No One’s Satisfied in Aftermath of Party : South Pasadena: Arrests of civic leaders’ sons started it. A private eye is investigating, police are protesting and the chief is retiring.

Police Chief William Reese this week told city officials that he plans to retire, the latest twist in a brouhaha that erupted when the sons of several community leaders were arrested last month at a noisy drinking party.

His departure adds one more ingredient to the intrigue that has been brewing since the Sept. 14 bash, with one of the suspects hurling charges of police misconduct, the police alleging political meddling and the City Council hiring a $50-an-hour private investigator to straighten it all out.

Residents’ complaints have been filed, internal memos are flying and a copy of the police report--given to The Times by an anonymous source--was confiscated by a top police official after a reporter asked him to verify its authenticity.

At the center of the storm are four young South Pasadena men accused of disturbing the peace and resisting arrest: John Bernardi Jr., 22, son of the city manager; Bryan Lee Prentiss, 22, son of the former mayor; Thomas D. Ramos, 20, son of the former Chamber of Commerce president, and Scott D. Josephson, 21.

Although the suspects were ordered to appear in Pasadena Municipal Court on Oct. 15., the district attorney’s office has not filed charges and has sent the case back to the Police Department for more investigation.

Officers, who were called to the Ramos family’s Stratford Avenue home by irate neighbors about 11:30 p.m., contend that the party-goers were loud, belligerent and unwilling to disperse.

Several times, according to the 10-page police report, Bernardi Jr. allegedly threatened to call his father, maintaining that the city manager would have the officers fired for so rudely ending the festivities.

“I’ll call my dad,” police quoted him as saying. “You can’t do anything.”

But in a complaint hand-delivered by Bernardi Sr. to the police chief last week, Bernardi Jr. contends that officers were overly aggressive, allegedly pushing him, kicking him and jamming a billy club into the back of his neck.

“The music was at a moderate level and the crowd was very relaxed and quiet,” Bernardi Jr. wrote. “The police came . . . with a vengeance.”

Reese, a 29-year veteran and chief for the last 5 1/2 years, did not return calls from The Times. City officials, who were scheduled to discuss his departure in a closed session after Wednesday night’s council meeting, said that Reese had already been considering retirement but that the current controversy probably helped make up his mind.

Relations between his department and City Hall have been strained since the arrests, as word began to spread through town that police had allegedly used a heavy hand to break up the party.

A 23-year-old USC student showed up in tears at the city manager’s office, describing what she considered to be harassment and verbal abuse by the officers that night, officials said. The woman, who has filed a complaint, declined to be interviewed.

Concern was amplified because one City Council member’s son--described as a “real straight-and-narrow type of kid”--was also at the party and gave an unflattering account of police actions, according to a City Hall source who asked not to be identified.

Five days after the incident, the council, following the city attorney’s advice, voted in closed session to hire a private investigator to conduct an independent investigation.

“We really wanted an objective way of getting to the bottom of this and have no appearance at all of favoritism,” Mayor Evelyn Fierro said. “This is a very sensitive situation.”

The city attorney in charge of personnel matters recommended hiring Brian Schubert, a former Pomona police lieutenant and a private detective since his retirement in 1989. Bernardi Sr., the city manager, said he called Schubert on Sept. 21, then signed a purchase order authorizing payment of up to $3,000.

“I hired Mr. Schubert, but I’m only in there as a paper shuffler,” said Bernardi, adding that he urged his son not to file a complaint. “I’m not involved in this investigation, I’m not part of it and I’m not orchestrating it.”

But the South Pasadena Police Officers Assn., which represents most of the department’s 31 officers, as well as some reserves and dispatchers, was shocked.

“We are outraged that these city officials have chosen to circumvent the internal affairs process, that they are using public funds for this purpose and that there is so clearly a conflict of interest,” wrote association President Mark Miller in a Sept. 24 memo to his fellow officers. “We are deeply disappointed that the mayor and her City Council apparently have no faith or trust in the officers of this department.”

Council members said they were concerned that such a small department would not be able to fairly investigate its own, or at least convince a skeptical public that “the fox was not tending the chicken coop,” as one city official put it.

The district attorney’s office, at the council’s request, is already investigating a complaint of police brutality by 19-year-old Julian Mercado, who was arrested for allegedly assaulting an officer and obstructing justice during another South Pasadena party in April.

“I know they’re furious,” Fierro said of the police force, “but to me, this is really more protective of the officers involved. If it was done internally, it would look like it was biased, or fixed.”

Altogether, nine South Pasadena police officers and two San Marino patrolmen responded to the Sept. 14 party in the 1100 block of Stratford Avenue, a quiet, tree-lined street of older wood homes with stone porches.

Neighbors complained that unsupervised parties had been going on at the Ramos home for years, the report said, and that gatherings the three weeks before the party had been particularly rowdy. One neighbor said that she regularly wears earplugs to bed to block the noise.

Members of the Ramos family could not be reached for comment, nor could any of the four suspects. But in the police report, Thomas Ramos allegedly told officers: “I can’t help it if I’m surrounded by a bunch of old people.”

Police, who entered through a rear patio, said there were about 30 to 40 people at the party, with loud music pouring through the open windows and many containers of beer and wine scattered about.

Officers asked Ramos to reduce the noise, but they contend that he ignored them and the party continued “unabated.” Finally, they walked into the kitchen through a rear door and arrested Ramos for disturbing the peace.

Others at the party allegedly surrounded the officers, shouting that they had no right to arrest their friend, the report said. More police entered, pushing their way through the crowd, with Miller--the police association president--threatening to spray the party-goers with his tear-gas canister if they did not leave.

Prentiss was confronted in the family room and ordered to leave. When he refused, police handcuffed him, according to the report. Josephson was arrested as he tried to make a telephone call. Bernardi Jr. was arrested outside, allegedly shouting expletives at the police and again threatening to call his father.

“This town’s a real soap opera from time to time,” Councilman James C. Hodge Jr. commented. “But hopefully this will all blow over soon.”