10:00 PM PST on Friday, February 19, 2010
Cassie MacDuff
Which hurts more, ripping a Band-Aid off with one quick yank or peeling it off bit by bit?
Riverside officials obviously prefer peeling.
Because that’s the way they’re revealing the facts surrounding the Feb. 8 crash of Police Chief Russ Leach: piecemeal.
The trouble is, the more information dribbles out about this shameful episode, the worse it looks for everyone involved.
This week’s revelations:
Leach had four drinks at a topless bar in the hours before the crash.
Police brass failed to notify City Hall, as required by their own protocol.
These bombshells have further trashed the city’s image, already besmirched by the failure to test the chief’s sobriety after he smashed up a city car, drove three miles until the rims were shredded and couldn’t give a coherent statement about what happened.
Surprisingly, Leach hasn’t ducked questions about the incident. He immediately admitted to being on prescription medication, took responsibility for the accident and went on medical leave.
But he didn’t fess up to drinking, too.
He waited until after Club 215′s lawyer publicly revealed the chief’s whereabouts — and four-glass whiskey consumption — in the hours before the crash.
Leach would have looked better if he’d admitted he had mixed drink and drugs the very first time he spoke publicly after the accident.
He still hasn’t said what medication he was on. But if anyone knows you don’t mix alcohol and drugs, it’s a police chief.
Leach says he wasn’t the one who ordered his officers not to arrest him or test him for alcohol or drugs.
So who did? City officials must know by now. It’s been nearly two weeks. They need to tell the public. Their credibility is suffering.
They also need to say how high up the chain of command word of the accident was passed that night.
The city manager’s and council’s offices were supposed to be notified, but instead found out from an anonymous phone call six hours later.
Heads should roll for that.
I asked Mayor Ron Loveridge whether he’s angry his office was not properly notified and who is responsible for Leach’s kid-gloves treatment. He would only say city leaders are awaiting the outcome of the CHP and Internal Affairs investigations.
A copy of the notification procedure provided by city officials shows the watch commander is to notify Internal Affairs, which is to notify the city attorney and deputy police chief.
To read entire column, click here.
Come on Cassie, this type of stuff has been going on for years, the circumstances are the same, and the cover-up or partial disclosure of the facts almost always happen.
Now why and the heck do you think those patrol cops didn’t arrest their own Chief? DO you think any would have suffered retaliation if they had? I bet they think they would, you should ask them.
It appears they may suffer some sort of discipline for at least not reporting the true facts of what happened. If they do, their personnel file will now reflect they covered something up and tarnish their integrity. Defense attorneys love to find that stuff out.
Any cop who has dealt with drunk drivers or specifically traffic cops/accident investigators would have given the ordinary citizen in the EXACT same scenario a full battery of field tests along with a PAS (portable alcohol screening) test to check for sobriety.
I can assure you in 95% of all traffic collisions between 1am-4am are DUI related. But without question YOU check for objective signs of alcohol intoxication at that time of the morning.
I am sure a city the size of Riverside had a couple of traffic cops on deticated to DUI enforcement. A veteran traffic cop can see that someone is DUI at first glance.
As normal the public officials are just playing stupid and seeing if everyone else will drink the kool-aid. Of course it appears many are getting smarter and not accepting the typical BS politicians give out these days.