Twenty police officers in California face possible decertification, which would end their careers
Twenty California police officers face possible decertification by the state's law enforcement accreditation body, a move would strip them of a license to carry a badge in the state.
Unless they are cleared by a Commission of Peace Officer Standards, or POST, investigation or succeed in an appeal, the officers accused of serious misconduct including sexual misconduct, fraud, excessive force and abuse on duty will not be able to work as sworn officers for any California police agency. This is an additional punishment to whatever actions prosecutors or their own departments take against them.
The public list is the first since California became the latest state to implement a process for decertifying police officers for serious misconduct. The legislation was enacted in 2021, and author state Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) said it was needed to prevent police officers who are fired or resign during misconduct investigations from moving to another police agency.
In most cases on the list, the officers were suspended pending the completion of an investigation by POST investigators. A POST advisory board will decide the officers' fate. A temporary suspension can last up to three years. Officers convicted of a felony will be barred from working as a peace officer again in California.
The law enforcement officers on the list include police from San Bernardino, San Francisco, Stockton, Rohnert Park and Redwood City as well as Sonoma, San Diego, Kern and San Bernadino counties.
Some of the temporary suspensions are for allegations of serious crimes. Nicholas Bloed, a Stockton police officer, was arrested in November on multiple sexual assault charges including assault, sodomy and oral copulation by use of force. He was temporarily suspended Feb. 15.
San Bernardino Police Officer Fidel Ocampo Rodarte was issued a temporary suspension March 1 following his arrest last November on suspicion of firing his service weapon into the air outside the Dogwood Tavern along Highway 189 in San Bernardino County. A search warrant was served at his home.
Another San Bernardino police officer, Sonny Aguilera, was given a temporary suspension last month, but no public information is available about an arrest or charges related to the allegation. San Bernardino officials did not return a message seeking to determine if he was still employed by the department.
In Rohnert Park, Officer Joseph Huffaker has been temporarily suspended and charged with extortion after he was accused of illegally seizing cannabis from drivers during traffic stops and later falsifying records to cover up his actions. Another former officer in Rohnert Park, Brendon "Jacy" Tatum, was convicted of three federal charges for being the ringleader in the traffic stops where cannabis was taken and has been deemed ineligible to serve.
San Francisco police officers Kevin Lyons and Kevin Sien have been temporarily suspended after they were arrested last year in connection with the destruction of evidence. They're accused of destroying credit cards, identification records and suspected methamphetamine discovered in the luggage of a person staying in a hotel.
Lyons and Sien allegedly told staff that cataloging the evidence would take too long and instead disposed of the credit cards and IDs in a shred bin and flushed the drugs down a hotel toilet, according to state court criminal complaints.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
