Coronado Officers Ask Probe of 2 Actions by Police Chief Jerry Boyd

The Coronado Police Officers Assn. on Monday called for an independent investigation of allegations that Police Chief Jerry Boyd used excessive force and profanity last summer during the arrest of a robbery suspect and last month improperly used police video equipment.

Boyd, who teaches police ethics at the San Diego County Sheriff’s Academy, was cleared of any wrongdoing by a district attorney’s office investigation into the robbery arrest and a city manager’s review of the equipment matter. On Monday, Boyd asked the DA’s office to investigate the allegation that he mishandled city property.

POA President Jim Coates wrote in a letter to City Manager Ray Silver Monday that in both cases “important . . . witnesses were not interviewed and important evidence was not preserved or examined by any independent investigator.”

As a result, POA members voted unanimously during an emergency meeting Saturday to ask Silver to ask for an independent investigation by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department or the attorney general’s office.

Silver suggested that the POA’s bitter relations with Boyd and its current impasse over a contract may be responsible for the complaints. “There are some people who have axes to grind with the boss. So what’s new?” he said.

Boyd issued a statement Monday through San Diego attorney Robert Teaff that said in part, “I didn’t do anything wrong. I did complete a comprehensive report of the incident within moments of when it occurred. I documented my use of force. It was the minimum amount of force necessary in the line of duty.”

The excessive force and profanity allegedly occurred in July minutes after an armed robbery of Rick Jewelers in Coronado. An unedited television videotape of the arrest shows Boyd holding a revolver and shouting two obscenities at the suspect as the man was being held by officers.

The POA letter said: “The allegation included the information that the chief used unnecessary profanity and brutality which, of course, is beyond all accepted standards for not only police officers but any chief administrator of a police department.”

DA spokesman Steve Casey said Boyd was exonerated of using excessive force after a review of the officers’ original reports and a “very clear and complete report prepared by Chief Boyd himself.” Investigators were unable to interview officers because the “POA was not interested in providing us witnesses,” Casey said.

“If they are saying now that the witnesses should be interviewed, it is a little disingenuous since it was they who played hide the button in the first place,” Casey said.

An attorney for the Coronado POA who contacted the district attorney’s office about the arrest said he did not prevent investigators from interviewing any of the officers.

The attorney, Everett Bobbitt, said that a deputy district attorney was not interested in seeing a videotape of the arrest.

“The officers involved are mentioned in the arrest reports,” Bobbitt said. “The D.A.’s office should have asked them.”

Boyd, who was hired six years ago after working 14 years for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, is well known in law enforcement circles for enforcing a strict code of police ethics.

During an ethics course last year, Boyd told cadets at the San Diego County Sheriff’s Academy that there is no excuse for the use of profanity or racial slurs when arresting a suspect. He also issued a stern warning about the repercussions of using excessive force.

“The minute you’ve got that turkey subdued is the exact moment you have to stop using force,” Boyd said. “It is extremely tempting to go that extra one for the sheriff and one for you. . . . The first time and every time you are tempted to give a guy one extra butt stroke with the baton or one extra punch to the kidneys, think about this: you will be fired!”

Monday’s second demand by the POA for an independent investigation stemmed from an episode last week in which a Coronado police officer discovered that Boyd had taken a police videocassette recorder to his residence and replaced it with his personal VCR.

Several sources inside the Coronado Police Department who asked not to be identified provided the following account of the episode:

When an officer tried to use the VCR and couldn’t make it work, he noticed that the recorder was a Panasonic model. (The department model is a newer and more expensive Quasar.) The officer turned over the machine and found a driver’s license inscribed on the bottom.

A records check found that the driver’s license number belonged to Boyd. The metallic city property tag from the Quasar model had been taped to the Panasonic.

Cmdr. Bob Paseman and Cmdr. Bob Hutton, second in command under Boyd took the matter directly to City Manager Silver.

Silver, after talking with Boyd, determined that there was no wrongdoing on the chief’s part.

Teaff, acting as Boyd’s spokesman, said that the chief needed to use the police VCR to modify the recorder for a disaster preparedness program involving the use of remote cameras from disaster locations. When Boyd went to get the police VCR, he found the property tag lying on the floor, Teaff said.

“He Scotch tapes the label (to his personal VCR) to save it until he can get it properly glued on (the police VCR).”

On Friday, when word of the incident began spreading throughout police headquarters, Boyd asked Silver to post a memorandum announcing that he had been cleared of any wrongdoing. The memo said:

“I understand that there is some awareness of a matter which I have recently reviewed related to the Director of Police Services. For your information, the Director of Police Services was exonerated from any allegations of improper conduct.”

Instead of quelling rumors, Silver’s memo created a great deal of discussion, leading officers to ask even more questions about the city manager’s investigation.

Some officers, angry that Silver had taken less than two days to clear Boyd, talked of a “whitewash,” one POA official said.

“If this had happened to any other officer, he would have been offered a polygraph and an administrative leave,” Bobbitt said. “That is one of the most serious allegations against a police officer. The question of his honesty. I can’t think of a more basic one.”