Schools Police Chief Is Cleared of Video Spying

An investigation has exonerated Pasadena schools Police Chief Jarado L. Blue of allegations that he concealed a video camera in a storage room to spy on female employees undressing.

Blue, 47, will return to work next week. An investigation conducted by attorney John Potter, hired by the school board, found no wrongdoing, district officials said.

The chief was suspended March 23 after an anonymous letter sent to Supt. Vera Vignes accused Blue of spying on female employees changing their clothes in the storage room.

District officials declined to provide details of the investigation and have not released the report, which has been presented to the school board.

Edwin Lewis, an attorney representing five female department employees, said he was dismayed at the conclusion and the district’s refusal to release the report.

“The camera was there more than a day, and the monitor in Blue’s office was on top of a video recorder with a tape,” Lewis said.

In a statement, Vignes said the district was fair to all employees in the investigation. “I am confident that Chief Blue, the officers and the employees will be able to continue their good work,” she said.

But Blue’s attorney, Harry Scolinos, said the district should never have suspended his client based on such a “flimsy and anonymous allegation.”

Scolinos acknowledged that there was a camera in the storage room and that it fed images to a monitor in Blue’s office. But he said it was only used one afternoon as a test and that the chief forgot it was there.

“His secretary called him to tell him it was on, and he told her to unplug it,” Scolinos said.

Blue, a former Pasadena city policeman, has overseen the district’s 11-officer force since 1993.