Sign the petition to prosecute the Lake County Sheriff that killed the sailor

[Dsanduril]

Signed.

And passed to my family (retired fire, lots of those by Clear Lake too) who own property in and live in the county. They are part of the good old boy network, but I think they will see the justice here, hope they will add some local signatures.

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by nigel1

Signed, and posted a link to this on a UK boat forum.
Crew of the Maersk Tackler will be signing tomorrow

Thanks. I used to sail on the SeaLand Developer.

[jeremiason]

What are you people thinking? This wasn't just about the Lake County Politicos

The orginal criminal case was investigated by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Marine Patrol, the Evidence was processed by the California Department of Justice Crime Lab and the California Attorney General review this case and concurred with the charges filed.

If you think this was about a cover up... I ask you this:

Do you think the Elected District Attorney, two different Elected Sheriffs in two different California Counties, the Politically Appointed Head of the California Department of Justice and the Elected California Attorney General acutally conspired to cover for a Assistant Sheriff of a podunk county in Northern California?

If you do... would you show me your pictures of the second gunman on the grassy knoll?

[Dsanduril]

This is the most distressing part of the whole thing, from the judge's most recent ruling:

The Court disagrees with Hopkins and Ostini’s position. Hopkins is alleged to have been involved in the investigation of the accident, permitting him to learn that Dinius was merely a guest on the sailboat, that two neutral onshore witnesses observed that the sailboat’s navigation lights were lit at the time of the accident, and that Perdock — who had been drinking — was navigating his powerboat at a reckless speed when it collided with the sailboat.

The judge takes all of those as pretty much fact and yet the only charges filed were against the helmsman on the sailboat. So you tell me, did state involvement lead to the right decisions?

[jeremiason]

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

This is the most distressing part of the whole thing, from the judge's most recent ruling:

The judge takes all of those as pretty much fact and yet the only charges filed were against the helmsman on the sailboat. So you tell me, did state involvement lead to the right decisions?

You are compring two very different courts (Criminal & Civil) with very different elements of guilt and evidence proceedures.

You cannot compare the two...

Don't belive me ask O.J. about the difference between California Criminal and Civil Courts.

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by jeremiason

What are you people thinking? This wasn't just about the Lake County Politicos

The orginal criminal case was investigated by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Marine Patrol, the Evidence was processed by the California Department of Justice Crime Lab and the California Attorney General review this case and concurred with the charges filed.

If you think this was about a cover up... I ask you this:

Do you think the Elected District Attorney, two different Elected Sheriffs in two different California Counties, the Politically Appointed Head of the California Department of Justice and the Elected California Attorney General acutally conspired to cover for a Assistant Sheriff of a podunk county in Northern California?

If you do... would you show me your pictures of the second gunman on the grassy knoll?

What you said is true for the trial of Bismarck Dinius, the wrong man charged. It went to jury and he was acquitted. Now lets charge Deputy Perdock, who should have been charged in the beginning.

[Dsanduril]

I completely understand the difference between the two. But if the judge in the civil case can find that the "facts" are 180 degrees apart from the "facts" presented in criminal proceedings by the Lake County Sheriff and DoJ (and which were found by that criminal jury to be incorrect) then something isn't right. The jury is the final arbiter of truth in the criminal proceeding, and it found that law enforcement lied. That finding, in and of itself should be sufficient to bring charges or at least reconsider the investigation, which was pretty much handled by the local sheriff. The DoJ report says:

The Department of Justice investigative review was conducted at the request of Lake County Sheriff Rodney Mitchell. Its scope and methodology was largely determined by the Sheriffs letter, in which he asked for a review of the sufficiency of the investigation, areas for further investigation, and changes or enhancements to department policies. It was not the goal of this review to re-investigate this incident. Hence, this review relied expressly on written records and digital imagery generated by the Lake County and Sacramento County Sheriffs Departments, local hospital records and analysis records of the Department of Justice, Bureau of Forensic Services. Last, an informational interview of Sheriff Mitchell was conducted. The chronology that follows will in more detail, describe the incident and where appropriate, make findings and/or recommendations pertinent to the Sheriffs request.

So, the DoJ did no investigation, they only reviewed documents provided by the very people being charged with malfeasance.

The Sacramento Sheriff arrived on scene two days later, took pictures, and re-interviewed the witnesses presented by Lake County without additional investigation (according to the DoJ report). Using a re-creation and review of damage they verified the physical aspects of the collision, which are not in dispute.

The Forensics lab did its job, it tested blood alcohol levels, which are not in dispute (except for the fact that the driver of the power boat [the Sheriff's #2] was the one person not immediately tested), and the running lights, which are in dispute. The latter can easily be subject to disagreement between experts.

So, none of the outside agencies you mentioned either a) conducted an independent investigation, or b) had to do anything besides a slightly crappy job in order to allow local officials to have their way.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by jeremiason

You are compring two very different courts (Criminal & Civil) with very different elements of guilt and evidence proceedures.

You cannot compare the two...

Don't belive me ask O.J. about the difference between California Criminal and Civil Courts.

Aren't you a retired LEO?





Signed, and I hope they crucify this coward.

[jeremiason]

Originally Posted by minaret

Aren't you a retired LEO?


Signed, and I hope they crucify this coward.

There has been a death... Two people have been stripped of the reputations and lost their jobs.

As far as the crimes committed, I prefer to see crimes ajudicated in the court rooms instead of the media.

If you want my opinion, the District Attorney of Lake County over charged the case... The Defendant was guilty of operating a vessel while intoxicated and the off-duty Sheriff was guilty of Reckless Boating.

The bottom line it was a very sad situation all around.

I also find it unreasonable to believe there was an conspiracy between the parties involved.

I do believe this thread is nothing more than cop bashing at its best. The comments here, especilly targeted at Law Enforcement have no value and little if anything to doing with cruising.

And to Minaret I was a cop for thirty years and it is mentioned on my profile... I refer you to the above paragraph.

[deckofficer]

If I understand you Tom, your OK with how it was handled as to Deputy Perdock not deferring to other officers and the refusal to accept statements from eye witnesses as to the sailboat's running lights being on. Then his refusal for a blood test and denial he was drinking that afternoon? Over the past 6 years I've read most all the news stories on this, and if you think this thread is cop bashing, you would boil over on how the media reported the event.

[Celestialsailor]

Signed and I'm in.

[Sailormantx]

Signed. A government job should not be a get out of jail free card. Have personally witnessed this before, an acquaintance got stopped in his pickup for what should have been a dui...ran his license "I see you used to be an officer- be a little more careful on the way home" The double standards of applying law is alive and well.

[sabray]

Im kinda blunt so look out. Also going off recall. A off duty sheriff who was seen at a bar got in a power boat and sped off. A sail boat with multiple occupants is sitting maybe had lights on maybe not is drifting. Power boat slams into the sailboat. One occupant is killed. Unfortunately there is booze all over the sailboat. Owner of sailboat is charged with manslaughter. Sailboat owner failed sobriety test.Police botch evidence and handling of power boat guy.
So did drunk in sailboat have nag lights on? Seems unknown. Did power boat cop drink beyond legal level? Unknown. Is there more evidence of old boy stuff or is this just connivence to go for the little guy and hate authority.
Could maybe this be a tragedy and the drunk on the sailboat and the cop guy are just people that are both suffering and should not be on the water..

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by jeremiason

What are you people thinking? This wasn't just about the Lake County Politicos

The orginal criminal case was investigated by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Marine Patrol, the Evidence was processed by the California Department of Justice Crime Lab and the California Attorney General review this case and concurred with the charges filed.

If you think this was about a cover up... I ask you this:

Do you think the Elected District Attorney, two different Elected Sheriffs in two different California Counties, the Politically Appointed Head of the California Department of Justice and the Elected California Attorney General acutally conspired to cover for a Assistant Sheriff of a podunk county in Northern California?

If you do... would you show me your pictures of the second gunman on the grassy knoll?

Well not surprising, this coming from someone from a law enforcement background (your own admission). I don't think anyone here is accusing all those agencies of conspiring a cover-up. However it was well documented in Latitude 38 that the department itself shuffled the sheriff off quickly and turned there focus onto the sailor with one hand on the tiller when the morons powerboat smashed into the sailboat which was drifting along, leaving prop marks on the deck for cripes sake.
So here is a couple of facts for you Mr. Grassy knoll...
-A Lake County sergeant told a local TV reporter that he was instructed by a superior not to give a breathalyzer test to Chief Deputy Perdock. Instead, Lake County Sheriff James Beland drove Perdock to a nearby hospital where a blood sample was taken.

- Speed. One of the witnesses on shore who said that he saw the sailboat’s running lights was a retired law enforcement officer. The same retired officer told Noyes that he saw the speeding Baja shortly before the collision and had commented to friends, “There’s a clown who is either going to kill himself or somebody else.” He estimated the boat was going about 50 mph. Other witnesses who had seen the Baja estimated it was going as fast as 60 mph.

-When asked why Perdock hadn’t been charged in the accident, the district attorney told Latitude 38 reporter LaDonna Buback, “It’s impossible to prove the speed of a motorboat” and “We can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that his speed was the cause of the accident.” One of the expert witnesses, Wes Dodd, disagreed. Dodd is a highly-regarded accident reconstructionist and former law enforcement officer who has investigated over 650 boating accidents. His conclusion: “. . . speed was the primary factor in this collision. In order to ramp the sailboat and cause the amount of damage done, Mr. Perdock would have had to have been going 40+ miles per hour based on my previous experience of vessel accident investigation and witnessing staged vessel accidents.”

So if you think that anyone is going to buy that justice was done...perhaps we can sell you a bridge.

[sabray]

So it's okay to be sloshed as captain/ owner in navigable waters without lights. It's bad to be a police officer and hit a unlit vessel. Contrary view of all posts here. Maybe the cop was sloshed too. I have little sympathetic jester for either party. Always thought that their would be no winners in this. . One person died. If the owner was sober and sweared his lights were on that would change everything. Sailboat guy was drunk. Cop maybe. Any evidence that disputes this?