OFF THE WIRE
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County's district attorney said Friday his office is investigating the circumstances behind a recent sheriff's undercover drug operation in Clearlake as well as the potential civil rights violations involved in a law enforcement response earlier this month to reports that Hells Angels were coming to the county.
District Attorney Don Anderson confirmed to Lake County News on Friday that the investigations are under way and that much of the work already is complete. He said he hopes that the inquiry will be complete within two weeks.
He said his investigators are reviewing police reports and 911 tapes, talking to witnesses and interviewing the law enforcement officers involved.
Anderson said it's also his intention to interview Sheriff Frank Rivero as part of the investigation.
Rivero responded with a statement accusing Anderson of “targeting” the sheriff's office.
Anderson, however, said he's not targeting the sheriff's office.
“We're not really investigating the sheriff or the sheriff's department,” Anderson said Friday. “We're on a fact-finding mission. We need to find out what the facts are and let the chips fall where they may.”
Anderson said his staff has been at work on the inquiry for about four or five days.
Specifically, Anderson said they are looking at two incidents – the response to the May 14 appearance of the Vagos motorcycle club and reports that the Hells Angels were coming to the county; and the May 19 undercover narcotics operation that the Sheriff's Narcotic Task Force carried out in the city of Clearlake, without notifying the Clearlake Police Department.
Regardin g the May 14 incident involving the Vagos, Lakeport Police, accompanied by several agencies – including the sheriff's office and California Highway Patrol – shut down part of Main Street and staged in downtown in response to the appearance of between 70 and 100 Vagos, identified by police as an outlaw motorcycle gang.
The group's sergeant-at-arms said they had come for an annual meeting, but Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen said his agency had information that the group actually was putting on a show of force in response to one of its members being beaten up by two Hells Angels prospects weeks before.
After many of the Vagos left Lakeport that day, Rivero ordered deputies to the Middletown area. He said he had received information that a large group of Hells Angels was heading towards the south end of the county, and he ordered deputies to stage at the county line and turn them around if they attempted to enter the county.
Luckily, said Anderson, no Hells Angels arrived. Even so, “There's a big time civil rights issue there.”
He said the Hells Angels are known for suing government entities in response to civil rights violations.
“We have to watch out for civil rights for Hells Angels or anyone else,” said Anderson. “They are citizens.”
In his Friday statement, Rivero said he found it “curious” that Anderson was undertaking the investigation, “since he is charged with prosecuting criminal matters, not filing or defending civil lawsuits.”
He added, “I wonder what crime I have committed by the action of preparing my deputies to meet an imminent threat to the safety of the people of Lake County by stopping two outlaw motorcycle gangs from warring in our county?”
Rivero also said that Anderson's claim that lawsuits may have resulted had the Hells Angels arrived “is speculative at best.”
The sheriff said he was “confident that Mr. Anderson’s investigation will prove he is also misinformed concerning the purported 'officer safety' issues and the number of officers deployed” to the May 14 incident.
Apart from the sheriff’s deputies, CHP officers, Clearlake Police and Lakeport Police officers, Fish and Game wardens and Anderson's own investigators were involved in the response, Rivero said, pointing out those agencies also had been deployed to meet the Vagos in Lakeport earlier that day.
Problems with cases arising from undercover drug operation
The second incident Anderson and his investigators are exploring occurred just last week, when the Sheriff's Narcotics Task Force went undercover in an operation that led from the county jurisdiction into the city of Clearlake.
As part of the May 19 operation, Rivero reportedly refused to notify the Clearlake Police Department, despite the operation's supervisor urging him to do so.
Rivero claimed the operation was developing too quickly and he needed to maintain the element of surprise.
However, he's come under criticism for failing to take that step.
That's because the Clearlake Police Department received 911 calls about the operation after it moved to the 19th Avenue house of 25-year-old Michael Tremell Mitchell.
Both Mitchell's girlfriend and his sister called to report subjects, dressed in black, coming into the house with Mitchell in handcuffs, according to audio recordings of the calls that Lake County News obtained through a Public Records Act request.
The women said they feared Mitchell was going to be harmed, and didn't identify the subjects with Mitchell as law enforcement.
Nor did they describe the undercover deputies as having worn marked “raid” jackets, which Rivero claimed they were wearing in a statement earlier this week.
Four Clearlake Police officers responded to the scene, where they believed a hostage situation was taking place, according to police reports.
With guns drawn the four officers approached the home. Two officers had firearms – a handgun and an assault rifle – trained on a deputy they could see silhouetted in the window.
After one officer approached the door and announced the police presence, a deputy opened the door, said, “It's the f***'in sheriff's department” and closed the door, diffusing the situation.
Clearlake Police Sgt. Rodd Joseph said in his report on the incident that, had any of the deputies pointed their weapons at the officers, the officers would have begun firing.
Likewise, interim Clearlake Police Chief Craig Clausen told Lake County News that the confrontation between his officers and the deputies had given rise to concerns for officer safety.
Facts about operation not clear
In his Friday statement, Rivero said it was “out of the ordinary” for Anderson to investigate the sheriff's office for conducting what Rivero called “a highly successful narcotics operation” in Clearlake.
However, Anderson had a different assessment of the situation.
The operation had resulted in the seizure of two handguns – one of them stolen – as well as marijuana and about an ounce of methamphetamine, according to a previous sheriff's office report.
Deputies also had arrested Mitchell; Cebram Lawrence Roston, 29, of Clearlake; Edgar Agustin Castellanos, 30, of Las Vegas; and Fernando Flores-Nunez, 25of Clearlake.
“There are just so many problems with the arrests right now,” Anderson said.
“That's one of the reasons why I'm doing the investigation, is to see if there's any evidence against them,” Anderson said.
Mitchell posted bail and was released not long after the May 19 arrest, while on Friday jail records showed that Roston remained in custody.
Castellanos and Flores-Nunez both are alleged to be in the United States illegally and had immigration holds put on them, however, jail records showed that, of the two, only Flores-Nunez was still in custody on Friday.
Anderson said his office hadn't seen important evidence in the case, including the ounce of methamphetamine Rivero had said his deputies had seized.
“It hasn't been turned over to our office yet,” said Anderson.
On top of that, with the differing versions of the operation coming from the Clearlake Police Department and the sheriff's office, Anderson said his staff can't tell what's true and what isn't as it approaches attempting to prosecute the case involving the four arrests.
“We still don't know what happened,” he said. “I'm obligated to find out.”
He said that, as a result, investigators are looking at the records, and talking to witnesses and the law enforcement personnel involved, including Clearlake Police.
“We're going to look at every discrepancy there is,” he said. “We need to find out what the truth is on all the issues.”
He said if his office can't get to the bottom of it, they can't charge the case.
Rivero said Friday that the different versions of the incident by the Sheriff Narcotics Task Force and the Clearlake Police Officers regarding their encounter “is of grave concern” to him.
Rivero, who was on duty that night but not at the 19th Avenue home, has himself made conflicting statements about the situation, denying that a “confrontation” – the word Clearlake Police used to describe it – took place.
He said that on Tuesday he initiated his own investigation into the May 19 incident, using an independent investigator.
Accord ing to Rivero, he spoke to Clausen on Tuesday and asked him to join in the investigation.
River o said Clausen stated he would discuss the request with interim Clearlake City Administrator Steve Albright and legal counsel and get back to the sheriff.The statement by Rivero was released Friday evening, after the close of business, so Lake County News could not contact Clausen to ask for a response to that statement.
In recent days, reports also have begun to circulate that Rivero has attempted to prevent deputies from speaking out about the incident.
Anderson, who acknowledged having heard those reports, said if any laws or deputies' civil rights turn out to have been violated, “We may take a look at it.”
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