Critical Review of Probe Doesn't Satisfy School Board Member Investigated by Santa Monica Police

School board member Oscar de la Torre, who was the subject of a child endangerment probe last year by the Santa Monica Police Department that concluded with the district attorney's office declining to file charges, wants major changes in the SMPD. He also wants to be compensated for the money he has spent defending himself, and de la Torre’s legal team is looking at possibly pursuing further compensation for what he says has been an assault on his character.

De la Torre said he was not satisfied with an independent review of the investigation released Monday. The Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review report (which is attached to this story) criticizes elements of the investigation, but concludes that the undertaking of the probe was appropriate. 

The investigation began last year after police received a video from Tim Cuneo, superintendent of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, showing a racially charged fight in March between a Latino teen and a black teen—both Santa Monica High School students and one, de la Torre says, a known gang member—near the Pico Youth and Family Center, which is operated by de la Torre.

The SMPD concluded in July after a four-month investigation that de la Torre should be charged with child endangerment because he failed to stop the fight that began at Santa Monica High and, in lead investigator Sgt. Dave Thomas’ opinion, encouraged it to continue. The D.A. declined to file charges.

The Office of Independent Review report states that it was appropriate for the investigation to take place because “the initial evidence presented to the police department provided an ample basis to initiate an investigation into the possibility of child endangerment or related crimes.”

However, the report concluded that during the probe, Thomas used techniques “such as advocating a point of view and feeding witnesses information that do not comport with the ‘just the facts’ orientation of common investigative practices.”

The review team also wrote that Thomas’ investigation report “contained an unusual mixture of facts and advocacy and was not a dispassionate rendering of the facts.”

De la Torre, who said he has spent “tens of thousands of dollars” to defend himself, said the report does not do enough to clear his name.

“The intent of all this work by Sgt. Dave Thomas and the police department was to put me in jail, put a felony on my record, take me away from my family and force me to spend a tremendous amount of money on my defense,” said de la Torre, who has frequently conflicted with the SMPD on various issues, including how to eliminate gang violence.

De la Torre continued, “I probably would have recovered better from a gunshot to the leg than dealing with the emotional scars, the anxiety, the false allegations and the character assassination that I was subjected to.”

As evidence the SMPD acted appropriately in pursuing the investigation, the Office of Independent Review report noted a judge determined there was probable cause that a crime had been committed when he approved a search warrant. SMPD spokesman Sgt. Jay Trisler said in an interview Tuesday that this conclusion by the Office of Independent Review is an example of why the department will not be issuing an apology, which de la Torre has requested.

“There are two different entities [the Office of Independent Review and the judge who approved the search warrant] that said the investigation was appropriate,” Trisler said. “We’re a professional organization. We are open to suggestions. We will address them departmentwide, including the recommendations from the OIR report.”

Among the seven recommendations in the report are the creation of an investigation guideline manual and the implementation of a “more robust review process” for investigations. De la Torre said the recommendations are not good enough because they do not force major changes in the department. He wants Thomas removed from investigation duties and a review to be conducted of all his investigations that have led to arrests.

“This is the first time that we have exposed the cancer,” de la Torre said. “And I hope that the city government is not afraid of the police officers union, and does the right thing.”

De la Torre said the SMPD targets him, and he has five documented cases proving this. He said others have also been targeted. Trisler said this is not true.

“That’s his perception,” Trisler said. “I don’t think we’re doing anything to give him that perception. It is not Chief [Tim] Jackman’s goal to target him.”

Trisler said de la Torre is “going back to old feelings” he had with former SMPD Chief James Butts, with whom de la Torre had several conflicts.

“Chief Butts isn’t here anymore,” Trisler said. “Chief Jackman is his own individual.”

No Santa Monica city official contacted for this article would comment on de la Torre’s belief that he should be financially compensated for the situation. De la Torre said he wants an item placed on an upcoming City Council agenda regarding this issue. If no council member does it, he will place the item on the agenda as a resident.

Santa Monica Councilman Kevin McKeown wrote in an e-mail to Malibu Patch that he suspects the Office of Independent Review report “contained difficult reading for everyone involved, but [I] trust that it represents an unbiased outsider's analysis of what happened.”