Santa Ana : 3 Police Officers Fired in Shooting Incident

Three Santa Ana police officers have been fired for taking part in an off-duty, late-night incident in which shots were fired through a county supervisor’s window.

All three officers, Paul Colter, Jill Tangedal and Jesse Teshima, plan to appeal the decision to the city’s Personnel Board, according to Seth Kelsey, attorney for the Police Benevolent Assn. Kelsey said he will not represent the officers but will appear at the hearings as a witness.

The Police Department placed all three on administrative leave 12 days ago and notified them of the intent to fire them. Under state law, the officers have the right to appeal that notice. After hearings this week before Deputy Police Chief Eugene Hansen and Deputy City Atty. Terence Grace, the three were fired, effective immediately.

The shooting incident occurred June 18, when seven Santa Ana officers drove to the roof of the Orange County Transit District parking garage about 3 a.m. after a night of drinking. Five of the officers fired their weapons, and two of the bullets lodged high in a wall in the office of an aide to Supervisor Roger Stanton. No one was in the county Hall of Administration at the time.

The other two officers who fired their guns, Scott Zimmerman and James Bland, have resigned. Department officials have not indicated whether any disciplinary action would be taken against the two who did not fire their weapons, Geraldine Bucene and Daniel Armanderez.

Appeals to the Personnel Board must be filed within 10 days of termination. Kelsey said he expects a date for those hearings to be set at the board’s Sept. 3 meeting.

Kelsey said he would act as a witness because of alleged “prosecutorial misconduct.” He alleges that Colter was offered a lesser discipline if he would cooperate, and that all three officers have been encouraged not to retain attorneys. “There has been an extraordinary amount of effort to ensure that these officers don’t assert the rights that any other individual would have,” he said.

Hansen said Friday that he could not comment until he was certain that the officers had received their notices of termination.