Northbay Uprising - Information for the liberated zones of the San Pablo Bay

2011-04-05 "Richmond cops accused of hiring, arming Explorers" by Demian Bulwa,Justin Berton from "San Francisco Chronicle" newspaper
[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/05/MNNA1IO6BD.DTL&type=printable]
The FBI and the Richmond Police Department are investigating allegations that two officers recruited teens from the department's Explorer program into their private security firm, illegally armed them with guns and sent them to patrol the city's most dangerous housing complexes, The Chronicle has learned.
After two of the Explorers complained about their jobs, they had a falling-out with their mentors. The officers then hired a private investigator who used attractive decoys to try to coax one of the young men into a drunken-driving arrest, according to the women who took part in the setup.
The young man, Sergio Rios, now 21, and his best friend, 22-year-old Orlando Torres, are at the center of the investigation. The officers, Danny Harris and Ray Thomas, are on paid leave and have accused their department of targeting them because they are African American.
For years, the officers headed a program created to give aspiring cops a first look at the job. But Rios and Torres told The Chronicle that Harris illegally bought them pistols for guard duty when they were 19 and 20 years old, respectively.
The young men said they gave Harris $500 apiece to buy the guns, which came with high-capacity magazines that civilians cannot legally carry in California.
Under federal law, people under 21 cannot buy handguns, and buying a gun for another person - regardless of age - is considered an illegal "straw purchase." Rios said he was 19 at the time Harris bought his gun, and Torres said he was 20.
"Usually you look at cops as role models, not people who want to destroy you," said Torres, who now works in loss prevention for a major retailer and still wants to become a police officer.
Several sources said the FBI is investigating the officers, which Rios and Torres confirmed. An agency spokesman declined to comment.
Thomas said in an interview with The Chronicle that he had done nothing wrong, and an attorney for Harris declined to comment.

Side business -
The ongoing investigation into these allegations is the latest to involve Christopher Butler, a private investigator and former Antioch police officer who has been accused of working with other law enforcement contacts to set up people for arrest - much in the same way that Rios believes Butler targeted him using the decoys.
Butler, 49, was arrested Feb. 16 along with a state narcotics officer and has pleaded not guilty to charges of selling drugs stolen from evidence lockers.
Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus said he could not speak in detail about Harris and Thomas because they are part of an ongoing investigation by the Police Department and because they have confidentiality rights.
Magnus did say his department bars officers from moonlighting in private security. Records show that the department ordered Harris and Thomas to stop, but that they did not.
"If you have a police officer operating a security company, that has the potential to give them an unfair competitive advantage," Magnus said. "It suggests they're bringing to bear the resources of the police agency they are working for."
In an interview, Thomas confirmed that he and Harris started a security business and that Magnus disapproved of it. But he said the department's policy was unfair, and that he had launched the business after getting permission in 2005 from then-Police Chief Terry Hudson. Hudson could not be reached for comment.

Racism charge -
Magnus, Thomas said, is targeting him and Harris because they accused the chief of discrimination in an ongoing lawsuit filed in June 2010, after the department began its investigation. Both officers are African American.
Magnus said the charge is "without merit."
Thomas said he did not hire Butler. He called former Explorers Rios and Torres "compulsive liars."
"We have done nothing wrong," Thomas said. "These guys have done everything they can to sabotage us."
Thomas said neither Rios nor Torres was provided a gun to carry while doing security work. And he said many former Explorers ended up as security guards at his firm because Rios and Torres recruited them and had the authority to hire them.
Rios responded, "Anyone that was hired had to be approved by Danny." He said about 18 former Explorers had worked for the security firm.
Richmond's Explorer program is an affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America. The young men and women, who are ages 14 to 20, are trained on police procedure, provide security at some city events and perform clerical duties. The program is registered as a nonprofit with the IRS.
Magnus said that other officers now run it and that layers of oversight have been added.

Aspiring cops -
Torres and Rios, who are neighbors and best friends, said they joined as a first step toward potential law enforcement careers. Harris, a former Explorer, ran it with help from Thomas.
As time went on, the young men said, Harris began to shift his focus. At an Explorer meeting about two years ago, Rios said, Harris asked him and Torres to work for his security firm, which was in the process of securing a contract with the owner of the violence-plagued Crescent Park housing complex in Richmond.
"I thought it would be a great opportunity," said Rios. "I was young and wanted to try something kind of new that was similar" to police work.
Rios and Torres said Harris subsequently took them to LC Action Police Supply in San Jose. They said they each gave $500 in cash to Harris, who bought them Glock pistols to carry on the job.
Rios said Harris transferred his gun into Rios' father's name in February 2010.
Rios' father, who is also named Sergio Rios, said he had trusted Harris and had been glad to see his son find a job in a tough market.

Ordered to stop -
As the officers built their side business in 2009 and 2010, they faced resistance at the police station, records show.
According to documents filed in the discrimination lawsuit, the department ordered Harris and Thomas in January 2010 to cease their involvement in the security business, which was then called Strategic Alliance Protective Services, and said they had used their status as officers to secure contracts - an allegation that Thomas denies.
Four months later, the department disciplined the officers. Court records do not detail the type of punishment.
By last summer, the officers' security business had more mundane problems. Rios and Torres said they and more than a dozen other employees - upset at what they viewed as unfair wages and work conditions - traveled together to the Oakland Labor Board to inquire about filing a complaint.
The young men said Harris found out about the trip and had a senior manager place them "on call," giving them no further shifts.
Torres said that in the ensuing weeks, Thomas repeatedly called him and sent him messages on Facebook trying to get Harris' pistol back. Torres said he initially refused because he had paid for it, despite Harris being the registered owner.
The Police Department took custody of both guns, though, after Rios took the young men's complaints to internal affairs in early September.

Gun suit -
Later that month, court records show, Officer Thomas tried to retrieve Torres' gun by suing him in small claims court.
"I purchased a handgun from the original owner," Thomas wrote to the court, referring to Harris. "The defendant is aware of this and refuses to provide me my handgun."
The lawsuit was so unusual that Torres said he got a call from a producer for a television courtroom show, asking if he and Thomas would sort out their differences on air.
But internal affairs investigators stepped in, records show, telling the court that the gun was in police custody and that they would handle the matter from there.
Thomas told The Chronicle there was an innocent explanation for the small claims suit, which would come out in court.
"I've got documentation from (Torres) that will blow that claim out of the water," he said, declining to elaborate.

The sting -
On Nov. 7, Rios said, two women aggressively came on to him during his shift as a newly hired security guard at an Emeryville movie theater.
In the following weeks, the women texted Rios sexually suggestive remarks - which he showed The Chronicle - and sent him a picture of them posing in lingerie.
In interviews with The Chronicle, the women in the sting said they had worked for private investigator Butler, who according to Contra Costa County prosecutors had a pattern of setting up men.
A county prosecutor said Butler orchestrated DUI arrests - hiring women to get male targets drunk at bars, arranging with police friends to have them arrested for drunken driving, then using the arrest as leverage in child custody cases.
In the Rios sting, the women who worked as decoys said Butler gave explicit instructions to get the young man drunk and lead him in his car north through neighboring Danville, where a police officer would make a prearranged traffic stop.
The women, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were encouraged to get Rios to bring a gun, because if he were stopped with the firearm while driving drunk, he could face prison time.
Though Thomas denies hiring Butler, one of the decoys told The Chronicle she met with Thomas and Harris outside Butler's office on his behalf to debrief them on the ongoing Rios sting.

The tipster -
On Dec. 5, the day the women were going to meet Rios at a San Ramon Chevy's restaurant, one texted, "Will u bring ur gun so we can take a picture with it?"
What they didn't know was that a day earlier, an anonymous tipster contacted Rios through a Facebook account - under the fake name "Suzy Smith" - and warned him not to go.
"You don't deserve what is about to happen," said the message, which Rios showed The Chronicle. "It is former employers of yours that are setting you up."
The tipster knew every detail about the women and the date. Rios said he immediately sent back his phone number, and that the two spoke. The tipster, Rios said, revealed that Harris and Thomas had hired Butler.
The women confirmed to The Chronicle that they waited at the bar for Rios to show up - until it closed.
"I didn't expect that from them," Rios said of his onetime mentors. "For them to go from being so positive to being so negative, it brings me down as far as how I look at other police officers. I hope other officers aren't the same."