By Bob Walsh
OK, this one doesn’t exactly peg the weirdshitometer, but it is definitely worth an honorable mention.
The incident went down on December 7. The dramatis personae include Olga Cortez, 42, an Alameda County (CA) probation officer, four Oakland P D officers and maybe some higher-ups who may or may not have tried to bury the whole thing.
At about 2130 hours Nemesio Cortez, Olga’s husband, responded to a loud knocking at the front door. He was confronted by a drunken man, who tried to push his way in and demanded to speak with the occupants of the house. As this minor drama was going on Mrs. Cortez noticed a second man in the bushes, who seemed to be hiding a gun under his shirt. As it turns out both of these men were Oakland P D officers. The man on the porch attacked Mrs. Cortez, throwing her to the ground. The second man fled. Neighbors responded to help Mr. Cortez restrain the drunk until the on-duty cops arrived.
The drunken attacker, Officer William Faeth, was arrested that night. He was indeed off duty and was not armed. Faeth was a lateral transfer from another department and had been with Oakland for a tad over two years.
For some reason not entirely clear (to me) a total of four officers have been suspended in this case. Presumably the other two were the responding officers, who have allegedly been trying to bury the incident. The Oakland P D has been pretty much completely non-forthcoming about the incident.
The cops came back to the Cortez home twice that night, the second time at 0300. She believes that they were attempting to get her to back away from her complaint, constantly asking her “Are you sure?” as she recounted the details of the incident. A month after the incident they were still refusing to make a copy of the basic police report available to her.
Therefore Mrs. Cortez has done what any other good American would do in this position and is suing. She hired an asswipe named John Burris, whose primary legal practice seems to be suing the Oakland P D for various civil rights violation, assault, and general lack of niceness. He has plenty of business.
Generally speaking I think that Burris is an unprincipled ass and the people who hire him are slimeballs looking for a payday at public expense. But not always. This looks like one of the not always cases.
2 comments:
It must have been a hell of a cop party. I miss them.
$10 at the door entitled cops to drink all night. Groupies, snitches and want to be's filled the bar and paid cash. More dark blue Plymouths with black walls in the parking lot than at the station. Twice a year at Whitey's. Good times until last call. "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."
But we never left the party and burglarized anyone.
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