Lockwood’s Penmanship Stalls D.A.’s Review of Police Conduct

More than two weeks after a briefing by San Diego City Manager John Lockwood, the district attorney’s office review of improprieties by the Police Department has been delayed because prosecutors cannot read Lockwood’s handwritten notes about the charges.

Lockwood has said he will rewrite the notes and turn them over to prosecutors Monday.

The notes are from interviews Lockwood conducted during an administrative investigation that found Police Chief Bill Kolender had fixed tickets for friends and influential San Diegans, used a city employee to run personal errands, failed to report gifts and helped friends procure guns.

Lockwood released his findings Nov. 25 and announced that Kolender and Assistant Chief Bob Burgreen would receive written reprimands. Five days before the announcement, Lockwood met with prosecutors and promised to turn over material from his review to help the district attorney’s office determine whether criminal charges should be pursued.

But when Lockwood handed over more than nine pages of handwritten notes, prosecutors couldn’t decipher them. They sent them back Nov. 26 and asked Lockwood to rewrite his scribblings--a task the city manager said he has put off until this weekend because of his schedule.

“The holdup is me. I made notes to myself, and even I have trouble reading my writing,” Lockwood said, chuckling. “I have some sympathy. They sent it (notes) back with a very nice letter saying, ‘Thanks a lot, but golly, we can’t read this stuff.’ I’m going to have to sit down and print out what I have.”

Although Lockwood said his notes provide the details of his review, he said his written summary and conclusions have been available to the district attorney’s office since they were released last month.

“I addressed the whole thing in the statement that I issued,” he said. “But, obviously, I didn’t indicate time and place, who I interviewed.”

The district attorney’s spokesman, Steve Casey, said Friday that prosecutors want to see that kind of detail before deciding whether to begin a criminal investigation of Kolender and his assistants.

“We just approach this in somewhat of a more methodical fashion than (reporters) do,” Casey said.

Lockwood began his two-week inquiry after The Times found that Kolender and his assistants had dismissed thousands of parking citations and dozens of moving violations, many for friends, family and influential San Diegans since at least Jan. 1, 1985. In many cases, the dismissals were based on flimsy or fabricated excuses and no investigation was done before the tickets were dismissed, The Times found.

The city manager’s probe also confirmed other misconduct: Kolender used his position to help a friend buy a gun without waiting the 15-day “cooling off” period mandated by state law; Kolender failed to report gifts on his financial disclosure form, and Kolender and his assistants dispatched a police officer in 1980 and 1981 to perform personal errands.

Lockwood’s 11-page report, as well as his decision to reprimand Kolender and Burgreen, was greeted with praise and relief by many City Council members. Mayor Maureen O’Connor called Lockwood’s report “fair and candid.”

Councilwoman Judy McCarty, however, took issue with Lockwood, sharply attacking the adequacy and integrity of his report in a confidential memo she wrote a day after he announced his findings. The Times obtained a copy of the report Friday after filing an open records request with McCarty’s office.

“A lot of fine people in San Diego have had their careers ruined for a lot less than I see here,” McCarty wrote in the four-page memo. “More importantly, a society which does not or cannot respect its police authority is a society in trouble.”

Complaining that Lockwood’s statement “leaves as many questions as it answers,” McCarty asked a series of pointed questions of the city manager. “The issue here is one of credibility and integrity,” she wrote. “I must believe I get a straight answer from the Manager and the Chief, no matter how damaging that answer is and that is my concern. Have you gotten straight answers? Are you truly satisfied with some of these explanations?”

McCarty was reluctant to discuss the memo. She said she has met with Lockwood twice and he has “come back to me with answers which I believe,” but she added that her inquiry is continuing.

Lockwood declined to reveal his answers to McCarty, saying he wanted to put the matter behind him and get on to the business of “filling pot holes and cleaning beaches.”

Meanwhile, the Police Department is studying ways to revise its ticket-dismissal policy. Cmdr. Keith Enerson said the department will submit proposals to Lockwood this week for review before announcing any changes.