Anglo-Latino Rivalry Splits Irwindale Police

The police department in the tiny city of Irwindale is so fractured by a feud between Anglo and Latino officers that some are wiring themselves for sound and secretly recording conversations with fellow officers, the chief of police and the city manager.

Two years after a private consultant warned city officials that the feud between the two rival groups in the 27-man department threatened public safety in the eastern San Gabriel Valley city of 1,000, police personnel say conditions have gotten even worse.

A handful of officers in one camp say they received death threats after they reported assaults on Latino prisoners and incidents of police misconduct to the chief and city officials.

Several policemen said they so fear for their lives that they are compelled to wear bugging devices as a means of protection and gathering evidence against other officers.

“The threats that I received were on my life,” said one Latino officer who, like many of those interviewed, asked that his name not be used. “The people who made them are very serious. It’s pretty heavy.”

Six weeks ago, a reserve officer who had received a death threat earlier was shot at while on patrol. The officer, who was not hit, had parked his squad car and was walking to check a building when four shots rang out in the distance. Four bullets were recovered from the car. No arrests have been made in the shooting--the first involving an on-duty Irwindale officer in 12 years.

The feuding factions split roughly along racial lines, with white officers in one group that in the past year has become commonly known as the “A Team” and Latino officers in another group called the “B Team.” Several Anglo officers who have befriended Latino colleagues and belong to the “B Team” say they have been ostracized by rival white officers.

Officers in both camps interviewed by The Times during a monthlong investigation say the department’s problems have been allowed to deteriorate because Irwindale is a city where the same entrenched families control the City Council and the Police Department, and they are reluctant to criticize each other.

These families have run local politics and the Police Department since this city’s incorporation in 1957, overseeing its transformation from a dusty town of gravel quarries 26 miles east of Los Angeles to a wealthy city of industries including companies like Miller Brewing.

Their control, however, has not been without controversy. In 1972, City Councilman Richard Breceda was recalled in an election while he was on trial for allegedly taking part in a conspiracy to blackmail then-Mayor Richard Diaz into supporting poker parlors.

The case became known as the “spiked enchilada caper” because a hypnotic drug was used in a plate of enchiladas to drug Diaz and then pose him beside a nude woman. Breceda was acquitted, but three other defendants alleged to have conspired with him pleaded guilty or were convicted.

The feud within the Police Department began about 10 years ago as a personality dispute between two officers, one of whom is Breceda’s brother, and has escalated to the point that the entire police force stands divided and distrustful.

For example, quarreling officers say they have refused to respond to each other’s calls for assistance. In an internal memo to superiors detailing his refusal to work with another officer, one Latino patrolman wrote that his Anglo partner “does not like me and does not care if I get hurt or killed.” Superiors have accommodated this officer and others by organizing work shifts around the racial split.

One former employee, Mary Joanne Cooper, has taken an extended leave of absence from her dispatcher job after her complaints of officer misconduct resulted in three years of repeated death threats and intimidation. Cooper was awarded temporary disability benefits by the state Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, which ruled that she sustained severe emotional injuries at the hands of her co-workers.

Although Police Chief Julian Miranda and all five members of the City Council are Latino, the complaints of harassment and intimidation come largely from Latino policemen.

Both current and former officers charge that Miranda, Police Lt. Charles Crawford, second in command, and City Manager Charles Martin remain indifferent to the department’s problems. They say that Martin has been reluctant to criticize Miranda. To do so, they contend, would risk alienating Miranda’s brother Pat, a longtime councilman and former mayor, and members of the other Latino families who control the council and can fire Martin, a lawyer, who last year earned $102,000 working for both the city and its redevelopment agency and $125,000 for his advice on a bond issue.

Officers on the largely Latino “B-Team” charge that Miranda and Crawford have responded to their complaints of officer misconduct and the assaults on Latino prisoners by overseeing shoddy internal investigations. They charge that Martin has approved questionable disability retirement claims to get rid of problem officers.

ACLU Investigating

The department’s investigation of at least three allegations of officer assaults on Latino prisoners since 1975 has become the focus of an inquiry by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been interviewing Irwindale policemen.

“We are very much concerned about the allegations of assaults against Latino citizens and the flagrant misconduct on the part of some officers,” said Catherine Leslie, an ACLU staff attorney based in Los Angeles. “What is particularly disturbing is that the department appears not to have done a proper job investigating this misconduct.”

The longstanding problems of the Irwindale department are reflected in criticism by other law enforcement agencies. One Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department official called it the “least professional department in the county.”

“It’s generally held in ill repute by the major departments in Los Angeles County and by the cities that surround Irwindale,” he said. “The law enforcement community feels . . . the less they interact with them, the better.”

Consultant Hired

In 1984, the private consulting firm of Ross Lewis & Associates of Arcadia was commissioned by Police Chief Miranda to study the racial feud in the department.

The study concluded that the dispute appeared to have “negatively impacted every phase of police operations” and urged the chief to take several steps to address the problems, including modifying the disciplinary system and adopting additional regulations on employee conduct.

“The public health and welfare may be compromised. . . ,” the report stated. “Strong disciplinary action must be taken in order that you can regain an effective management of the department.”

Miranda, chief of police since 1978, said he has not implemented any of the recommendations.

“I think the report exaggerated the problems to a certain extent,” he said. “I didn’t agree that problems in the department threatened the city’s safety.

‘Darn Good Department’

“I think it’s a darn good department. I’m not saying that some guys don’t care for each other, just like any other workplace. But we try to solve problems.”

City Manager Martin also denied that the department has serious problems. “I don’t think the Police Department needs cleaning up. . . ,” he said. “The problems in the department are normal. I can find just as many problems in Baldwin Park or Azusa.”

Martin added that he does not feel pressured by political considerations in his dealings with the department. But Councilman Miranda said Martin and the families that control the City Council might think twice about confronting the problems for fear of angering relatives and friends.

“Most families don’t want to hurt each other. . . . You have to live in Irwindale to understand it,” Miranda said.

“My daughter, Sandra, works for my brother at the Police Department. She’s a dispatcher. But in Irwindale, we don’t see that as nepotism because we’re all family.”

Personality Conflict

By most accounts, the dispute began in 1975 as a personality conflict between Officers Stephen Fowler and Raul Breceda, who is now a sergeant. Fowler complained to his superiors that Breceda had failed to assist him on three occasions when he requested a backup unit. According to a complaining memo Fowler filed with his bosses, Breceda failed to respond on one occasion because he had fallen asleep in the sergeant’s office. Breceda denies he was asleep.

“Breceda is a member of one of the city’s most powerful families and he had a lot of supporters,” said a longtime officer recalling the feud’s beginnings. “And Fowler had a clique of officers who looked up to him. When the two began trading accusations, the force pretty much followed one or the other.”

Feelings against Fowler were so strong within the predominantly Latino “B-Team” that two officers met with Martin in 1983 and pleaded that promoting Fowler to sergeant would further split a department already divided into factions.

They cited, among other things, Fowler’s decision in 1979 to shoot a fleeing suspect, hitting him in the wrist. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office ruled that Fowler was probably not justified in using deadly force but refused to prosecute him because the suspect was an unsympathetic witness.

Recorded Conversation

Martin told the officers--who secretly recorded the conversation--that he too had questions regarding Fowler’s conduct during his 15 years as an Irwindale police reserve and officer, but said Chief Miranda was adamant about promoting him.

Two years later, after Fowler had made sergeant, Miranda fired him after a departmental investigation found that Fowler had set fire to a small replica of the Mexican flag on the locker of Officer Mike Luque. Fowler appealed the termination. Even though the city thought it had a strong case, Martin--on the advice of independent counsel--reinstated Fowler.

But before Fowler returned to work, Martin approved his application for disability retirement. Fowler, who contended that he had injured his back several years earlier, receives $1,400 a month in benefits.

“A lot of guys felt the whole thing was swept under the rug,” a longtime sergeant said. “In other cities, Fowler would have been fired. In Irwindale, he was retired with full benefits.”

Questions have also been raised about Martin’s approval of disability retirement in January, 1984, for the most vocal Fowler rival, Officer Thomas Fore, who said he had grown tired of the feuding and had sought and received a $1,300-a-month pension, even though he says he was not disabled.

Stroke of a Pen

Fore said the decision to grant him the pension was made without a formal hearing and amounted to “a stroke of Charles Martin’s pen.” Fore said his documentation consisted of a few letters from a West Covina doctor, recommended to him by the city, stating that a 1981 wrist injury prevented Fore from pulling his gun.

Asked if he was disabled, Fore replied: “Hell, no. ‘I’m a private investigator. I own my own security firm and I fly my own helicopter. The city wanted a way to ease me out. . . . I was a constant complainer.”

Martin denied using disability retirements to get rid of problem officers who were not disabled but said he is not averse to doing so if it is the only way to rid the department of a “bad apple.”

Despite the departure of Fowler, the “A-Team” leader, and Fore, a “B-Team” leader, relations between the two factions have so deteriorated that feuding officers have refused to provide automatic backup for each other or to work on the same shift with rival officers. Officers in both camps contend that the lack of cooperation affects service to the public.

‘Fighting Each Other’

“They’re not getting the protection they deserve,” said one sergeant who said he did not belong to either group. “Officers are too busy fighting each other and looking over their shoulder to concentrate on police work. It’s crazy.”

“You get officers responding to calls who don’t talk to each other,” said a “B-Team” patrolman.

Officers said Chief Miranda had remained neutral in the dispute. But several said that Lt. Crawford, who heads all internal investigations, had aligned himself with the Anglo faction.

“The lieutenant says we’re competent, but we’re slower,” said a Latino officer who belongs to the “B-Team.” “He’s told me our culture is slower. He says we get the job done, but we’re slower than the white guys.” Crawford denies making the statement.

The officers also claim that Crawford spends considerable work time operating his auto parts salvage business, a charge supported by local salvage yard workers.

Denies Using City Time

Crawford would not comment on the split in the department, and he denied using city time for his private business.

A few officers and staff have tried to walk a precarious line between the two sides.

Mary Joanne Cooper, the former dispatcher, said she got along well with both factions for three years until she complained about an incident in 1980 in which Officer Rick Woodmansee, along with Fowler, disrupted a staff meeting by driving a motorcycle through the halls of the department.

“My life has been hell ever since,” Cooper said. “I’ve been threatened, and the lives of my children have been threatened. I’m still afraid to leave my home.”

Cooper’s case is detailed in testimony before the state Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, which has awarded her temporary disability due to injuries to her “nerves, emotional state and psyche.” The board has yet to hear Cooper’s application for permanent disability.

Threatening Phone Calls

A few days after turning in a personnel complaint, Cooper testified, she began receiving threatening phone calls. She testified that Woodmansee, a leader of the “A-Team” faction, visited her house twice and threatened to “destroy and discredit” her.

She testified that shortly after Woodmansee’s visit, two carloads of men broke doors and windows of her Hacienda Heights home.

In October, 1981, Cooper’s house was broken into, and only photographs, cards and a diary detailing her relationship with a married Irwindale police officer were stolen. Those items were later sent to the officer’s wife.

“I begged Chief Miranda and Lt. Crawford to make Woodmansee leave me alone. This went on for three years, and I begged them and I begged them,” Cooper said in an interview. “Each time, the chief told me the same thing. He told me to ignore Woodmansee and the problem would go away.” Miranda would not comment on the Cooper case.

In November, 1983, Cooper collapsed at work and was taken to the hospital. She has not returned to work and has had to seek psychiatric help for stress.

Threat to Children

“Last year, on the very day I was to testify at workmen’s compensation court, I got a phone call. It was a man and he said, ‘If you value your kids’ lives, you won’t show up in court today,’ ” Cooper said.

Woodmansee testified at Cooper’s workers’ comp hearing that he never called or threatened her, did not direct anyone else to do so and had no knowledge of the attacks on Cooper’s home.

In rejecting the city’s bid to deny Cooper disability benefits, workers’ compensation Judge Elmer M. Dugan said Woodmansee “gave the court the impression that he was less sincere and truthful” than Cooper and other witnesses.

An issue raised by several Irwindale officers was their lack of confidence in the department’s ability to properly investigate internal complaints of prisoner beatings and officer misconduct.

In the last year, for example, at least three officers have complained to their superiors about the alleged February, 1985, beating of a Mexican national and former Sgt. Fowler’s role in the March, 1985, burning of the Mexican flag.

Kept Notes on Threats

In each instance, the officers’ complaints led to months of telephoned death threats. The officers took notes on the date and nature of the threats.

Gary Burt, an Irwindale police reserve officer since 1982, said he gave Chief Miranda a memo last March on a conversation he overheard in which Fowler described striking the Mexican national. Two weeks later, Burt said, he began receiving threatening phone calls.

“You’ve gone too far now,” one caller reportedly told Burt. “Keep your mouth shut or you’re dead.”

Burt said the calls continued for nearly five months. He said he did not tell his superiors for fear of aggravating the situation.

Fowler said he had no knowledge of the death threats.

Four Shots Fired

Six weeks ago, Burt had left his squad car to check a building when four shots struck the front and rear doors of the vehicle. Burt, who was 50 feet from the car and was not injured, has asked for an investigation of the shooting by a separate police agency.

Chief Miranda drew a distinction between death threats conveyed at work and death threats communicated over the telephone to off-duty officers.

“It wasn’t here in this department. They received some calls. They might have been at their homes. That’s not (in) Irwindale.”

While the ACLU’s Los Angeles office is investigating at least three allegations of police brutality in Irwindale since 1975, ACLU lawyer Leslie said Fowler’s alleged involvement in the February, 1985, assault is of particular interest because of the “questionable manner” in which the department investigated the allegations.

Verbal Abuse

The victim, Antonio Alcala, was arrested for speeding and two outstanding traffic warrants. Alcala, a machine operator who lives in Azusa, told The Times that Fowler immediately began verbally abusing him. Alcala was later interviewed by the department in an internal investigation. Officer Mike Luque, who witnessed the alleged assault and who said he complained in person to his superiors, supported Alcala’s version in an interview with The Times.

“I was putting on my shirt (in a jail cell) when Fowler said he wanted me to dress faster,” Alcala said. “He grabbed my sweater, put it around my neck and he tied the sleeves in the middle of my face and mouth. He tied it on me hard. It hurt.”

The next morning, Alcala said, Fowler handcuffed him and led him from his jail cell to the squad car for transportation to the sheriff’s station in San Dimas.

“He grabbed me behind the neck. . . . As we walked out, I looked to both sides just to see what was going on. When I looked back, that’s when he hit me twice in the face. With his hands, hard. No blood came out, but I felt that he loosened my jaw.”

Disposition Undisclosed

Fowler denies striking Alcala, and both Chief Miranda and Lt. Crawford, who conducted the internal investigation, refused to disclose its disposition. But several officers said Fowler was not disciplined, and the alleged assault was not a major factor, participants say, when the city agreed last June to retire Fowler with a disability rather than fire him.

“I’ve never seen an investigation so one-sided in my life,” one officer said. “. . . Lt. Crawford and Fowler are very close friends. It was a whitewash. It was almost comical.”

Times staff writer Victor Valle contributed to this story.