L.B. Police Chief Reportedly Kept Files on Officials

Long Beach Police Chief Lawrence Binkley has kept secret files on city officials with information that ranges from “potentially serious . . . (to) silly,” city leaders said Friday. One councilman likened the embattled chief to “a little J. Edgar Hoover.”

Binkley, who was removed from duty last month pending a city investigation into his allegedly vindictive management style, apparently used department resources to compile potentially embarrassing information on at least four city officials, authorities said.

The data varied from allegations of wrongdoing involving the city’s lead prosecutor to information that a city councilman was seen giving a kiss to a woman who would benefit from a proposed ordinance the councilman sponsored.

“It was unauthorized, unethical and sneaky,” said Assistant City Manager John Shirey, one of the officials named in Binkley’s files.

Binkley could not be reached for comment and his attorney, Jim Murphy, did not return repeated phone calls this week.

The first hint city officials had that Binkley may have collected information involving city leaders came last month, when the chief, in a newspaper interview, was quoted as saying he would “request a grand jury review of any and all elected and appointed officials and complete public exposure of everything found.”

City officials took those comments as a threat, and the city manager, in announcing a personnel review of Binkley and his assistant chief, ordered Binkley to “immediately turn over to the appropriate prosecuting agency all evidence or information in his possession relating to alleged criminal misconduct by any public official.”

Police officials turned over some information from the secret files to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office Dec. 30, one week after Binkley had been temporarily removed from his post.

The number of undercover investigations remained unclear Friday, but their targets included the Long Beach city prosecutor, assistant city manager, a city councilman and another unnamed city official.

City leaders said the inquiries constituted an abuse of powers by the police chief in the state’s fifth-largest city.

Officials said a sergeant in the department’s vice detail compiled at least one of the files. It was unclear why the four officials were targeted and whether information was gathered on others.

City Councilman Evan Anderson Braude, one of those targeted by Binkley, said he had not seen information about himself, but was informed by city officials that part of the files’ contents concerned his efforts to revise an outdated ordinance relating to licensing and zoning for massage therapists.

The file noted that Braude was seen giving a kiss to a massage therapist after a City Council meeting. “She was a nice Jewish girl and I gave her a kiss, and all of a sudden I’m involved in a conspiracy to do illegal massage things,” Braude said, describing the exchange as an innocent kiss on the cheek. He said he has known the woman and her family for years.

City Prosecutor John VanderLans said he had not been told of the allegations against him, but he speculated that the file alleges that “I was soft on gambling, vice. But I don’t know. They haven’t told me anything.”

VanderLans and Binkley had frosty relations and rarely spoke. In fact, VanderLans reported that, two or three years ago, he had heard so many rumors that Binkley had bugged his office that he had it checked for listening devices. No devices were found.

The information involving VanderLans was recently turned over to the district attorney’s office by Long Beach police. The district attorney’s special investigation division, which reviews complaints of alleged wrongdoing by public officials, has declined to disclose the contents of the report, and officials stressed that they have not decided whether to open an investigation.

Binkley was ordered by City Manager James Hankla to turn over any files involving alleged wrongdoing by public officials. Earlier this week, Binkley refused, through his attorney, to comply, city officials said.

Some city officials said they are particularly concerned because Binkley and Assistant Chief Eugene Brizzolara, who also is being investigated by the city, were seen taking files from police headquarters on Dec. 20, according to court documents prepared in connection with Binkley’s unsuccessful effort to get reinstated. Neither Binkley nor Brizzolara has returned to headquarters since that day, when they were told of complaints lodged against them by high-ranking commanders.

“He’s (Binkley) holding a bunch of (additional) files, apparently, and we don’t know what he has,” Assistant City Manager Shirey said. “I don’t know whether it was information on public officials or they are his own notes or it’s scratch paper which doesn’t mean anything.”

Shirey, who has reviewed the information turned over to the district attorney’s office, declined to reveal the contents, saying it would be impossible to characterize because the material varied.

“It is a confused interpretation of a series of events that took place over a while,” Shirey said. “Some of it is certainly not petty and some of it certainly is. Some of it is potentially serious and some of it is silly,” Shirey said.

Angry city officials said Binkley violated a years-old standing order from the city manager not to keep secret files on public officials and to turn over any information of alleged wrongdoing about public officials to the appropriate prosecuting agency to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

“It’s outrageous that (Binkley violated) a direct order given by the city manager years ago (that) they are not to maintain secret files on elected public officials,” Braude said.

“We’ve seen this in Germany and other kinds of totalitarian governments. We saw a little of this in the Los Angeles Police Department,” Braude said, referring to suspicions last year that the LAPD secretly gathered damaging information on political figures.

Although the LAPD denied keeping such files, the department was rocked eight years ago by disclosures of spying on liberal community groups and others by a unit known as the Public Disorder and Intelligence Division.

In Long Beach, city officials are now expressing similar concerns.

“Those kind of intelligence activities remind me of a little J. Edgar Hoover,” Councilman Clarence Smith said.

Councilman Warren Harwood said: “While I feel no nervousness--let them look anywhere they want--the problem is the potential for abuse if police officials can use the tactics they have to influence political officials. It would be very chilling to democracies if police officials could intimidate or in some way interfere with public officials.”

But Councilman Wallace Edgerton said he believes that Binkley “had an obligation” to look into any evidence “that some public officials are doing something wrong.” Binkley’s mistake was in not informing the city manager and the appropriate prosecuting agency, he added.

Shirey said Hankla had no knowledge of the investigations until recently. Hankla could not be reached for comment Friday.

As news of the investigations spread, Braude and others attempted to determine why the chief targeted certain officials for secret inquiries.

While it was known that Binkley did not get along with VanderLans and Shirey, Braude described his relationship with the chief as “relatively nice.”

“Maybe this officer (who wrote up the report) doesn’t like me,” Braude said.

Sources close to the case say the officer who apparently compiled some of the information regarding the public officials was Sgt. Soeren Poulsen, a detective in the vice detail and a 20-year veteran with the department. Poulsen could not be reached for comment.

On Dec. 23, Hankla temporarily removed Binkley from his post while investigating allegations by commanders that the chief ran the department in a vindictive and dictatorial manner. Had he not removed Binkley, Hankla said, he faced a revolt among the department’s upper ranks, with as many as eight commanders threatening to quit, according to court documents.

Binkley has denied any wrongdoing and attributed any discontent to the many changes that he has implemented in the department since he arrived in 1987.

Brizzolara, the assistant chief, is under investigation for allegedly attempting to influence the testimony of two commanders during a civil trial in which all three were named defendants. Brizzolara denied the accusations.