San Marcos football coach Hesselmeyer dies

MIKE ELIASON / NEWS-PRESS

Longtime local football coach Jeff Hesselmeyer is shown in 2010, when he coached San Marcos High.

By GERRY FALLNEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Jeff Hesselmeyer, a longtimefootball coach in the Santa Barbaracommunity, died at his home Sat-urday morning.

Mr. Hesselmeyer was 59. Thecause of death was not immediatelyknown.

Mr. Hesselmeyer had been thehead coach at San Marcos Highsince 2009 after joining the staff as

an assistant, under Dare Holdren, in2007.

“I hired him to help us with ouroffense,” Mr. Holdren said. “He wasan awesome guy and the kids lovedhim. He was an excellent footballcoach and he had a great footballmind.”

According to a source who spoketo the News-Press on the conditionof anonymity, firefighters found Mr.Hesselmeyer to be unresponsive athis desk when they arrived at his

home at approximately 10:30 a.m.Saturday.

Mr. Hesselmeyer was a staple inthe Santa Barbara sports commu-nity after he began his coachingcareer as an assistant at Dos PueblosHigh in the late 1970s.

“He was an incredibly good per-son and I’m so sad,” said San MarcosHigh athletic director Abe Jahadh-my, who was in Washington, D.C.,

Please see HESSELMEYER on A11

Black hole forcomplaints at SBPD

COURTESY PHOTOS

Taurino Torres

Cruzito Cruz

Seventh in a series

By PETER LANCESPECIAL TO THE NEWS-PRESS

Taurino Torres is a 47-year-oldnaturalized U.S. citizen from Mexicowho works as a handyman. CruzitoCruz is a 38-year-old U.S.-born citizenand activist who ran for City Council in2009.

The two Santa Barbara residentshad never met, but fate joined them ascomplainants to the Santa BarbaraPolice Department after they eachhad separate run-ins with Kasi Beutel,the award winning “Top DUI officer”for 2009and 2010 in Santa Barbra County.

On the night of Feb. 4, 2011, justbefore 10 p.m., Mr. Torres was drivinghis 1999 Dodge SUV on CarpinteriaStreet approaching the roundabouton Milpas Street. By Kasi Beutel’saccount in her handwritten summons,she was on patrol when she observedMr. Torres’ vehicle “rapidly acceler-ating.” Officer Beutel then alleged thatshe “paced the vehicle at 45 mph.”

Mistakenly noting that she observedMr. Torres proceed “northbound onChapala,” a street 10 blocks west ofMilpas, Officer Beutel claimed thatshe “conducted a traffic stop and thedriver Torres was not in possession ofa valid (driver’s license).” Eventually,she cited him and his vehicle wastowed.

TAURINO TORRES’ VERSIONOF EVENTS

In a Police Department complaintform which he filled out on March 22,Mr. Torres wrote that when OfficerBeutel approached his SUV, “She wasreally aggressive.” When she told himhe was driving “at an unsafe speed,”and Mr. Torres denied it, he wrote that“she became more aggressive andasked for my car keys. This was before

Please see DUI on A6

Plazaimprovementplan headedto council

By MICHAL ELSETHNEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The most recent version of the De laGuerra Plaza improvement project isset to go before the Santa Barbara CityCouncil on Aug. 16.

The plan was most recently revisedin February and submitted to the city’sdevelopment application review teamprocess.

The historic plaza at the heart ofdowntown Santa Barbara has alwaysbeen tied to Casa de la Guerra, one ofthe oldest buildings in town. It is hometo several community events, includ-ing Fiesta.

The project has gone through sev-eral designs in the past 10 years, whenplans for a revitalized plaza first gotunder way. The version to go beforethe council is scaled back compared tothe original plans, which proposed toadd a water feature and make theplaza a pedestrian-only attraction forevents.

Ultimately the goal for De la GuerraPlaza is to improve the historic sitewhile maintaining its character, saidElizabeth Limon, a redevelopmentspecialist with the city.

Today’s version preserves theroadway and all but five parkingspaces, Ms. Limon said.

Please see PLAZA on A8

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AUSTRALIA’S EVANS TAKES OVER YELLOW JERSEY WITH SHOCKING TIME TRIAL / SPORTS

NORWAY BEGINS PROCESS OFRECOVERY AFTER MASS

SHOOTING, BOMBING

Solvang council to tackle water rate hikeBy ERICA WENIG

NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

Solving the water utility insolvencyin Solvang will be the task for CityCouncil members Monday as mainte-nance funds dry up in the Santa YnezValley.

A proposed hike in water rates willbe addressed during the councilmeeting.

Mayor Jim Richardson told theNews-Press he anticipates councilwill accept a proposal to increaserates would increase by 5.25 percenteach year for four years. The fifth andfinal year would have a 3.71 percentincrease.

Single-family rates sit at approxi-mately $89.75, and the proposedincrease could push it to $94.46, $99.42,$104.064, $110.13, and finally to$114.22.

“That’s if the council approves of theplan that is being presented by aconsultant,” Mayor Richardson said.

A public hearing to discuss thedecision will be held 45 days followingthe anticipated approval, on Sept. 26.If 50 percent plus 1 of utility usersshould protest the decision, the citycan’t go forward with that particularplanned increase.

The council approved a rateincrease in 2006 with only a 6 percentprotest, Mr. Richardson said.

“I think most folks understand thatwe can’t run in the red,” he said.“Water is a serious subject andeveryone realizes that.”

Drilling new wells and developing anew water treatment facility are a fewcapital improvement projectsplanned. Mr. Richardson anticipatesthe five-year rate increase will carry

the city through the 10-year capitalimprovement projects.

Solvang’s general fund is “healthy,”but the water department is runthrough an enterprise fund, like aseparate business the city owns. Partof the problem — why the revenuereserves would expire during the2012/2013 fiscal year — began in 1991when the city decided to join the StateWater Project, Mr. Richardson said.

Costs of joining the system wereunderestimated, causing rate hikes.The city receives revenues ofapproximately $4 million annuallyand pays about $3 million to the StateWater Project. The rest used foroverhead and maintenance.

“We encourage the folks to come tothe public hearing when we discussit,” Mayor Richardson said. “We arenot taking this increase lightly.”

Councilman Ken Palmer andCouncilwoman Joan Jamieson saidthey couldn’t comment on the vote,since they just received the informa-tion packet with changes made byconsultant Jeanette Hahn since it waslast presented to the council onJuly 11.

Councilman Hans Duus and MayorPro Tem Tara Wood could not bereached for comment.

email: ewenig@newspress.com

FIESTA FLOWER GIRLS

MICHAEL MORIATIS / NEWS-PRESS

This year’s Fiesta Flower Girls and Las Señoritas were presentedSaturday at the Santa Barbara Courthouse’s Sunken Garden. The 120girls were introduced to La Presidenta Joanne Funari and PrimoCaballero Carlos Plascencia and received their badges, in turn giving

Ms. Funari and Mr. Plascencia roses.The Flower Girls range from 6 to 13 years old, and Las Señoritas from 14 to

17. The girls act as the official greeters of Old Spanish Days and participate inthe Aug. 5 Historical Parade and the Aug. 6 Children’s Parade.

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SANTA BARBARA NEWS-PRESS NEWS SUNDAY, JULY 24, 2011 A6

she asked for my driver’s license.”Mr. Torres filled out the complaint

in the offices of PUEBLO, a low-income rights group.

“There’s a serious problem in thiscity with law enforcement officersracially profiling and attempting toconfiscate vehicles they think arebeing driven by unlicensed drivers,”says Laura Ronchietto, a formerPUEBLO coalition coordinator.“Many of these drivers, the policesuspect are undocumented immi-grants. But Taurino Torres is a hard-working U.S. citizen and had a validlicense at the time of the stop.”

In his complaint, Mr. Torres wrotethat when he refused to turn over hiskeys to Officer Beutel, she called forbackup. After they arrived he exitedthe SUV and showed them an expiredlicense. But according to the com-plaint, he told them that he had atemporary license that was in a truckparked near his house.

Rather than cite Mr. Torres with“fix-it ticket” that would have allowedhim to prove to the department thenext day that he had a valid license,Mr. Torres wrote in the complaint that“Beutel charged me with a 12,500 (a)Vehicle Code violation as an unli-censed driver.”

His SUV was then towed and he wasdriven home by the other respondingofficers.

“Upon arriving,” Mr. Torres wrote,“I showed the officers the permit Ihad.” But rather than confirming hisvalid license, Mr. Torres says theofficers told him to “tell it to the judge.”

Later, in an interview for this arti-cle, Mr. Torres told me he was“stunned that this Officer Beutel hadjust assumed he was undocumented.Worse, she easily could have run mylicense to see that it was valid.Instead, she towed my truck andcharged me with a full blown ‘drivingwithout a license’ violation. She wascompletely without mercy or anysense of fairness,” he said. “And that’swhy I had to file a complaint abouther.”

He furnished me with a copy of hisInterim Driver’s License from theDMV which proves that his licensewas still in effect at the time OfficerBeutel cited him for driving without alicense, an infraction punishable byup to a $250 fine. Once Mr. Torresdemonstrated that he had a validlicense, he was permitted to pay $25for a fix-it ticket.

Still, the other two vehicle codeviolations alleged by Officer Beutel(driving at an unsafe speed and mak-ing unsafe turns) cost him $391 in finesand he had to pay another $589 to gethis SUV from the tow yard.

“For me, as a working man, this was

devastating,” he said. “I can swearwith the same kind of oath I swore towhen I became a citizen that thisOfficer Beutel lied about me speedingand making those turns. And that’s why I couldn’t rest withoutfiling my complaint.”

GETTING HIS COMPLAINT BACKWITHOUT A TIME OR DATE STAMP

After filling out the complaint formon March 22, Mr. Torres waitedfor the executive director of PUEBLOto return from vacation. DaniellaRodriquez, the former PUEBLOassistant who helped him with thedocuments, says he came back to pickit up for filing “around April 3rd or4th,” at which point, Mr. Torres says hewalked into the lobby of the SantaBarbara Police Department to file it.

“They took the original from me,” hesaid, “and made a copy. I didn’t realizeit at the time but when I handed it inthere was no time or date stamped onit to prove when I filed it.”

Mr. Torres didn’t hear a word aboutthe complaint for months. Then onJune 28, after reading the five-partseries on Office Beutel in the News-Press, he called Sgt. Todd Stoney, thesupervisor of Internal Affairs, who isultimately responsible for complaintinvestigations.

“He didn’t call me back,” says Mr.Torres, “so I asked Tom Griffin, anattorney I was working for at the time,to follow up.”

“I called Sgt. Stoney the next dayand asked about the status of thecomplaint,” says Mr. Griffin. “After all,it had been almost three months sinceTaurino filed it.”

On June 30, Sgt. Stoney sent Mr.Torres a letter stating “our recordsindicate that you came to the SantaBarbara Police Department on Mon-day April 11, 2011, to file a writtencomplaint against Officer Kasi Beutel.This complaint stemmed from a trafficstop on February 04, 2011.”

Neither Mr. Torres nor Mr. Griffinhas heard back from Sgt. Stoney sincethen. Meanwhile, Mr. Torres insiststhat he filed the complaint the weekbefore April 11, and as we’ll soon see,the date of his filing could have sig-nificant consequences for Sgt. Stoney.

A SECONDKASI BEUTEL COMPLAINT

It was pouring rain the night ofMarch 25, when Cruzito Cruz, a com-munity activist who just announcedhis second run for Santa Barbara CityCouncil, was stopped in his 1995Chrysler LeBaron at 203 E. Carrillo St.

According to her police report,Officer Kasi Beutel claimed that Mr.Cruz had stopped “with the entirevehicle over the limit line” at theintersection of Santa Barbara Street.She also alleged that she’d observedMr. Cruz “driving for a majority of thetime on the far rightside.”

With the rain continuing to come

down, Officer Beutel approached Mr.Cruz’s driver side window, stating inher report that she “could smell astrong odor of burnt marijuana waft-ing from the vehicle.”

After she interrogated Mr. Cruz onthe last time he’d smoked pot, Mr. Cruzinvoked his right to remain silent, soOfficer Beutel called for backup.

Office Aaron Tudor, who succeededOfficer Beutel in January as leadofficer on the department’s DrinkingDriver Team, arrived and performeda series of field sobriety tests. Then byMr. Cruz’s account, after offering himthe option of taking a breath or a bloodtest, Officer Tudor used an Alcotest7410 Plus breathalyzer, which gener-ated areading of 0.00 blood alcohol content.

Officer Tudor’s police report laternoted the discovery of “less than agram” of marijuana in the LeBaronand Mr. Cruz produced a medicalmarijuana certificate.

“But as soon as Officer Beutel sawthe marijuana she became amped upand aggressive,” Mr. Cruz told me.

“I only live a few blocks away,” hesaid. “It was raining cats and dogs andI asked her to let me walk home. I toldher that my power steering was brokenwhich is why I was veering to the right.I begged Tudor to check under thehood, but he didn’t care. They werebound anddetermine to bust me, so they put mein handcuffs and took me to jail.”

Mr. Cruz says that at the jail herefused the blood test, “because theconditions were incredibly unsani-tary. Besides I’d already proven I wasalcohol free. But as soon as I protested,Tudor threatened to Taser me if Ididn’t comply.”

Mr. Cruz was then booked in countyjail with bail set at $5,000. “They didn’tlet me out until about 3 p.m. the nextafternoon,” he said.

“What was particularly outrageouswas that when I got the blood results,it showed exactly what the breath testhad, that I had 0.00 alcohol in my blood.The D.A.’s office kept me danglinguntil the middle of June when theyfinally dropped the charges.”

On June 16, Senior Deputy DistrictAttorney Lee Carter signed a Notice ofDismissal of Charges against Mr. Cruz,writing, “The driver tested positivemarijuana but there was no way toprove that there was enoughimpairment.”

Mr. Cruz didn’t wait for the chargesto be dropped before he filed acomplaint.

On April 7, he went into the lobby ofthe Santa Barbara Police Departmentwith a complaint form filled out. In ithe alleged that, “Officer Beutelwanted to create one more statistic inher record and go for the DUI arrestwithout investigating the statementswhich I madeto her.”

MONTHS GO BY BEFORETHE POLICE INVESTIGATE

As in the case of Taurino Torres,Cruzito Cruz waited for someone fromthe Police Department to contact himso that his complaint could be vetted.But 21⁄2 months went by and he heardnothing.

“Then, when I read your series onKasi Beutel,” he told me, “I called thedepartment and finally I got someaction.”

On June 25, four days into our DUIseries which focused on multipleallegations of misconduct by OfficerBeutel, Mr. Cruz got an email from Sgt.Todd Johnson informing him that he’dbeen “assigned to follow up the com-plaint regarding (his) DUI arrest inMarch.”

But Sgt. Johnson wasn’t exactly animpartial third party. An examinationof Mr. Cruz’s police report shows thatthe supervisor who signed off on thework of Officer Beutel and OfficerTudor the night of the arrest was IDnumber 4889, “Johnson, Todd.”

“Talk about the fox investigating thechicken coop,” says Mr. Cruz, who hasfiled new papers to run for CityCouncil again. “It’s clear to me frommy own experience and what I’ve readin the News-Press series, that OfficerKasi Beutel lies with impunity. Sheturned a non-event — a man drivinghome on a rainy night with a brokencar — into a criminal matter involvingat least four officers, a forced blooddraw at the end of a Taser, and 16hours of jail time for me. I lost myliberty, my vehicle and I was made tofeel like a common criminal.”

“The fact that in the face of all thecharges alleged against Beutel, thatthe Police Department would have thearrogance to assign the very sergeantwho first endorsed her work to inves-tigate my complaint, proves what asham the complaint process really is.”

THE LARGER REVELATIONIN THE CRUZ INCIDENT

As noted in the open to this piece,Sgt. Todd Stoney, the Santa BarbaraPolice Department’s supervisor ofInternal Affairs — the man withoverall responsibility for the investi-gation of complaints against officers —claimed that Taurino Torres didn’tfile his complaint until April 11.

That’s a critical date for Sgt. Stoneybecause three days earlier, he was onthe stand, under oath in my DUI case,The People vs. Peter Lance. Myattorney Darryl Genis and I had filedwhat’s called a Pitchess Motion so thatwe could get a look at Kasi Beutel’sfile.

We wanted to determine, amongother things, whether in her applica-tion to the department, she hadreported her 2000 Chapter 7 bank-ruptcy or the previous bankruptcy ofher ex-husband Todd, in which theywere able to hold onto two homeswhile liquidating 24 credits cards withupwards of $200,000 in unsecureddebt from companies like AmericanExpress, Discover, Bank of Americaand Wells Fargo. Kasi herselfdischargedseven separate cards with $33,450.41in debt.

But early in the hearing, SantaBarbara County Superior Court JudgeGeorge C. Eskin, who was then pre-siding over my case, sided with DeputyCity Attorney Tava Ostrenger andagreed that the only portion of OfficerBeutel’s file he would review would bethe complaint file.

THE POSSIBILITY THATSGT. STONEYCOMMITTED PERJURY

At 11:03 a.m. on April 8, Sgt. Stoneyraised his right hand in Dept. 12 andwas sworn in by Judge Eskin’s clerk,affirming “under penalty of perjury totell the truth, the whole truth, andnothing but the truth” in his testimonybefore the court. Initially Mr. Genishad sought the personnel files of allthree officers involved in my arrest:Kasi Beutel, Bruno Peterson andHeather Clark. But Judge Eskin ruledthat only Beutel’s complaint file wasviewable.

Finally, after conferring with Sgt.Stoney, Ms. Ostrenger questioned himon the witness stand:

Ms. Ostrenger: Sgt. Stoney have youbrought all files that may containany complaints for Officers Beutel,Petersen and Clark?

Sgt. Stoney: Yes.Mr. Genis: Your Honor, for pur-

poses of clarification of the record, inlight of the last question, the questionthat I would like the answerto is what files related to these threeofficers did he not bring andwhy?

Judge Eskin: Ms. Ostrenger?Ms. Ostrenger: They’re not related

to your ... request. They’re not partof a personnel file and they are notpart of the Pitchess ...

Mr. Genis: Well they wouldn’t haveto be related to personnel file inorder to contain a complaint. That’s

Ms. Ostrenger: I just told you andSgt. Stoney testified under oath that ifthere is a complaint in any file, he hasthat file with him. He has brought allfiles that would contain any com-plaints. You can’t use this Pitchess asa fishing expedition to harass anofficer, Mr. Genis.

Later after Judge Eskin had granteda part of our motion and agreed toreview any complaints against OfficerBeutel, he withdrew into his cham-bers with Sgt. Stoney, Ms. Ostrengerand Reed Gallogly of the Santa Bar-bara City Attorney’s Office.

What happened next was recordedon a CD of the hearing that I obtainedafter paying a fee of $5 to the CourtAdministrator. There were norestrictions on the CD and I had ittranscribed by a researcher whoworked on this series.

At no time on the transcript do wehear Judge Eskin describing the in-camera session in his chamber as offlimits. Nor does he impose any seal onthe contents of that session.

But on July 14, after I’d copied aportion of Sgt. Stoney’s in-cameratestimony and notified him about it,City Attorney Tava Ostrenger con-tacted Judge Brian Hill who took overmy case after Judge Eskin recusedhimself following a motion I filedalleging bias.

“What happened next was the stuffof a Grisham novel,” says Mr. Genis. “Iget a call late Thursday afternoon fromJudge Hill’s clerk literally summoningme and my client to his courtroom thenext day.”

At that hearing we were joined byMatt Clarke, an attorney who repre-sents the Santa Barbara News-Press.As Judge Hill looked down from thebench, Mr. Genis explained that I did,in fact, have a transcript of the in-camera proceedings which was part ofthe unrestricted CD that I bought.

After some discussion, Judge Hilltook the unusual step of issuing a gagorder on me and the News-Press.Asserting that the contents should besealed, he warned us not publish thecontents of that behind-closed-doorssession.

Against my lawyer’s advice I spokeup and reminded Judge Hill that I hada First Amendment responsibility totell a story of important public inter-est. In this case, there was evidence onthat transcript that Sgt. Stoney, thehead of Internal Affairs for the SantaBarbara Police Department, mayhave lied under oath.

If, in fact, the man charged withinvesting the integrity of other officershad himself committed perjury, thenthe public interest in that revelationfar outweighed the interest of keepingthe proceedings sealed. Further, Iargued, there was nothing containedin thatin-camera session that would impactat all on Kasi Beutel’s privacy.

FACING SANCTIONS AND JAIL FORCONTEMPT IF WE PUBLISH

The Santa Barbara News-Press hasagreed that the compelling First

Amendment interests in publishingthe text of the in-camera proceedingverbatim far outweighs the risk ofsanctions — or, in my case, the possi-bility that Judge Hill will seek to jailme for contempt.

What follows is the legally obtainedrecord of what Sgt. Stoney, thesupervisor of Internal Affairs for theSanta Barbara Police Department,swore to under oath regarding anycitizen complaints in Kasi Beutel’s fileat the time of the April 8, 2011, hearing:

Judge Eskin: We’re on the record.Ms. Ostrenger: We’re on the record?

Well this is Tava Ostrenger, deputycity attorney. I’m here with Sgt. ToddStoney, the custodian of records andAttorney Reed Gallogly from the city ofSanta Barbara. Sgt. Stoney is pre-pared to turn over and let you review,the personnel file for Kasi Beutel thatwould contain, if there are any, com-plaints against Ms. Beutel.

Judge Eskin: Sgt. Stoney.Sgt. Stoney: Your Honor, I’m

handing you a blue binder with thename Kasi M. Beutel on the front.

Ms. Ostrenger: Can you explain toyour Honor what that is?

Sgt. Stoney: Your Honor, I’ll open itup. On the left hand side, is ... these areour yearly evaluations. On the righthand side, it deals with any trainingissues or certificates the officerreceived. The department does nothave any complaints either civilianinitiated orinternally initiated on Officer Beutel.

Ms. Ostrenger: Are there any com-plaints whatsoever contained in thatblue file regarding untruthfulness,integrity, falsification of reports?

Sgt. Stoney: Your Honor, I reviewedthat file before coming today and Ifound nothing that is of relevance inthere.

Judge Eskin: Nothing?Sgt. Stoney: Nothing of relevance,

based on the motion.Judge Eskin: I think Ms. Ostrenger

just invited me, and you correct me ifI’m wrong — interpose objection, Ithink Ms. Ostrenger just asked me orinvited me to ask you whether there isanything in Officer’s Beutel, in OfficerBeutel’s file that could be character-ized in the nature of a complaint by acitizen about anything?

Sgt. Stoney: No your Honor.Judge Eskin: There is none.Sgt. Stoney: There is nothing. The

court has our record.Judge Eskin: You just went beyond

the scope of my limited inquiry. (to Ms.Ostrenger) Seeking guidance from youand recognizing that we’re on therecord, indicating that it’s recordingmy inquiry, I have a tendency to saymuch more than is required just gen-erally and in this particular situation,I’m wondering whether I should con-fine my comments to there is nothingin the records provided by the PoliceDepartment that is responsive torequest or whether I can go beyondthat and make a statement with regardto the exemplary officerdescribed here?

Ms. Ostrenger: Your Honor, I reallywish that you could do that and saywhat a good officer Kasi Beutel isparticularly in light of the defamatorycomments that have been madeagainst her in an open court, but Iwould ask that you simply say thatthere is nothing responsive sothat in the future any other officersthat come in, should they have some-thing, would get the same answer.

Judge Eskin: And is, is that, doesthat capture what I would propose tosay There’s nothing Does that suffi-ciently respond to the request of pro-duction of records pursuant to thePitchess case?

Ms. Ostrenger: Yes, your Honor.There are no documents that areresponsive in Ms. Beutel’s files thatwere provided to you.

Judge Eskin: Thank you.When the parties emerged into

open court Judge Eskin made thispronouncement:

“Continuing on the record in opencourt, the court has examined thePolice Department file which I rep-resent ... which I understand to be thepersonnel file of Officer Kasi Beuteland there is nothing in the file to justifyan order requiring its production tothe defense pursuant to the motion fordisclosure. And therefore, the requestis denied.

THE CRUZ COMPLAINT:WHEN DID SGT. STONEY KNOW?

Under oath in open court, Sgt. ToddStoney, the head of Internal Affairs,represented that he had brought “allfiles” relating to any complaintsagainst Kasi Beutel — the centralfocus of the in-camera session.

Yet the evidence I’ve uncovereddemonstrates that he wasn’t entirelycandid with the court. Cruzito Cruz, ahighly visible figure in Santa Barbara— a former City Council candidate —filed his complaint against OfficerBeutel the day before the PitchessHearing and it’s clear that Sgt. Stoneywas on notice to prepare for thehearing by bringing any files contain-ing “complaints for (Officer) Beutel”as Ms. Ostrenger noted in open court.

Just as with Taurino Torres, therewas no time or date stamp on Mr.Cruz’s complaint, but he can be pre-cise about the date and time he filed it,because as he was leaving the SantaBarbara Police Department lobby, hesnapped a picture of the poster of KasiBeutel that hangs on the left wallinside the main door. The pictureactually bears Mr. Cruz’s reflection

and a data file in his phone documentsthe moment that he took the picture:“Thursday, April 7, 2011. 11:58:12 AM.”

At the same time, Mr. Cruz asked tospeak to anyone in authority at thePolice Department regarding hiscomplaint and he was introduced tothe watch commander on duty, Sgt. T.Rauch. Mr. Cruz spoke to him for atime and noted his name in his copy ofthe complaint before exiting thestation.

THE CRUZ COMPLAINTAND SGT. STONEY’S TESTIMONY

“I don’t see how that can be con-strued any other way than as a perju-rious statement,” says an attorney whoreviewed the transcript but asked notto be identified. “We don’t know at thispoint whether Tava Ostrenger, the cityattorney knew the truth, but theCruzito Cruz complaint at least raisesthe question that Sgt. Stoney may havelied.”

Will Sgt. Stoney take the position ashe did with Taurino Torres that Mr.Cruz’s complaint came in after thePitchess hearing? He’d be hardpressed to do that now, because sinceJune 25, Mr. Cruz has traded emailswith Sgt. Todd Johnson, the supervi-sor who first endorsed Kasi Beutel’swork and is now charged with inves-tigating it.

In two emails on June 28 and July 2,Mr. Cruz writes to Sgt. Johnson, citingthe date he filed his complaint —“04072011” — and not once does Sgt.Johnson contradict that.

“The question is, what is JudgeBrian Hill going to do with this evi-dence,” asks that same attorney. “Hecircled the wagons and went out of hisway to impose a prior restraint onPeter Lance and the News-Press. Nowconfronted with the evidence that thehead of Internal Affairs may have liedto protect Kasi Beutel, the ball is in hiscourt. Is he going to continue to ignorethe compelling evidence that thisaward-winning DUI officer has lied toframe innocent citizens, or is he goingto say ‘enough’ and take action?”

In a detailed email to Police ChiefCam Sanchez on July 20, I asked himwhy in the press release that went outone day into the News-Press series, hedescribed Kasi Beutel as having an“unblemished career.”This was at a time that by anyone’saccount the complaints of TaurinoTorres and Cruzito Cruz remainedopen in Kasi Beutel’s file.

That same release insisted that:“Anyone, including Lance, has theright to file a personnel complaintagainst an officer. This leads to aninternal investigation to determinethe facts.”

Yet with this piece we’ve demon-strated the inadequacies of the SantaBarbara Police Department’s com-plaint investigation process, which issupervised by Sgt. Stoney.

CHIEF SANCHEZ IGNORESTHE SBPD’S OWN POLICY MANUAL

Section 340.4 of the Police Depart-ment’s Manual titled “Investigation ofDisciplinary Allegation,” mandatesthat “Regardless of the source of anallegation of misconduct, all suchmatters will be investigated in accor-dance with the Personal ComplaintProcedure Policy Manual Section1020.” Section 1020.5 of the PolicyManual titled “Allegations ofCriminal Conduct” mandates that“Any time an allegation of criminalconduct is made ...The Chief of PoliceShall be Notified Immediately.”

On July 21, we sent Chief Sanchezthe sworn declaration of the Rev.Thomas D. James, the minister whoalleged that Kasi Beutel asked him tobackdate her marriage license, apotential felony. With this piece today,he’s on notice of the possible perjuryof Sgt. Stoney who works directlyunder him on the chief’s staff. Perjuryis also a felony.

In that email we asked ChiefSanchez how he would respond andwhether or not he would considergiving Kasi Beutel a polygraph — astandard procedure used by the FBI tovet the credibility of Special Agents.At press time, we had not heard backfrom the chief.

e-mail: news@newspress.com

Man alleges speeding ticket shouldn’t have been issued! DUIContinued from Page A1

On the morning of NewYear’s Day, OfficeKasi Beutel of theSanta Barbara PoliceDepartment arrested

investigative journalist PeterLance on suspicion of drivingunder the influence. The case ispending. After finding a number ofmisstatements of fact in the reportof the incident, Mr. Lance startedlooking into other arrests involvingthe officer. The investigation,including interviews with others,resulted in this series, which beganwith five original installmentsJune 22-26 and continues todaythrough Monday.

For daily updates and links todocuments used in the research forthis series, see newspress.com. Formore on Mr. Lance, go topeterlance.com.

Behind the Series