Chief, Top Aide Cleared of Conspiracy Charge

Corona Police Chief Bob J. Talbert and Deputy Police Chief Edward D. Sampson were found not guilty of conspiring to obstruct justice by a Riverside County jury Wednesday.

The verdict, which came after two weeks of testimony and about a day and a half of deliberations, was greeted with cheers and applause from the men’s families and friends.

Talbert’s eyes filled with tears as he turned to embrace his defense attorney, shake the hand of his deputy, then embrace his wife.

Although their elation was clearly visible, Corona’s two highest-ranking law enforcement officers could find few words to describe their feelings at the end of an ordeal that began 10 months ago when a group of their subordinates took a list of complaints to the City Council.

Among the complaints was a charge that they had ordered officers to alter a police report of a traffic accident in January, 1982, that claimed the life of a 17-year-old Corona boy. That charge prompted an investigation by the Riverside County district attorney and, in August, a single-count indictment by the county grand jury.

Administrative Leave

Since then, Talbert and Sampson have been on administrative leave with pay. Neither has decided when, or if, he will return to work, they said after the verdict.

Talbert is eligible for early retirement with 97% of his full pension, and Sampson has applied for a stress disability pension, City Manager James Wheaton said.

But for now, Wheaton said of Sampson: “As far as we are concerned, he’s deputy chief and he’s coming back. . . . I just have to say I’m elated.”

Jurors said they did not believe that the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin Ruddy, had proved a conspiracy existed.

“I feel some of the actions (alleged by the chiefs’ subordinates in trial testimony) did take place,” said juror Kenneth Duncan of Riverside. “But there just wasn’t enough evidence” for a conviction.

Unconfirmed Statement

Several jurors cited the prosecution’s failure to produce a witness who could confirm that an initial police report of the 1982 traffic accident included references to a possible obscurement of a stop sign by low-hanging tree branches.

The indictment against Talbert and Sampson charged that they had ordered or tried to persuade three sergeants to remove reference to the branches from the accident report and approve the altered report.

But even the police officer who wrote the accident report, William Mumma, could not recall whether his first draft included reference to the obstruction, jurors pointed out Wednesday. “The first police report wasn’t there, and nobody remembered reading it,” said Virginia O’Gara of Riverside.