Riverside police chief says he has 'no full memory' of wreck

[ilbegone]

Riverside police chief says he has 'no full memory' of wreck

By PAUL LAROCCO

The Press-Enterprise

Riverside police Chief Russ Leach said he was disoriented on prescription drugs when he crashed his city-issued car at 3 a.m. Monday and kept driving until his own officers pulled him over.

"I feel horrible about this," he said in an interview late Wednesday. "I know the department and the community is going through a lot."

The city placed Leach, 61, on medical leave Tuesday, the second time in less than a year.

He said he continues to take unnamed medications for the back injury suffered then, as well as some for other ailments. He would not say if he had been drinking alcohol in the hours leading to the collision.

"I don't have full memory of this," Leach said of his drive. "But I take absolute full responsibility for what happened."

After nearly two days, Riverside police turned over its investigation of the chief's wreck to the California Highway Patrol. That agency has questioned many of the prior decisions.

"We will investigate this, basically, like no report was taken by the police department," said CHP Inland Division Chief Jeff Talbott.

Authorities have said that Leach's black Chrysler 300 jumped the curb at Central and Hillside avenues and struck a fire hydrant and light pole. He continued on for roughly three miles despite a hanging fender and two blown tires.

Riverside officers stopped the chief at Arlington Avenue and Rutland Road, after receiving reports that his car had been throwing up sparks. It appeared that no one gave him a field sobriety test, Talbott said.

"There's no information about the traffic stop anywhere in the report," said the CHP commander.

Riverside police Assistant Chief John DeLaRosa declined to comment on whether any officers will face discipline for their handling of the crash, and referred all other questions to the city manager's office. They did not return phone calls.

Leach, however, said he "seriously doubted" that anyone purposely omitted information.

Prior Leave

The events leading up to the collision and traffic stop remain cloudy. Leach would not say where he was that evening -- Super Bowl Sunday -- and said he wasn't sure how he ended up in the neighborhood where he crashed.

His friend, Frank Schiavone, said Wednesday that he didn't believe the chief would drink and drive.

"If someone's taking prescription drugs and has even a half-a-glass of wine or one beer," the former councilman said, "it would have adverse affect."

The chief was previously the focus of another law enforcement investigation. In 2004, a San Diego hotel security guard claimed he saw, through a window, Leach strike his then-wife during an argument inside their room.

Prosecutors declined to file charges based on the San Diego police probe.

"We're frustrated and upset this thing was blown way out of proportion from the beginning," Leach said then.

Even if prescription medication caused Monday's crash, state law allows criminal charges to be filed.

"A lot of those prescription drugs have warnings," said San Bernardino County Supervising Deputy District Attorney David Hidalgo, a traffic case veteran, speaking generally. "Just because someone has a lawful prescription does not mean they can drive a motor vehicle."

Standard Procedure

An officer spotting a car with significant damage, as if it had been damaged in an accident, has discretion to make a traffic stop.

They would typically look for signs -- like paint transfer -- that damage was caused by another vehicle. Next they'd call neighboring agencies to see if anyone had reported a collision, including ones with injuries.

California law requires that drivers stop and alert authorities in wrecks resulting in only property damage.

"The person could have hit a guardrail on the freeway," said San Bernardino County sheriff's Sgt. Dave Phelps, who coordinates the department's grant-funded traffic enforcement. "It's still a hit-and-run."

If the driver of such a vehicle exhibits any overt symptoms of impairment, including the odor of alcohol and bloodshot or watery eyes, officers can request a field sobriety test. Traveling in an extremely damaged vehicle can be considered in requesting such a test.

Some agencies, including Redlands police, said that they always defer to outside sources if a wreck involves one of their own.

"We have a policy here that we don't investigate our own traffic collisions," said police spokesman Carl Baker. "It takes away any hint that there may not be impartiality."

Others Kept Jobs

Two Riverside police officers previously convicted of impaired driving have not lost their jobs. Melissa Brazil, who pleaded guilty in 2005, and Jeffrey Adcox, who did so last year, both received probation and a first-offender treatment program.

Leadership at the Riverside Police Officers Association did not comment Wednesday on the chief's treatment compared to its members.

"As an agency, we look forward to the thorough completion of this investigation and continuing our dedicated service to the citizens of the city of Riverside," Cliff Mason, the group's president, said.

Talbott said that the CHP's findings could take more than a week. Generally, he said impaired driving charges are possible solely on witness statements -- but that having blood samples or field sobriety test results are always preferred.

"At this point, it would be too late for that," he said.

Leach reiterated his "deep apologies" to the city and department, and did not say when he believed he could return to the position he's held since 2000.

"More than anything," he said, "I just thank God no one was injured."

[Ayatollahgondola]

Interesting coincidence,

This happened up here too, but instead of a fire hydrant, it was a starbucks. Lady cop, on meds, possibly alcohol, and due to previous job related injury. It was fairly recent too.
Damn cops never could handle their drugs and alcohol

[ilbegone]

It's been a couple of years and I don't know all the details, but a Beaumont Police unit crashed into the doughnut shop at the corner of 6th street and Beaumont avenue in Beaumont, Ca.

It was closed down for quite some time, and the way it was boarded up I believe the unit made it at least halfway inside. It must of cost the city of Beaumont a ton of money to square that one away, self insured or not.

Could you imagine, getting your wake up cup of coffee in the wee hours of the morning and a cop car bursts through the wall. You might get your wake up and possibly piss your pants without the caffeine boost.

It's good thing the cash register was on the other end of the counter - less loitering where the car came through.

Made for lots of jokes for a while.



As for the Riverside article:

I bet the chief was stinking drunk, but no sobriety test was given and no mention of the stop was in the police report.

Chief Leach wasn't prosecuted over past allegation he smacked his wife in San Diego county - if had been Riverside county and he was not a police office, The prosecutor would have been on it like a mad dog and Leach would have had some time to cool his heels in the county jail and required to go through 52 weeks of anger management classes (It only takes 16 weeks to learn the material necessary to "teach" the class).

Even though Riverside county has the policy of filing on 100% of the police reports forwarded to them (even the meritless ones), I will also bet that Leach has no fear of facing an overcharged DA filing even if the CHP report (investigated long after the fact) branded him as an unmitigated menace to society. And the creative fiction which is always present in police reports will probably be tilted as far in favor of Leach as the reporting officer can get away with. No time in jail, no year of ACE classes.

Think of all the multiplied charges which Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco could heap on Leach. The man was impaired, hit and run on a street light pole and fire hydrant, unsafe vehicle throwing up sparks with two flat tires and a hanging fender, a man who can't remember how he got into the neighborhood he was stopped in and won't say where he was on super bowl night. The sheer potential for tragedy.

Pacheco could write a book of charges on just that alone, without tossing in a few extra for good measure.

But DA Pacheco won't hammer the man buttering his bread like he would do to anyone else.

Wait and see.

[ilbegone]

Just-resigned Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach has his critics, but he is largely praised for his professionalism, community relations

February 13, 2010

By PAUL LAROCCO and ALICIA ROBINSON
The Press-Enterprise

Special Section: Police chief crash probe

Nearly 10 years ago, Russ Leach took over an agency still reeling from a shooting that brought widespread calls for reform.

Despite lingering mistrust of Riverside police, community leaders found the new chief personable. Officers found him galvanizing.

"I came in when this department had a horrible reputation," Leach said. "I'd like to think we improved that over several years, and I left it a better place."

As he spoke late last week, the 61-year-old was reflective and emotional.

He had just confirmed his resignation after crashing his city-issued car at 3 a.m. Feb. 8. The handling of that incident has led to independent criminal and internal probes. Leach has said he was disoriented on prescription drugs and doesn't remember what happened.

In the single-car collision, he struck a light pole and fire hydrant, then drove more than 3 miles with a hanging fender and two blown tires. When his Chrysler 300 was spotted by officers, it was rolling on its rims and throwing off sparks.

Riverside police filed a report indicating that Leach had consumed alcohol but provided no field sobriety test.

Officers recommended no criminal action, prompting investigators to review whether their superiors had influenced their decision.

Leach, who was to be paid $241,000 annually into 2013, took a medical retirement. In 2009, he was off work for three months after back surgery.

Some observers said he had become a less effective leader as his health deteriorated and a state requirement for departmental reform expired. For the chief's supporters, the crash has left a cloud over a positive legacy.

"He may not have had the same energy level of late, but he had the same commitment," said the Rev. Jerry Louder, a Riverside church pastor and longtime advocate for anti-gang programs. "I don't want any of this to interfere with what he's accomplished."

Into The storm

After five years as police chief in El Paso, Texas, and two years with the anti-drug organization D.A.R.E., Leach arrived in Riverside in September 2000. He also had spent 20 years with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Leach stepped into the storm that developed after the shooting of Tyisha Miller on Dec. 28, 1998. The 19-year-old black woman was shot 12 times as she sat in her car at a Riverside gas station. Officers said they believed she reached for a gun.

The shooting stirred protests and a near-riot that thrust the city into the international media spotlight.

The state attorney general said the department suffered from systemic racism and ordered a series of reforms including use-of-force training and purchasing less-lethal weapons. The binding agreement, called a consent decree, was signed in February 2001.

"The first day I got here," Leach said at the time, "I'm looking at lawsuits that have been left over, reports about the department, all sort of people walking around with scars from the past."

The consent decree brought $22 million worth of changes, including patrol car video cameras, heightened officer diversity training and a five-year strategic plan to ensure continued progress. Slowly, trust was built.

"It seemed he was working hard to replace problem officers on the force and build anew," said Michael Dunn, co-chairman of the Riverside Coalition for Police Accountability. "He partially succeeded in that, and as long as the stipulation was in place, he had the power."

When the reform mandate expired in 2006, Dunn said he felt there was a "lack of will" from city leaders to continue progressive efforts.

"He was marginalized and removed from a lot of the decision making," he said of Leach.

Over the last three years, many of Leach's most visible actions were enforcement based: teaming with the district attorney for 2007's civil injunction against the East Side Riva gang and last month's criminal crackdown on the gang.

He mostly kept quiet about five of his officers who, within 16 months in 2008 and 2009, were charged with crimes from misdemeanor DUI and battery to felony robbery and sexual assault. The chief said they didn't exemplify the largely hard-working, honest force.

Meanwhile, the city's Community Police Review Commission, formed to provide an independent look at officer-involved deaths, was altered to conduct its work after -- and not parallel to -- criminal investigations.

Leach cited concerns that the panel could interfere. A member said last week that she had no hard feelings and hoped the department would seek a replacement who has Leach's professionalism and knack for community relations.

"It's another time where we can make the most of this opportunity, or we can squander it and take steps backwards," said Chani Beeman. "And I hope we don't do that."

Fans and Critics

Crime in Riverside has dropped markedly since the late 1990s. Despite the downturn in the economy, Leach reported in December that 2009's statistics showed a decline in most categories from 2008.

The department is embarking on a five-year strategic plan emphasizing professionalism and a further decentralization of police operations.

At a meeting last month to solicit comments on the new plan, Latino community leaders packed a room at the Magnolia Station expecting to see the chief, who had invited them. They learned that Leach had sent representatives.

"The department has professional people who do the best they can," said Gilberto Esquivel, a member of the city's Human Relations Commission who attended that session, "but as far as leadership, they didn't have any."

Esquivel said he didn't appreciate Leach's denials that police were part of last year's immigration sweeps led by the U.S. Border Patrol near Casa Blanca, when one of his commanders had said otherwise.

But a former police lieutenant who became an Eastside leader disagreed that Leach was out of touch. Alex Tortes said Leach was the department's most tireless advocate of the community policing model, which values outreach and social programs as much as enforcement.

"The partnership that he developed and the credibility that he brought is going to be very difficult to replace," Tortes said. "If he told you he was going to do something, he did it."

Leach's first assistant chief used the same word -- credibility -- to describe the chief during his tumultuous early days on the job.

"I saw him as a guy who clearly got it," said Mike Smith, who now is the San Bernardino County district attorney's chief of investigations. "He was clearly the leader and he empowered others in the organization."

Smith remembers Leach, only weeks into his tenure, bringing community members into the discussion of department reform that led to the state's stipulated judgment. He also cited Leach's "quick wit," which was evident even last week.

Describing the television news crews that had camped outside his home after his early morning crash, Leach said he "felt like Tiger Woods."

"When you have this job, you know what comes with it. You get the good, the bad and the ugly," he said. "Nine, 10 years is a long time for a chief anywhere. But I loved every minute of it -- until the recent incident, obviously."

******

A Decade On Top

Russ Leach's highs and lows as Riverside police chief:

September 2000: Hired amid negotiations over how the state would oversee department reforms after the 1998 shooting of Tyisha Miller.

February 2001: City signs the consent decree mandating five years of changes; Leach begins pushing for increased officer training and a citizen's advisory committee.

November 2003: Leach announces that the department has become one of the first to install digital video cameras in patrol cars, satisfying one aspect of the decree.

January 2004: Leach implements a five-year strategic plan emphasizing officer accountability and increased community policing efforts.

December 2004: San Diego prosecutors decide not to charge Leach after a witness claims he saw the chief strike his then-wife in a hotel room.

March 2006: Consent decree expires with the department spending $22.6 million on equipment and new police stations.

August 2007: Leach teams with the district attorney's office to unveil the county's first gang injunction, aimed at preventing East Side Riva members from congregating.

March 2009: Leach agrees with barring a civilian police review panel from investigating officer-involved deaths until after the criminal probes have been wrapped.

November 2009: Police begin developing a new five-year strategic plan, emphasizing increased professionalism in department management.

February 2010: Leach resigns after crashing his city-issued car while disoriented by prescription drugs, he says. The handling of the case is questioned.

[ilbegone]

Tyisha Miller mentioned in the above article:

Tyisha Miller was passed out in the driver's seat of her car late at night. A door window window was broken by an officer and she moved, as anyone would probably do.

She was filled full of lead by four Riverside police officers who claimed to fear for their safety.

As I remember, some family members called the police for some sort of assistance concerning the woman, not as a criminal complaint. They mentioned that she had a gun in the car.

Also as I remember, the officers claimed that the gun was in her lap.

Was it? The only ones who know for sure are the officers who killed her. I do know that lying to save one's skin isn't something new - and that "fearing for my safety" is a catch all cover for all sorts of police wrong doing. An apartment I occupied years ago was searched without a warrant by a Victorville city cop claiming to fear for his safety, yelling is there anyone here while looking in kitchen drawers and small cabinets. He dropped that pretense when he got to the bedroom.

I never met Tyisha Miller, nor had I heard of her before the incident - I have no idea of her character. However, I believe it was a horrible mistake by insecure, hair trigger officers who (monday morning judgment) went about the task in the wrong way.

The moral of the story? Don't call the police for help with a relative under any circumstance. The end result might not be pleasant.