SLO residents protest police, demand transparency after arrests and dog shooting
About three dozen residents demonstrated in front of the county courthouse in San Luis Obispo Tuesday in protest of recent criminal cases brought by the city’s Police Department, including that of a couple whose dog was fatally shot, and another couple caught up in the chief’s lost-gun scandal.
The protest, dubbed by organizers “A Rally For Justice, Transparency, Accountability and Truth,” expressed outrage over the department’s handling of those and other recent cases that attendees say show a pattern of opacity and lack of officer accountability.
Protesters waved signs saying things like “No one is above the law,” while chanting “SLOPD is not above the law. SLOPD give up your body cam.”
The group also alleged that prosecutors with the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office “fight to withhold evidence that will show they have fabricated the facts.”
Protester America Carroll used a bull horn to say: “We’re tired of our animals being murdered, of our children being murdered, of our children being removed. We the people deserve better.”
Asked for comment prior to the event Tuesday afternoon, police Capt. Jeff Smith wrote in an email that the department “respect(s) every community member’s right to express their First Amendment right.”
Protesters want footage released
The protest was partially organized by Nick Regalia and Riley Manford, whose dog, Bubbers, was shot and killed by police Officer Joshua Walsh in September.
The city claims the unleashed dog “charged” Walsh, who was responding to a reported burglary at the couple’s apartment complex across from the Police Station.
Regalia and Manford contend the dog was not moving toward the officers and was hit twice from three shots fired by Walsh while Manford was dangerously close as she tried to grab the dog.
On Tuesday, the group called on the city to release the footage, which they said will prove that Walsh was negligent in the firing of his weapon.
A Change.org petition for Walsh’s firing has circled on social media since the shooting and at one point had several thousand signatures.
“We’re getting their attention,” Regalia said. “We’re definitely on their radar. We’re just trying to bring light to an issue most people don’t know about.”
Regalia, who declined to comment for this article on the specifics of his own case with the city, said he will continue to put pressure on the city to release records related to his and other cases.
At the City Council meeting afterwards, Manford demanded “safety, honesty and accountability” from police and city officials.
She said a person could have been killed with a ricochet of a bullet in a busy area.
“We’re being taken advantage of, lied to and bullied,” Manford said. “Trust starts with transparency.”
Regalia added, “I am not anti-police. I am anti-corruption. The time now is to make a change.”
SLO officials respond on dog-shooting incident
For its part, the city says it is still investigating the shooting; Walsh was placed on administrative reassignment pending the outcome of the investigation, Police Chief Deanna Cantrell told The Tribune in an email.
Cantrell said the investigation into the dog shooting is “anticipated to be completed in early February.”
The city has denied formal requests for the release of the officers’ body camera footage, citing state laws about releasing body cam videos.
“This was a traumatic situation for all parties involved,” Smith wrote in an email Tuesday. “Officers never want to respond to a call for service and take any life, including the life of a family pet. A member of the Police Department has met with the owners of the dog and provided them with a timeline for the internal investigation as well as steps the Police Department has taken to mitigate future incidents.”
While a new law went into effect last year that compels the release of records of use-of-force incidents resulting in great bodily injury or death involving humans, the law does not automatically open up records for incidents involving animals, according to legal sources consulted by The Tribune.
City officials repeatedly have said they don’t want to set a precedent of releasing body cam video that isn’t required, because of privacy concerns involving witnesses in criminal incidents, but officials are open to reassessing the policies.
City Attorney Christine Dietrick said that the city has had a long-standing policy of not releasing records such as body cam footage that it’s not legally required to. She also said it’s a potential misdemeanor to release police body cam footage in which children or sexual assault victims are included, further revealing the sensitivities around body cam releases.
Mayor Heidi Harmon said she supported formally discussing at a future City Council meeting the city’s policies about body cam video to review if there are ways SLO can be more transparent about public releases, adding there are some members of the public who have a perception the city is acting nefariously.
The council didn’t agree on a future meeting on the issue yet, but will review a memo to be drafted by the City Attorney’s Office that breaks down what’s allowed with body cam releases and questions around changing the policy. That memo will be posted on the city’s website when it’s done, possibly within the next month, Dietrick said.
A warrantless search
Cheyne Orndoff, who was present at Tuesday’s rally, and his wife, Vanessa Bedroni, had their two children taken into protective custody after being swept up in a case of mistaken identity related to the loss of the chief’s gun in a restaurant bathroom stall in July.
Police initially suspected Orndoff may have been the man who took the chief’s firearm and left, before later learning a Los Osos man departed with the weapon. The couple’s home was searched by San Luis Obispo officers without a warrant.
Officers allegedly found a small amount of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in the home, with the children reportedly present.
Though officers determined Orndoff was not the person who took the gun, the search conducted by SLO police detectives Jason Dickel and Suzie Walsh resulted in Orndoff and Bedroni being charged with two felony counts of child endangerment. They’ve pleaded not guilty.
The city later admitted that Orndoff was misidentified as being on probation due to a clerical error; a family member that used Orndoff’s name upon arrest in a past drug-related offense may have caused the confusion.
The case against Orndoff and Bedroni remains ongoing, and court proceedings have dragged on since the couple’s attorneys filed motions to obtain Cantrell’s phone and other records, which a Superior Court judge has ruled the city must release.
The case is due back in court next month.
While walking to City Hall, Orndoff said: “This kind of thing is important for the community, for the whole country. It’s paramount to fight corruption. I just want to see justice done.”
Orndoff declined to comment specifically on the pending case against him.
‘March to demand justice’
Two-time San Luis Obispo City Council candidate Jeffrey Specht sent emails to media Jan. 7 containing an invitation to the “march to demand justice.”
“Government employees regularly fight to withhold evidence that will show they have fabricated the facts,” the message reads. “Appearing to be more concerned with their win rate than justice, prosecutors fight to withhold evidence that supports the accused, transparency and truth.”
The message continues: “Even if the truth comes out in court, our local judges and the District Attorney’s Office refuse to prosecute law enforcement, government employees, witnesses and lawyers who lie in court. There is no justice in a judicial system that turns a blind eye to perjury and other crimes committed by goverment (sic) employees and officials.”
The email spotlights the cases of Regalia, Manford, Orndoff and Bedroni, as well as that of Eugene Haugh, who court records show was acquitted by a jury in July 2017 of felony false imprisonment by force and misdemeanor battery following a weeklong trial.
The message claimed that Haugh, a security guard, was arrested after detaining a “panhandler” at an Irish Hills Plaza property. The message alleges that Officer Walsh, who made the arrest and recommended charges to the DA, perjured himself in his trial testimony.
The email alleges the panhandler “had become a confidential informant for the police, who then destroyed or lost the record of her earlier arrest.”
The Tribune has not been able to verify the accuracy of those allegations.
In another mentioned criminal case, the DA’s Office charge city resident Dane Senser with misdemeanor assault and disturbing the peace over a February 2019 physical altercation with two men at Mission Plaza.
Court records show that, after three months, the DA’s Office had not produced to Senser’s attorney surveillance footage of the incident.
On the day a judge was scheduled to decide whether to compel the DA’s Office to release the footage, the prosecutor made a motion to dismiss the case for insufficient evidence, according to records.
DA’s ‘mission to seek justice’
Though he didn’t specifically mention the protest, District Attorney Dan Dow issued a news release and posted a video to YouTube hours before the event on Tuesday afternoon discussing his office’s “mission to seek justice.”
“Our staff works incredibly hard every day to ensure that justice is done in a manner that is fair to all concerned, fair to victims and also fair to those who are charged with crimes,” Dow wrote in the release.
Dow noted that his office receives between 12,000 and 14,000 criminal case referrals each year and supports around 11,000 victims of crime annually.
“While our justice system is not perfect, we are passionately committed to using all of the resources available to ensure that our community is safe, offenders are held accountable, and that victims of crime are heard and afforded respect throughout the process,” Dow wrote.
This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 6:56 PM.
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