“Blow your brains out”

Talk to the old timers inside the SFPD and they’ll tell you inspectors and sergeants play two different roles. Inspectors are the detectives who solve crime. They’re assigned to one of the units – Homicide, Sex Crimes, Narcotics or Fraud, for example – and they work alone or with another inspector. Sergeants are supervisors who oversee patrol officers. They respond to crime scenes and guide the officers.

As we discussed tonight, Police Chief Heather Fong began assigning sergeants to the inspectors’ jobs, even though there’s a list of officers who passed the test to become an inspector ten years ago. 53 officers from the inspectors list filed a complaint with the Civil Service Commission, and today, the commission decided that inspectors list from 1998 is still active, and the jobs should have been filled from that list. The commission also decided to hold a hearing next week to decide what’s next – should the sergeants now holding inspectors jobs be removed; should the candidates from the list get the jobs?

The inspector candidates tell me they are not pleased with the representation provided – or not provided – by Police Officers Association President Gary Delagnes. He backed Chief Fong’s plan. We included a clip from a revealing POA meeting. Here are two – where the union chief discusses “The Gary Delagnes Plan” and where he criticizes officers who complain about what’s happening: “Blow your brains out”.

We’re working more stories from inside the Hall of Justice. You can send us a tip here or by calling 1-888-40-I-Team.

Boat Crash Settlement

The I-Team has learned that a civil settlement was reached quietly last month in the fatal boat crash on Clear Lake. As we first reported last summer, Lake County Chief Deputy Sheriff Russell Perdock was driving his speedboat at least 40 miles an hour at night, when it slammed into a sailboat.

Lynn Thornton of Willows died in the crash and Bismarck Dinius, the man who happened to be steering the sailboat at the time, now faces a manslaughter charge. Prosecutors argue the sailboat’s lights were off at the time, so Dinius is responsible for what happened. The defense has experts and witnesses who say the lights were on.

All the parties threatened to sue each other, but we now know how it all turned out. Four insurance policies have been pooled – $300,000 from Bismarck Dinius’ policy; $300,000 from Russell Perdock’s policy; $100,000 from Mark Weber’s policy – he’s the sailboat owner and Thornton’s fiancee’; and $100,000 from James Walker’s policy – the lookout on the power boat. The bulk of the money, $760,000, is going to Lynn Thornton’s son who is now twenty-two years-old. Mark Weber receives $18,000. Bismarck Dinius –
$13,000. Russell Perdock gets nothing.

That highlights the basic point of our reports – didn’t Russell Perdock play a role in what happened? If prosecutors charged Dinius, why didn’t they charge Perdock, as well? Dinius and his attorney accuse prosecutors of protecting one of their own.

By the way, the local paper, the Lake County Record Bee, ran an on-line poll in June: "Should Perdock also be on trial with Dinius?" At the time of this blog, 883 of 1017 respondents answered "yes".

SFPD Excessive Force Complaint

An SFPD officer has had his gun and badge taken away; he’s on desk duty at the Hall of Justice for an incident caught on video.  It’s about one o’clock on a Saturday morning in March.  26-year-old Charles Haynes is just leaving a nightclub after working as an emcee, with his friend, a deejay.  His friend is holding a video camera as Haynes crosses the street.  Haynes says Officer Paul Morgado told him, “Get out of the street, boy.”  Haynes answered – he says he called Morgado “faggot”.  Haynes keeps walking, and as you’ll see on the video, Morgado turns and walks quickly after him.  The officer apparently believes Haynes called him “a little bitch”. Whatever the words, Officer Morgado pushes Haynes hard and then detains him.  See it all for yourself here.  A word of caution – we are not bleeping the profanity as we did on television today.

What apparently got Officer Morgado in trouble was the police report he filed on the incident.  Read it here.  It paints a very different picture from what’s on the video. Morgado is under criminal investigation for assault under the color of authority. 

As always, we like to hear what you think about this topic.  Leave a comment below, and e-mail story tips to me here.

The Incredible SFPD Fraud Unit Backlog

Imagine you’re the target of fraud – someone’s stolen your bank account information and your password, and is slowly draining your savings. You turn to the SFPD Fraud Unit, but discover they have a seven to eight month backlog. That’s the topic of tonight’s investigation. Why does it take inspectors so long to get to a case?

The bottom line – Police Chief Heather Fong has cut the number of inspectors in the Fraud Unit from 19 four years ago, to six today. She declined to be interviewed for today’s report, and she didn’t show up at last week’s Police Commission meeting where we hoped to catch up to her. Her press office issued a statement that the department puts a priority on violent crime. So, eighty fraud cases are waiting to be assigned, some involving millions of dollars. Many go unsolved.

In the case we highlight tonight, the owner of San Francisco Window Factory, Hossein Vaheid, says his former office manager has stolen $50,000 to $60,000 using passwords to the company’s bank and credit card accounts. Vaheid reported the crimes three months ago and didn’t hear back from a fraud inspector – until we got involved. He had a meeting this afternoon.

Vaheid says the former office manager, twenty-four year-old Eddie Feinstein, installed a key logger on the company’s computer network. So, after he left and Vaheid tried to change the passwords and open another account, Feinstein was able to capture the new information. In addition, Vaheid says Feinstein has been using the company’s e-mail accounts to send messages to customers, canceling business deals. One e-mail read, “We are tired of dealing with you. Please stop being a deadbeat.”

As part of our investigation, I ran Eddie Feinstein’s criminal record and came up with several felony convictions for fraud, forgery, grand theft and elder theft. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department provided Feinstein’s booking photos from a 2004 case.

I reached Feinstein at his home in North Hollywood this past weekend. He denied everything and agreed to an interview for today, but then backed out. He sent an e-mail saying he’s “in the process of retaining an attorney to ensure my rights and character is upheld.”

We’ll keep on top of this and tell you if and when the case moves forward.