CALIFORNIA - Former Mongols see opening in Montebello PD rift

OFF THE WIRE
Frank C. Girardot
 sgvtribune.com

MONTEBELLO - A former Mongol believes a rift among top officers within the Montebello Police Department will help him and his brother prove the 2008 federal indictment that brought down their motorcycle club was built on lies.
Al "The Suit" Cavazos based his claim on a whistle-blower lawsuit filed in June by Montebello police officers Gregory Wilsey, Brian Dragoo, Kimberly Lundy and Ricardo Rojas against the city.
"The suit shows there's a cover-up," Cavazos said. "I want to put them on the witness stand and ask them about the cover-ups involving members of the Montebello Police Department."
Cavazos said he will subpoena the officers to appear in federal court this fall when he attempts to get three motorcycles seized by the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives returned. The motorcycles belong to him, his brother Ruben "Doc" Cavazos and Rueben's son Ruben "Little Rubes" Cavazos, Jr.
Without naming the officer, a portion of the Wilsey, Dragoo, Lundy and Rojas lawsuit details the 2011 arrest in San Diego of Chris Cervantes, a Montebello police officer.
In their action against the city, Wilsey and Dragoo said Montebello Police Chief Kevin McClure interfered with an internal affairs investigation into Cervantes' arrest, which "implied McClure was trying to sweep the matter under the rug."
McClure has declined to discuss the allegations.
Cavazos and his brother Ruben "Doc" Cavazos, onetime president of the motorcycle club, said Cervantes and and his partner John Ciccone, a special agent with the ATF, provided false evidence to a federal grand jury in a racketeering case against the Mongols.
Their testimony involved a July 2007 shooting outside Nicola's, a Commerce topless bar frequented by Mongols and various street gang associates. It resulted in federal time for 78 members of the club and a state prison rap for the convicted shooter.
David "Little Dave" Santillian, the Mongols' current president, has declined to discuss the case. He said the club no longer associates with the Cavazos brothers, whom he describes as "out bad."
"Doc" Cavazos said Cervantes' statements about the shooting were used to frame club members in court as dangerous felons who needed to be removed from the streets.
"The ...case was used to portray us as a violent group in front of the federal grand jury," he wrote in a July 18 letter from federal prison. "If someone honest would review the evidence ... justice may be found."
Montebello and ATF officials have denied the claim.
In a July 11 letter from federal prison, "Doc" Cavazos said Cervantes and Ciccone were motivated to go after the Mongols because they believed the club had a source inside the Montebello Police Department and the detectives wanted to smoke out the source.
In 2006, the inside source gave "Doc" Cavazos the results of a Los Angeles County District Attorney's probe into a Montebello police lieutenant's allegations that Cervantes lied to obtain a search warrant in a 2002 drug case.
The District Attorney's Justice System Integrity Division investigated the allegations leveled by Lt. Don Ramos. The D.A. declined to file charges, according to documents on file with the Montebello Police Department.
Al Cavazos' quest to clear his name began earlier this year when the West Covina resident started collecting information about the 2007 Nicola's shooting, which he witnessed.
"The Suit's" story will soon be featured in an hour-long Australian documentary on the Discovery Channel titled "Hidden America."
In March, he filed a complaint with the Montebello Police Department, which led the department to conduct an "inquiry" into Cervantes' conduct, Montebello Police Capt. Brad Keller said.
By July, Al Cavazos came to believe his own fight with the ATF and Montebello PD parallels the plight of Kent and Josephine Terry.
The Terrys' son Brian, a Border Patrol agent, was shot and killed in December 2010 by members of a suspected Mexican drug cartel. The gun that killed him was supplied to the cartel through an ATF program known as "Fast and Furious."
"My situation ain't as bad as theirs," he said. "But we have to do something to stop the government from lying."
frank.girardot@sgvn.com
626-962-8811, ext. 4478