner of their eye.
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NOMINATED for SHAME: Alex Gonzales (2012 – Present)
August 2015: Officer Alex Gonzales, when questioned by a PVE resident as to why he was not committed to enforcing properly a law being blatantly violated (i.e., not comparable to someone driving 1 mph over the speed limit) in his presence, stated ignorantly that he had the discretion to act in a way that violated his sworn oath to enforce the law.
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Alex Gonzales, after embarrassing himself by flirting with underage, law breaking high schoolers and boasting that he has his eyebrows groomed professionally. How many days do you think this candidate for a role in a Village People cover band would last in the Compton PD?
- Shamelessly but in line with the culture within the PVEPD, Alex Gonzales declared his determination to favor the interests of the law breaker (via non-citation) over the interests of those in the community who were injured by the unlawful acts.
Alex Gonzales jumps the curb along Paseo del Mar to position his squad car with a more gratifying view of the ocean below him; curb jumping seems to be favored by various PVEPD officers with Small ______ Syndrome seeking small jolts of “petty power”.
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Sean Tomlins: spending more time on waxing his Village People mustache than identifying crime witnesses?
NOMINATED for SHAME: Sean Tomlins, for repeated acts of either non-enforcement or professional ineptitude. In the case of just one PVE resident victim, Sean Tomlins determined either solely or in corroboration with Steve Barber/Luke Hellinga to allow those proven and/or witnessed to committing crimes to escape without even a citation, much less an arrest. In February 2016, alongside Barber and Hellinga, Sean Tomlins misidentified a key witness to multiple crimes, leading to the filing of a false police report (see Hellinga above). Sean Tomlins also is notorious with some PVE residents for being found parked at the end of Paseo del Mar with virtually no line of sight of any crime (including traffic violators); see photo below.
Sean Tomlins: why patrol the streets of PVE when you can park at the end of Paseo del Mar and potentially catch some ZZZZZ’s.
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NOMINATED for SHAME: David Drapeau, for repeated acts of police misconduct, including 07/24/2015 and 10/03/2015 alleged civil rights violations via Drapeau’s determination not to answer calls for police assistance from a selectively excluded PVE resident. David Drapeau, a non-PVE resident of Torrance, CA, allegedly committed the heinous acts of determining to ignore multiple phone calls and terminate unilaterally a call from a PVE resident seeking police assistance, with one instance involving the victim calling repeatedly from a City street at 12:20 a.m. David Drapeau has put out to the public a very ugly face of the PVE Police Department’s dispatch operations, supporting growing demand for that expensive subset of the PVEPD to be outsourced to a third party enterprise as is the case with many other Los Angeles County cities. Following misconduct from Hazel Manendez (see above), this would appear to be an excellent structural change to this deficient operation.
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* Refusal to Enforce via Citation NOMINATED for SHAME: Sean Crisfield, for failure to enforce the PVE Municipal Code via citation in 2015, including 09/12/2015 even given the Chief of Police specifically stated that specific violations shall be cited. Sean Crisfield displayed shameless ignorance of the background of the violations being committed, making material misstatements while further shaming himself with an abuse of discretion. Though only in his early 20s, Sean Crisfield appears to be on his way to either shameful PVEPD employment or unemployment as his record continues to be sullied with a refusal to enforce the law.
* Refusal to Enforce via CitationNOMINATED for SHAME: Bradley Lemmon, for failure to enforce the PVE Municipal Code via citation (07/15/2015). Though like Sean Crisfield he shares the “young and dumb” label, Brad Lemmon has refused to enforce the PVEMC effectively via citation, even to the point of fabricating a nonexistent exclusion to a clear violation in an area of the City with intensifying crime.
POLICE MISCONDUCT: def. – refers to inappropriate actions taken by police officers in connection with their official duties (e.g., false confession, false arrest, falsified evidence, false imprisonment, intimidation, police brutality, police corruption, racial profiling, surveillance abuse, and off-duty misconduct). Falsified evidence could be created by either the police/prosecution, the defendant(s), or by someone (including a detective) sympathetic to a particular party’s cause (e.g., prosperity and/or gender bias against a R.W.G.).
Click to: Corruption & Negligence of Tony Dahlerbruch
Click to: Matrix Consulting Getting Rid of Allan Rigg?
PVE Police Department Wall of Fame
(Click above for Dreiling, the Warlock & Steve Eberhard)
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CORRUPTION: def. – An act done with an intent to give some advantage inconsistent with official duty and the rights of others
NEGLIGENCE: def. – Conduct that falls below the standards of behavior established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm. A person has acted negligently if he or she has departed from the conduct expected of a reasonably prudent person acting under similar circumstances
FALSIFICATION: def. – the act of altering (information or evidence) so as to mislead
ULTRA VIRES: def. – a Latin phrase meaning “beyond the powers”. If an act requires legal authority and it is done with such authority, it is characterized in law as intra vires (“within the powers”). If it is done without such authority, it is ultra vires. Acts that are intra vires may equivalently be termed “valid” and those that are ultra vires “invalid”.
This web page and related posts and commentary represent both facts and opinions of the Coalition to Save PVE as protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Comments made by third parties represent their own representations of facts and own opinions.
172 thoughts on “PVE Police Department Wall of Shame”
Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply
You took down Police Chief Eberhard? Did he threaten lawsuit?
Aaron Belda, scumbag of all scumbags. Rumor has it that while a PVEPD officer he was arrested for soliciting or hiring prostitution. From what I heard he goes in strip club back rooms, this has got to be the truth if I’m a betting man.
Sean Crisfield works at the PVE PD? Is this a joke? I know that guy and am pretty sure he’s semi-retarded. OMG – this city’s residents are screwed if that loser is wearing a badge outside parking maid work.
Anyone see the YouTube video of that douchebag Ken Ackert lying to the man exercising his 1st Amendment right at the Malaga Cove Post Office? Check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvP6Y32Cy5M
The citizen filming asked Ackert if he’d informed the USPS worker that it was legal to film inside the lobby area where people wait in line; Ackert deceitfully answers that he did. Then minutes later when asked again, Ackert concedes that he had not done so, compelling the citizen to get Ackert to go back inside and do what he claimed he’d already done.
This is typical Ken Ackert – dishonest charlatan who thinks he is twice as smart as he really is (for those running math – real IQ probably around 105; Ackert thinks it’s around 210).
It’s about time Ken Ackert showed up on this WALL OF SHAME. Guy is one of the laziest, most unprofessional clowns on the PVEPD, and that’s a tall order. Check this out for example: he’s dispatched to a potential fatality situation in PVE, and instead of focusing on the incident, he is taking pictures/videos of PVE residents with his smart phone. I mean seriously? How much of a bozo does an officer have to be to be doing that while on the clock?
According to the Daily Breeze, Ken Ackert (along with Steve Barber) was named by PVE Police Chief Kepley as being senior enough with PVEPD to have had a relationship with Bay Boys. Yeah, folks, so here we have the Barber and Ackert shit show up close and personal:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/2017/08/05/probe-finds-hundreds-could-have-known-about-foiled-bay-boys-sting-operation/
Article says Barber admitted to having gone to a lawsuit ID’d Bay Boy’s house for a few BBQs. This is really just fantastic to have the head of the PVE police union going to BBQ at the house of a guy identified as a Bay Boy. Are you kidding me?
The extent to which the PVE Police Dept. doesn’t want to work is beyond astounding. Yesterday I was walking down one of PVE’s busiest street locations when I heard saw Sgt. Steve Barber driving up that same street. A few seconds later I heard the squad car horn, turned around, and saw Barber driving straight toward a car on the wrong side of the road facing Barber’s car. The illegal car was trying to catch a view of the surf without doing a legal U-turn 100 meters away or so.
Any normal police dept. sergeant (say Manhattan Beach, Hermosa, whatever) obviously would give this guy a ticket. But no, not in PVE, where getting out of your squad car to write a ticket required Herculean effort. Barber just waves at the guy, who then drives away on the wrong side of street while Barber continues uphill in the other direction not to be seen again.
Someday there will be a head on collision from a situation like this because people coming to PVE know the police are really THIS lazy.
The Coalition is seeking information relating to one Cheri Wischmann (aka Cheri Martin Wischmann). Anyone with information relating to this individual, who should not be presumed guilty until the investigation is complete, is asked to send anonymous or attributable information or post a comment to ankur@savepvefromtondy.com
I think this might be a match: found a divorce petition in Torrance filed by a Jason Wischmann against a Cheri Wischmann. From what we’re hearing, this definitely seems like a great move by Jay.
IT’S OFFICIAL FOLKS – KEPLEY IS DONE AS PVEPD CHIEF!
Now, the fun part – where do we all go to celebrate
PVE City Manager Tony Dahlerbruch reportedly has attested that no sworn PVEPD officers are practicing law, and there were no permissions given for them to do. However, various confidential sources previously or currently employed by the PVEPD claim that Velez has practiced law while under PVEPD oath.
CALLING ALL CARS: CAN ANYONE GIVE US EVIDENCE OF VELEZ PRACTICING LAW WHILE A PVEPD OFFICER?
The City has compelled Mark Velez to remove all of his web-based marketing of criminal defense and other legal services. Velez is NOT Chief of Police material. This may be why it is rumored Redondo Beach rejected his candidacy for its head of their police department.
This is one of the best written explanations on why the risks of a conflict of interest are so obvious that no intelligent city manager would authorize Mark Velez to practice (criminal defense) law while a PVEPD officer, much less Acting Chief of Police with Kepley MIA:
“The following is known as “horse trading” in the criminal law world. Imagine this scenario. Let’s assume Velez’s client is accused of a crime in Torrance and is being tried in the Torrrance Courthouse by the District Attorney’s office located there (hypothetical example: http://www.publicnow.com/view/AC59E23E45429813D00EA9A0DB006871D011DE05?2017-02-23-01:30:47+00:00-xxx5116). In this hypothetical, Deputy District Attorney Lindsay Kurtis is prosecuting Velez’s client. Now, let’s assume that Velez was the arresting officer in another criminal case where the crime occurred in PVE, making Velez both a) the person providing the majority of the evidence in the PVEPD report being written and submitted to the D.A. and b) the star witness at trial since Velez was the officer who witnessed the crimes being committed. Coincidentally, Deputy D.A. Lindsay Kurtis is prosecuting the case against this hypothetical PVE criminal. The “horse trading risk” is known in police circles as “lightening” or “reduction”. Velez essentially could use the PVE criminal’s case (where he should be assisting conviction) as leverage to get the District Attorney to go easy on Velez’s client (where he is opposing conviction). How this works in practice is Velez non-explicitly would signal to the D.A. that he may not be “able to remember” something at the PVE criminal’s trial as a way of communicating in a subtle way to the District Attorney that Velez wants the D.A. to reduce, if not drop altogether, the charges against Velez’s client. If the District Attorney has a very high interest in convicting the PVE criminal relative to Velez’s client, then Velez uses his leverage in his conflicted position to get a better deal for his client. The District Attorney gets what he wants – Velez’s 100% dedication to being a great witness (remembers everything with clarity/confidence) at the PVE criminal’s trial. However, if the District Attorney doesn’t play ball with Velez the attorney, then Velez the PVEPD officer hurts PVE by engaging in suboptimal efforts as the key witness in the PVE criminal’s trial. THIS is the conflict that explains why you will struggle to find ANY police officer doing criminal defense work as a lawyer in the same county where the officer helps D.A.’s convict criminals.
Folks, there is a reason Velez has taken down his web ads for criminal defense legal work, and there is a reason he has been passed over for the Chief of Police position not once (Eberhard) but twice (Kepley). Velez’s efforts to practice defending alleged criminals while being paid $230,000/year to be a law enforcement officer against criminals has not passed the smell test with the PVE City Council.”
Does he Still work as a police or he is a fill to.e lawyer now.
Driver intentionally killed bicyclist in Palos Verdes Estates, family lawsuit alleges
By: Larry Altman (larry.altman@dailybreeze.com)
POSTED: Friday, Aug. 4, 2017 – 6:33 p.m.
UPDATED: A DAY AGO
Let’s quickly get to the core of why no criminal charges were filed and why I believe the family should also sue the police department for lack of appropriate follow through, negligence and improperly trained investigators doing a criminal investigation. This family deserves better.
1. Officers and investigators lacked the proper training to investigate traffic accidents with fatalities.
2. Responding officers lacked the proper knowledge to treat this as an accident with the potential for it to turn into a death.
The sheriffs department has the appropriate resources to investigate incidents like this. PVEPD has no experience in simple criminal matter investigations yet a complex one like this.
Would love to know who the responding officers and supervisors were on this incident.
Sheriffs department is the way to go. You want quality policing and investigative efforts with seasoned professionals? Pay less yearly and get more.
Sean Crisfield’s refusal to enforce the law impactfully keeps him as the poster child for who a police department should not hire out of the Academy, whether it be Rio Hondo or a legit one. Nothing indicates disrespect for both an officer’s sworn oath to enforce the law or the people paying his compensation than refusing to issue citations to those who break the law. Law breakers continue to come from outside PVE, use its resources happily while breaking its laws without any material consequence. This continues because of underqualified, poorly trained and guided men in uniform like Sean Crisfield.
This creep lied about me & it’s currently on going. I am so happy I found this, Crisfield didn’t do his job, refused to investigate the allegations, but said he “has the evidence, not sure why or what motivated him? I am very upset, this isn’t fair .
Why didn’t he just do his job?
This POS Jeff Kepley never, ever is coming back. I give this Coalition clan serious kudos for figuring him out two years ago and then keeping on top of his bullshit all the way into this disability fraud. He’ll have cost PVE a million bucks easily by the time the door hits his backside if you include all the costs from the Bay Boys lawsuit.
So I will go on the slight defensive for Kelley here….. Kelley came from a professional organization (La Habra). When taking the role of a chief you are to depend on your command staff for guidance. Well when he came to PV he walked into a nightmare that eventually ruined his career. Early on in his position as chief he figured out the issues and wanted to bail out and go elsewhere (Redondo Beach) and that didn’t pan out for him. So he was stuck and it consumed him ultimately to his demise as a functional chief. This is the classic Lee Baca/Paul Tanaka story. But this time the Tanaka is Mark Velez and his Achilles heal is the command staff and supervisors promoted prior to his arrival by an acting chief ( Hoenig) and a chief on the way into a retirement (Eberhart). Of course one leaves with promotions and to leave a good name for themselves within the department.
The main focus here should be functionality. As long as PVE has the same Police Department staff with the same players involved in daily decision making all you will see is corruption and disgrace. The residents of PVE deserve better.
No we see the ACTING Chief Best commenting on next door.com about the department, Velez gets on there and comments and says look how great we are, look we took a dog to the Vet because we care, Blah Blah Blah, folks it’s all an orchestrated show. It’s all to secure their positions and keep the department.
Once they get what they want you become the scum of the earth again.
Save yourselves the over 3.5 million dollars contract with the sheriffs department for sometime, build some money in your reserves and in the future revisit opening the door to your own police department again. Start fresh without all the incompetence that’s there now.
PVE police department is a deadly disease that is making the city weaker and unsafe. If you were diagnosed with a deadly disease and your doctors said take this medicine to live wouldn’t you? Well the sheriffs department is your medicine, take it and live happily, safely, without having to look over your shoulder for political agendas and be the great city you are on the pensinsula.
This website is pure genius. I’m sure these bad cops thought they could do whatever horrible stuff they wanted and what could a PVE resident do about it? Complain to the city council, which would just blow it off like the Bay Boys complaints. Well, this is what someone did about it. Nice work. Justice can be swift and sweet.
I just read an email that has gotten forwarded around about this PVE policeman named Aaron Belda. There is a lot of detail about him I see on this site already. But what I read today is sort of chilling. Seems this Belda made up a bunch of stuff about a PVE resident in order to try to get the DA to charge him with some bogus obstruction charge. What Belda wrote for the report he put together didn’t even make any sense. Belda made this unbelieveable claim in there about how this resident guy supposedly was inches away from the cop car and could have grabbed the rifle, but Belda admits he never even asked the resident to move away. Not even once. How does that even make any sense even to the police, much less someone reading it? Then there was this crazy section where Belda has this story where he says this PVE resident got a buddy to illegally drive in front of Belda so Belda would pull the buddy over and then the PVE guy could photograph Belda. You can’t be serious. This is an officer getting comp’d over $130,000 a year with my tax money?
Yeah, I got sent the same thing in my inbox too. What I’ve learned making a few calls is that the PVE resident was just taking pictures or video of this officer Belda, and was doing so proven by his own video from many feet away from the car. This is why the PVEPD never subpoenaed the resident’s video; they wanted to present the report to the DA without evidence that the claims by Belda were fabricated. That makes sense because otherwise Belda at a minimum would have asked or ordered the resident filming him to move away. Also I found out that Belda filed this one report with the DA, and not coincidentally, just one week after an internal investigation into Belda concluded, and this PVE resident was the one who had provided the information about Belda to the internal affairs team at PVE. Belda had been accused by a married mother of two children of being held against her will by Belda, who reportedly had claimed to her the FBI was watching over the apartment building, so he could have sex with her when her husband had been outside the apartment looking for her. I think it’s this Nadia woman mentioned in the Belda section above. Belda’s wife reportedly started divorce proceedings against within weeks, and not just because of this one incident. Belda was notorious for cheating on his wife, and she seems to have had enough of it all.
I am Nadia. Aaron can contact me…
I’m tired of dealing with the continuing backlash of a personal and private matter. get at me Dick
Sincerely,
Your Brat
I truly think it’d be best for a one on one sir….
Your a smart man Aaron; find me and let’s have a Conversation and compare apples to oranges…
I think we have some stuff to discuss. Oh and also, good genes my man. I’ve gotta hand that one to u; let’s play some b-ball. Merry Christmas BD. DA follows strong in suit. Don’t take me for a fool, please..
You owe me some kix
Don’t post, I shouldn’t draw more attention to the past.
This is not accurate. Speaking because I was there. I will not speak on what I don’t know but I will say this is skewed.
Belda’s a truly rotten soul. I should know – I’ve watched him in action. It’s not pretty. At all. The PVE city council knows about how Belda has a track record for falsifying police reports. All shall not end well here.
Read this nonsense from Jill Shoemaker, the president of the Malaga Cove Homeowners Assn. (aka PVE Bored Housewives Social Club). She can’t possibly be so [uninformed] as not to know how out of control is the PVEPD budget, in a city with nearly zero hard crime. We are paying nearly 60% of entire budget to buy fire insurance for a city of igloos!!! Wake up, Jill Shoemaker!
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: jill shoemaker
Date: Sun, Feb 26, 2017 at 7:00 PM
Subject: Don’t forget to vote on March 7: The facts in regard to Measure D on PVE Ballot
To: jill shoemaker
Dear Friends, Neighbors and Acquaintances,
I am concerned by the misleading information that is being bandied about in our community in regard to Measure D.
Some people think that they can stop paying the tax and still enjoy all the City services they currently enjoy. The bad news is that you cannot get something for nothing. If Measure D does not pass then the City will have 26.7% less($4.7 million) in revenues going forward. With a loss this large, cutting the level of City services we are used to will be necessary.
Fortunately, there are laws that require that the City to continue to fund Fire and Paramedic services even if the tax extension (Measure D) does not pass. However our Police Department, maintenance of streets and Parklands, and many other things will all necessarily be on the chopping block if Measure D is not passed. See attached (page 2) for more information.
I am gratified that all 3 candidates running for City Council and the 2 who are actively running for Treasurer all support Measure D.
If you value the quality of life we have in our City including our own Police Department (rather than contracting with the LA County Sheriff), our high quality roadways and well-maintained public spaces and parklands, you will want to join me in voting “yes” on Meaure D.
Jill
Belda. Just the mention of that name is utterly cringe-worthy. The armpit stain known as Belda is a bad seed. I had an unfortunate run in with him during a traffic stop one sunny day a few years ago which ultimately led to me filing a complaint against him.
He (and his partner of which I forget the name) don’t like it when you ask questions pertaining to the shoddy way in which he conducts himself during his “investigation”. After signing my ticket he then decided he didn’t like my attitude and started writing more silly citations on the ticket to which he demanded I sign AGAIN!! Umm… that’s a no no Belda. Perhaps you should undergo POST training again and absolutely get psychiatric help. His roadside manner is atrocious as he simply reprehends everything you call into question. What a JOKE of an officer. A real DISGRACE to the badge.
At the end of it all in regards to my ticket, he didn’t even show to court and I walked. So in the end the joke was on the joke, except of course for the complaint against him.
Belda truly is the worst of the worst, which is saying a lot given how bad are Jeff Kepley, Steve Lebeau, Erick Gaunt, Steve Barber, Luke Hellinga, Alex Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez, and the rest of the overpaid crew of “Uber drivers.” Kepley has covered Belda’s backside more than once it seems. Feel sorry for Belda’s ex-wife, Katrina Lopez. Imagine being married to someone that dishonest.
Late last Thursday class certification motion in Spencer v Lunada Bay Boyswe was filed. Here is a link to the supporting papers – which includes 26 percipient witness declarations, and two expert declarations. There should be some portions of deposition transcripts included- probably attached to lawyer’s declaration.
http://ottenlawpc.com/spencer-vs-luanda-bay-supporting-documents
Just in case there is anyone left in PVE who doesn’t think that Kepley isn’t either a) bereft of any intelligence or b) lacking prudence and judgment in a litigation scenario, here is all you need to know: when asked in his deposition for the name of the ONLY person arrested vis-a-vis the Bay Boys case, Kepley responded, “I don’t recall the name.” That’s right – his key job in this case is to create the perception that he truly cares about law enforcement at Lunada Bay, and that he is serious about putting an end to alleged law breaking. So what does he do? He gives the plaintiffs this gem of admitting he cares so little about the Bay Boys problem that he doesn’t even know the name of the only guy arrested. Even I, certainly not in charge of law enforcement in PVE, know that the guy arrested had the memorable name Allen “Jalian” Johnston (click here).
Click this to read more: http://ottenlawpc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2016-12-29-159-3-Decl.-Victor-Otten-ISO-PLTF-Motion-for-Class-Certification.pdf
PVE’s residents owe a large degree of gratitude to life long PVE resident Charles Mowat. As can be seen from Kepley’s deposition, in February 2016, Mr. Mowat wrote to City Manager Tony Dalherbruch, the Mayor and City Council, expressing his “outrage by the recent events taken by our new Police Chief Kepley.” Mowat continued stating that Kepley’s statements to the media about the local surf situation in the midst of a recent crime spree are “grounds for [Kepley’s] termination.” Mowat then continued to assert that if the PVE city government feels that Kepley is acting in PVE’s best interests, maybe it’s time for a change in leadership of the people who hired him [Dahlerbruch] and endorse his policies [Dahlerbruch and City Council].
BRAVO, Mr. Mowat!!! There are countless other PVE residents who agree with you. Unfortunately, PVE strategically may not find it wise to ditch/fire Kepley, assuming Dahlerbruch can admit his error in hiring him, until this litigation is over. So, we’re stuck with this lemon for a while.
Click this to read more: http://ottenlawpc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2016-12-29-159-3-Decl.-Victor-Otten-ISO-PLTF-Motion-for-Class-Certification.pdf
The hits keep rolling in the Kepley deposition. I now am reading where Kepley is being asked about an Email sent to City Manager Tony Dahlerbruch by Michael Papayans in February 2016. The plaintiff’s attorney asks Kepley, “Are you aware that [Papayans’] son is a defendant in this lawsuit?” Kepley, again giving the class action attorneys another gift from God, exposes his lack of intelligence or interest in this serious matter by responding, “No.” Again, ponder this for a moment. Countless PVE residents who have read Daily Breeze articles know that Papayans’ son, who is the only person arrested by the PVEPD related to the Lunada Bay Boys problems and also has been accused of felony assault in a widely reported Dodgers stadium parking lot incident (click here) is a key targeted defendant in the lawsuit (click here), but the PVE Chief of Police responsible for law enforcement doesn’t know this?
Palos Verdes Estates enters into agreement with Contract Law Enforcement Bureau to provide additional enforcement help in the parks and the ocean. This means the sheriffs are going to do real police work within the city limits. A good move in the direction of abolishing the existing police department.
What 7 million will provide from the sheriff’s department is like comparing a Pinto Car to a Ferrari.
No more hiding behind salaries and not working PVE police.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/government-and-politics/20161109/palos-verdes-estates-contracts-for-beef-up-law-enforcement-at-lunada-bay
This is not a joke, but totally serious. The commentary above about Alex Gonzales’ seemingly very low IQ may have reached a new peak of accuracy. Today Gonzales, who happened to be engaging in an act of blatant selective law enforcement on PV Drive North, was seen USING HIS FINGERS to run the 3rd grade math of 2016 minus 1966 (to calculate a driver’s age). Yes, everyone, this is who PVE has driving around in its squad car – a grown man who runs numbers like a 10 year old incapable of doing simple math in his head without the assistance of his thumb and four other fingers. Thank God the guy wasn’t born in 1956 or Gonzales would have been forced to put down his pen!
We had to call the PV police recently and the guy they sent over was this Tony Gonzalez. Seriously, and I don’t mean to be cruel, but he may have been the least intelligent police officer I’ve ever come across, including idiots on that show “Cops”. If this is who our city depends on, Lord help us.
If you want to see what happens when an incompetent City Manager (Tony Dahlerbruch) incompetently hires an incompetent Police Chief, read this:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/lifestyle/20160921/the-lunada-bay-boys-illegal-patio-will-come-down-in-early-december?source=most_viewed
If only each of these overpaid bozos had worked sincerely with the plaintiffs in the Bay Boys case, the City never would have endured these lawsuits and the fantastic patio enjoyed by many would remain in place another few decades. Instead, after frustrating and angering countless surfers and others, Kepley allowed it to come to this. What a total retard.
Today a PVE resident recognized PVEPD Chief Kepley casually dining in the Hollywood Riviera, and took advantage of the opportunity to tell Kepley that essentially he wasn’t doing his job of enforcing laws. In particular, the rampant violation of CVC 21202(a) by cyclists illegally riding side-by-side or otherwise away from the curb not only is being ignored, but reinforced by Kepley’s siding with the law breakers. So what is Kepley’s reply? Sit down for this. Kepley essentially said, “If you want the PVEPD to enforce that law, the residents need to go to City government meetings and demand it publicly.” Yep, that’s right folks, Kepley doesn’t think the mere fact that law breaking is occurring in front of him is enough for his officers to act. Instead, residents paying for police law enforcement need to protest for his officers to enforce a law before they shall do so.
ONLY IN PVE.
Hearing VERY bad things about PVE policeman Jesse Aguayo recently. PVE motorists saw him in late June being negligent, if not engaged in police misconduct, watching literally dozens of cyclists illegally riding side-by-side away from the right curb during a 2-mile traffic jamming protest apparently condoned and even supported by the City Council and Jeff Kepley. SO Aguayo just stood there in his yellow vinyl traffic cop vest, that seems now perfect for his limited skills as a law enforcement officer, watching crime after crime but doing nothing but waving his little arms around guiding cars and bikes (which mostly ignored him).
Then last night Jesse Aguayo did it again. He responded to multiple resident calls about three illegal acts by motorists parked at the Bluff Cove trailhead, but determined upon arrival to let two of the three go without even a simple citation. That’s right – he arrived, witnessed the illegal acts, and just let ’em go.
This loser is a lock for this Wall of Shame.
Oh yes, I second that motion to nominate that buck toothed Jesse Aguayo to the Wall of Shame. In my own experience he is just as lazy and corrupt as all the other PVE po po who have been shamed on this site. Did you see the photo of him in the Daily Breeze watching cyclist after cyclist break the law during Michael Barraclough’s June traffic jam? Not a single citation issued by Aguayo. Not one. So what’s the right wage for a traffic director? $10/hour I’d say.
I just wanted to thank Ankur for supporting the cyclists who have been ignored by the PV police for years now. An email is going around that Ankur wrote and he said it all so perfectly. Bikes and cars, we need to both follow the law, especially the 3 foot law. God bless you and all you do.
A couple of nights ago, I reported a misdemeanor crime to the PVE police department. Dispatched was Officer Alex Gonzales, who I see is labeled a “Bad Cop” on this website. Despite arriving at the scene and confirming the crime being committed in front of him, all evidence appears to indicate that not even a citation was issued to the perp. What kind of incentive does that give criminals in PVE and others who hear about this incident not to commit the same crime, over and over again?
Tonight, in response to an individual PVE resident calling to report a noise complaint at around 1 am, Officer Alex Gonzales responded to a request for the name of the officer dispatched with the response, “No” and then when asked to repeat his unusual response, “No, I can’t.” When asked for a reason, Officer Gonzales lied, stating, “There’s no one around” and that he was the dispatcher — the only one there. With this implausible and inane explanation challenged, Gonzales conceded he was not the only one there, but rather the watch commander, Corporal David Blitz, was also there. Blitz then took over the phone call and stated, as it related solely to this one PVE resident with whom he was speaking, “We’ve all been instructed from Capt. Velez, from chain of command, not to answer any questions beyond the initial complaint … follow up information or who was dispatched.” Blitz confirmed that he had not received these instructions for any other PVE resident but this one caller.
This specified treatment of a particular PVE resident is the textbook definition of discrimination. Obviously, this is the result of individual PVE officers, who have been identified by name, being cited critically on this PVEPD Wall of Shame for particular professional conduct and/or negligence by that officer to uphold his oath to enforce the law.
Sometimes in life people make decisions that make claims against them all that much easier to prove. Thanks, Jeff.
Someone just showed me Chief Kepley’s retarded defense of his useless, nearly invisible assistance with the bike protest this week. It was on NextDoor.com. Let’s just be straight up about this a-hole. HE IS A TOTAL LIAR. He stated the protest was conducted legally and safely. WHAT???!!?? The bikers were violating the CA bike code regarding it being illegal to ride in middle of the street below the speed of normal traffic, which is what caused the massive traffic jam. And “safe”? Really??? I heard that some bikes piled up on each other with some dude hitting the pavement. PVE has gone to shit under Tony Dahlerbruch, that is for sure.
Bluff Cove is turning into a seriously bad place where people from outside PVE come and cause trouble. I just saw PVE police at the trailhead dealing with some thugs on motorcycles and a low-rider type car (it seemed) who were yelling and screaming for a long time in front of the houses on Paseo del Mar. I am pretty sure that the two officers were doing their best, from what I could hear, to be “buddies” with these thugs, complementing a guy’s motorcycle and acting chummy. I seriously think our police department and city officials are not tied tightly at all to the residents’ interests.
A big problem with our PD is its officers relate far more to outsiders coming here from less prosperous cities or the few local misfits (Bay Boys) than they do prosperous property owners who the officers consider petty for demanding lower-level crime enforcement. The PVE officers themselves feel petty, and of lower caliber themselves, having to engage in lower crime enforcement than their stronger peers in neighboring cities. Our officers’ egos actually are compelling them NOT to enforce lower level “petty” laws. I’ve even heard the Chief call a vehicular law “petty” and thus not worthy of enforcement. I suppose in La Habra (where he lives and used to work), murders and robbery happened enough that disturbing the peace, an illegal wedding/party house, and illegal vehicular activity were so far down the list that the officers AND residents didn’t care much about those. But HERE in PVE is different – we bought homes/pay taxes/live here to get away from both hard AND petty crime. This is something PVEPD refuses to support, and that the City Council and Dahlerbruch refuse to insist upon the PD.
Most are guys that couldn’t handle a real police department. Prob academy rejects or failed probation
Anyone else totally sick and tired of lazy ass PVE po po unwilling to get out of their comfy squad cars to write any one of these obnoxious, lane blocking cyclists swarming PV Drive West and Paseo del Mar on weekends? The CVC is super clear on what is illegal – bikes can’t impede vehicular traffic by cycling at speed lower than the normal flow of cars unless they are passing a parked car or another slower cyclist. So what does PVE PD do when they see this happening? NOTHING, of course. Just yesterday I saw what takes the cake. Two law breaking bicyclists riding side by side blocking cars while another guy behind them solo in middle of the road, all riding uphill at maybe 1/3 the speed limit. But wait, that’s not the best/worst part. Who was in the front of the line of cars being held back? PVE PD squad car, happily eating his donut and not even using his mic to tell bikers to pull over or to give them a ticket. I was so blown away I called and asked who was on duty at that time and location, and sure enough, it was some ahole officer already on this wal of shame. ERICK GAUNT!
There is an email going around PV today that I hate to say shocked me. I learned a lot and I guess people reading it may find out about this website from it too. The short version is that PVE police chief is such a loser who won’t lead his officers to do their job of law enforcement that some douchebag named Michael Barraclough had the nerve to alert the public that he and 150 of his buddies have signed up to ride their bikes illegally in protest around the city next Tuesday afternoon at rush hour when everyone’s driving home from work. The law against riding one bike, much less 150, in the middle of a car lane is not hard to figure out, but this a-hole seems to think he deserves the same lane location as cars even though he isn’t pedelling his scrawny shaved legs fast enough to go the speed limit that cars are driving. And Kepley is such a pussy that the guy who wrote the email predicts the police won’t even issue any tickets. WTF WTF WTF???????????????????????????????
I don’t know how this took so long to leak out, but he word out of PVE City Hall is that Tony Dahlerbruch was forced to schedule abruptly an “all hands” meeting in early April to reassure PVE staff that a story going around that PVEPD Chief Jeff Kepley was getting fired/force-retired was untrue or premature. This happened around the time of the lawsuit being filed against Kepley relating to the Lunada Bay Boys.
You know things are not going well for your career when someone has to do THAT for you!
The PVE police are a joke. We were harassed and assaulted by a drunken neighbor who tried to run us over in the street with their car, and we called PVE PD who took a “report”. When our attorney went into a judge for a restraining order he said the police report was a pile of junk with so little details or so few facts that the judge could not possibly issue a TRO.
And then let me tell about the time my car was stolen in PVE and when I found it, apparently PVE PD couldn’t… it had several days of PVE Parking tickets all over it. Prior to that, the PVE PD had actually caught the thief after she ran a stop in my car – and drove her home to her mama – not arresting her and they (the PD) parked it in that no parking zone.
And then there was a time Belda pulled me over at the corner of PVE Dr N and Via Valmonte for allegedly running the stop three miles earlier at PVDN and City Hall… only I hadn’t even gone that way, guess all the grey SUVs look the same…. And it took three PVE PD cars to do it, squad car , Sgt SUV and the Lt’s car.. guess they were really out looking for the home invasion at the realtor’s house the night before.
Ha ha wanna get away with the perfect crime ? Do it in PVE !
Well the PVE PD effed it up again, weak report results in no prosecution, or was it done on purpose ????
“DA declines to prosecute Lunada Bay surfer quietly arrested by Palos Verdes Estates police”
http://www.dailybreeze.com/lifestyle/20160527/da-declines-to-prosecute-lunada-bay-surfer-quietly-arrested-by-palos-verdes-estates-police.
By Ed Pilolla, The Daily Breeze and Megan Barnes, Daily Breeze
Arthur – based on the PVEPD’s prior, apparently longstanding negligence in dealing with what Tony Dahlerbruch called an “urban legend,” it seems obvious that you are right on track as to what happened:
PVEPD got sued for negligence for non-enforcement of various laws allegedly being broken by Bay Boys. Kepley knows his department can present the evidence with his department’s special spin and just the right inclusions/exclusions to accomplish his apparent goal: validation for the preposterous claim that the Bay Boys are not criminals and thus the PVEPD has not been negligent in deterring criminal activity in PVE. After all, what could be a better defense for Kepley et. al. than being able to say, “We presented our police report but the District Attorney declined to prosecute”? The Coalition is extremely confident that this is precisely the ruse utilized by the PVEPD as it is precisely the game the PVEPD’s Aaron Belda, Steve Barber and John Eberhard (via tacit consent) played with the D.A.’s office during the Belda 2012 trespassing/assault/obstruction of call for police assistance crimes (see Belda section above).
Yeah, doesn’t take a rocket scientist or Columbo or Magnum PI or CSI PVE to figure out that Kepley went through the charade of arresting a Bay Boy AFTER THE LAWSUIT WAS FILED (that just shows how behind the curve he is – anyone smart would have seen the lawsuit coming and arrested the guy first) so he could show the judge that PVE had such great judgment in not arresting the guy all along. Really, folks, how f’n corrupt are these POS?
This is something you won’t see lazy PV police officers Steve Lebeau, Alex Gonzales, Brad Lemon, and especially Luke Hellinga ever do! God forbid they kill two birds with one stone by reducing illegal parking and raising revenues for the city:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/thousands-watch-car-get-parking-ticket-live-in-los-angeles/ar-BBtqpM0?ocid=spartandhp
I had a run in with [REDACTED] in 1992, he bruised up my wrists quite badly as a former PVHS award winning music peer in 1978’s class. His buddy officer screwed my mother and I was scared of him when he stopped me on my motor scooter at the 25 mph speed trap up the hill. I took off hoping to leave the city’s boundaries slipping out of sight but they called a back up. I got 220 community service hours for reckless driving on a 50 cc scooter trying to get to the city borders and they actually requested me to work 50 hours on the freeway as well. They were a-holes. Here’s a glimpse of their activities back in the 1990’s with Coach George Allen you may find interesting. http://cherylkicksass.blogspot.com/2011/02/police-officers-sick-evil-brotherhood.html
NOTE FROM SITE: Out of fairness to one accused of serious wrongdoing, supported by hearsay vs. first hand evidence, under the Coalition’s policy the PVEPD officer’s name above has been redacted. The Coalition may inform the PVEPD officer of your accusation and give him an opportunity to refute your claims. Should he do so, the matter will be one of he said/she said, and his name remain redacted.
Mayor Jen getting BBQ’d in the Daily Breeze comments sections, a few samples….
LOL Daily Breeze sister publication PV News is refusing to allow comments on their posting of this article including some of these comments.
•
The PVE PD does not arrest any one because they don’t WANT to arrest any one. It all starts with the old senile out of touch lawyers on the city council who are giving no directions to lead the city. They are too busy trying to steal open space from the public and give it to their cronies.
•
She needs to keep her job – and knows that the non locals can’t vote against her.
It really isn’t a “job” – it’s a volunteer elected position. But, i agree with your sentiment. She is a failed mayor, and these delusional comments prove it.
•
Nice try on the PR Spin Mayor but it falls far short from the truth. Let’s face it, the local police have looked “the other way” for years and now it’s finally caught up to everyone who have not bothered to resolve the situation.
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the Mayor is simply saying whatever the City Attorney is telling her to say. She was a fine Planning Commissioner and is doing her best with what the City Manager and City Attorney have messed up for her. Hogin was the mastermind behind the failed land swap and advised the City to appeal it on very flawed grounds. Hogin has also advised the city on many other flawed policies including the surfing issue.
So answer me this – if you have a [city] attorney [Christi Hogin] who you trust but you keep getting sued and losing, what would you do? Fire her and her confidant Tony Dahlerbruch. For more information Google Save PVE from Tony D and you will learn the extensive history of these two.
I don’t know how much the City stands to lose on this lawsuit, but the plaintiffs in the failed land swap were awarded nearly a half million dollars! The city is at risk of going bankrupt with the damages the surfer lawsuit could bring. I would hope for sanctions against the city attorney as well.
•
Remember that Ms King IS an attorney as are 4 of the 5 council members, so she should be able to see a bad position as it is. Needs to show leadership and not blame the media on this.
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” – William Shakespeare, Hamlet
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The News Media “DID NOT” create the news Ms. Mayor! Your dirt-bag surfers did and you know it! Your police chief refuses to do his job and stop the harassment of other surfers and you know that to!
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Now do YOUR job Ms. Mayor and order your police chief to get off of his butt and do his damn job or hire someone who will!
Most egregiously dishonest quote of the month winner – Jennifer King:
““Despite the news media’s characterization,” she added, “we do not tolerate unlawful activity and our Police Department is dedicated to and focused on protecting and preserving public safety. … Our city administration is focused on ensuring our residents and local businesses — as well as visitors — are treated fairly and equitably, and that our open areas remain attractive and available for public use.”
Either she is a total liar (my bet) or totally clueless.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/lifestyle/20160511/palos-verdes-estates-mayor-blames-media-coverage-of-surfers-for-insinuating-the-city-ignores-complaints
Did you all know that the PVE PD “klan” works only 3 days/week to “earn” their $150,000 – $200,000+ compensations? Imagine what a sweet joke this gig truly is. Don’t really enforce any laws, pull over the occasional out of towner and cite him for some random drivers license offense, and pretty much just drive around in circles like some Uber driver with an ocean view route. Where can I sign up?!?
Oh, indeed we are aware of how insanely overpaid (out of PVE property tax payers’ wallets) is this group of “law enforcers.” Nearly $7,000,000.00 per year in cash virtually flowing out of residents’ pockets and into those of clowns like Aaron Belda, Steve Lebeau, Steve Barber, Alex Gonzales, Tony Gonzales, and Erick Gaunt wouldn’t hurt so much if not for the fact that barely a trickle of hard crime enters PVE, day in an day out.
Compare these two crime reports from the past week from two cities sharing a border, and ponder how absurdly lucky are the PVEPD officers who not only have nearly zero risk of physical harm, but close to zero risk of physical exertion (unless getting a butt cramp from sitting in a squad car counts):
Palos Verdes Estates: click here
Torrance: click here
This wannabe smooth operator Kepley keeps on feeding the media machine that is exposing PVE corruption like never before. See CBS story below:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lawsuit-against-lunada-bay-boys-surfers-for-threats-and-violence/
At some point the PVE City Attorney is going to have to put a muzzle on this moron’s mouth. Does he not realize that when he speaks, it’s like someone pulled down a legal “slot machine” and gold “coins” come flying into the bin?
http://www.dailybreeze.com/lifestyle/20160413/arrests-elusive-for-surfing-localism-at-lunada-bay-in-palos-verdes-estates
Some real zingers:
Showing the uselessness of his officers in enforcing laws: “Officers gave Reed and Wright the opportunity to make a citizen’s arrest”.
Showing how Kepley think law “enforcement” means “education”: “I’m trying to work with the surfers collaboratively and express the importance of acting properly, taking the right approach with out-of-town surfers and not crossing the line.” Note that this is the KEY problem w/ the PVEPD – they love the feckless approach of warning law breakers, but eschew delivering any real consequences.
Making life easier for plaintiffs’ attorneys: “Kepley said threatening arrests in Lunada Bay “would be inflammatory to the surfers and cause a rift between us, and I can’t have that right now.”
When is the City Council going to wake up and realize that their golden boy Dahlerbruch is truly a dark soul, and that this man made a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge mistake hiring Jeff Kepley to be “chief” of the PVEPD? Standing on the streets of New York, seeing our fine city being shamed by Jeff Kepley and his merry crew of do-nothings makes me want to cry.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/us/california-surfers-look-to-courts-for-relief-against-bay-boys.html
The following written communication was just transmitted to Chief Kepley by a PVE resident who demanded investigation of alleged repeat misconduct by PVEPD Service Officer David Drapeau (already on the Wall of Shame).
“Given the questionable tone you have set at the top of your department (based on my own significant experience augmented by the allegations made against you in the lawsuit filed last week (click here)), it can be no surprise to anyone that those under your leadership (e.g., Drapeau, Lebeau, Barber) continue to believe that their misconduct qualifies as “the highest level of professional service to our residents.” I certainly have little to no faith that you, and thus your officers, can or will be rehabilitated in my lifetime. Justice is coming.”
Exemplary of Kepley’s now notorious reputation for disregarding and deflecting criticism (why shouldn’t he, after all, since Tony Dahlerbruch and the City Council aren’t going to do anything about his failure to enforce the law), Kepley replied as follows:
“Thank you for your added thoughts …”
Welcome to Palos Verdes Estates …
“There is no Mafia operating in the U.S.” J. Edgar Hoover
“The Bay Boys are not a gang.” PVEPD Chief Jeff Kepley
Enough said, hope the PVE insurance policy can handle the verdict, and hope to see a PVE LASD substation soon!
[The lawsuit against Kepley is a ] very interesting read. In a normal city – continued incompetence would lead to new leadership in the city hall and departments. In this city … we replace 3 open council seats without an election – continuing the non-disruptive-to-the-status quo government. I hope this lawsuit at least stirs up things.
In the meantime, the city has some grand illusion that a restrictive law against short term rentals will somehow get enforced by the same “small” police force that Kepley claims in the filing that has inadequate resources to investigate the criminal activity in Lunada Bay …. and, obviously, the same “limited” resources to investigate and enforce the laws against 605 Paseo del Mar [Desire Meli Kocarslan].
The talk of the town today is Jeff Kepley sued for negligent law enforcement!
Well, when your city’s police department takes 99.3% of your property taxes but refuses to do their highly paid job of enforcing the law, I suppose yesterday’s lawsuit filed against PVE was inevitable.
Here are the key hyperlinks:
The Actual Lawsuit (click here): The Actual Lawsuit this is an incredible read; you will be astonished at how the PVEPD/Jeff Kepley shirked his sworn duty to enforce the California Penal Code.
Lunada Bay surfer gang targeted by class-action lawsuit; click here (LA Times, 03/29/2016)
Opinion: Gang injunction? Not if you’re an affluent surf thug in Palos Verdes; click here (LA Times, 03/30/2016)
Federal lawsuit claims Palos Verdes Estates surfers are a criminal street gang; click here (Daily Breeze, 03/29/2016) ”
Reading the police chump chief Kepley’s comments (click here), and those of Tony Dollarbroke, really scared me. Anyone reading the articles can tell that the police department’s culture is now superglued to being one that will not engage in any rigorous law enforcement. They seem to stick to the break and butter stuff where they don’t have to take much risk like walk down into a cove without a dozen backups, or sweat too much by leaving their squad car’s heated seat. This is not what $7,000,000 per year should buy the residents.
Your comment makes sense to most watching things go south in PVE. It’s so bad now that many with whom we speak are confident that if a PVEPD officer arrives to see a law has been broken that he WON’T issue a citation or make an arrest. Laziness combined with not wanting to draw too much attention to themselves and their sweet gig making a fortune faking law enforcement just has to be the motivating factor. Worst part? As long as Dahlerbruch is City Manager, this will not change.
Its not surprising to s Captain Velez using his city email address for personal reasons. Lets ask this big and important question:
1. How does a lawyer function when he had a full time job and or is paid to be at work 40 hours a week. How do his cases get filed in court and or meet with his clients?
2. How does Mr. Velez attend court hearing during the week when he is paid to be at work? Does he tell the court “wait a minute, I can’t be there cause I’m a full time police captain” I think not……. I can almost guarantee he has mixed his police work hours with his personal work hours as well.
3. Does he have a city car he takes home? Let’s have an audit done on fuel, miles and usage.
4. How about his cellular telephone, love to know if he uses the city cellular phone for his law firms business as well.
It’s really time to put an end to this, hold people accountable and do the right thing. Mr. (Captain) Velez draws a very hefty salary with benefits that taps into the 7 million the residents pay for police services. The cat’s out of the bag Mr. Velez, time to be held accountable for your actions…….
From the Cal Bar website, why does Velez use his PVE email for his own personal attorney reference?
Attorney Search
Mark Anthony Velez – #282718
Current Status: Active
This member is active and may practice law in California.
See below for more details.
Profile Information
The following information is from the official records of The State Bar of California.
Bar Number: 282718
Address: 3627 W 227th St
Torrance, CA 90505
Map it Phone Number: (310) 375-6264
Fax Number: Not Available
e-mail: mvelez@pvestates.org
County: Los Angeles
Undergraduate School: Univ of Redlands; Redlands CA
District: District 2
Sections: None Law School: Southwestern Univ SOL; Los Angeles CA
Status History
Effective Date Status Change
Present Active
6/1/2012 Admitted to The State Bar of California
Is anyone with an IQ over 50 buying this latest in a huge PR wave designed by wannabe real police chief Jeff Kepley? I don’t know if you saw this week’s Daily Breeze fluff piece where Kepley poses as a real, engaged law enforcer, but here it is:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/lifestyle/20160124/palos-verdes-estates-police-keep-watchful-eye-on-bay-boys
This article is precious as pie. Kepley makes the hollow claim that he can’t wait to arrest a Bay Boy but they can “see him coming the whole time”. Gee, Kepley, I’m not sure if they were teaching this at the Academy or if you have watched any of a dozen crime dramas on TV in the past 20 years, but there is something called “going undercover” and it seems to be more than a tad bit effective! Does the name Johnny Utah ring a bell?
It’s sad and funny at the same time how every time this guy opens his mouth to a reporter he exposes himself as a useless fool. But the joke remains on the resident taxpayers paying him $225,000+/year in total comp while the entire PVEPD consumes 99% of the property taxes from the entire city.
Having talked to a bunch of angry PVE residents I know this site was long overdue. It’s common knowledge that this chief Kepley is putting on a charade of real law enforcement. I even got a forwarded email by the MCHA where Kepley was doing his version of “Mission Accomplished” due to a few arrests and a week or so without a half dozen burglaries. You kidding me? This guy is a disgrace.
I think I can let this article on PVE’s slow, confused and plodding targeting of a harmless “surf shack” (as its version of law enforcement against the real but requiring effort/skill/care crimes of assault, vandalism, etc) speak volumes itself on the apathy, ineptitude and sheer absurdity of PVE City government under Tony Dahlerbruch and PD under Jeff Kepley:
http://www.pvnews.com/news/pve-surf-shack-illegal/article_d5fe16c8-c568-11e5-bd98-03ecf81c82f8.html
In Response to Burglar Fled into PVE to Escaoe Succesfully:
Agreed! A burglar, a murderer, a petty thief and even a person holding up a big neon sign that says I’m the one your looking for!!!! I DID IT!!! Will not be caught by PVE police. The sad part of this article is how the sheriff’s deputies had to rely upon incompetence to help them. And they had to play nice because they were in the PVE jurisdiction. 7 million dollars a year wasted on PVE Police. If this was a deputy handle then we would be hearing about how quickly they were caught.
How sad is this that the police department who says they have extra patrol officers out on the streets in plain clothes capacity didn’t even catch the perp….. It was LASD in PVE.
Once again I say let’s look at the work PVE Police does that the sheriffs department couldn’t do ten folds better.
I guarantee you the sheriff’s volunteers on patrol or security officers working the courts have more experience then the PVE Police do!!
Come on folks basic police work here! I think the citizens should hold an academy for the PVE Police officers to show them common sense and police work. It should still be titled Citizens Academy but with a twist at the end that says “Teaching PVE Police How to Police”.
So sad but yet so true!!!!!
Even the RPV burglars have learned that if you want to get away, flee from your crime site INTO Palos Verdes Estates where Kepley’s bumbling brigade struggle to find water when wandering around Lunada Bay! Check out this article where you can read how the “Slow Jam” of guys like Aaron Belda and Steve Barber, even when helped by a copter and pooch, had to give up. Homie wins yet again.
http://www.pvnews.com/news/search-for-suspected-burglars-locks-down-two-schools/article_1c25f1f6-b99e-11e5-8042-2f25b4954c27.html
This site is great. I love how some of those cops actually pose almost for the camera.
Whoever put this site together, THANK YOU!!!! I found out about it from the LA Times article on Lunada Bay surfers and now I am reading about our police department taking nearly all of our property taxes but too lazy or envious or angry at successful, supposedly snobby people who paid that money to them to enforce laws effectively, or at all??!! The City Council clearly is asleep or doesn’t give a shit since it’s other people’s money being spent while they get some silly sense of prestige from being mayor or a councilperson. Maybe the police watch the council’s homes extra special or salute them when out. It’s all just disgusting that someone hasn’t shown up in local government and said, “What the f*&k is going on here? We’re spending how much money on the police department????? And this is the same department that needs to be screamed at to get off their butts and enforce laws?” Someday but probably not in my lifetime someone will sneak onto the council and put an end to it. It won’t be without sneaking because the ol’ boys’ and girls’ club only let people on who are going to go along with them.
My husband and I have lived in PVE for decades. We’ve lived through over a half dozen police chiefs, and let me just tell you what has happened in the last few years.
It really started going bad when this fellow Tony Dahlerbruch was hired. He does not live in PVE, and spent a bunch of time in Beverly Hills working here before going to Rolling Hills to be City Mgr. There is virtually no crime in Rolling Hills. So this “Tony D” has no clue about how a police department should be run or about crime waves like now with the burglaries.
So being pretty much a neophyte on law enforcement, Tony D has John Eberhard, David Hinig and now Jeff Kepley as three horrible police chiefs in charge of the PVE PD. Tony D hired the last two guys, so he is entirely to blame. The last good chief was a man named Dan Dreiling. He was tougher on the officers in terms of performance and discipline, whereas now there really is no discipline to speak of according to guys I know inside the department. Kepley is out to do 3-5 years in PVE and then convert his “chiefdom” to something higher and mightier elsewhere and less of a commute. The stories about Capt. Mark Velez on this site all fit what I have heard about the guy too.
It’s sad. We really are starting to wonder what happens in a City Council meeting. Does not anyone look at the budget and yell in shock when they see nearly $7,000,000 going to a police department in a very low crime city, and one in which the police have made no noticeable impact on burglary wave? Think about what you can do with $7,000,000 a year instead of how it’s spent? You could buy a bunch of used cop cars for $10,000 each and park them all over the city with high-end manikins in them, and let the crooks try to figure out which are real. I’ll be that would cut down the burglaries at a fraction of the cost of these $170,000 per year officers driving in circles.
Bravo!!! Well said Lizzie!!!
Dan Dreiling was a good chief however he picked his pal John Eberhard as his successor. This was one hundred percent s pension spike case, immoral, unethical and borderline deceitful and illegal. Dan Dreiling was also painted into a corner with his un-trustworthy Captain Velez. There was something internally there that both men will take to their graves. Police corruption is not a new topic in PVEPD it’s been going on for well over twenty years. Can anybody corroborate this story. Didn’t the major crimes division of the sheriffs department investigate many years ago.
7 million dollars could get this department a professional organization like the sheriffs department. With even a helicopter too.
Each deputy along with a vehicle and 40 hours of patrol time would cost the city approximately 145k per year. Please dont confuse this being the deputies salary, we are talking about every tool necessary to do effective and proactive policing The best part is if something major happend you would have close to a hundred well trained deputies on scene. All at no extra charge.
Mr. Confidential, you are spot on in your argument for using the Sheriff’s Department. The City of Malibu, some 27 miles long pays only $6.5 million and gets all the resources that the Sheriff’s have. There are 13,000 residents in Malibu, but for the three months of summer they get almost 15 million visitors. The Sheriff’s have a beach team, helicopter and a lot of proactive deputies that keep the law breakers in check. I am sure PV could get a great contract from the Sheriff’s Department for less than they are currently paying to have their own police force.
It’s official – Kepley is a magnet for bad press. Everyone is now getting in on the joke of nearly all our property taxes going to the PVEPD and in return we get a bunch of Uber drivers doing laps around the city from the comfort of their new squad cars.
http://www.latimes.com/local/crime/la-me-lunada-bay-20151230-story.html
Let me give you my two cents:
I read the article and laughed, I laughed when I read “officers are out working extra”. I also recently saw a news report about the burglaries and once again read “extra officers are out in force”.
I read your posts and see the officers on the wall of shame and I say wow, finally a site that knows the truth about a band of misfits. I ask myself is this an insider from the department who writes these posts. I’m very pleased with the transparency that is finally displayed.
Close to a 6.5 million dollar a year budget is what the police department costs the city and taxpayers. Do you understand the type of resources the city can get for 4 million dollars by contracting with the La County Sheriffs Department. Look at some of the cities they contract with now. When there is a spike in crime they can assign 50 deputies to suppress it. And these deputies have the knowledge, experience and background to suppress crimes. Some of these deputies have handled more crimes in a week in the job than all of the PVE officers, sergeants and a certain captain may see in 20 years on the job.
Listen Tony D came from a city that contracted law enforcement services with the sheriff’s department. Let’s push him to start negotiations with LASD. We can have an army of officers at our disposal in an emergency. Now we would only have the ones who aren’t drunk at home or at a local bar in Redondo ignoring the calls on their phones that pop up private cause its from the police station.
I surely don’t want anyone to lose their jobs who truly deserve them. However what this will do is start a process for the possibility of PVE police officers becoming lateral candidates with the sheriffs department. They can become deputies, go back through formalized training and most importantly be transferred out of PVE and somewhere else in the county. That’s if they pass the process first. Almost every PVE officer is a training reject/ termination from another department.
I can guarantee you 3/4 of the department both on the sworn and non-sworn side won’t even enter the background process with LASD and will automatically be rejected.
The time has come in law enforcement for transparency, equality and trust. The era of policing that PVE exhibits is One without trust.
Come on fellow residents step up and let’s cast a ballot to turn our local police agency into a contract agency with LASD.
If you guys still have the investigation going on against Jeff kepley, give me a call any time is ok, I am awake
[Phone # Redacted]
I may have some info, or e-mail me but I usually don’t check my e-mail often you can text me too.
Why doesn’t the tipper just post the evidence via a comment on this string? Let the site decide what to redact and what to keep.
Maybe Mark Velez, perhaps, can explain how hypothetically he would feel about the size of the Los Alamitos Police Department being nearly 1/2 of that here in PVE (see photo below or click here), despite nearly TRIPLE the natural crime rate (2013 crime index of 204 in Los Alamitos vs. PVE only at 74). With Todd Mattern about to retire as Chief over there, I’m guessing they are looking for an honest guy to run the department instead of someone running a law firm on the side and who reportedly encouraged outright police corruption with Aaron Belda in 2012?
Whoever you know in Los Alamitos seems to be plugged in, because this is what I was told today by a secret source in the City Mgr’s office. Velez’s application was rejected and they have picked Mattern’s replacement but not told anyone who it is yet. I don’t know if they found out about the Wall of Shame and how it has been said that Mark Velez either directed or worked with Aaron Belda in the police corruption that was committed in late 2012. Either way, it sure seems like nobody wants to work under Captain Keystone Kepley – Mr. a-new-stupid-idea-every-day clueless wizard of PVE.
It is about time somebody called out Mark Velez and did it appropriately. How can a captain who oversees patrol and investigations practice criminal defense law on the side. Unethical and illegal wouldn’t you agree. Whose not to say a case or two has been swept under the rug or not been presented to the district attorney involving a defendant from PVE and Attorney/Captain Velez. Let’s start probing this and I can guarantee you something very very illegal will be uncovered.
Hypothetically, let’s just say that I work for the PVEPD. Let’s just say, for argument’s sake then, that PVE should be ashamed to have as one of its police captains Mark Velez, aka “El Professor”, aka “I Run a Shady, Two-bit Law firm on the side”. This guy is the most duplicitous POS PO ever to wear a badge in this department. If he’s smiling at you, he’s screwing you over the next minute. Look out boss because now that he’s been rejected by Los Alamitos, he’s coming for your job. You better work faster at trying to parlay your gig here into something bigger and better real fast.
Well said… I remember an email going to folks within the department asking for their support of him in his endeavor to make chief. Listen Mark Velez may think he knows it all… Maybe book smart but he sure isn’t street wise at all. I’m surprised he can run a law firm and still be allowed to work as a sworn police captain. Where is the wonderful Daily Breeze on this subject. Some good investigative reporting ,on this guy would open some nice indictments and or an early road to retirement. Velez and Paul Tanakas career have similarities. Paul got caught and so will Mark. Mark Velez’s career dissipation light has gone into overdrive as soon as Dan Dreiling left. The big problem for him now is how do I find dirt on this chief and use it against him to get what I want. As an attorney who also holds a 40 hour a week job as a Captain how many times do you think he has used his city car, city time and city resources (cell phone) to meet clients, file personal cases and or do personal work? It is the era of public records requests. Let’s make some requests and put the pieces of the puzzle together for the Feds to look into. The city of Bell and its corruption era had professors teaching them how to be corrupt from the City of PVE. We deserve better police officers and surely a better police department. Time to ring the bell…. You seem to be a smarter and ethical person. Get the sheriffs department ball rolling, bring them in to replace the rest of the yahoos you work with, advance your career and Promote!!!! Right now the department struggles with local surfers and burglars!!!! Imagine a major incident occurring, which agency will come to save the day?
Hearing that nice guy (vs. douchebag Lebeau/Barber) but lame captain Tony Best is leaving the PVEPD. Can this be confirmed? Would be great to have that high cost body off the budget.
Captain Tony Best is exactly what this city and department needs, however if he does leave then the next department to hire him can utilize him for his many talents that he has.
He has been handicapped by the improper tactics and unethical behavior exhibited by the former chiefs and who else Mark Velez.
Tony is a positive anchor to have, one who is fair and can think outside the box. But Tony if you’re looking at leaving best of luck to you and continued happiness and success as well.
Called in to report a noise violation recently and got this a-hole Drapeau on the phone. Talk about a guy who clearly doesn’t give a shit about anything but collecting his paycheck and trolling back to his shanty in Torrance to sleep all day! Come on PVE we can do better than dicks like this.
I want to start saying there is absolutely close to nothing the PD can do to stop someone bad from going into a resident’s back yard, breaking a window, and trying to burglarize them. The rash of burglaries this month (click on this) in town was going to happen if we had the best or worst police department. Clearly, there is a burglary wave going through PVE, and it probably will take blind luck that someone gets caught because the he trips while running away or leaves his prints all over the place. Again, our pretty useless police department’s detectives are notorious for their lameness in catching bad guys. By the way, here are the bad guys (click here; they should easily stand out in PVE)
What IS a joke though is Jeff Kepley sending out an E-mail writing about how hard the police department is working to catch the bad guys (they have failed – caught nobody; click on this). Part of me is pretty sure that Kepley and his officers love when there is crime like this because it scares the residents, mostly the elderly, and makes them feel like they need the mostly lazy badge wearers in the department. Again, let’s be straight here – PVEPD is not responsible for the increase in burglars, but it also isn’t accomplishing anything to decrease the burglar count.
STOP TRYING TO SCARE THE OLD PEOPLE IN PVE, KEPLEY.
Luke Hellinga seems to be on the uptick in a certain neighborhood having exerted some real effort to track down yet another out-of-town law breaker at his home in Torrance, delivering formal notice of his crime in warning form. Supposedly, seems the DA’s office has given PVE police a never-ending gift to laziness by saying misdemeanor lawbreakers should get a warning before being given a citation. The theory is this way the repeat offender can’t claim ignorance of the law. So, giving a shout out to Hellinga for making the effort to find the culprit in Torrance and at least move the football closer to the real enforcement end zone. Unfortunately, since Hellinga stands by his overall anti-citation stance (you can see his rap sheet on this above), I can’t say he deserves to be taken off the Wall of Shame. Let’s hope for some citations in 2016.
Was out to dinner with some locals from PVE this week and heard an appalling story of Erick Gaunt, in the middle of the night around 1 am, using his crazy loud police horn purely in an attempt to wake up a resident in PVE with whom Gaunt has a beef. This story is not fabricated but is 100% true as not one but two residents confirmed it happened. Gaunt not only did this upon his arrival to the resident’s home location, but then did it again upon departure. Chief of Police Jeff Kepley condones this kind of misconduct? Does Shannon Gaunt approve of her (current or ex) husband behaving this way and thus sullying the family name?
Ignoring for the moment past refusals by the PVEPD to issue citations to lawbreakers, I had a good experience this morning with Officer Crisfield, Officer Belda and Srgt. Gonzalez. Notorious repeat lawbreaker Desire Kocarslan (aka Melahat Uzumcu) at 605 Paseo Del Mar had someone, in typical disregard for both the law and her neighbors, mowing her lawn waking us all up too early on a Saturday morning. According to Crisfield a formal written citation with a fine (finally) was issued at the property. Let’s all pray that this wasn’t a Halloween trick, and we will be treated to more citations against disturbing lawbreakers in the future.
Nina – unfortunately it has taken many years of Desire Kocarslan or her old name Melahat Uzumcu breaking the law for her to get a simple written citation from the PVE police department. Rather than waste a lot of ink here, just go check out http://605paseodelmar.com. You may be astounded by her “Litigation Wall” and other things she’s done. Her getting citations from Tony Gonzalez is way, way overdue. City Hall (not the PVEPD) gave her such a zero-impact fine for her wedding house shenanigans that she told a reporter “Who cares?” when asked about it. Click here to read that one.
Another week without reported crime, another mystery as to why we are giving all our property taxes to PVE Police Dept!
http://www.pvnews.com/news/crime-report-for-oct/article_f9641aa0-783c-11e5-941d-0febf4fedf7b.html
Uh huh, that’s right, PVE had nothing in the crime report, again. How could a city like PVE or Rolling Hills ever justify giving all that property tax to police a nearly hard-crime free city? I can understand a place in S. Central L.A. doing that, but what the hell is going through the City Council’s head letting Tony Dahlerbruch give all that money away for this?
Heard around town that Alex Gonzales, sorta newbie at the PVE police dept, has turned quite rotten under this Steve Lebeau character described above. What was being talked about this weekend was that last week Gonzales was presented with clear evidence (like 100% sure) of a crime being committed but refused to issue even a citation, instead just waving off the law breaker. Worse is that supposedly Chief Jeff Kepley was alerted to this, and Kepley supported this abuse of discretion, stating that Gonzales could do this “for no reason at all”. Yep, that’s what he stated. PVE police can arbitrarily, without any reason, make law enforcement decisions under Jeff Kepley and Sgt. Steve Lebeau.
Steve Barber is a travesty of a cop from my own personal experience. This man does not care about PVE residents as he is not one of us but just takes tax money from us. I think he and his buddies in the PD sit around and laugh at how all the old fogies in PVE have no idea how they are “stealing” our money.
Let’s just dump the PVEPD entirely and go to the L.A. County Sheriff – look at what this guy did on Tuesday!
http://www.pvnews.com/news/sheriff-s-deputy-saves–year-old-woman-from-jumping/article_242784ea-6ddc-11e5-b38a-3332ceb5ecd0.html
Can you imagine anyone for our own city police either having the courage or instinct to pull this off? NO CHANCE
I was Googling Jeff Kepley and found this site and Holy S&%t, what a gold mine of information. 99.3% of our city’s property taxes are eaten up by this guy’s department? I couldn’t believe it until I looked at the actual links you provided and there it was: $6.6 million in from the residents and $6.6 million out to Kepley and Co. This is a city that hasn’t had a single murder in something like 15 or 20 years, and I can promise you that this department doesn’t have a secret sauce on making people not want to murder. Pretty much no robberies, virtually no rapes nor arson, and the thefts are like of Johnny’s skateboard or a bag of Cheetos. So a cop working here is basically pulling over the occasional DUI or expired plates or some random out of town guy in the wrong car. This requires the skinniest of skills and training, and pretty much 100% you are going home to your wife safe and sound every single night. So, I’d bet police officers would be willing to take a huge discount to the average LA County comp package in order to be able to look their wife in the eye and say “Hey honey, there is no chance I’m going to get hurt doing this job unless I die of boredom.” City Council should be designing the program to have junior lower paid guys working this junior level of police work, and get rid of the overpriced retreads like this Tony Gonzalez fellow. Use the money saved for something valuable, not a guy stripping us all of our taxes.
Let’s all say a prayer than Chief (Moron) Jeff Kepley sees this news and applies for a deputy job in Torrance, following George Bird out of PVE pronto:
Torrance police has job openings for police officers, civilian positions
http://www.dailybreeze.com/government-and-politics/20150917/torrance-police-has-job-openings-for-police-officers-civilian-positions
My daughter teaches at Peninsula High School. One Sunday she got 4 calls from a ‘person’ who threatened to rape her and do much more (worse). The person also called me at about 5 minutes after midnight.
I believe the PVE detective did a commendable job of finding the perp, getting a full confession and basically doing his job.
After the perp was arrested he ‘lawyered-up’ hiring the THEN CURRENT PVE MAYOR, George Bird, to defend him. George Bird was directly over the Police Chief and Detective. In my opinion, this was as corrupt and wrong as it could be. The PVE City Attorney said ‘well, it is not criminal.’ While I think it is, what happened to not having the APPEARANCE of impropriety? This is just another example of corruption … I’m sure there are many more.
You just can’t make this stuff up. While police in S. Central, or even RPV, are dealing regularly with hard criminals and getting paid a fraction of Kepley’s Keystone Cops, this is the kind of thing that makes its way into the very sparse PVE crime report:
“Sept. 3
Annoying Phone Calls
Between Aug. 22 and Aug. 27, a resident received annoying phone calls in the 400 block of Palos Verdes Drive West from a relative.”
Sgt. Steve Lebeau is just an outright liar. That much is clear – he claims that citation(s) are issued when they have not because he doesn’t have the guts to admit that he directs useless “enforcement” of the city’s laws. Worse, the guy seems actually to tell his dispatchers not to answer calls made to the station when he suspects the caller is someone he doesn’t want served. Indeed, this has happened not once but twice with Lebeau the guy in charge. First he puts the resident on permahold repeatedly, and then just has dispatchers Wellington or Menendez not answer the calls. This is our police department here everybody. Like it?
Kyle Shea arguably has earned the right to have his nomination to this Wall of Shame withdrawn following two excellent applications of law enforcement via written citation at the Bluff Cove trailhead. Realizing the near uselessness of issuing merely verbal warnings – which in fact provide incentive for others to become first-time law breakers as there is no material downside to doing do – Shea promptly arrived to catch two parties engaged in legal violations that had caused harm to the immediate community and took the simple next step of writing citations for the offenses. Nothing harsh, nothing heavy handed – just wrote the tickets citing the section of the law being violated and causing the law breakers to pay fines.
Basic, effective law enforcement via citation is what works, and thus what is expected by the local taxpayers being harmed by illegal acts (more often than not by out-of-PVE abusers of our natural resources along the water). Shea seems to get it, and since Lebeau wasn’t around to stop him writing a ticket justice was served. Time to remove Shea from this page? I think so. Ankur?
Jennifer’s comment, after some consideration, was deemed valid, leading the Coalition to remove Kyle Shea’s nomination and replace him with Sean Crisfield. Crisfield now has set the record for the youngest and fastest PVEPD officer to be nominated to the PVEPD Wall of Shame. Following recent dialog with Crisfield, he is nearly a lock for actual induction onto the Wall of Shame based on his ignorance of the facts and commitment to serving the interests and wellbeing of law breakers (such as Natasha Kossman) over those harmed by them.
I was out at a Malaga Cove pot luck block party this past weekend and heard some very bad things about Chief Jeff Kepley. Supposedly, most of the officers can’t stand him and think he’s way over his head running any department. Also, he has completely disrespected a wall full of former police chiefs by ordering their photos be removed from the department lobby entryway. How insecure must a guy be to do something as petty as this? Can’t we get a good police chief somehow? Eberhard and then this guy? Really????????
From what I have seen myself and read on this post, PVE police just don’t want to go through the effort of writing tickets or citations or whatever. It must be a nice gig driving around in circles never having to leave the comfort of your car or get out your pen to fill out a citation that might require the officer testify in court someday. Just issue useless warnings instead so that word gets out there is no downside to breaking municipal code or parking laws, fellas.
Let’s just say that any person like me who just happened to go to same high school as Alex Gonzales already knows how dumb this guy really is. Imagine Alex being laughed at all the time as he was seen looking at himself in every window reflection or saying something super retarded in class. That he became a cop pretty much is what I would expect as he couldn’t get any job requiring he use his little jock brain. We all got a great laugh last night when we Googled him and found this website. Imagine us having breakfast at a coffee shop and sitting here cracking up at the photo of him showing two fingers for his IQ score! Thanks for the laugh folks.
I know exactly how and why these PV cops are misusing “discretion” to cover up their laziness and negligence. The truth that is universally known in police departments is that the discretion card is supposed to be used ONLY when the violation committed was out of the reasonable control of the perpetrator. An example often used is if there is a muffler law and a guy is driving down the street and his muffler falls off (pretty much out of his control), and 10 minutes later the police catch this violation (not enough time for him to have repaired it). The law was not written with the intent of citing this driver with a violation. THIS IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THAN PEOPLE VIOLATING LAWS VOLUNTARILY AND IT IS WITHIN THEIR REASONABLE CONTROL NOT TO BE IN VIOLATION (think the illegal cat food people at Malaga Cove).
The time has come for the City to call “B.S.” on this discretion fallacy. It is bogus, and Kepley knows it.
Folks, here is the word out of some of my peeps in the PVE police dept. According to them, Jeff Kepley is an “absentee chief” who spends way, way too much time “down in Orange” near his home and family. He reportedly hates his commute and has been trying to leverage his premature promotion to a top police position in PV into a similar one closer to home. Oh, and let me not forget, pretty much everyone under him in PVE thinks he is a total lightweight. Coming from the featherweight capital of the world of police departments, that is sayin’ something!!
Anyone who is trusting Aaron Belda with a badge (his boss this Jeff Kepley) or her heart (some dumb foolish girl who is dating him) should ask him the following question: Are you, Aaron, the hard core married cheater going as ChetWesterhoffen@yahoo.com on AshleyMadison.com, the website for cheating married people, in 2011 when you were in the middle of your marriage to Katrina Lopez Belda? Hook this guy up to a polygraph when you ask him, and then compare his answer to the truth. YES, AARON BELDA IS AN UNETHICAL HORRIFIC MAN WHO SHOULD NOT BE TRUSTED WITH A BADGE!
The timing on this comment comes right after the highly publicized leak of AshleyMadison.com user/spouse-abuser information onto the web (click here). I suppose then that one can guess that Aaron Belda’s name, address and credit card were linked directly to an AshleyMadison.com user account, and now Belda has been exposed yet once again as an alleged adulterer. Yes, that’s right, this is the second time just this year that someone has presented evidence that this man who Jeff Kepley keeps employed to honor his oath to enforce the law couldn’t even keep his oath to remain faithful to his wife from 2011-2013, leading up to his February 2014 divorce filing from Katrina Lopez Belda. Great job, Chief Kepley, keeping Aaron Belda as one of “PVE’s finest.” Have you ever heard of “conduct unbecoming a police officer” (click here), or is that a new concept to you? How could any jury or prosecutor trust a statement made by this Aaron Belda with his lengthening list of ethical lapses (falsifying witness testimony, ignorance of PVE’s own municipal code, misconduct via faulty judgment in curb jumping onto a family occupied soccer field, affair in 2013 with Nadia while married – allegedly reportedly compelling her to remain in his apartment while wife was away by claiming FBI involvement and misstating his right to do so as a PVE police officer, and now this AshleyMadison.com issue). Any non-corrupt police chief, unlike you breaking your oath to the City and its residents, who took seriously his job even slightly, would terminate Belda immediately, but instead Belda continues to roam our city with his gun, badge and dishonor.
Before I found this post I thought maybe only my inner circle in PV thought so poorly of the police department here. But now I see it is widespread. The introduction I just read about discretion being abused really got straight to the point. I see this abuse by the lazy PVEPD officers ALL THE TIME. I wonder if they are just dumb or actually know they are engaging in misconduct. Discretion for an officer is intended for circumstances not intended to be targeted by the legislative branch who passed the law – for example if someone is parked illegally because someone stole one of their tires and they can’t drive away or if someone has a muffler violation because it fell off in the last hour while driving and both of these can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. It is not, however, to be used by officers when the law is being broken in a way envisioned by the legislature trying to prevent it. Again, ARE THESE OFFICERS WORKING FOR JEFFREY KEPLEY JUST STUPID, LAZY OR BOTH?
The Palos Verdes Estates po po is so desperate to appear useful or necessary that they are up to their old schtick of sending out silly E-mails about their “hard work”. Latest ones are not as absurd as the kidnapping van one earlier in summer, but I had to laugh at these:
“Advisory: Police and fire personnel quickly respond to brush fire at the end of Via Tejon. Fire under control.” and “Police and fire personnel quickly responded to a 3 acre brush fire on the parklands at the end of Via Tejon. The fire has been contained and police and fire personnel will be on scene for another 2 hours for clean up. No injuries have been reported and only brush and trees have been damaged”
— OK, what exactly did the police do to put out the fire? Did Jeff Kepley put on a firesuit, grab a hose and wander into the flames? Notice how the PVEPD put “police” before “fire” personnel? What precisely did they do – put a few cones on Via Tejon so cars would not enter? Couldn’t the city hire $10/hour staff to do this “police work”?
“Please, when you see suspicious vehicles, persons or activity, contact Police Dispatch at 310-378-4211 as soon as possible. Do not wait or hesitate or feel you are being a bother. This is what we do, call us right away.”
— OK, what you really “do” is drive around, write the occasional report, and pretty much never catch anyone in the very rare case of a burglary. Isn’t it obvious this got sent around by Kepley to create sense of fear and related need for protection? What a joke.
How many articles does Chief of Police Kepley need to be quoted in before the City Council realizes they hired a total dud?
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/may/18/california-surf-wars-lunada-bay-localism-surfing
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lunada-bay-20150716-story.html
http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/a-gang-of-rich-white-surfer-dudes-is-terrorizing-a-california-beach-town-721
http://www.dailybreeze.com/lifestyle/20150807/police-investigate-latest-apparent-case-of-surfing-localism-in-palos-verdes-estates
FIRE JEFF KEPLEY and bring in someone that will force his officers to get off their asses and do some real law enforcement!
Surfers,
Kepley sadly enough is totally clueless, insipid, feckless and also dishonest. Listen to this interview if you have any doubts:
http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2015/07/17/43700/how-surfer-gang-mentality-is-keeping-people-off-so/
The interviewer surprisingly solves the riddle quite quickly when slithering snake Kepley keeps citing the “only four reports in four years” statistic: people have stopped reporting the crime because they’ve just stopped going down into the war zone! Indeed, this is precisely the phenomenon citywide in PVE where people learn that the PVEPD doesn’t enforce laws with any real consequence, so they just stop calling the police (how is that for incentive to be a totally useless police department – less work down the road for being useless today). Kepley says, “No shootings … no stabbings” as if it would require that threshold of felony for him to make an arrest or issue a citation.
Kepley says he called into the radio station to dispel the widespread belief that the PVEPD just doesn’t (want to) respond. No, Jeff, we know once your rude dispatcher Hazel Menendez and Rupaul put down their donuts and coffee they probably will “respond” with a car dispatched, but nothing substantive EVER comes of it (fines, citations, and arrests? God forbid). Kepley loves saying how “committed” he is to law enforcement and even blows smoke saying he wants to arrest someone in the Bay Boys Gang, but pleads for a victim to “please report it” to him and “give him a chance.” Really, Jeff, you think by the time your lazy officers finally show up that the criminals will still be around, and that your pathetic crew actually even would confront, much less arrest, any of them? Why not put one of your mythical Parkland Rangers (is there even one yet) on a surfboard out there for a week and make a firsthand, immediate arrest? Or is that just too much work for your staff enjoying the comfort of their squad cars?
Ankur
I grew up in the South Bay in the 60’s-80’s but live in the OC now. This BS has been going on down there with these trust-fund thugs for decades but I don’t even blame these soft, entitled idiots anymore. The frequent and recent rationalizations of “there is no localism” and quasi-environmentalism of “keeping the bay clean of diapers from outsiders” is laughable but a sideshow. This is a law-enforcement problem that has been neglected with a series “Police Chiefs” that “lead” a “law-enforcement agency” of 20 or so cast-offs and re-treads that are better suited for the front lines of Knott’s Berry Farm or mall security. Okay let’s look at these statements from the head mall cop who couldn’t find a crook in San Quentin…. “Your council” and “local residences” are going to sort this out? When in the last 50yrs has this ever been sorted out? It sounds like a quote from the fat sheriff in “Mississippi Burning”. News flash when you sworn in, per 830.1 PC, I am pretty sure it included enforcing the laws of California but excluded categorizing street crimes, assaults, terrorist threats, vandalism and intimidation as media created episodes. If these were local “middle-aged men” terrorizing outsiders at an In n Out in Torrance or LASD/LAPD areas those involved would be arrested, tried and in prison with the problem solved. Any mention of “protecting” local residents from those seeking excessive calories or carbs would never enter the discussion. “Dealt with internally.” With all that has happened over the years, your feeble mind decided to take no action on this officer? If this was dealt with properly by Paul Bart and his nit-wit predecessors this would never had been a media event! Turn in your badge, gun and man card, purchase some Crocs and guard those rides!
Chuck has called it 100% right. The PVE Police Department run by Jeff Kepley is a farce. They seriously refuse to enforce the law – even though it is their job. Kepley and another guy named Mark Velez and a third named Tony Best think being a PVE cop means driving around in a squad car and giving tickets for registration violations. When confronted with someone who has broken the law, these guys don’t dare write a citation, much less do a really thorough investigation and then arrest someone. I heard from a surfer that the clown show at PVEPD is relying on getting the exterior home security camera footage from the house right above the trailhead at the Cove. BRILLIANT WORK fellas! Did anyone think to run a sting operation and catch a criminal in the act? Even then Kepley probably wouldn’t do anything serious because if you Google him and find the PVEPD Wall of Shame, it seems it’s endemic to his guys not to enforce the law effectively at all!
As a young mother residing here in PVE, I understand the significant value of feeling safe and protected. I will go to all means necessary to provide that security for my baby, as there is only so much she can do to protect herself.
As I’ve learned through other residents and have personally observed the shortfall of the PVEPD myself; I am truly both disappointed and disgusted by their independent choice to selectively enforce the law. Speaking with other active residents, we are appalled at the departments sloth and the “leadership” of Jeff Kepley.
The increase in pollution, support of Lunada Bay bullying, tolerance of graffiti, disruption of peace, parking in illegal zones and rude dispatchers are just a handful of issues seen on the surface. I was shocked to learn that the Chief of Police, Jeff Kepley, stand by and continues to employ corrupt officers, such as Aaron Belda.
For these reasons, I’m led to write this review and share these facts with as many PVE residents as well as neighboring cities and their residents with the hope that lawful change will occur. My wish as a mother is that the PVEPD will uphold their sworn commitment and oath to actively enforce the law and to provide the safety and protection that we all deserve.
You better be sitting down for this one. If you live in PVE you probably have deduced that before each officer’s shift, someone squirts superglue onto the squad car seat, making it impossible for the officer to get off his fat arse burning fossil fuels cruising “the hood”. Yeah, these dough boyz are L-A-Z-Y.
So what did Chief Kepley devise to solve the problem of no boots on the streets? Introducing VIPS and PRs – Volunteers in Patrol Support and Parkland Rangers. While idiots like Steve Lebeau and Tony Gonzalez may be chompin’ down donuts in the comfort of their cars for the princely sum of $170,000+/year in comp., for no pay at all one can be privileged with the tasks of the following: Watch for and report criminal activity, report safety hazards, conduct school security checks, conduct business district security checks, make vacation house checks, patrol parks, parklands and bluffs, report vandalism and graffiti, act as a resource for community information (directions/map assistance), conduct traffic control and crowd management during community events or disasters, search for missing persons, deliver material, property or documents to other police agencies or locations, post “No Parking” signs or barricades for special events. and finally remove hazards/clear pathways in Parklands as directed by authorized City Staff.
Wow – what a great idea. Now what exactly will be left over for (mega losers) Luke Hellinga and Aaron Belda to do????
I took a quick look at the PVE police website to see if I could find out more about this joke of a program. First I found this: “The mission of the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department is to provide an assurance of safety, comfort and tranquility to the community; while in this endeavor maintaining the utmost in professionalism, competence, integrity, and discipline.” Well, MISSION UNACCOMPLISHED!!!! Then I found the volunteer flyer and it was beyond words. There was a bunch of nonsense in there about how Kepley was doing you a favor if you worked for free for him, and how you would have to uphold this really high standard. I mean, seriously, really? Has he looked around his own officer pool????!!
Hazel Menendez and her department heads must be very worried about what just happened today . . .
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/listen-911-operator-hangs-up-6156299
JustFoundThis – Indeed, Hazel Menendez being allowed by Eberhard to keep her job after she rightfully was convicted internally on several counts of misconduct tells you all you need to know about the PVEPD’s inherent design to protect its own vs. the safety of PVE’s residents and visitors. Reportedly, not only was she not fired immediately, but instead was granted an EXTRA WEEK’S MANDATORY VACATION (though unpaid so portrayed as “a week off w/o pay). Nearly 3 years later, she continues to treat caller(s) unlucky enough to find her working dispatch with contempt and disrespect, all courtesy of Jeff Kepley’s Not-so-New and Disproved gang of the shameful.
A dispatch has only one job – to dispatch patrol units – regardless of whether the caller (later or at the time) says not to come. This is police 101.
Jim – Hazel Menendez was only the biggest part of the dispatch problem. Underlying her negligence and misconduct was a culture of apparent disdain for the very residents that the PVEPD is supposed to serve. Along those lines, the morning after Hazel Menendez’s misconduct, Luke Hellinga’s response to the PVE victim was not, “Sir, we are highly ashamed and apologetic for our not dispatching a squad car to your home after receiving from you your address and clearly distressed call of a trespassing in progress.” Instead, Luke Hellinga confronted antagonistically the victim (whose call for assistance was obstructed illegally by the then-assaulting trespasser, who submerged the phone used for the call into a spa’s water), “Why didn’t you call back?!?”. This, along with his refusal to enforce the law indiscriminately, earned Luke Hellinga a rightful spot on the Wall of Shame.
I just read the Aaron Belda, Hazel Menendez and Luke Hellinga sections of this web page and have one question: HOW THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE STILL EMPLOYED AS POLICE OFFICERS??????????????????????????????? WTF?
Keystone cops!! In general cops have issues but this group is some of the worst. I have a buddy that is 25 yr retired detective from Torrance police, he told me PV got all the LAPD and Torrance rejects.
I read the LA Times article about how the PVE police dept basically wouldn’t really do anything to impede the crime in Lunada Bay and then I read this website. Seems pretty clear to me folks. This chief of police Kepley promotes totally laziness within his department. There is no other explanation because it’s obvious to everyone that fines and citations slow down repeat crime, but this loser and his loser cops just won’t do it. It’s totally indefensible. They just don’t want to do their job of enforcing laws. What a clown show.
I had a dream and it went something like this. Imagine the PVE City Council actually engaged in thoughtful hiring, and got a City Manager who wasn’t a C player who was buddies with the sleazy City Attorney’s family but rather an A player from say Newport Beach city management. That City Manager hired a Police Chief and said to him, “So, let me make this clear, you, I and everyone not brain dead agrees effective law enforcement requires the issuance of citations (and arrests of course for harder crimes). People don’t speed b/c of fear of getting another costly speeding citation or b/c they have heard friends over the years tell stories of getting them – if people just got speeding warnings and that was how the world worked, we’d all speed all day. So your officers, when witness to or have admission/evidence of a law being broken, are simply going to issue real citations to the law breakers. It is that simple – law breaking in PVE must become consequential. Enough of this Tony Gonzalez and Steve Lebeau nonsense of using “discretion” not to do their jobs. OK – you got it, Chief? Comprende??”
Tony Gonzalez as a law enforcement officer is such a joke it is beyond words. This babboon hobbles around dragging his knuckles along the ground before him and does near zero to discourage law breaking. LOSER is so lazy that writing a citation, assuming he is literate, is well above his tolerance to “work”
Look, for $170,000 a year to work in a very low risk, clean community with the best equipment money can buy, we should have super cops working here. Guys just short of Superman. This collection of derelicts is disgraceful. They let an organized criminal gang commit crimes daily right in the middle of town, intimidating visitors who just want to come and enjoy the ocean. Crack down on the Bad Back Boys soon…
I just did a little math. You might appreciate the concept. My friend was just appointed head of TSA. The job pays around $250,000 and I figure benefits at 50%. He has 60,000 employees. So one way of looking at it would be that he is paid $6.25 per employee managed. The PVE Police Chief gets about $175,000 has about 50% for benefits and supervises around (less than) 40 employees. So his cost per employee is $6562.50.
Perhaps we should pay him using the TSA model ($6.25) … Then he would ‘earn’ $6.25 * 40 = $250 per year. Or we could pay my friend using the PVE model: $6,562.50 * 60,000 = $375,930,000 per year.
Either way works for me I figure my friend might prefer the PVE model!
I know first hand about graffiti in Malaga Cove and the so-what attitude of the police. The sewer outfall at the foot of the cliff next to the Vandever/Hall house has been covered with graffiti on numerous occasions. I have notified the PD of its existence three times. The first time, I waited 2 weeks before calling thinking that the City must already know about it. I finally realized that they either didn’t know or didn’t care so I called to file a report. When it happened again, I called the PD to let them know but all they said was that they would forward the report on to City Maintenance to paint over it. I checked the location about one week later and saw that the graffiti had reappeared. While walking away from the cliff, I saw a police car slowly driving by on Paseo Del Mar so I flagged it down and reported to the two officers the vast amount of graffiti on the sewer outfall below and that it frequently happens at that location. They told me that they are not equipped to handle situations at the shoreline. I responded that it wasn’t necessary to go down the cliff to see what is happening down there. Graffiti can easily be seen from the cliff top as can the use of marijuana and alcohol by people sitting on the outfall. They said that they would report the graffiti to the Maintenance Dept. to be painted over again. At no time in my phone conversations with the PD or in my personal contact with the police officers did I hear or see anything that indicated that the PD was interested in the graffiti other than the have some other dept. paint over it. I thought they would be interested from the standpoint of tracking increases in gang activity and monitoring and controlling such activity for the safety of our community.
The problem with this guy Jeff Kepley is kinda obvious. He worked in places like Cypress and La Habra, and then he gets plunked down in Palos Verdes Estates. No offense intended to those other cities, but it’s like taking a guy who sells Chevy’s and expecting him to know how to operate within a Rolls Royce dealership. The standard of care and performance expected by residents paying at the highest levels of national property and other taxes is not some underdeveloped La Habra Police captain who thinks graffiti, rabid feral cats, and corrupt detectives is just an average day working the town. People move and live in Palos Verdes Estates to get away from those seemingly smaller issues, in addition to harder crime like burglaries, robberies and assault. This guy Kepley is simply a fish out of dirty water.
It is getting to be more and more widespread that Chief of Police Jeff Kepley is a really lame leader of the department. I’m hearing of massive increase in turnover from department guys in the know and that residents have learned the loser is all talk and no walk. No results from this guy, unless you include of course his rumored mandate to his cops not to write citations in order to skew downward a fake crime rate reduction. Bring Daniel Dreiling out of retirement and save us all from Kepley’s reign of errors.
These laws were made by lawmakers and the police were HIRED to ENFORCE them! If I showed up for work and didn’t do my JOB, I would be fired immediately.
These FERAL CATS are a HUGE problem. There is nothing cute about a group of cats that is populating without control, possibly spreading diseases and pooping (very toxic for children) everywhere.
To have learned that the police have been notified and this woman (is she even a resident?) is a repeat offender, and the police has not done anything of consequence about this is DISTURBING and WRONG. Is she related to Tony Gonzalez!?!?
If Tony Gonzalez and the two other officers pictured above cannot complete the simple task of enforcing the law and delivering a citation with this lawbreaking woman . . . PVE is in deep DOO DOO!
The other day I saw in the morning (very light out) a big ass Raccoon eating the cat food on top of a rock down by the overlook. While the cats where down on the ground waiting for the coon to leave.
Any parent living or visiting that area by Malaga Cove that is infested with feral cats should be appalled by this latest story about Tony Gonzalez. I bring my child down there to enjoy the scenery and have seen these cats and even once I saw a rabid raccoon fearlessly hissing and waving its paws at people walking on the public sidewalk. I am a true animal lover who even once took at my own time and expense a feral cat that gave birth to three kittens under my stairs to be neutered once. I worked hard to find a home for the kittens rather than take them to a shelter. At times I think I may like cats more than some people around here! But I also love humanity and never would risk or sacrifice my own residents’ safety like Gonzalez and this Tony Best and Jeff Kepley. Are they too lazy to write tickets, or are they fraudulently trying to keep the city’s crime statistics down to justify some kind of performance based salary increases?
The discussion section of the Daily Breeze article on the kidnapping story contains some strong points in favor of Barber losing his job:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/general-news/20150605/police-palos-verdes-estates-boy-concocted-attempted-kidnapping-story-report-ruled-unfounded#disqus_thread
Don’t pity the parents of the boy who concocted the kidnapping story; pity the parents of every other child who were terrified unnecessarily by the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department’s unqualified detectives and Chief of Police Jeff Kepley for being tricked by an 11-year old boy touting an unbelievable story in the first place. This seemingly inept (and according the the PVE Police Dept Wall of Shame worse) police detective Steve Barber made nearly $170,000 in total compensation (6th highest paid of 78 total people employed in in all of PVE!) in the most recently publicized year, and he was unable, despite years of training, to figure out somehow that this was a false story before going out to the general public with an alarming tale of kidnapping? It didn’t seem farfetched that an 11 year old boy easily escaped the clutches on not one but two adults who had a grip on his backpacked affixed to his body? Seriously, this is what us parents are getting for $170,000? Does the PVEPD have to allow for fabricated crimes to be publicized in order to justify their crazy compensation for being police officers in a city with virtually the lowest crime rate in the USA?
It’s now pretty well widespread that Aaron Belda’s career in Palos Verdes Estates is on the ropes, if not knocked out entirely. This whole thing with the woman Nadia (not his wife at the time of the incident – her name is Katrina Belda or Katrina Lopez now if divorced) was only the latest incident at that time. Stack on top of it the trespasser he assisted against the Palos Verdes Estates victim, the jumping the curb at the Malaga Cove School incident, and whatever else Kepley has in Belda’s file. The only remaining question is who would be stupid enough to hire this disgrace to the badge? McDonalds wouldn’t even hire him to operate the shake machine.
If Jeff Kepley keeps Belda on the PVEPD team, after all that he has learned of his officer’s decrepit character and horrible judgment, it will be a testament to Kepley’s own character and judgment issues. Belda’s a time bomb – tick, tock, tick tock.
Steve Barber is a very bad man
Two years is way too long for Tony to be terrorizing the city. More staff, irrelevant policies, and a lack of leadership has both contract and city staff leaving in droves. Why he has not been fired is no secret with his relationship to the city attorney. Hopefully the new Council will finally terminate their biggest mistake.
This should not be redacted it is 100% truthful this is coming from the person who had the [REDACTED] with Aaron….
He is a lying, deceitful man…no, man child.
Im deeply ashamed to have done what I did especially with someone like him. My [REDACTED] is a very forgiving man. I love [REDACTED] dearly and am truly apologetic.
[NOTE FROM SITE TO COMMENT POSTER: In order to avoid slandering or defaming Aaron Belda, the core accusations against him by this Commenter have been redacted. Once the site can verify the accusations’ veracity, and/or confirm ascription of the accusations specifically to the alleged victim(s) of his alleged behavior and allowed Aaron Belda the opportunity to refute the accusations, the redaction may be removed. Aaron Belda is encouraged to contact the site immediately if he would like to provide a signed affidavit exclusively disputing accusations made against him. Such affidavit then may be made available on this site, allowing the public to consider “his side” of the story.]
[Expletive] Aaron Belda[.] [T]hat guy’s a sack of [expletive] – pulled me over for no plates and tried to give me a hard time even though I gave him my reg and tags. and then he tried to search me for anything illegal I have in my possession. [Expletive] [expletive] [expletive] [expletive]
Out of control Palos Verdes Estates police officer Aaron Belda seems to have been at it again this past weekend. Multiple witnesses report Belda jumping the curb off of Via Almar in order to drive his squad car with urgency across the Malaga Cove Soccer field, in the middle of the day when families were playing in the vicinity, in order to falsely claim a family was breaking PVEMC by using a 4 ounce propelled toy around the picnic table area. That is right – Aaron Belda, trusted with gun, badge and squad car, in his judgment thought this was the right thing to do instead of doing what he should have done – seen if any real (vs. hypothetical) harm had been caused to anyone from this 4 ounce toy (none had), and then return to enforcing real vs. made-up-in-his-head laws of our City! What is it going to take for Chief of Police Jeff Kepley to rid our town of his loose cannon?!?!
How is Steve Barber of Palos Verdes Estates Police Department not INDUCTED onto Wall of Shame yet? That guy could be viewed as corrupt as Aaron Belda. If I read the site correct, Steve Barber approved of Belda’s handling of this trespassing and assault case including the robbery charge against the PVE victim who accepted-grabbed the phone offered to him by the foreigner. If he supported Belda’s actions, and he was senior to Belda, how is Steve Barber not as corrupt as Belda himself?
Correct me if I am wrong, but is it not true that Katrina Belda got rid of that cheating, boozing, smoking POS of a husband Aaron Belda a while ago? Everyone in Santa Clarita told her she was way too good for that loser, but she made the mistake of marrying too young and dumb. I am sure she has traded up to a real man by now.
GREG S. is absolutely CORRECT!
AARON BELDA is a scumbag & [REDACTED]
if his wife KATRINA BELDA (formerly KATRINA LOPEZ) is interested in discussing the nights of NOVEMBER 11, 2013 through NOVEMBER 14, 2013 and NOVEMBER 15, 2013 when aaron l. belda was off of work for the week and she was out of town for the week, I welcome her to contact me: AceHigh124@gmail.com OR bsauer@live.com ..I think she has a right to know what took place, and who was [REDACTED] IN HER [REDACTED] IN HER ABSENCE.
[NOTE FROM SITE TO COMMENT POSTER: In order to avoid slandering or defaming Aaron Belda, the core accusations against him by this Commenter have been redacted. Once the site can verify the accusations’ veracity, and/or confirm ascription of the accusations specifically to the alleged victim(s) of his alleged behavior and allowed Aaron Belda the opportunity to refute the accusations, the redaction may be removed. Aaron Belda is encouraged to contact the site immediately if he would like to provide a signed affidavit exclusively disputing accusations made against him. Such affidavit then may be made available on this site, allowing the public to consider “his side” of the story.]
Chief John Eberhard was the absolute worst policeman this city ever had. I heard nothing but stories about his incompetence, but really who is the blame in the end? The City Council who promoted his ever-drinking Roundness to the Chief job after 29 years on the job and a year away from a pension spike. Now, taxpayers end up on the hook for an extra $25,000/year or more for life for having this loser as a bad boss for a year or so? God forbid the City Council (read Ellen Perkins, George “Big” Bird, Rosemary Humphrey, John Rea and that last guy whose name escapes me) promote Capt. Best to the Chief Job instead! That was just too obvious – right!?!
Yesterday I am pretty sure I saw that corrupt clown Aaron Belda pulling someone over near the Malaga Cove soccer fields. Can anyone confirm if he’s been yanked out of the detective’s bureau? Is he under investigation?
Yes aaron is under [REDACTED]…
[NOTE FROM SITE TO COMMENT POSTER: In order to avoid slandering or defaming Aaron Belda, the core accusations against him by this Commenter have been redacted. Once the site can verify the accusations’ veracity, and/or confirm ascription of the accusations specifically to the alleged victim(s) of his alleged behavior and allowed Aaron Belda the opportunity to refute the accusations, the redaction may be removed. Aaron Belda is encouraged to contact the site immediately if he would like to provide a signed affidavit exclusively disputing accusations made against him. Such affidavit then may be made available on this site, allowing the public to consider “his side” of the story.]
I saw that total zero Steve Barber was assigned to home invasion on Paseo La Cresta. That essentially guarantees those four criminals never are getting caught, unless of course they stole a box of donuts with the only scent Barber can follow.
Finally that little twerp Luke Hellinga has made this site! He got his job by brown nosing as a PVE Police Department intern if memory serves me. The kid has absolutely no right to wear any badge not made of plastic and sold at Toys R Us. Please post more details on his issues.
Some of the facts on this website maybe factual. But Sgt. Barber being demoted, REALLY!!!. He’s working traffic control at either a commercial or a movie being filmed in PV. He signed up to work that detail and is getting paid. It’s easy money.
I am truly shocked and in awe that the PVE City Council is so stupid and so reckless as to have hired David Hinig, even on an interim basis, without doing a simple background check.
Those Civil Rights Acts cases show he was not the right man for the job, but even worse, hiring him shows that the PVE City Council and City Manager were careless incompetents.
What if PVE is hit with a lawsuit? Will Hinig care? Probably not. Will the City Council and City Manager care? Probably not. After all, they will fight the suit and pay the judgement out of taxpayers $$$$ not their own.
Disgusting.
Wow, Steve Barber directing traffic at his level! This is NOT a good thing. We better not see him at one of this weekend’s barbecues hired to flip burgers and dogs or worse yet, directing traffic (again) around the neighborhood taco trucks in the cove-which truly would make this his memorial weekend!
Imagine the surpise to driving by the filming of a Rolls Royce commercial today (5/19) and finding a (demoted???) police sergeant directing traffic.
How much money is being paid to a high ranking officer to do perform such an uneccessary task? And who pays his bloated salary while he should be out stopping actual crime (can you say “trespassing, assault and obstructing a call for police protection”)? Rolls Royce or the taxpayers?
Rent-a-cop David Hinig was a huge disappointment for the City. If it weren’t for Eberhard’s scandalous sudden departure, the City would have been able to bypass this interim chief nonsense with David Hinig and go straight to a new leader. It’s interesting that nobody from the existing PVEPD made the cut for Tony Dahlerbruch. Dahlerbruch probably wanted to hire someone who would be beholden to him for his job vs. a long timer without such loyalty. Something stinks, again.
Let us all pray that the new Chief of Police Jeff Kepley has more honor and integrity than the mendacious man he is replacing, David Hinig. No city that cares about its community ever ever ever should hire David Hinig. Any man who struggles to tell the truth should not be in charge of any police department. His job is to protect the taxpaying community and not an unethical detective’s career. David Hinig gone in two weeks — PRAISE THE LORD!
Seeing more of the same lazy neglect of law enforcement out of this new man David Hinig. I have reported legal infractions to him and he has allowed the culprit to have no serious consequence for her breaking the law. She wasn’t even required to fix what she had done illegally but just told don’t do it again. What disincentive is that????
Something like this just happened in UK (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10747692/British-millionaire-believed-to-have-been-shot-dead-by-ex-lover.html) and the trespassing ex girlfriend ended up shooting the innocent guy in the head!!!!! What could possibly have been going through this Aaron Belda’s seemingly twisted mind to make him not arrest the PVE trespasser who assaulted the PVE resident and instead go after the PVE resident? PVE BEWARE AARON BELDA – HE IS NOT THERE TO SERVE THE COMMUNITY.
I know about this Belda d. bag. He should be ashamed to be wearing a badge. Very bad man.
OH MY GOD! So some girl is relaxing in her outdoor or indoor Jacuzzi, and someone (an ex perhaps) trespasses onto her PVE property, won’t leave, and then when she is using the trespassers phone given to her to call for help, the PVE Police Dept. doesn’t show up, and then the investigator Aaron – who must have had some relationshipship with attacker, right? – decides to present the DA with a charge of robbery against the girl who was assaulted in her own spa on her on property by the admitted trespasser???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
How is this Aaron Belda still employed? PLEASE TELL ME!
aaron belda is a coward, & truly depraved of ANY morals or common decency. This piece of trash [REDACTED subject to verification] my WIFE so she’d [REDACTED subject to verification] w/ him. He DESTROYED [REDACTED subject to verification]. so not only did he [REDACTED subject to verification] ON HIS WIFE, but he [REDACTED subject to verification] SOMEONE ELSES WIFE & MOTHER (yes we have a daughter) to [REDACTED subject to verification].
He is a real life example of the classic loser kid, who got made fun of & picked on as a kid (because he was a fat lazy slob), & then became a cop.. a position he uses to harass the people he is supposed to ‘serve’.
[NOTE FROM SITE TO COMMENT POSTER: In order to avoid slandering or defaming Aaron Belda, the core accusations against him by this Commenter have been redacted. Once the site can verify the accusations’ veracity, and/or ascribe the accusations specifically to the alleged victim(s) of his alleged behavior and allowed Aaron Belda the opportunity to refute the accusations, the redaction may be removed. The Commenter is encouraged to E-mail Ankur@savepvefromtonyd.com to initiate a private, secure conversation so that the non-redacted version of the comment may be posted.]