Chief Says He Aided Friend in Purchase of Handgun

Police Chief Bill Kolender said he helped a friend buy a handgun last year without waiting the mandatory 15-day cooling off period required by state law.

Under that law, only a police officer can purchase a gun off the shelf, and then only if the gun is to be used in the line of duty. Everyone else must wait 15 days so state Department of Justice authorities can do background checks.

But in September, 1985, Kolender helped his friend get around that law when he went to a Mission Valley gun shop and signed a receipt so that Jim Ciancimino, owner of a men’s gift store, could buy and walk away with a 9-millimeter Sig Sauer P-226.

‘I Just Signed’

“He was a personal friend,” Kolender said. “I just signed so he didn’t have to wait for two weeks.”

Kolender has been an outspoken supporter of gun control, and earlier this year he led a meeting of other big-city police executives in denouncing efforts to water down federal handgun laws.

“We don’t think you should be able to walk . . . into a store and buy a gun,” Kolender said at a meeting in February of the Major City Police Chiefs. “We don’t think you should be able to buy a handgun through a mail-order catalogue. We don’t think the public needs to possess Uzis. That is ridiculous.”

Kolender has figured in supplying at least one other friend with a handgun, according to documents and interviews.

The other incident is recorded in the diary of former police Officer Jeanne Taylor, who was injured on the job and then served as the uniformed “light duty” officer in Kolender’s office from 1980 to 1981. The diary was submitted to the city’s Civil Service Commission recently as an exhibit in a complaint about the way the Police Department treats people who make disability claims.

In an April, 1981, entry, Taylor wrote: “Dropped off a gun for Frank Curran at the Charger office. Collected a check of $233.30 from Curran.” Taylor also kept a piece of paper given her by Kolender on which the chief apparently figured the cost of the firearm by writing the $220 price, plus $13.20 tax, The Times has learned.

Although Taylor wrote the name Frank Curran in the diary, her attorney, Patrick Thistle, said she made a mistake and intended to write the name of Pat Curran, a former National Football League player who is now the San Diego Chargers’ business manager.

Refused to Discuss It

The diary does not say who the check was made out to or where the gun came from.

Curran said he is a friend of Kolender. He declined to discuss the gun transaction, except to say that it had “nothing to do with the Chargers. . . . I’d rather not talk to you about it. I don’t think it is any of your business.”

Kolender said he doesn’t remember if he sold a gun to Curran. “I don’t recall the incident, period,” he said.

City Manager John Lockwood said he is including the gun sales on the list of items he is investigating about Kolender and the Police Department. A Times investigation revealed last week that Kolender and his top aides have dismissed thousands of parking citations and at least 30 moving violations, some with fabricated excuses, for influential San Diegans, friends, relatives and the media.

Kolender helped Ciancimino buy the Sig Sauer P-226 from Emergency Equipment Engineering, a Mission Valley firm that caters exclusively to law enforcement.

Ciancimino said he met Kolender when the two served on the board of directors for the Make a Wish Foundation, a charity for children with terminal illnesses. A former Marine, Ciancimino mentioned to Kolender last year that he was interested in buying a Sig Sauer, which was in the running at the time for selection as standard equipment by the military.

‘Do Me a Favor’

“He was a friend, and he found a source,” Ciancimino said. “He was trying to get me the best price that he could find. . . . He was trying to do me a favor.”

Kolender found a Sig Sauer at Emergency Equipment for $450, Ciancimino said. That price was not unusual for the pistol, although it carried a suggested retail price of $625, said a spokesman for the Virginia company that imports the firearm.

On their way to lunch one day, Kolender and Ciancimino stopped at the Mission Valley gun shop. Ciancimino said his check register shows he wrote a check to Emergency Equipment on Sept. 9, 1985, and added that he believes that the receipt was made out in Kolender’s name. He initially offered to supply a copy of the check to The Times, then withdrew the offer.

“I’ll tell you whose name wasn’t on the invoice, and that was the San Diego Police Department’s name,” Ciancimino said.

Kolender corroborated Ciancimino’s account, adding that he interceded to help his friend avoid the 15-day wait required by the state Penal Code.

“I signed so he could get the gun without having to wait the two weeks, yes,” Kolender said. The chief said he had not performed a background check of Ciancimino but added that he has “known him for a long time.”

‘A Little Time’

Justice Department spokesman Juan Vega said the waiting period “provides us a little time to check the record by name and date of birth. If the person (buying the gun) happens to be in one of the classes that is forbidden to possess guns, we can stop the transaction--an ex-convict or a person who is mentally incompetent or a user of narcotics, a minor. . . .”

The only exception, Vega said, is for law enforcement officers, who can buy guns off the shelf only if they have a letter from their chief saying that the firearm is needed in the line of duty.

Violation of the 15-day provision is a misdemeanor, Vega said.

John Proffitt, general manager of Emergency Equipment, said he does not recall selling any gun to Kolender or Ciancimino, and his records for Sept. 9 and the rest of that month show that no Sig Sauer was purchased at his store.

Ciancimino said the purchase was not so urgent that he could not have waited the 15 days. He said he has yet to buy ammunition for the weapon.