.@SalinasPD has not contributed police work one to the murder of Brian Montez.
Let's put together the publicly available information.
1. Montez went to Salinas High.
2. Montez had picked up a job at Bud Antle after high school.
3. Montez started a trucking transportation biz.
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4. Montez is popped by cops down by the border and they swear him to wear a wire.
5. Salinas Police were made aware in the spirit of cooperation.
6. The cocaine traffickers *somehow* found out that Montez was cooperating and it involved major figures in MoCo dope.
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7. Montez was summoned to meet up with a friend. His new pickup truck was found at the shopping center at Bolsa Knolls - unincorporated Salinas.
8. Montez was never seen again. The Sheriff's department and Salinas PD never moved the case forward.
9. Norm Hicks was sheriff.
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10. Dan Nelson was the @SalinasPD chief and as @Kelly_McMillin is fond of telling - he was drinking with some FBI agents who asked, how fucked up is Salinas? - because Nelson was under investigation in East Palo Alto when hired.
Two scumbags in charge of the two agencies
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that "dropped the ball."
Looking back 30 years offers insights into the decline of both @MCoSheriff and @SalinasPD.
It begs the question. Was dropping the ball intentional?
Well ...
where is old Norm Hicks these days and what has he and his family been up to?
... this is @MCoSheriff Derrell Simpson. He is in charge of internal affairs.
Three months ago I had a conversation with Simpson about a probable violation of Penal Code section 115, causing a false document to be publicly filed.
@AdeleFrese asked the sheriff deputies to perform a welfare check on Salinas Police Officer Gabe Carvey. Carvey wasn't answering his phone and made some comments about his state.
County communications (so @WendyRootAskew's oversight responsibility) manipulated the document
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to read "Dana Carvey" so the public would not find this record and be alerted to a growing scandal within @SalinasPD.
It's called burying the clues.
Cmdr. Simpson assured me they were opening an investigation and would also provide me a copy of the record per my request.
Here is @SVMHS former CEO Sam Downing who gave all his friends and family high paying jobs with one of the largest employers in Monterey County.
Sam was in trouble and this was CYA. 2004 & 2005!
SVMH was getting looked at and political considerations kept Sam from prison IMO.
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That word salad between Sam Downing and Wylie Mitchell above is CYA for investigators so they could show Sam's hiring of Roger Duke was all above board. Duke is a self-described Real Estate Developer. The reality is Roger was a Sacramento failure. He once had an office at the
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top of Sacto's most iconic Capitol area skyscraper.
The building had just been built in 1985, in 1986 I met Duke in his Capitol Mall building to ask him some questions.
I was a real young guy,
just starting out and have to admit - I thought Duke was the picture of success.
This is former Monterey County sheriff Mike Kanalakis in a deposition when the topic of whether or not cops should hang out with convicted felons.
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Years earlier this was NEWLY ELECTED sheriff Mike Kanalakis giving permission to then @MCoSheriff Sgt. Mike Richards who was asking permission to hang out with David Drew, a truck broker and mutli-felon.
3/ This was a @SalinasPD copper who knew enough to document what he heard while interviewing someone on an unrelated call unrelated to what the copper documented. Mike Richards used people as informants that is go from the County Jail to fire other officers.
For those of you journalists outside of Monterey County that continue to appreciate public records - even hard to get public records. This record will be published soon and it involves none other that Dave Drew!
What Dave doesn't seem to grasp is, this issue is bigger than him.
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Once Dave endeavored to become a larger than life local public figure, with many public officials shockingly siding with his journey toward public rehabilitation and eventually a @JerryBrownGov - and let's face it Brown only pardoned Drew because it mattered to certain
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local elected public officials like, @CASenCaballero, @DennisDonohueD4 , former Sheriff Mike Kanalakis, former and since fired Sheriff Commander Mike Richards, former sheriff Commander Fred Garcia (who ran for sheriff).