Whipped Cream Difficulties

The LAT has a second-day story on the King City PD arrests, noted in this space yesterday.

There are several interesting new aspects to the story:

• The charge against Officer Jaime Andrade is “possession of an assault weapon and illegal storage of a firearm“. Specifically, “Criminal complaints accuse Andrade of possessing a semiautomatic Colt AR-15 and storing it in a manner in which ‘a child was likely to gain access to it.'” The possession charge is interesting; I’m no expert on the gun laws of California and other places outside of the United States, but I would have expected there to be an “only ones” exemption. I’m not sure how to feel about this; happy that a California cop got hoisted on his own petard? Or should I be upset over this in the same way that I would be if it was someone who wasn’t a cop?
• Sergeant Mark Allen Baker, who is apparently the sixth man from yesterday, is charged with making criminal threats.
• The charges appear, at least in part, to have spun out of an ongoing investigation. Allegedly, members of the King City PD were confiscating cars from residents and profiting from the impounds:
  

  A police sergeant [Sgt. Bobby Carrillo – DB] was allowed to keep one impounded vehicle for every 10 to 15 he steered to a towing company owned by the brother of the acting police chief, according to the criminal complaint.

• More:
  

  According to the complaint, Carrillo sent 87% of 200 vehicles impounded from March 2010 to November 2013 to Miller Tow, even though the city had towing arrangements with four companies, and received cars in return. The complaint says Bruce Miller [the acting chief of police – DB] received a vehicle as a bribe from Carrillo in an influence-buying arrangement.

  Miller Tow is owned by Brian Miller, who was also arrested. Brian Miller is not a King City PD officer; he is, however, acting chief Bruce Miller’s brother.

• This has “stupid” written all over it:
  

  [Former chief Dominic] Baldiviez and [Officer Mario] Mottu were charged with embezzlement by a public officer for an incident in which Baldiviez transferred ownership of a marked patrol car — complete with Department of Motor Vehicles documents — to Mottu, said Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Terry Spitz.

• King City is, according to the LAT, “more than 80% Latino”. Not explicitly stated in the LAT article, but my guess (and I think it is probably a good one): members of the King City PD thought they could prey on illegal immigrants and get away with it.
• Still no coverage that I see in the San Francisco area papers.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 26th, 2014 at 1:44 pm and is filed under California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.