Binkley Defends His Secret Probes of Officials : Law enforcement: Suspended Long Beach chief says he merely followed up on allegations. He denies motives were political and calls city’s treatment of him ‘traumatic.’

In his first interview since he was suspended as Long Beach police chief, Lawrence Binkley on Wednesday defended his secret investigations of city officials, saying it was his duty to look into allegations of criminal wrongdoing.

“We don’t do political investigations,” Binkley said. “When somebody brought me a criminal investigation, (my response was) that elected officials are not exempt from the law in Long Beach.”

Binkley said the allegations against four city officials ranged from gambling to granting favors for massage businesses. In a wide-ranging interview, Binkley said he used police funds to pay former Los Angeles Police Department narcotics officers to help with the investigations, complained that he had not been able to complete the investigations and denied that his management style was vindictive.

Complaints from police commanders about Binkley’s allegedly dictatorial way of running the department were instrumental in his temporary removal from office Dec. 23 by City Manager James Hankla. The controversy heated up last week when it was revealed that Binkley had secretly gathered information on four city officials, including the city prosecutor and a councilman.

Police officials turned over some information from the secret files to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office Dec. 30.

“The investigation the district attorney . . . in my opinion, is not complete. It was prematurely stopped,” Binkley said. He said he has turned over all his own files to the district attorney’s office and that documents he was seen taking from his office his last day with the department were only copies of the investigations. The officials under investigation were City Prosecutor John VanderLans, City Councilman Evan Anderson Braude and Assistant City Manager John Shirey. All three have denied any criminal wrongdoing. The name of the fourth official has not been disclosed.

Binkley said that he has been treated unfairly by the city and described the events of the past four weeks as one of the “most traumatic experiences” in his life.

He took the job in Long Beach as chief nearly five years ago to reform the department, which he said was untrained and undisciplined. The year before he arrived there were 61 lawsuits filed against Long Beach officers. Last year there were four, he noted.

“When you discipline people you are going to make people mad,” he said. “How do you discipline an organization and get people to like you?” he asked.

Binkley would not comment on his future with the department, saying a settlement has not been reached. City officials have said that they do not expect Binkley ever to resume his duties as police chief and that negotiations are under way to determine when and how he will leave the force. The decision could come as early as today, city officials said.

The controversy probably has blocked his ambition of becoming police chief of Los Angeles, Binkley said.

Binkley said he started investigations on the officials after his officers brought him allegations of criminal wrongdoing.

One city official has characterized the information in the secret files as ranging from potentially serious to silly. Binkley acknowledged that some of the details were irrelevant.

Several times during the last few years he has tried to determine if allegations against one city official were true, Binkley said. Sources in the department said the official was City Prosecutor VanderLans.

Los Angeles Sheriff’s Capt. Nick Popovich said Wednesday that Binkley had asked the Sheriff’s Department in 1989 to investigate allegations of illegal gambling by VanderLans and that no evidence was found of criminal activity.

Binkley said he resumed the investigation himself last year and used money from a special departmental fund for paying informants. The money was used to fund surveillance work by two former Los Angeles police officers. He would not say why he used the former Los Angeles officers rather than his own staff, or what they had done.

His temporary removal from office came as a “complete surprise” and has overshadowed his accomplishments on the force, Binkley said.

“If I were to leave it would be a great relief,” Binkley said.