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Feb 8 • 7 tweets • 5 min read
In January 2021, amid a state investigation now led by @AGRobBonta, officials for the @CityofVallejo intentionally — and with approval from a senior attorney for the city — destroyed key evidence in multiple police killings and one non-fatal shooting. openvallejo.org/2023/02/05/val…
Lawyers for Open Vallejo alerted @AGRobBonta to the destruction of evidence last year, and have asked a Solano County judge to consider a rare criminal referral for the destruction of public records. A spokesperson for the state DOJ declined to comment. openvallejo.org/2023/02/05/val…
Melissa Nold, an attorney who represents impacted families in litigation against @VallejoPD said the destruction of records will have an "astronomical" impact on pending litigation. Nold wants @TheJusticeDept to take over the troubled department.
One reason why: a ritual, revealed by Open Vallejo in 2020, in which @VallejoPD officers bend the tips of their badges each time they kill in the line of duty.

They call it, "The Badge of Honor."

openvallejo.org/2020/07/28/val…
All six of the now-destroyed cases involved at least one officer linked to #Vallejo's "Badge of Honor" scandal. The assistant city attorney who authorized the evidence destruction in five of them has for months fought to keep badge-bending records secret. openvallejo.org/2023/02/05/val…
Neither @AGRobBonta nor @TheJusticeDept has issued a statement about @VallejoPD's intentional destruction of public records. Nobody has been disciplined for the purge, according to deposition testimony in a public records lawsuit brought by this newsroom. openvallejo.org/2023/02/05/val… Forty-two bright yellow evidence placards mark firearm evide
The willful destruction of public records is a felony. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_di…

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More from @OpenVallejo

Open Vallejo Profile picture
Dec 4, 2021
EXCLUSIVE: Det. Jarrett Tonn has been served with a notice of intent to terminate his employment for violating policy in killing Sean Monterrosa.

He is the first Vallejo officer in at least 20 years to face termination for an on-duty killing.

📷: Noah Berger for Open Vallejo A photograph of the Vallejo...
Open Vallejo reported in July that Tonn was on leave pending likely termination after an outside investigation found he violated department policies in the killing.

We sued @CityofVallejo for the report in September.

Yesterday @VallejoPd released it.

openvallejo.org/2021/07/11/det…
Open Vallejo named Tonn as the officer who killed Monterrosa three days after the 2020 shooting. Tonn joined @VallejoPd in 2014. He was in three non-fatal shootings in as many years, two of which resulted in serious injury for the person being pursued.
Read 4 tweets
Open Vallejo Profile picture
Aug 5, 2020
For those who choose to watch the footage of Willie McCoy released today, consider this.

Some of @VallejoPd's shooters keep track of those they kill by bending one point on their badge for each life taken.

The following people knew in 2019, sources say.

openvallejo.org/2020/07/28/val…
1. Retired @VallejoPd Sergeant @vallejomayorbob told Open Vallejo that he and others were briefed on the department's "Badge of Honor" ritual shortly after six officers fired 55 bullets at McCoy, age 20.

He also observed bent badges while serving as a police officer, he said. ImageImage
2. Vallejo City Manager Greg Nyhoff knew. In 2014, a similar scandal erupted in @CityofOxnard, when Nyhoff was city manager there. A confidential report cleared nine officers of wrongdoing.

Open Vallejo sought the report this year. It had been destroyed. Image
Read 10 tweets
Open Vallejo Profile picture
Jun 25, 2020
Unfortunately, @PeteJamison caused enormous pain with a story that does not stand up to the facts. @VallejoPD killed 17 people from 2001–2010, and 17 again from 2011–2020, Open Vallejo research shows. Vallejo was in bankruptcy from 2008–2011. VPD pay, pensions were a major cause.
(One pre-2010 death was ruled a suicide. It occurred during a shootout.)

From 2011–2020, the per-year average number of shootings by @VallejoPD did increase over the prior decade, from 2.7 to 3.4 And there was a major spike in 2012. Why?

Sean Kenney killed 3 men in 5 months.
Kenney retired from @VallejoPD to found Line Driven Strategies, a law enforcement tactical training firm, Open Vallejo first revealed. If you treat Kenney as an outlier, the number of killings goes from 17 to 14. For now.

buzzfeed.com/albertsamaha/t…
Read 8 tweets
Open Vallejo Profile picture
Jul 5, 2019
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,
Read 19 tweets
Open Vallejo Profile picture
Mar 26, 2019
We have filed an immediate disclosure request for body camera footage of #WillieMcCoy's death. We demand the City of Vallejo #ReleaseTheTapes by end of business today. Read our public records request here: vallejo.nextrequest.com/requests/19-169.
Here is the video we believe supports our argument that the Vallejo Police Department waived all exemptions to disclosure: .
The March 21 disclosure is not the first time VPD has selectively disclosed visual records of an officer-involved shooting to some members of the public, then denied them to the public at large. See vallejo.nextrequest.com/requests/19-85.
Read 9 tweets

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