Vagabond goes to jail... almost

My mother and grandmother had a meeting with the local police department and the county coroner over their mishandling of the investiagation of my grandfather's murder. It was pretty interesting.

I made an entire police station pretty well stop in it's tracks and hold it's breath, which in retrospect seems pretty neat, although at the time I was a bit preoccupied with deciding whether or not I was going to take a swing at their watch commander. In the end I just informed him that several of his officers had committed fraud, threatened to sue, cussed him out, told him that his department couldn't find its genitals with both hands, and left somewhat peacefully.


I think I've talked about the circumstances before. My grandfather was robbed and murdered a while back. It was an unattended death, he had facial trauma, he was missing his wedding ring and his cellular phone, and the garage where he was found had clearly been tampered with. The Coroner was legally required to hold an inquest and quite possibly an autopsy since A. It was an unattended death. B. There was obvious suspicion of criminal involvement. C. He hadn't seen a doctor in the past 20 days. D. The last doctor he had seen was unable to be contacted.

If they had done this, they would have discovered that he had a crushed cheekbone, ruled it a homicide, and conducted an investigation.
The officer who responded misrepresented the situation to the coroner in part, the coroner failed to come out despite having sufficient information to know he was required to hold an inquest, the coroner fraudulently obtained the signiture of an inelligible doctor on the death certificate. There was no homicide investigation.

I had obtained several names and addresses through the call records from the stolen cell phone. I have had a strong suspicion of who the killer was since 4 days after the murder. It's an open and shut case if I had the authority to question these people- the police have really screwed up.

They've pretty much ignored us since this all happened back in July, but we have kept riding them and we finally got a meeting today. We took a reporter with us, but the police refused to have either myself or the reporter present- they wanted to deal with the two older women alone naturally- their goal was just to shine us on again. Luckily we had all relevant law printed and highlighted, and had planned our approach ahead of time, so my mom was able to handle it.

When they refused to have anyone else in for the meeting, and on top of that began right off the bat telling my mother and grandmother (both Registered Nurses) that they didn't know what they were talking about as far as medical facts, I interjected, as politely but as I know how, to point out that one way or another the police and coroner had violated the law and failed to follow their proceedures. Then they tried to tell me that I didn't know anything except what I was told and that I had nothing to say- wrong thing to tell the guy who did most of the leg work on tracking down the numbers called by the stolen cell phone, and pursuing the stolen rings.

By the time we really got into it I was so angry that I was physically shaking. That's when I noticed that I suddenly had the attention of everyone in the room. A couple of uniforms stepped in from a hall and just stood there watching as I read their commander the riot act. The reporter we had with us says that I "suddenly grew 4 inches"- I assume she's exagerating, but whatever the heck it was it sure scared the snot out of that cop.

It's a miracle I didn't end up in cuffs really. I just thought I'd get this all off my chest to vent, because I've spent most of the afternoon entertaining the idea of what it would feel like to take that pigs lying head right off of his lazy, lard-stuffed shoulders.

(By the way- it ended rather well. Things actually went much better than we expected. The plan all along was to put them on their heels by showing up with a reporter and an printed copy of the California Government Code, but the added fireworks with me apparently rattled them even more. They cracked in the meeting, admitted fault, apologized for the screwup, promised an autopsy, and promised to cover the cost of exhuming the body, and, to my shock, even sent their apologies for agitating me. Of course that still leaves us with the minor problem of them not being possessed of sufficient deductive powers to find their genitals with both hands, which makes an investigation almost a moot point, but at least we've forced them to give my grandfather the respect of trying.)

Congratulations! Thanks for the explanation. I never did know what all the "we got your back" stuff was all about.

[edit on 5-10-2005 by whaaa]

Wow. That "officer" is truely a Pig. I'm glad you forced them to admit wrongdoing through as I know that is usually very hard for a police officer to admit, that they were wrong and #ed up. I've personally been witness to police curruption and ineptness but not anywhere to this level. I really hope you acheive justice and closure for you and your family.

The Vagabond, wow thats alot you have been though. i am sorry about your Grandfather because that is truely terrible.
i am glad that you stood your ground and told them they were wrong,
as sardion said i hope you and your family get the jutice that your Grandfather deserves! and hope you catch the person responsable!

i respect you that you took it into your own hands, there is a difference between me and you because i would have taken that scum (officer of the so called "law") head.

stay strong!

oni x x

The police serivce really need to pull their socks up and start doing their work. It happened in the next town from here. A grisly double murder that was called a murder suicide because the police didn't have the funding or man power to launch a murder investigation. Ten years and three inquests later the husband has still not been charged and is running around free to commit murder again...

Keep at them. Watch and double watch every move that is made in the investigation. Show them the evidence you have and make sure they follow it up. Threaten more media and internet coverage if they don't move. You have gone along way now. Just remember justic is justice and do not back down.

Best of Luck.

and good on you for standing up for your beliefs and not allowing this crime to be swept under the carpet.

For those interested in the crime I am speaking of the following links will take you to the story and google has many more.
sunday.ninemsn.com.au...
www.ourcivilisation.com...


[edit on 6-10-2005 by Mayet]

Wow. Sorry you're going through this Vagabond but I loved reading your story.

This isn't the "got your back" thing either whaaa, but I'm sure ATS members would for any member facing something like this.

What a great post and use of the members forum.

I really feel for you Vagabond both for your loss and constipation with legal incompetence. Man, I feel it.

I remember reading about this when you first posted, Vagabond. Good on you all for sticking it through.

The cops just don't care sometimes, and it takes good people like yourself to set 'em straight. At least you guys got an audience, which is foot in the door. Keep on after it, you'll get there.

Well, this has just been the nightmare that would not end. It seems like every month this story takes another turn for the surreal.

It's been two months since I posted this. Since then:

1. The reporter who was helping us investigate this has been fired and her former employers have not been returning out calls.

2. A man who has been both chief of police and mayor of this town and who was a good friend of my grandfathers, has stopped talking to us about the matter- he hasn't outright told us that he's done helping, but that seems to be the message.

3. The police conducted the autopsy they promised almost immediately- in fact they were in such a rush to get it done that they didn't tell us when or where as they had promised to do, so we had no opportunity to have a non-interested party observe the examination. It's been about 7 weeks, and they still haven't told us the results- they're supposedly still waiting for lab results to come back- my grandma said that this usually only took 4 days when she worked at the hospital.

4. An indio police officer made a veiled threat against my grandmother simply for mentioning the murder at a neighborhood watch meeting.

5. My mother and I have decided that we're not going to get any answers from the police unless the documents become evidence in a lawsuit- so we're currently trying to find an attorney who will handle this born-to-lose case at minimal cost. (We've been told time and again that there is virtually no hope of getting anything on these guys. The law does state that police and other public servants are not liable for acts or omissions within the scope of the discretion granted them by law. What gets me is that these people didn't have any legal discretion on holding an inquest- the law is very clear: the coroner comitted a misdemeanor.

6. At this point, I am 99.9% certain that the Indio Police Department is covering up this murder in order to protect someone who was an accessory. They told us they had found the stolen rings in a pawn shop, then said they had been mistaken and refused to show us the photos of the rings they had. They told us "those rings were pawned by a local jeweler who is an upstanding member of the community"- so they wouldn't even check. If I can find out who that jeweler is and demonstrate some tie to a police official that would explain their protection of him, this is gonna get worse.


These people really don't seem to get it. They keep seeming to think that we'll give up in another month or something. If their motives are as dark as I think though, I should probably count that as a blessing. If I'm right, I'm more than a little concerned about what might happen when they find out that we're suing and trying to get access to their documents on the matter.

Anyway, worst case scenario: maybe they'll invent some reason to arrest me, in which case I'll expect you guys to bake me a cake- my favorite flavor is jack-hammer, but hacksaw will do in a pinch.