Former LAPD Officer Won’t Get Chief’s Job

Former Los Angeles police officer Thomas Scheidecker, who was once suspended by the LAPD, will not be the Claremont’s new police chief after all, the City Council announced Tuesday after a closed meeting.

“He’s clearly not a good fit with our community values,” Mayor Karen Rosenthal said.

About 300 people had jammed the council meeting to protest Scheidecker’s hiring.

Scheidecker had worked for the now-defunct Los Angeles Police Department intelligence division and was once suspended for mishandling classified documents.

His appointment as police chief had been put on hold Monday pending a new background check that was to focus on his suspension and his role with the intelligence division. The division was disbanded in 1983 after a lawsuit charged that it had spied on 131 law-abiding citizens, including judges, lawyers and police commissioners.

More than 20 people addressed the Claremont council, many saying that the appointment was a mistake for a city already troubled by the handling of the police shooting of a black motorist more than a year ago.

“If you hire this man you send the message that Claremont is Klanmont,” said Claremont McKenna College sophomore Ryan Hayden.

City Manager Glenn Southard, who had hired Scheidecker, has said he was unaware that Scheidecker had been suspended in 1984. Council and city staff members have also said they had no knowledge of the suspension.

“I’m appalled at the background check,” Rosenthal said.