New Claremont Chief Had Role in LAPD Spying Case

A key figure in the Los Angeles Police Department spying scandal of the 1980s has been named chief of the Claremont Police Department--a force that is beleaguered over a controversial shooting of a black motorist last year.

Thomas Scheidecker, 55, who was temporarily suspended for lying about and mishandling confidential intelligence documents while he worked for the LAPD, is scheduled to take the reins of the Claremont department on Valentine’s Day, after Chief Robert Moody’s retirement for personal reasons. For the last eight years, Scheidecker has been police chief of the small San Joaquin Valley town of Ripon, near Modesto.

As an LAPD lieutenant almost two decades ago, he served as custodian of records for the agency’s Public Disorder Intelligence Division, which was disbanded in 1983 after revelations that it was spying on law-abiding citizens, including civic leaders, judges, police commissioners, clergy and actors.

A police probe concluded that Scheidecker had kept classified information at his Westminster home and had made false and misleading statements to investigators as to what that data included.

Because some of the information in Scheidecker’s home came from military sources, he was also investigated by federal and state agencies. He was never charged with a crime but was suspended for 15 days.

Scheidecker is on vacation out of state and could not be reached for comment. Claremont officials said they were aware that he was somehow involved in the LAPD unit but had not known about his suspension or his specific role in the controversy.

“The focus of the interviews were his performance as police chief,” said city spokesman Mike Maxfield. “That’s what he’s being hired for. That’s not to say we skimmed over the rest of his career. We were aware of his work in the [LAPD] unit.”

In Ripon, population 9,200, Scheidecker has been known as a good police chief who updated the department’s technology and started various youth and volunteer programs, according to Ripon Police Sgt. David Giardina.

“We’ve had a lot of changes for the good,” he said of Scheidecker’s administration.

The Ripon city administrator did not return calls seeking comment.

Scheidecker was selected by Claremont City Manager Glenn Southard after a background check and interviews with panels of administrators and citizens. Officials said they contacted civic leaders in Ripon and the LAPD, as well as other police chiefs and a sheriff--all of whom spoke highly of Scheidecker. The new chief’s salary will be $92,460, officials said.

Claremont City Council members said they did not know that Scheidecker was in the LAPD intelligence unit.

“No one discussed it, because we weren’t in charge of picking him,” said Mayor Karen Rosenthal.

She said that she was surprised to hear of the spying matter from a reporter and that officials would have to wait for Southard, who is also on vacation, and Scheidecker to return to officially discuss the matter.

Scheidecker, who will be presented at the council meeting Tuesday, is taking the helm of a department that faces weekly protests over the shooting death of Irvin Landrum Jr. Two officers said they fired at the 18-year-old motorist Jan. 11, 1999, after he drew a weapon and fired. But a subsequent Sheriff’s Department report said the gun had not been fired, bore no fingerprints and was last registered to a deceased police chief in a nearby town.

The evidence has prompted charges from Landrum’s family and supporters that the gun was planted. They have also said city officials are racially insensitive and intentionally withheld information from them about the shooting. They helped launch a recall campaign against the mayor and a council member.

They say the appointment of Scheidecker bolsters their complaints that the city government is unresponsive and not forthcoming with the public.

“It’s the same old game,” said Obee Landrum, Irvin’s uncle, who has organized the weekly rallies against the administration at City Hall. “These people knew about [Scheidecker’s] background. To me, it’s a gesture that there’s a network of people in power with the same ideology. And Scheidecker’s one of them.”

The city manager has been criticized by some for releasing Obee Landrum’s criminal record to the news media. “He can spend money finding out who I was,” said Landrum. “And they don’t know about [Scheidecker]?”

The LAPD Public Disorder Intelligence Division was established in 1970 at the height of the antiwar movement. It became tainted by scandal in 1977 when a woman in various left-wing groups turned out to be an LAPD officer and spy.

A lawsuit was filed, and the department was forced to turn over thousands of pages of internal documents to the plaintiffs, including the American Civil Liberties Union. Those documents revealed that the LAPD had monitored Mayor Tom Bradley, private meetings of United Farm Workers supporters, anti-nuclear activists, campus groups and many others.

The lawsuit was settled for $1.8 million.

“Scheidecker is not going to instill confidence for the Claremont [Police Department] on the part of the public,” said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California.

“Police officers are sworn to uphold the Constitution,” she said. “Subverting the legal process is not upholding the Constitution.”

In 1983, the controversy reemerged when LAPD Det. Jay Paul acknowledged that he had stored 180 boxes of the intelligence material inside a mobile home and garage. Some of that was allegedly leaked to a right-wing group connected to the John Birch Society that was collecting information on leftists.

In the investigation into Paul’s off-site storage, police searched the home of Scheidecker, who was Paul’s superior. They found numerous classified documents, including some that Scheidecker said he received from a CIA officer. As a Navy reservist, Scheidecker had a security clearance to receive such documents but was not permitted to keep them at home, where they were vulnerable to theft.

In a legal deposition, Scheidecker said he used the documents to plan for the 1984 Olympic Games and was unaware that he had them at home.