Huntington Park Names UCLA Police Chief to Head City Force
The Huntington Park City Council has unanimously appointed Patrick M. Connolly chief of the 46-member Police Department starting Jan. 4.
Connolly, now chief of the UCLA campus force, will be paid $62,300. He was selected from a field of 49 applicants, said Mayor Thomas E. Jackson. The 49-year-old Cypress resident also once headed the campus police department at California State University, Long Beach and served as a lieutenant in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
In July the City Council fired Chief Geano Contessotto. The Council gave no official reason for the firing, but Jackson said later that he and his colleagues had no choice but to replace Contessotto to “return the city to its prior stability.” The Huntington Park Police Department has been the subject of numerous lawsuits and complaints alleging excessive use of force by officers.
Contessotto has filed a lawsuit seeking $2.5 million, alleging that the City Council unfairly fired him and destroyed his career.
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