San Fernando’s acting chief personally asked for ticket’s dismissal

San Fernando’s acting police chief personally asked a court to dismiss a running-a-stop-sign citation that one of his officers had issued to a local congressional aide, court records show.

Lt. Jeff Eley was put on leave last week after authorities launched an investigation into whether he had tried to fix a ticket issued to Fred Anthony Flores, an aide to Rep. Howard Berman (D-Valley Village).

Court records show the acting chief asked that the congressional aide’s Nov. 23 ticket be dismissed in the “interest of justice.” Flores said he never asked that the ticket be dismissed, or for any special treatment.

The ticket incident has become a spectacle in a small San Fernando Valley city that has been buffeted by upheaval and scandal in recent months, including a public announcement by the mayor that he was having an affair with a colleague and an investigation into a relationship between the town’s former police chief and a 19-year-old cadet.

The congressional aide’s ticket came to light after a video surfaced on YouTube showing a patrol officer handing the citation to Flores.

Accompanied by dramatic music and provocative titles such as “corruption” and “deception,” the video suggests that Eley made the ticket “disappear” after getting a call from Flores.

In his request that the ticket be written off, Eley wrote: “There were conflicting statements made between the officer and the violator, therefore, in the interest of justice I (acting chief J. Eley) am requesting that this citation be dismissed.” The next day, a Los Angeles County Superior Court commissioner in San Fernando dismissed the ticket.

The citation had languished at the police department for weeks, making its way to the courthouse only after the Jan. 4 hearing date for the ticket had come and gone.

Superior Court spokesman Mary Ahearn said it is customary for the court to dismiss a ticket at the request of the police agency that issued it.

In this case, she said, “the court had no knowledge of the citation and no access to it” until Eley asked for it to be dismissed Jan. 13.

The court spokeswoman said police took the request to a traffic commissioner in San Fernando, even though traffic matters for the city are generally handled at the courthouse in Chatsworth.

Eley said he has been ordered not to discuss the issue publicly. But officials with the San Fernando Police Officers Assn. said nothing crooked occurred and that Eley had the citation on his desk because the congressional aide and the officer disagreed about the issue and he was seeking to resolve it.

An official with the police union said Eley took the action to seek the dismissal after consulting with the city manager and city attorney’s office.

In an email, the congressional aide said, “When I was stopped for this traffic ticket I made an attempt to give the officer my new and correct address. I never asked the acting chief of police to do anything with this ticket.”

The ticket episode has added to the discord at City Hall and, at the request of city officials and Eley himself, is now being investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which has been asked to find out what happened to the congressional aide’s citation and who leaked the video onto YouTube.

The video appears to have been copied from a police camera mounted on the squad car of the officer who wrote the ticket.

Police union leaders in San Fernando said they are furious that Eley was removed from his post and asked that residents rally to recall the mayor and two council members they believe are behind the chief’s ouster.

Mayor Mario Hernandez, a lightning rod for criticism himself since he disclosed he was in a relationship with a colleague, said: “I’m concerned. How many other favors were done, for whomever?”

richard.winton@latimes.com