Chauncey Bailey

SPECIAL FEATURES

• FBI Investigating Oakland Police Department

• Documents say Oakland police beat suspect who died

• Video: John Sasaki reports on FBI investigation into Oakland police misconduct


OAKLAND – The FBI is investigating allegations that the head of the Oakland Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division nearly nine years ago beat a drug suspect who later died and then ordered subordinate officers to lie about it, according to police sources, some of whom federal agents have recently interviewed.

The beating allegations are just one aspect of a wide-ranging FBI probe, covering many of the department’s recent high profile problems, including the handling of the 2007 slaying of journalist Chauncey Bailey, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of workplace reprisals.

Capt. Edward I. Poulson, who heads Internal Affairs, was suspended by the department Thursday.

Poulson, of Danville, did not return messages Thursday. Police Chief Wayne Tucker refused requests for an interview. In a written statement released Thursday night, Tucker said the department was cooperating with the FBI.

The FBI is investigating allegations that Poulson, working with an undercover team in April, 2000 kicked a drug suspect, breaking his ribs, the sources said. The suspect, Jerry Amaro, died about a month later of pneumonia caused by broken ribs and a collapsed lung, according to police documents. Before Amaro died he told several people about the incident, according to police reports.

Internal Affairs investigators at the time found that Poulson ordered subordinate officers to lie about his involvement, and they called for his firing, according to the sources. Then-Police Chief Richard Word instead suspended Poulson for two weeks. No charges were brought in Amaro’s death following a homicide investigation, the sources said.

During that investigation, officers who arrested Amaro said they saw no use of force as he was captured, according to homicide case notes obtained by the Chauncey Bailey Project.

But during a subsequent Internal Affairs investigation, the same officers said Poulson ordered them to protect him, according to an officer familiar with their statements. It was those statements that that led to administrative charges against Poulson and the two-week suspension.

Officers with knowledge of the matter said colleagues were angry that a member of the command staff who had been punished for interfering in an Internal Affairs investigation was later put in charge of Internal Affairs, and they alerted the FBI. Two senior members of the department said Thursday that Tucker had been advised last year not to put Poulson in charge of Internal Affairs becasue of the Amaro case.

The investigation of Poulson comes as the Internal Affairs Division remains under the oversight of U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson and a team of independent monitors under the Negotiated Settlement Agreement reached following the infamous Riders corruption case in 2001.

The U.S. Attorney for Northern California, Joseph Russanello, said Thursday he couldn’t confirm nor deny the investigation, adding that the only confirmation could come from people FBI agents interviewed.

Mayor Ronald Dellums was returning from inauguration festivities in Washington and could not be reached on Thursday.

A former federal officer with knowledge of the matter said two teams of agents are conducting the investigation – one concentrating on possible civil rights violations and the other on public corruption.

Two police officers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday FBI agents have interviewed them in recent days about the Amero’s arrest and death, and a raft of other incidents that include:

• The department’s handling of Bailey’s Aug. 2, 2007 slaying, for which police arrested only one person on murder charges. The Chauncey Bailey Project reported in October that the lead detective in the case, Sgt. Derwin Longmire, failed to document in his case notes evidence of a conspiracy pointing to former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV’s involvement in the killing.

• The recent scandal involving the falsification of search warrants. Department leaders last week notified 11 officers of their intention to fire them. Another officer was fired last month.

• A whistle-blower complaint that police Lt. Lawrence Green filed last month alleging that Tucker squashed a rank-and-file vote of no-confidence in his administration by promoting then police union president, officer Robert Valladon, to "acting sergeant," a move that increased Valladon’s pay and boosted his eligibility for a higher pension.

• Allegations that former City Administrator Deborah Edgerly’s last year leaked news of a pending drug raid to a nephew who was a gang member.

• The conduct of Deputy Police Chief Jeffrey Loman who is accused of sexually harassing a subordinate female officer and is also being investigated for his supervision of Longmire’s work in the Bailey case.

The FBI probe comes nearly three months after Dellums requested the state Justice Department conduct a parallel investigation of an internal affairs probe of how the Bailey case was handled.

Since then, the department fired officers in the warrant-falsification scandal, sexual harassment charges were filed against Loman, and Green filed the whistle-blower complaint about Tucker and Valladon.

In the statement he issued Thursday night, Tucker urged Oakland residents "not to allow recent allegations misconduct to overshadow the successful policing efforts achieved by" the department.

City council members provided a harsher view.

"We are in chaos and no end in sight to some of the problems we are facing here when it comes to the police department," City Council member Ignacio de la Fuente, a frequent department critic, said Thursday.

Council President Jane Brunner said Poulson’s record should have been considered.

"The lead Internal Affairs investigator should have been vetted," Brunner said. "It’s like in Congress and the person who is leading the ethics commission, you need to vet the people doing Internal Affairs to the point that they need to be squeaky clean."

Oakland Tribune reporter Kamika Dunlap and Roland De Wolk, of KTVU-TV, contributed to this report.Thomas Peele is an investigative reporter for the Bay Area News Group. Bob Butler is an independent journalist. Reach them at Tpeele@bayareanewsgroup.com and Bobbutler7@comcast.net.

OAKLAND — The August 2007 raid on Your Black Muslim Bakery was postponed 48 hours to accommodate the vacation schedules of two senior SWAT commanders, a delay that likely cost journalist Chauncey Bailey his life, according to police sources and a lawyer representing an officer deeply involved in planning the raid.

During the delay between the first scheduled date, Aug. 1, and the raid Aug. 3, a masked gunman killed Bailey — a slaying in which authorities believe bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV was involved.

Officers familiar with the raid's planning and execution say Bailey's killing could have been prevented if not for the delay. While police did not know Bailey was being targeted, they strongly suspected bakery members had begun a killing spree that had resulted in two July 2007 deaths and described the need for the raid as paramount.

Police have for 15 months denied delaying the raid.

"I was never given any other date" other than Aug. 3, Assistant Chief Howard Jordon told Bay Area News Group-East Bay in October 2007.

On Monday, police Chief Wayne Tucker made varying statements about the matter in an interview with the Chauncey Bailey Project.

First, Tucker said there was no delay, then he said the decision to delay the raid from Aug. 1 to Aug. 3 was because "we were not ready. "... It was my decision and mine only to delay."

Then Tucker contracted further, saying, "It was never scheduled to go on the 1st. My staff may have wanted to go on the 1st. I didn't want to go on the 1st. And I made the decision based on what my comfort level was and my assurance that it was going to be successful."

Questions about the delay were "call(ing) my reputation into question," he said.

Four officers involved in the raid and two other senior members of Alameda County law enforcement confirmed the first scheduled date of Aug. 1, and said it was delayed because two senior SWAT commanders, Deputy Chief David Kozicki and Capt. Ed Tracey, were on a backpacking trip, and they wanted to be present.

Kozicki and Tracey did not respond to messages Monday or attend Tucker's brief interview at police headquarters.

Michael Rains, an attorney representing another officer involved in the raid planning, said his client, homicide Lt. Ersie Joyner III, knew of the delay, and objected to it.

"A decision was made to delay and put off the (raid) and the service of the search warrants to Aug. 3," Rains said.

That postponement came "over (Joyner's) very strong statements. He was prophetic" that Bey IV would order more killings, Rains said. Rains is representing Joyner and detective Sgt. Derwin Longmire in an internal affairs and state Department of Justice investigations into the handling of the Bailey case.

A former Oakland lieutenant who was a watch commander in 2007 about the time of the raid said the delay was unfortunate but not intentional.

"There was no violation of protocol, there was just an unfortunate set of circumstances. So just own up to that," said retired Lt. Patrick Garrahan.

In midsummer 2007, police believed bakery members were responsible for two North Oakland gun killings: Odell Roberson on July 8, 2007, and Michael Wills four days later.

On July 25, at the urging of Joyner and homicide Sgt. Lou Cruz, the police Targeted Enforcement Task Force began night surveillance of Bey IV. After several nights of watching the bakery, the raid was scheduled for Aug. 1, officers said.

The idea was to hit the compound to search for evidence in the Wills and Roberson cases — which remain unsolved — and a May 2007 kidnapping for which Bey IV and three followers face life sentences if convicted.

On Monday, July 30, 2007, SWAT teams drilled at the Oakland Army Base in preparation for raiding the bakery less than 48 hours later. They practiced storming buildings and ripping through doors with a chain saw to gain entry.

But then, officers said, they were ordered to stand down. The raid was pushed back two days — to Friday, Aug. 3, because Kozicki and Tracey had been on a backpacking trip and wanted to participate, according to Rains and police sources.

Police on July 30 rented two U-Haul trucks to carry a strike force to the bakery from a staging area several blocks away. They tried to extend the rental agreement on the vehicles, but were turned down and had to hurriedly rent other trucks from the Penske company to use Aug. 3, officers said.

Credit card slips and rental agreements obtained from the city under the public records act confirm the transactions.

The four officers said that the nature of SWAT operations requires a constant state of readiness and the ability to react with little notice. There were more than enough senior officers available to supervise the operation Aug. 1, they said, even though the risks were thought to be high.

"Based on the (intelligence) we received we knew that it was going be rough," said one SWAT officer. "We expected to take some casualties on this." We were doing a final run-through at the Oakland Army Base on Monday to prepare for Wednesday's raid when word came down that we had to wait until Friday when Kozicki and Tracey got back."

Because of the delay, the officers assigned to watching Bey IV stood down in the early morning hours of Aug. 1. The officers had been working double shifts, were exhausted, and were needed for the raid, rescheduled for Aug. 3, said police sources. On Aug. 2, shortly after midnight, Bey IV and two of his followers, Antoine Mackey and Devaughndre Broussard drove from the bakery to Bailey's apartment near Lake Merritt and parked there for 14 minutes, according to a tracking device on Bey IV's car and police statements.

Police also have a recorded statement of a bakery worker saying Bey IV was highly agitated Aug. 1. The person also is said to have told police that Bey IV prayed for strength with Mackey and Broussard.

A man who lived at the bakery told police he loaned Bey IV a white minivan without license plates about 6 a.m. Aug. 2. Bailey was gunned down about 90 minutes later near downtown. Witnesses told police they saw the masked killer flee in a white minivan without license plates.

The bakery worker who spoke to police said Bey IV said of Bailey's killing "that will teach them to (expletive) with me."

The next morning, Aug. 3, 200 officers raided the bakery compound on San Pablo Avenue without incident. Later that day, Broussard confessed to killing Bailey, a statement he has since recanted.

But the operation was too late for Bailey.

"The police department, they just fumbled everything," said Bailey's sister, Lorelei Waqia. "They caused the death, really. If they had moved on it, my brother would still be alive."

Retired Lt. Garrahan said SWAT officers told him "all the coordination had been done; that the reason I kept getting was that this backpacking trip was the reason for the delay."

Garrahan retired in April, but keeps in touch with many officers. Many of those officers, he said, are angry that police commanders have never acknowledged the raid delay.

"If the guy on the street, the man or woman that's driving around in that police car out there, is held accountable to a standard where you must be honest, you must be truthful, then that should go all the way up the chain of command," he said.

Mary Fricker, an independent journalist, also contributed to this report. Thomas Peele is an investigative reporter for the Bay Area News Group. Bob Butler is an independent journalist. Contact them at tpeele@bayareanewsgroup.com, bobbutler7@comcast.net, and maryfricker@hughes.net.

An investigation by The Chauncey Bailey Project has found that Sgt. Derwin Longmire, the lead detective assigned to investigate Chauncey Bailey's slaying, is a supporter of Your Black Muslim Bakery and has failed to document that he has analyzed evidence of the bakery CEO's possible involvement in the murder. The detective has also interfered for bakery CEO Yusuf Bey IV in two other felony cases, according to the Project's investigation.

>> Read the full story that ran in the Oakland Tribune and other outlets:
EVIDENCE IGNORED IN CHAUNCEY BAILEY MURDER CASE
By Thomas Peele, Bob Butler, and Mary Fricker

>> Click image to View timeline:

On August 2, 2007, journalist Chauncey Bailey was gunned down in Oakland, California. Bailey was investigating Your Black Muslim Bakery, a once prominent Oakland African-American organization. The next day, Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV was arrested during a raid for a separate kidnapping case. Police placed Bey and two associates involved in the case, his brother Joshua Bey and Tamon Halfin, in a San Leandro police department room, where they were secretly videotaped.

Bey IV has repeatedly told police he knew nothing about Bailey's death. But, on the tape, Bey IV says he hid the gun used in the attack, and brags of playing "hella dumb" when investigators asked him about the killing.

Bey IV, 22, hasn't been arrested or charged in connection with Bailey's Aug. 2 slaying. Oakland Police have charged only one of his associates, Devaughndre Broussard, now 20, who claimed, at least initially, that he acted alone. The secret video raises fresh questions about Bey IV's possible role in the crime and why police haven't brought charges against others in the high-profile slaying, according to experts who viewed the tape at the request of the Chauncey Bailey Project.

>> Read the article in the Oakland Tribune. Similar stories are also appearing on KTVU, KGO, KQED, New America Media, in the SF Bay Guardian, Contra Costa Times, and other Bay Area News Group publications.

>> Listen to CIR Executive Director Robert Rosenthal and reporter Tom Peele discuss The Chauncey Bailey Project on Forum with Michael Krasny.

WEB EXTRAS:

>> Van owner: I gave the keys to Bey IV
One of the key discrepancies in the case revolves around the white van
Broussard said he used to get to the scene of the shooting. Documents obtained by The Chauncey Bailey Project raise questions about circumstances surroundingthe van.

>> Audio: Chauncey Bailey Project reporter Bob Butler reports on the
investigation.

Visit The Chauncey Bailey Project website for web exclusives and links to more stories.