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<font size="1"><a href="https://openvallejo.org/2020/07/28/vallejo-police-bend-badge-tips-to-mark-fatal-shootings/">https://openvallejo.org/2020/07/28/vallejo-police-bend-badge-tips-to-mark-fatal-shootings/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Vallejo police bend badges to mark fatal shootings</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Geoffrey King | July 28, 2020</div>
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<img src="https://openvallejo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/IMG_2073-6.png" alt="Steve Darden, a member of the Vallejo Police Department Honor Guard, is seen at the swearing-in ceremony for Chief Shawny Williams on Nov. 12, 2019. He has participated in four fatal shootings, two as a primary shooter. Darden was promoted to lieutenant in February." style="margin-right: 25px;" width="452" height="301"><p>Geoffrey King / Open Vallejo</p>Steve
Darden, a member of the Vallejo Police Department Honor Guard, is seen
at the swearing-in ceremony for Chief Shawny Williams on Nov. 12, 2019.
He has participated in four fatal shootings, two as a primary shooter.
Darden was promoted to lieutenant in February.
<p>They call it, “The Badge of Honor.” For a generation, a secretive
clique within the Vallejo Police Department has commemorated fatal
shootings with beers, backyard barbecues, and by bending the points of
their badges each time they kill in the line of duty, an investigation
by Open Vallejo has found. The custom was so exclusive, some officers
involved in fatal shootings were never told of its existence. </p>
<p>But senior law enforcement and government officials say everything
changed when a police captain tried to end the practice following the
fatal shooting of 20-year-old Willie McCoy in February 2019. Over the
next six months, the tradition became known at the highest levels of
Vallejo city government and the district attorney’s office. </p>
<p>The captain who pushed for an investigation, John Whitney, would soon
be out of a job. A former SWAT team commander with two master’s
degrees, Whitney says he was forced out of the department after raising
concerns about the badge-bending tradition and other misconduct. He
filed a retaliation claim against the city in March. </p>
<p>“The community we serve will lose faith in us,” Whitney told Open Vallejo. “This practice needs to end.” </p>
<p>At the time of Whitney’s firing, nearly 40% of officers on the force
had been in at least one shooting, Open Vallejo research shows. More
than a third of those had participated in two or more. The department
employs about 100 sworn personnel.</p>
<p>This article is based on interviews with more than 20 current and
former government officials as well as public employment data,
post-shooting investigative findings, court and other public records,
archived news accounts, and hundreds of photographs taken before and
after fatal shootings. Many of those interviewed spoke on condition of
anonymity to describe sensitive discussions between and within their
agencies. Several expressed significant concerns about <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/otisrtaylorjr/article/Something-s-happening-in-Vallejo-and-it-13730429.php">retaliation</a>.
Open Vallejo reached out individually to each officer named in this
story, most of whom either declined to comment or did not respond.</p>
<p>Of the 51 current and former Vallejo police officers who have been
involved in fatal shootings since 2000, at least 14 had their badges
bent by a colleague afterward, sources familiar with the tradition
confirmed. One source told Open Vallejo the number could be much
higher. </p>
<div><img src="https://openvallejo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Darden_VPD.jpg" alt="Steve Darden, Vallejo's most lethal officer of the past 20 years, said allegations he bent his badge are "a lie." He is seen here in a Mar. 24, 2020 Vallejo Police Department Facebook post announcing his promotion to lieutenant. Vallejo's shooters typically bend their badges at the 3 o'clock and 4 o'clock points." style="margin-right: 0px;" width="339" height="452"><p><a href="https://facebook.com/VallejoPD/photos/a.243856312300200/3232854853400316/">Vallejo Police Department</a></p>Steve
Darden, Vallejo’s most lethal officer of the past 20 years, said
allegations he bent his badge are “a lie.” He is seen here in a Mar. 24,
2020 Vallejo Police Department Facebook post announcing his promotion
to lieutenant.
Vallejo’s shooters typically bend their badges at the 3 o’clock and 4
o’clock points. </div>
<p>At least seven officers’ badges have multiple bends, according to
officers who have seen them and photos obtained by Open Vallejo. They
belong to some of the department’s most prolific shooters, including
Sean Kenney, Joe McCarthy and Steve Darden, a member of Vallejo’s
command staff who was put in charge of the city’s Hostage Negotiation
Team after being <a href="https://openvallejo.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=997">promoted</a>
to lieutenant in February. Together these men account for nearly a
third of the department’s 30 fatal shootings of the past two decades.</p>
<p>“My badge has never been bent. That’s a lie,” Darden said when
reached by phone Tuesday, referring questions to the department’s public
information officer. Kenney and McCarthy declined to comment.</p>
<p>In 2003, then-Vallejo Police Chief Robert Nichelini replaced the
department’s brass badges with plain sterling silver seven-point stars
like those worn by Oakland police, his former agency. The change may
have enabled Vallejo’s ritual, as the softer metal is easier to bend. In
addition, Vallejo officers typically wear work uniforms bearing an
embroidered patch in the course of their normal duties. The subtlety and
precision with which Vallejo’s silver badges can be bent, and the
relative rarity of seeing one, have helped shield the Badge of Honor
from scrutiny.</p>
<p>Nichelini denied having knowledge of the practice, and told Open
Vallejo he “would never permit unauthorized modification of badges.”</p>
<p>“I believe this is a figment of someone’s imagination,” he wrote via email. </p>
<p>Vallejo Mayor Bob Sampayan, a retired police sergeant, said he saw bent badges during Nichelini’s tenure.</p>
<p>“When I was on the police department, I did notice that there were a
couple of officers that had bent badge tips,” he told Open Vallejo. “I
had no idea what happened. Nobody said anything back then.”</p>
<p>But Sampayan has since become aware of the meaning behind the
department’s badge-bending ritual, which he confirmed to this
publication. And although Sampayan said City Manager Greg Nyhoff had
been informed of the custom, Nyhoff denied knowledge through his deputy.</p>
<p>“We don’t have any information about a current practice by our
officers related to badges,” Assistant City Manager Anne Cardwell wrote
on behalf of Nyhoff. “We take any claims of misconduct seriously and
will follow up with the appropriate investigatory measures, as well as
take appropriate action based on information provided.”</p>
<ul><li><img src="https://openvallejo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/12779184_1142930929059396_2140452056084645240_o.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="406" height="452">Dustin Joseph, right, killed Mario Romero on Sept. 2, 2012, and William Heinze on Mar. 20, 2013.</li><li><img src="https://openvallejo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Joshua-Coleman-pre-promotion-to-Corporal.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="452" height="310">Josh Coleman, right,) killed William Heinze on Mar. 20, 2013.</li><li><img src="https://openvallejo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Kenney-620-3-1.png" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="452" height="339">Sean Kenney killed Anton Barrett, Sr. on May 28, 2012; Mario Romero on Sept. 2, 2012; and Jeremiah Moore on Oct. 21, 2012.</li></ul>
<p>Earlier this month, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-announces-agreement-review-and-reform-vallejo-police">announced</a> an “expansive review” of the department’s policies, practices and procedures. Becerra <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-issues-statement-california-department-justice-stepping">added</a>
a separate criminal probe on July 17, after officers destroyed key
evidence in the killing of 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa last month.
Nichelini’s son Michael, a lieutenant who heads Vallejo’s police union,
is on leave from the department over his alleged role in the evidence
destruction.</p>
<p>Intervention by the attorney general comes amid a cascade of troubling revelations over <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/13/vallejo-california-police-violence-sean-monterrosa">the culture within the department</a>, whose roughly 100 officers kill more people per capita than all but two other cities in California, a 2019 <a href="https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/vallejo-police-highest-rate-of-residents-shot-per-capita-in-northern-california-nbc-bay-area-probes-causes/190344/">investigation</a>
by NBC Bay Area found. Current and former employees describe a
department where bullies thrive, whistleblowers are dealt with harshly,
and the pressure to shoot and kill civilians is strong.</p>
<p>“Some days I feel like I work with a bunch of thugs who take pleasure
out of hurting people,” a current member of the department told Open
Vallejo on condition they not be named.</p>
<h2><strong>‘Kind of like a notch on the bedpost’</strong></h2>
<p>While reporting this story, Open Vallejo received a series of
threatening emails from an anonymous account using the name, “Tariq
Aziz.” Law enforcement sources believe the author is a high-ranking
Vallejo official with knowledge of the badge-bending tradition. This is
consistent with Open Vallejo’s analysis of the emails and other
evidence. </p>
<p>After several failed attempts to get a response, the author of the emails addressed the subject of this story directly. </p>
<p>“The cops who shoot someone bend the tabs on their badges,” he wrote
on April 5. “Kind of like a notch on the bedpost. It’s an indicator to
each other how many hoodlums they’ve shot. They think it’s funny.”</p>
<p>“Ask Whitney,” the message continued. “He knows all this stuff. It’s why he’s gone.”</p>
<h2><strong>A symbol of public faith</strong></h2>
<p>Sources say not every officer who kills is invited to participate in
the Badge of Honor ritual. The vetting process is stringent, if
straightforward. Those who kill meet its first requirement. Those who
can be trusted not to talk fulfill the second.</p>
<p>For those invited into the group, a fatal shooting — their own or a
colleague’s — is often followed by a barbecue or other celebration,
according to current and former police department employees. The actual
bending of badges occurs there or at roll call, an official law
enforcement briefing that takes place at the beginning or end of a
shift. Photographs indicate the first bend is often applied at the 4
o’clock point of a new initiate’s badge. </p>
<blockquote><p><em>“I recognize the badge of my office as a
symbol of public faith, and I accept it as a public trust to be held so
long as I am true to the ethics of police service.” </em></p><cite><em>— The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics, from the <a href="https://twitter.com/OpenVallejo/status/1281374926151102464">2020 Vallejo Police Department Policy Manual</a></em></cite></blockquote>
<p>The sweep of Vallejo’s badge-bending tradition might never have come to light but for the fatal shooting of <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/11768008/the-life-and-death-of-willie-mccoy">Willie McCoy</a>,
a 20-year-old musician and community college student who fell asleep
behind the wheel of his Mercedes while waiting in a Taco Bell drive-thru
on Feb. 9, 2019.</p>
<p>When honking car horns failed to rouse McCoy, a restaurant employee
called 911, seeking help. “He’s unresponsive,” the employee explained to
a dispatcher. “I’ve already had, like, people try to knock on the
window. I have no idea what’s going on.” Officers were sent to conduct a
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/31/us/willie-mccoy-shooting-video.html">wellness check</a>. </p>
<p>Officer Anthony Romero-Cano was first to the scene, followed seconds
later by Officer Jordon Patzer. Standing inches from the car, their
Glock 17 pistols pointed at McCoy, they noted a gun in his lap.
Romero-Cano suggested breaking the driver’s side window and pulling
McCoy out. </p>
<p>“No, just wait here until we get more people,” Patzer responded. A
second-generation Vallejo police officer, Patzer’s father Jeremie killed
two men and left another critically injured during his six-year career
with the department. Current and former colleagues say at least one
point of the elder Patzer’s badge is bent. </p>
<p>Officer Mark Thompson soon <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKoOLVjdzbY">arrived</a>.
Thompson shot a man, who survived, in 2006. The next year, he Tased
another man to death. He has at least one bend in his badge, according
to two sources familiar with the matter. </p>
<p>Thompson and Patzer did not respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>“He’s got a gun in his lap,” Romero-Cano told him. “The magazine’s—
magazine’s half out, so he’s only got one shot if he shoots.” The
officers discussed pulling McCoy out of the car. “I don’t even want to
give him a chance,” Romero-Cano <a href="https://youtu.be/lDThFQl4OtU?t=129">said</a>.</p>
<p>“If he reaches for it, you know what to do,” Thompson replied before trying the locked driver’s side door. </p>
<img src="https://openvallejo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/McCoy-killing-1.png?is-pending-load=1" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="452" height="301"><p>Vallejo Police Department</p>A
still image from Ofc. Ryan McMahon’s body-worn camera shows the
aftermath of the Feb. 9, 2019 killing of Willie McCoy by Vallejo police.
<p>Officer Colin Eaton arrived and took up a position near the front of
McCoy’s car. Officers shone their weapon-mounted flashlights into the
vehicle for the next two minutes before McCoy, who appeared to be asleep
or nearly so, reached up with his right hand and scratched his left
shoulder. Patzer, Thompson, Romero-Cano, and Eaton began yelling
commands. At that moment, Officer Bryan Glick pulled his police SUV in
front of McCoy’s car, stepped out, and drew his weapon. Seconds later,
the officers fired 54 rounds at McCoy. </p>
<p>A sixth officer, Ryan McMahon, arrived on scene just as McCoy started
to stir. He ran up behind Glick and fired one .45-caliber round toward
the car. For this, McMahon would collect his second bend in less than a
year, law enforcement sources told Open Vallejo. </p>
<p>McMahon collected his first bend, sources say, for <a href="https://www.cityofvallejo.net/cms/One.aspx?portalId=13506&pageId=15584679">killing</a>
Ronell Foster after a brief foot chase on the night of Feb. 13, 2018.
McMahon told investigators he stopped Foster, who had been <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/otisrtaylorjr/article/Vallejo-cop-wanted-to-educate-a-bicyclist-13830311.php">riding his bicycle without a light</a> in Vallejo’s quiet downtown, to “<a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/otisrtaylorjr/article/Vallejo-cop-wanted-to-educate-a-bicyclist-13830311.php">educate</a>”
him about traffic safety. Foster rode away, fell off his bicycle and
ran. McMahon chased Foster into the courtyard of a church on Carolina
Street, where he struck Foster repeatedly with his duty flashlight.
Foster broke free, turned, and tried to get away. McMahon fired seven
rounds, striking Foster in the back and the back of his head.</p>
<p>Asked by investigators how far away Foster was when shot, McMahon replied, “point blank.” A 33-year-old <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/07/vallejo-police-shooting-bike-ronell-foster-willie-mccoy">father</a> of two young children, Foster did not have a weapon.</p>
<p>McMahon denied his badge is bent through his attorney, Justin
Buffington. Asked whether McMahon’s badge had been bent during the first
six months of 2019, Buffington replied, “Not that I ever saw.”</p>
<img src="https://openvallejo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Foster-killing.png?is-pending-load=1" alt="Ofc. McMahon's .45-caliber Glock 21 pistol is seen in an evidence photo after he used it to kill Ronell Foster, a 33-year-old father of two, on Feb. 13, 2018." style="margin-right: 25px;" width="452" height="301"><p>Vallejo Police Department</p>Ofc.
McMahon’s .45-caliber Glock 21 pistol is seen in an evidence photo
after he used it to kill Ronell Foster, a 33-year-old father of two, on
Feb. 13, 2018.
<p>Krishna Abrams, who was elected district attorney in 2014, cleared
McMahon of wrongdoing in January. Her office denied knowledge of the
badge-bending. </p>
<p>“We don’t have any credible evidence of that,” Solano County Chief
Deputy District Attorney Paul Sequeira told Open Vallejo. “We don’t
respond to rumors. Nobody brought that to us.”</p>
<p>But Abrams participated in meetings where the custom was discussed
months before clearing McMahon, according to two high-ranking law
enforcement officials who work at different agencies. </p>
<h2><strong>‘A negative culture’</strong></h2>
<p>The Foster and McCoy shootings troubled some members of the
department. They believed that if officers had taken cover and used time
and distance to their advantage, McCoy could have been taken safely
into custody. One police official who spoke with Open Vallejo on
condition of anonymity said the incident resembled “an execution.” </p>
<p>On March 29, 2019, Vallejo released body camera footage of McCoy’s killing in response to a public records <a href="https://twitter.com/OpenVallejo/status/1110669298823913472">request</a> by this publication. It was only the <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/07/10/video-police-release-body-cam-footage-in-fatal-i-80-officer-involved-shooting/">second time</a>
video of a Vallejo police shooting had ever been publicly disclosed.
The officers’ actions captured in the video footage garnered worldwide
condemnation.</p>
<p>As pressure mounted from within and outside the department, Chief
Andrew Bidou told Whitney, the captain who would soon become a
whistleblower, to address the badge-bending at a meeting with command
staff. When it came time to discuss the badges, Bidou stood up, led
civilian staff out of the room, and did not return, Whitney said.</p>
<p>Whitney told Open Vallejo that he addressed the badge-bending with
those in attendance, which included all officers above the rank of
corporal. Whitney then ordered the officers to inspect their
subordinates’ uniforms and collect any bent badges. </p>
<p>Ten came back within the first hour and were placed in a small cardboard box in the office of Bidou’s executive assistant. </p>
<p>But Bidou had plans to retire and rejoin the city as interim chief, effectively <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/otisrtaylorjr/article/Vallejo-police-chief-will-walk-away-with-a-13761301.php">doubling his pay</a>
to $40,000 a month. Whitney said Bidou told him that the cost of
repairing so many badges could raise suspicions within the city’s
finance department and cause him to lose the interim position. The chief
ordered the badges returned to the officers, who were instructed to fix
them. It is not known whether any officers actually did.</p>
<p>Bidou’s plan to serve as interim chief fell short after it was found
to violate California’s retirement rules. Former Fairfield police chief
Joe Allio was appointed as interim chief; Bidou now works for PG&E.</p>
<p>Whitney said he then brought his concerns about the badges to Vallejo
City Manager Greg Nyhoff, Mayor Bob Sampayan, and then-City Attorney <a href="https://openvallejo.org/2019/08/21/chief-judge-vallejo-city-attorneys-letter-to-court-was-improper/">Claudia Quintana</a> in several private meetings in April 2019. (Quintana denied knowing about the bent badges.)</p>
<p>Interim Chief Allio also knew about the badge-bending, Sampayan said.
Two senior government officials independently confirmed that Allio was
briefed while serving as interim chief in 2019. (Vallejo recently
brought Allio back to serve as interim assistant police chief.)</p>
<p>But the only person disciplined over the scandal was Whitney. He was
fired in August of last year, after nearly 20 years with the
department. </p>
<p>The department opened an internal affairs investigation into
allegations that he improperly handled information. Though he was
cleared of those allegations, he was terminated for removing family
photographs and other personal data from his work phone during the
investigation, according to a claim he filed with the city on March 24, a
first step before filing a lawsuit. </p>
<p>In the claim, Whitney contends he was fired in retaliation for speaking up about the department’s culture of impunity. </p>
<p>In an undated letter attached as an exhibit to Whitney’s claim,
Sampayan wrote, “Frankly, I believe that because John spoke out about a
negative culture on the Vallejo Police Department, his reputation was
soiled by those who did not want any ‘dirty laundry’ aired.”</p>
<p>Sampayan elaborated in a phone call Tuesday.</p>
<p>“As a retired police sergeant, a police officer for four decades, I
find it just absolutely offensive,” the mayor said. “It shows absolutely
no respect for the uniform, for the community you were sworn to
protect.” </p>
<p><em>Brian Krans contributed to this report.</em></p>
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