Wednesday, August 06, 2014

LAPD SOAP OPERA

The demotion of Sgt. George Hoopes was rescinded after he invited the media to attend an appeal hearing that would have revealed he was having sex with a female cop who just happened to be LAPD Chief Charlie Beck’s daughter

A few years ago, when Sgt. George Hoopes and Officer Brandi Pearson were both assigned to the Hollywood Division, they spent a lot of time in the sack together. That violated the departments rule against a supervisor fornicating with a subordinate, who in this case happened to be the police chief’s daughter. When he was demoted, George appealed, claiming that he was not supervising Brandi as they made hay together.

George picked a winner in Brandi. He waved his rights to privacy and invited the media to attend the appeal hearing where it would be revealed that he had been screwing the chief’s daughter. That must have resonated throughout the department, especially at the higher – oops, I mean the highest – echelons. The demotion was rescinded the night before the scheduled hearing and he was given a lesser punishment.

An LAPD official insists the reduction in punishment had nothing to do with the fact that had the hearing been held, Chief Charlie Beck and his family would have been subjected to public humiliation. He must have been talking to folks who still believe in the tooth fairy when he insisted that public disclosure of the sergeant having sex with the chief’s daughter had nothing to do with the reduced punishment.

While Beck may not have personally interfered in the disciplinary process, you can bet that his lapdogs took it upon themselves to keep the chief and his family from facing public humiliation. Unfortunately for Beck and his lapdogs, the cat got out of the bag when Jasmyne Cannick, a community blogger and activist, posted about the sexcapade on her blog. So now the L.A. Police Commission is looking into the whole sordid affair and the George-Brandi connection has become public.

The LAPD soap opera starring Charlie and Brandi is not yet quite over. Last month police officials went before the Police Commission to seek formal approval of the $6,000 purchase of a horse for the department’s equestrian unit. The purchase was rubber-stamped, but there was one teeny weeny problem. LAPD failed to tell the commission that the horse they had purchased for $6,000 belonged to an active officer and/or that they had purchased the horse from a relative of the chief. Guess who sold them the horse – yup, it was Brandi.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Commission President Steve Soboroff said that had he known, he would have wanted to hear assurances from department officials that the animal was tested to make sure it is suited to work as a police horse, and that the sale price was fair.

In addition to investigating the disciplinary process against Sgt. Hoopes, the commission is now also investigating the circumstances surrounding the purchase of Brandi’s horse.

According to the Times, Beck spokesman Cmdr. Andrew Smith said the chief has a policy of recusing himself from any matters involving his daughter or his son, who is also an LAPD officer. But I suspect that Charlie’s lapdogs pretty much do what they think their boss, as a father and not as chief, would want them to do in untoward circumstances involving his daughter or son.

Oh, by the way, the L.A. Police Commission is is now considering Charlie’s request that he be reappointed to another five year term.

Now there is no way that Hollywood’s screen writers could have topped this soap opera script. L.A. just had one clown across town – Sheriff Lee ‘Pepe LePew’ Baca – scurry off into the sunset, and now it seems as if there’s a new clown in town.

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