Outside Probe of 911 Call Sought : Law enforcement: City Manager Philip Hawkey says police failed to file a report on ‘family disturbance’ complaint by estranged wife of Police Chief Jerry Oliver.

City Manager Philip Hawkey called Tuesday for a review by outside investigators of the police handling of a 911 “family disturbance” call last fall by Police Chief Jerry Oliver’s estranged wife.

Police officers who responded to Oliver’s home in the San Rafael section after a call from Jackie Oliver on Sept. 13, 1991, failed to file a police report, which is a violation of state law, said Hawkey, reporting to a bitterly divided City Council.

“Police Department policy and state law mandate that a police report be prepared in all cases of domestic dispute,” said Hawkey, who called for a review of the matter by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

The issue prompted an unusually harsh exchange between Councilman Isaac Richard and Mayor Rick Cole, with Richard accusing his colleagues of conducting “a lynching” of the black police chief and Cole saying that Richard was seeking to “politicize” the issue.

The City Council did not vote on the measure, but Cole and Councilman William Thomson, expressed support for Hawkey’s action.

Councilman William Paparian said that charges of spousal abuse against Oliver should be “disposed of once and for all.” Councilman Jess Hughston and Councilwoman Kathryn Nack did not comment. Councilman Chris Holden was absent.

Several council members insisted that Hawkey’s action did not call for an investigation of Oliver himself. “I think we have an obligation to the public to ensure that the 911 system works properly,” Thomson said.

A group of about 40 people, most of them African-Americans, came to the council chambers in support of Oliver, who was became chief just a year ago. Some echoed Richard’s remarks that the council was intruding into Oliver’s private affairs.

Oliver himself is out of town and could not be reached for comment.

Charges that 911 calls from Oliver’s home were mishandled surfaced last month after Jackie Oliver filed divorce papers in Pasadena Superior Court alleging that her husband had physically abused her during their 14 months of marriage.

In Oliver’s own petition for divorce, he charged that his wife had made four unfounded 911 calls to embarrass him.

Jackie Oliver’s lawyer, celebrity divorce attorney Marvin Mitchelson, responded that at least one of the calls was an attempt to get help, which Pasadena police officers ignored when their chief greeted them at the front door.

Two weeks ago, people representing various women’s groups called for an investigation of the charges of spousal abuse against Oliver. But city officials said there was no basis for council intervention in the matter because Jackie Oliver had never come forward to complain.

“We have to have a complainant with personal knowledge (of the alleged abuse),” said City Atty. Victor Kaleta.

In the meantime, however, Hawkey conducted an “administrative review” of three known 911 calls by Jackie Oliver, listening to tapes and reading police documents,

Two of the calls, on May 29, were reports of “suspicious noises” on an evening when Oliver was not at home, Hawkey said.

But an earlier call, a so-called “415 family disturbance” call on Sept. 13, was improperly handled, Hawkey said. The officers who responded, he said, interviewed Jackie Oliver and found no basis for the complaint. But they failed to file a police report, as required by both the state Penal Code and Pasadena Police Department policy.

“I have, therefore, ordered that a police report be prepared, which will immediately be submitted to the District Attorney Special Investigation Unit for review to determine if an investigation should proceed,” Hawkey told the council.

Richard responded with outrage, walking out of the meeting several times during discussion of the measure, only to return to make more angry comments.

He said that he himself had suggested two months ago a third-party investigation of Jackie Oliver’s charges that the chief had hit, pushed, shoved and otherwise abused her. But he said the idea was rejected by Hawkey and Kaleta, who said such an investigation could not be conducted without the cooperation of the complainant.

“Now we get to join in a wave of wrath against Jerry Oliver,” Richard said. “This is a lynching.” He also called the measure “a coon hunt.” Richard added that Hawkey and some of his colleagues were bowing to political pressure.

“Why do you have to wait for a feminist organization to come and push for this?” Richard demanded.

“An initial review seemed to show that it (the 911 call) had been handled appropriately,” Hawkey said. “It was only through a detailed examination that this requirement became clear.”

Cole responded angrily to Richard’s attack against his colleagues. “I’m tired of Mr. Richard’s baseless attacks on his colleagues,” Cole said. “If he succeeds in politicizing this issue, he can tear the community apart.”

Richard walked out in the midst of Cole remarks, shouting, “You’re a bigot, you’re a bigot!”

Cole also assured those who spoke in Oliver’s support that the investigation would not concentrate on the divorce proceeding.

“The city manager has looked carefully into the situation and found a procedural error and corrected it,” Cole said. “This is not an investigation of Jerry Oliver’s divorce.”

But Richard, noting that the first priority of investigators would be to interview Jackie Oliver, contended after the meeting that a 911 investigation and the Oliver divorce proceeding would “go together like bark on a tree.”

Hawkey’s call for a review by the district attorney appeared troubling to all sides.

Even a spokeswoman for the group calling for an investigation of the spousal abuse charges against Oliver gave the measure halfhearted support.

“I share council member Richard’s disgust that this was not handled in private in accord with a policy that already exists,” said Esther Wakeman, a therapist who has spoken for the group, which includes representatives of the Pasadena Rape Hotline and two chapters of the National Organization for Women.

The group contends that city policy required an investigation of Oliver as soon as his wife’s allegations were made public.

Noting Oliver’s widespread approval rating and the general dissatisfaction with Hawkey’s solution, Cole said, “This is perhaps the most gut-wrenching topic this council has ever had to wade into.”