Former Officer Glen Anderson Gets Case Heard On Appeal

24 Nov 2019 1 Comment

by rialto-now in #CA31st, and the unincorporated communities of Bloomington and Muscoy, Andy Carrizales, Burglury, Ca, city attorney, City of Rialto, Colton, Crime, Currupt, Deborah Robertson, Ed palmer, Ed Scott, Fontana, Freinds of Rialto K9, Friends of Rialto K9, Grand Terrace, Inland Empire, Joe Baca Jr, Mike Story, Paul Stella, Public Safety, Rafael Trujillo, Rialto, Rialto, Rialto Parks, Rialto Police Department, rialto unified school district, San Bernardino

On November 6th former officer Glen Anderson took his lawsuit over wrongful termination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Officer Glen Anderson’s case was dismissed on summary judgement and his legal team is seeking an appeal of that ruling to send his case before a jury.

Officer Anderson’s attorney does his best to nail down that the career of Officer Anderson was ended because the text he sent to James Freeman was then forwarded to Councilman Ed Scott. He works to show that all of the other cases leveled at Officer Anderson were because they could not legally fire Officer Anderson over the text messages alone.

The attorney for the City of Rialto claim that the claim that Officer Anderson was fired over a text message was false. The attorney for the city of Rialto states that nobody fired officer Anderson over Free Speech issues.

The text in question was sent to Political Consultant James Freeman who then in error sent that text message to Councilman Ed Scott. Once Councilman Ed Scott found out that Officer Glen Anderson was texting out the council he became irate. When speaking to Councilman O’Connell and former Councilman Ed Palmer at the time of the investigations there was a clear message that Officer Anderson needed to be dealt with over that text message.

We found the words of the Attorney for the city of Rialto puzzling because he claims that neither the Chief or Mike Story the City Manager had any knowledge of the K9 yard or its construction. The K9 yard was well known throughout the department and the community. The only way Chief Farrar or Deanda could claim not knowing about the K9 yard would be because they are lying or ignorant! City Administrator Mike Story sent years back where the K9 yard used to be located as he was on a mission to build Councilman Joe Baca Jr the 2nd most expensive park in the city Bud Bender park.

No matter if the 9th circuit allows this case go to a jury the people of Rialto should question the leadership of city hall and of the police department. Even no the current leadership of the police department allow people who broke more rules and laws continue to work and hold high ranking jobs within the Rialto Police Department still. The only difference between Glen Anderson and other officers is that the other officers protect Ed Scott and don’t hold him accountable. Remember this all started with a text message sent to Councilman Ed Scott!

Travel and Transparency Remain Out of Control in Rialto

24 Jun 2018 Leave a comment

Rialto Police Department wants you to believe that they are concerned with providing money to keep your Police Department fully staffed. They went as far as to scare local residents into voting for a permanent tax this month to keep police services at their current levels.

This blogger would like to remind you of the following:

  • We have harped on out of control spending on travel.
  • We have told you that there is Zero transparency in the City of Rialto.
  • Outside of this blog NOBODY is reporting on or writing about Rialto.

At the June 12th city council meeting the city council approved

Request City Council to Approve a Travel and Training Request for
Lieutenant Dean Hardin to attend Senior Management Institute for Police
(SMIP) of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) in the Estimated
Amount of $10,405.60, Budgeted in the Proposed Fiscal Year 2018/19
Budget.

As you can see from the photo above the estimate that Rialto Police Department submitted was from April 30th yet they are barley bringing this item forward on June 12th? The date of travel is July 7th, not sure about you but airline rates get more expensive as you wait to book your flight closer to the departure date. Don’t worry being frugal with tax dollars is a thing of the past now.

Literature that looks like it was copied on a machine from the 80’s state this is a training for Chief’s of Police. Are we spending over $15K to give a Lt. andance training so he can qualify for a promotion? Shouldn’t that be the burden of the employee not the Tax Payers?

“Chiefs must find new ways to address these issues and deliver a wide’r scope of services, often with fewer resources.”

Also this was stuck on the consent calendar meaning their was no discussion and very little input on why this travel expense was relevant in the 1st place. This must be why people like to work in Rialto they get to travel for FREE on your tax dollars.

Are you done wasting tax money on wasteful spending?

Image by rialto-now

Common Sense Says No To Measure M

01 May 2018 12 Comments

TheREAL FACTS About Measure M
  • Measure M is a tax increase. The 8% Rialto Utility Users Tax (UUT) was given to the city council and all they did is abuse the tax and waste time and money. Now to remove any responsibility to the voters they are giving themselves a permanent TAX increase FOREVER!!!!!!!
  • This levy on utility bills provides roughly $14 million in revenue per year. These funds go into the General Fund and are abused by the city. The mayor and council play games with your taxes and name buildings and parks after their political allies. The council needs this money to cover the MILLIONS in Lawsuits that they have single handily brought on Rialto Tax Payers.
  • To scare you into voting for this measure the city is using the old scare tactic of taking away police and fire services. Councilman Ed Scott has been Quoted saying that rialto police the bottom of the barrel.
    • The police never respond to complaints and are causing more problems then they solve. Rialto Police are famous for the drive by they do when they respond to a call. This consists of cruising by the location at 45 MPH. Rialto Fire spends more time outside the city under a mutual aide agreement than they do inside the city. Also they are preparing to stack a Fire Tax on top of this one next year. ALL WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT!
    • Reducing the Public Works Department by 11 positions, will make little change since the city looks horrid as it is so nothing will change.
  • Had it not been for dedicated people like us the Council was HELL bent on charging this tax on all seniors!
  • Rialto Fire charges annual fees to pick you up in an emergency leading to more people avoiding calling for help and risking further injury by waiting or self transport.
  • Rialto charges you a TRASH TAX because BURRTEC trucks are too heavy for Rialto streets but we can’t charge BURRTEC for it because they are political allies of Mayor Robertson.
  • $100,000 a year is paid so that our elected leaders can travel all over the country on your DIME.
  • Even if this measure passes Rialto will still be bankrupt in 4 years. The only difference is you will be stuck with a Utility Users Tax that NEVER ENDS!!!!!
  • The people signed onto this TAX are doing so to keep the flow of your tax money into their pockets. A small handful have been bullied into signing on to this tax. Multiple people have reached out saying that the Mayor said get on board or else.

Image by rialto-now

Seven Year Autistic Boy Threatened With Arrest

26 Apr 2018 1 Comment

by rialto-now in and the unincorporated communities of Bloomington and Muscoy, Ca, City of Rialto, Colton, Crime, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Inland Empire, Joe Baca Jr, Paul Stella, Public Safety, Rafael Trujillo, Rialto, Rialto, Rialto Police Department, rialto unified school district, RUSD, San Bernardino

 

If you are aware of Rialto Unified School District past with problems with their Special Education program then this story will bother you but not surprise you. Anyone else will both be shocked and surprised at what Seven Year Old Caiden Trujillo had to go through on Monday April 23rd.

Caiden Trujillo a 1st grader at Kordyak Elementary was removed from his classroom and was forced to face adults he didn’t know which included officers from 3 different public safety agencies. Caiden Trujillo is an Autistic child who is in school under an IEP (Individual Education Plan) he is in Special Education in the RSP program (Resource Specialist Program). This program helps kids who qualify as a student learner that requires some assistance but can still find educational success in a regular education environment. “The events that led up to Mondays incident are a direct result of Rialto Unified School Districts lack of ability to do what is right for Caiden Trujillo” his mother and her advocate said.

All children work better under the confines of a schedule this is why kids have regular bedtimes and preform better in school when there is a regular flow to the day. Well Autistic children require as much structure as possible and don’t do well with changes. They trust who they know and any sudden changes to their Aide, Teacher or class day leads to them having a bad day. Caiden has had two teachers this year and his one on one aide was leaving this job for another so Caiden was loosing the person that helped him work through a regular school day.

On this Monday there was a plan in place that when Caiden’s aide left at 11am to do paperwork for her new job. Jon a person that Caiden know was going to take over Caiden’s case for this school year and help train the new staff member, the new staff member would be shadowing Jon so that Caiden would be more comfortable with this change. Well another situation took Jon’s attention to another school site leaving the new employee to work with Caiden without any prior introduction or phasing in period.

Before we go into what happened next we feel it is important that you know a little of the backstory according to Caiden’s mother Sandra Trujillo-Langdon:

  • Caiden had a teacher switch during Christmas break.
  • Mrs Rubalcava Caiden’s new teacher has refused to communicate with Caiden’s mom in person.
  • Mrs Rubalcava said “she only teaches GATE kids not Special Ed kids”.
  • At this years IEP meeting Mrs Rubalcava had to be instricted on how to grade Caiden’s work according to his IEP by District office personel.
  • Caiden’s mother Sandra Trujillo has felt disrespected and treated poorly by both the Principal and Teacher at this school.

So according to Sandra Trujillo’s account when the staff change happened Caiden’s day went from good to bad:

Caiden did not respond well to a new person as his aide and began to act out and cause a disturbance in the classroom. None of the in class interventions were working so Caiden was taken to a designated safe room where he could collect himself and not be a distraction to the rest of the class. The safe room was not working that day and Caiden continued to act out by pushing over a desk and some chairs. Instead of following the IEP and calling mom right away Mrs Kemp the school principal decided to call Rialto Unified School Safety officers and Police officer from Rialto and Fontana Unified School District Police Department. Caiden’s mother did not know what was going on until a staff member called her to tell her to “come to the school quick they are arresting Caiden” and then hung up. During this time Caiden’s older brother a 4th grade student at Kordyak heard somone say that they were going to put his brother into handcuffs as he was passing by the school office.

Sandra Trujillo-Langdon came to the school to be greeted by a Fontana School Police officer that informed her that he would need to speak to her. Mrs Trujillo-Langdon refused the conversation and went to her son who was crying and visibly afraid. Her son said mom they are going to put me in cuffs and take me to jail! Mrs Trujillo-Langdon asked who called the police and Dr. Kemp the school Principal eventually admitted to calling the authorities. Mrs Trujillo-Langdon then asked why were they going to put him in handcuffs and take him to jail and they said it was done to make him calm down it was a threat not something they were going to do for real. At this time the mother asked to have the room cleared so she could calm her son down. While in the room Mrs Trujillo-Langdon saw that Caiden was only going to be better once she got him off campus. So she took her kids off campus through a side door and left. While leaving Mrs Trujillo-Langdon said that school staff and law enforcement officers were acting likr they were hunting down the small family.

Caiden was so effected by this situation that he didn’t want to return home because the school and police knew where he lived. Mrs Trujillo-Langdon had to take Caiden all the way to Buena Park to Knotts Berry Farm to allow him to have peace knowing he was away from the long hands of the police that threatened him. Yet Caiden still suffered as he saw a police officer at Knotts and began to cry please don’t take me to jail I am a good boy and waking up Tuesday morning saying he had a nightmare that he was taken to baby jail.

Rialto Police Lt Paul Stella said that Rialto PD Although one of our officers did respond to the call yesterday at Kordyak Elementary, our officer never made contact with mom and student.  I encourage you to reach out to the Fontana Unified School Police Department who was also on scene and may have further information regarding this call. When pressed Lt Stella would not say from where the call for service originated from “We will not be releasing the Reporting Person’s information and any request via the call for this information under the Public Records Act would have that information redacted.” Rialto Police Lt. Stella is refusing to release the name of the officer or any other details in regards to this incident.

When we reached out to Rialto Unified School Spokesperson Syeda Jafri sent us the following statement:

Syeda Jafri RUSD School Spokesperson also said that a full investigation of this incident will be contucted because the School Distirct wants to get to the bottom of what happened here so that it never happens again.

We have spoke to Sgt Avalos at Fontana School Police he said that they were called out to Kordyak elementary school where a student was being violent and trying to harm a teacher with scissors. When the officer arrived there was a discussion of restraining the child with handcuffs but that was deemed unnecessary. The mother and child left before the Fontana School Officer could interview them.

 

Here is the problem,

  • The parent is made it clear a person in uniform told her son her was going to be put in handcuffs.
  • The School board members are reaching out to begin to get the verbiage around this situation under control (direct blame away from them).
  • The school districts statement never says weather the Rialto Police officer never made contact with the student.
  • Rialto Police Information Officer Stella refuses to give out where the call for service originated from weather it was the school principal, RUSD Public Safety or someone else (even refuses to give the officers name).

So what we have here is a problem because this student refuses to return to school, his mother doesn’t feel safe having him at school and now his brother no longer feels safe at school. The parent is clear that a person in uniform spoke to her and her son says that the officer spoke to him too. The Mother described the officer as a Hispanic man about my height (I am 5’10”).

Only time will tell what really went on here. Hopefully the Districts investigation will pull that out soon.

Communities Concerns Lead to Attempted Kidnap of a Girl at Flores Park

17 May 2017 2 Comments

Photo credit SB Sun
George Molina-flores, 26, of Rialto, was arrested for suspicion of attempted kidnapping at Flores Park Tuesday.

Residents of Flores Park and Parents of Dollahan Elementry have been concerned with the illegal and questionable activities taking place outside the school and park that are only seperated by a single 5 foot chain link fence.

Parents of Dollahan Elementary spoke at recent school meetings with Rialto Unified School District Security officers and School Safety Chief Leary (meetings Rialto Police were absent) about creepy guys harassing moms walking in the park, homeless people sleeping and drinking in the park as well as people being witnessed preforming sexual acts in the park in broad daylight.

Residents say that more drugs and sex go on in the park restrooms than anything else. At a recent Safe Routes to School meeting at Dollahan (meetings Rialto Police were absent) parents marked multiple problem houses on maps where drugs are sold, kids are used as drug mules, gang related and former felons sit in open garages and drink all day and a group home full of mentally disturbed right across the street of a park and elementry school are located all around the school. One attempt to create walking groups to school failed because of a concern that pedophiles were targeting the walking group.

Local resident Marie said “that she has lived in the community for over 10 years and there was a time that we felt like Rialto PD cared about our safety. Now they have removed any officers that wanted to help us keep this neighborhood clean what is worse is a council member and officers still have family living here and we get no help”. Marie is right there were dark times where Lt’s like Burkholder, Crispin and Karol all worked very hard to make sure that good people were taken care of and evil did not prevail. These leaders with a community mindset brought in aggressive officers and staff that made things much safer in the Flores Park Community. Then people like former Captain Joe Cirilo that was witnessed multiple times yell at and threatening residents that were looking for help for their community.

Flores Park Neighborhood Watch now has a new Area Commander who acts a lot like former Area Commander Joe Cirilo. Rialto Police Lt. Paul Stella is the current Area Commander and the leadership among the Neighborhood Watch group have expressed a lack of confidence in his ability to lead the Northern portion of Rialto. Neighborhood Watch leadership asked Lt Stella last summer at a promotion ceremony for officers if they could sit down with him and he barked “why would I meet with you?” When they said we would like to give you a insider look into our community and the ongoing issues. Lt Stella said “I know all about your community and your group I don’t need your help.”

The recent Kidnap attempt at Flores Park after school dismissed yesterday it leaves one to ask does he really know what is going on in the community if these concerns preceded the incident the other day? School Safety officers walk the park when they are on campus and identify people not in the park for valid reasons and multiple people have been removed from the park but not by Rialto Police but by School Safety officers according to sources. Now that this incident has happened Rialto Police will have additional patrols after school and cameras have been looked at and any that are not working have been marked to be fixed according to Sgt Nelson form Rialto PD.

Sgt Nelson said that its sad that sometimes it takes incidents like these to move police into action even though it is the desire and goal to place resources to keep them from ever happening. Sgt Nelson also said that now its vital to remain vigilant in alerting the police to any suspicious persons.

Image by rialto-now