The Wrong Ticket : Waiting Game Lands 2 Detectives in Trouble

Homicide Detectives Gil Padillo and Ron Jordan were waiting at Greater Buffalo International Airport to escort a murder suspect back to San Diego last February when they came across a deal they couldn’t resist.

American Airlines Flight 307 to Chicago was overbooked, and the airline began offering incentives for each passenger who agreed to stay off the plane and board the next available flight.

Seated in a crowded airport with their prisoner, Harold Kennedy Robinson, who was wanted in the slaying of a San Diego convenience store clerk, the detectives volunteered to give up their seats in exchange for compensation toward future travel.

Padillo, Jordan and Robinson waited in Buffalo for a connecting flight to Newark, where the detectives again passed up an overbooked flight to collect additional travel coupons, according to police sources.

But the detectives apparently never got to take the free trips. When San Diego police administrators found out about the incident, they transfered Padillo out of the department’s homicide unit in August and reprimanded Jordan, who had already been moved out of the unit over an unrelated incident, sources told The Times.

“We were concerned, we investigated it and we took appropriate action,” Assistant Police Chief Bob Burgreen said Wednesday. “We didn’t like the way it was handled.”

He added, “It’s a sloppy way to do an important job. We want these kind of (suspects) back here.”

Describing the incident as “a personnel matter,” Burgreen declined to provide any details, including how or when the department learned of the detectives’ actions. He said police ordered the detectives to return the travel coupons to city coffers.

According to records, the city was reimbursed $198 on April 17--two months after the incident. It is not clear from the records whether Robinson, the murder suspect, received any flight bonuses. After his preliminary hearing in San Diego, Robinson was not charged in the killing for lack of evidence.

“We’re certainly not going to let our people be in a position to make money based on their position,” Burgreen said.

While declining to comment on the job demotions, Burgreen said: “Homicide is one of our most desired assignments, a place where we put our most trusted people. We hold them to the highest standards. People who don’t meet the highest standards don’t make it or don’t stay.”

Padillo did not return phone calls and Jordan was not available for comment Wednesday.

When a Times reporter initially inquired about Padillo’s transfer, a police spokesman said he was told that Padillo was reassigned because of a shortage of bilingual investigators in another division.

The prosecutor who arranged Robinson’s extradition said he was not aware that Padillo and Jordan waited unnecessarily in airports in exchange for travel incentives.

“If I knew about it, I don’t think I’d be particularly happy about it because . . . the state ultimately has to foot the bill,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. John Hewicker. “These are not supposed to be profit-making (ventures). I can understand why the Police Department would be unhappy about that.”

Padillo and Jordan, who both joined the department on March 7, 1969, and earn about $33,600 annually, have been involved in other newsworthy cases recently.

Jordan, 42, was sent on April 18 to the sex crimes detail, where he had worked as a detective for several years before joining homicide.

In May, a Juvenile Court judge ruled that a teen-age boy’s admission that he stabbed an elderly neighbor to death on May 7, 1985, couldn’t be used against him because Jordan told the boy he wouldn’t get in trouble for talking to police. Prosecutors admitted that the confession of James McClure, 13, was tainted by improper police techniques.

Padillo, 39, who has come under fire for his investigative work in the Sagon Penn murder case, was transferred Aug. 22 to the robbery unit. He was criticized during the Penn trial for using inaccurate methods to measure the location of evidence such as police cars, weapons, blood stains and tire tracks.

Last month, police officials said they were “embarrassed” by the Sept. 12 discovery of a videotape of the Penn crime scene taken on the night of the March 31, 1985, shootings. The tape was not turned over to prosecutors or the defense for 18 months because Padillo, who narrated the tape, never told anyone of its existence, police officials said.

Padillo and Jordan flew to Buffalo on Feb. 18 to pick up Robinson, who had been named as a possible suspect in the slaying of Fred Harb. Harb was found shot and stabbed to death June 1, 1985, at the AM/PM Mini Mart at 6098 University Ave.

Because Robinson did not waive extradition, the San Diego County district attorney’s office had to obtain a governor’s warrant from New York to put him under arrest, Hewicker said.

Deputy marshals and police officers are generally used to transport out-of-state suspects back to San Diego. But in cases involving murder suspects, one homicide detective is usually sent to obtain a statement, Hewicker said. He added that two homicide detectives are dispatched in cases where the suspect is considered dangerous.

“If there’s any suspicion at all that there could be any excitement--an escape attempt or any violence--the agency making the trip normally asks permission to send a second agent,” Hewicker said. “Sometimes they will do this if the offense happens to be a particularly violent one, or if the person has a significant criminal history.”

Hewicker said homicide suspects are usually restrained by leg braces that are not visible to other passengers. He said airlines prohibit the use of handcuffs, to avoid alarming passengers.