Task Force’s Arrests Speak for Themselves

When Officer Don J. Burt stopped Hung “Henry” Mai for a routine traffic violation in July 1996, the California Highway Patrol rookie had no idea he had just pulled over a man already wanted by police.

Burt searched the trunk of Mai’s white BMW and, according to police, stumbled upon evidence of Mai’s alleged ties to organized crime. Burt was shot seven times, including a fatal bullet to the head.

Santa Ana CHP officers contend that if Mai--who is awaiting trial for Burt’s murder--already had been behind bars on a previous assault charge, their fallen colleague would still be alive.

Burt’s death is part of the reason why they have hooked up with Santa Ana police and parole agents from the state Department of Corrections to form a task force whose mission is to find and arrest career criminals who have violated their parole or committed new crimes.

The Multi-Agency Career Criminal Task Force, formed in July 1997, has made about 200 arrests since its inception. Team members will be honored for their work by Assemblyman Jim Morrissey (R-Santa Ana) at a ceremony today at the Santa Ana Police Department.

“Crime has gone down due to these men doing their jobs above and beyond the call of duty,” said John Teutimez, a field representative for Morrissey and a retired Santa Ana police officer. “When you are making this many arrests, you are doing something right.”

About half a dozen officers from the three agencies venture out on an unspecified day each week in unmarked vehicles with the list of parole violators they’re seeking. Cases are targeted according to the threat parolees pose.

Investigators--who must carve out time for the task force while also performing their regular duties--find out who hasn’t reported to their parole officer or who is involved in new crimes. The officers then try to track down where the parolees are living or with whom they are associating.

“We start in the afternoon and we go as long as it takes us,” said Paul Toma, a supervisor with the parole and community services division of the Department of Corrections. “Sometimes, we’ll have eight to 10 people in custody at the end of the night. There are about a dozen targets to look for.

“We’re talking about career criminals, many of them very violent, and we are able to get them off the streets before they commit any violent crimes.”

Catching up with criminals who have no desire to go back to prison is sometimes dangerous work, said Santa Ana Police Cpl. Mark Strohman, who came up with the idea of the task force and hooked up with Toma to develop it.

“There have been numerous foot pursuits and some fights,” Strohman said. “We’ve had to use helicopters and canines to capture some of our suspects. They know they’re wanted, they know they are involved in something illegal, and when we go out there, they certainly do run.”

At least one confrontation resulted in a shootout, while another parolee was captured only after he fell out of a tree “like a sack of potatoes” as the officers stood underneath waiting the man out, Strohman said.

“We’ll get several surprised people who will say, ‘How did you find me? How did you know where I was?’ We just say we have our ways,” he said.

The corporal recalled one especially satisfying arrest in a Santa Ana motel room. A parolee wanted in connection with a burglary was tracked down by officers, who burst into the room to find not only the suspect, but three other people officers say were using drugs and were involved in a counterfeit payroll operation.

Another time, a woman walked into the Costa Mesa police station to report that her boyfriend had threatened her with a gun. It turned out he was on the task force’s list, and the woman led officers right to him, Strohman said.

While the Department of Corrections has the power to arrest and return parole violators to prison, when new crimes are committed the cases are presented to the Orange County district attorney’s office by Santa Ana police and CHP investigators.

Burt’s death certainly provided emotional impetus for the CHP to get involved in more proactive police work, but the merging of that agency with the obscure California State Police agency in 1995 allowed officers a wider role in law enforcement. The CSP had been responsible for guarding the governor, state property and the huge California Aqueduct.

“What happened to [Burt] has to be considered,” CHP Lt. Jim Jackson said. “In terms of officer safety, it certainly heightened awareness for everyone in this office. . . . Our primary function is freeways, but we have kind of gotten away from the traditional aspect of the job and started doing more things like this.”

CHP Officer Jim Storment is one of two investigators from Santa Ana CHP on the task force. It’s a role, he said, that has given him an entirely new perspective.

“[The parolees] live a life where they know that at any time someone can be swooping down on them, because they know they are living on borrowed time,” Storment said. “These are things that as a CHP officer I don’t face every day. . . . It’s a world I wasn’t exposed to before.”

And since he began his new role, the memory of Burt is never far.

“We can pass along our experiences to other officers that will help them recognize these types of [dangerous] situations,” Storment said.

Task force members hope the effort can expand and possibly receive state or federal funding.

“I’d like to see them make this a formal program” instead of using departmental resources, Toma said. “It’s great because of the cooperation. It makes it much more efficient for the taxpayers. If there’s three agencies all looking for the same guy and they don’t talk to each other, it just doesn’t make any sense.”