{"id":334544,"date":"2010-02-18T09:53:24","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T14:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef012877b22818970c"},"modified":"2010-02-18T10:05:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T15:05:00","slug":"rep-judy-chu-seeks-da-review-of-12-west-covina-rape-cases-amid-police-misconduct-allegation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/334544","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Judy Chu seeks DA review of 12 West Covina rape cases amid police misconduct allegation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rep. Judy Chu (D-El Monte) e-mailed a letter Wednesday to the Los Angeles County district attorney\u2019s office requesting a review of all rape cases submitted for prosecution in 2009 by the West Covina Police Department. <\/p>\n

Addressed to Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, the letter asked the office to look into allegations of misconduct by West Covina authorities to ensure that proper investigative procedures were followed. <\/p>\n

The letter came after a series of articles ran in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune<\/a> about sex crimes investigator Tyler Kennedy, who was recently suspended over allegations of sexual harassment of an alleged rape victim. Kennedy was also involved with a woman who filed sexual battery charges against her ex-husband. Those charges were dropped after Kennedy\u2019s relationship with the woman was revealed. <\/p>\n

After a Tribune reporter this week asked Chu what she thought about Kennedy, the congresswoman said she would look into the matter, her spokesman Fred Ortega said. <\/p>\n

In 2009, 12 rape cases<\/a> presented to the district attorney\u2019s office by West Covina police were declined and no charges were filed, Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the office, said. <\/p>\n

Gibbons would not comment on Chu\u2019s letter but said it had been received and would be routed to the appropriate people. <\/p>\n

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary Hearnsberger, whose jurisdiction includes West Covina, reviewed 11 of the rape cases and said he found no evidence that Kennedy\u2019s involvement led to biased reports. <\/p>\n

\n\u201cKennedy was involved in one or two of them, but he was never the lead investigator,\u201d Hearnsberger said. \u201cThere might be some suggestion out there that those cases weren\u2019t filed because of Kennedy, and that\u2019s completely untrue. There\u2019s nothing that suggests Kennedy has done anything that\u2019s illegal or improper in any of those cases.\u201d <\/p>\n

West Covina Police Chief Frank Wills said he had no problem having the 12 cases reviewed again.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re very comfortable with the request,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a very transparent organization, and we welcome any examination of our professional practices.\u201d <\/p>\n

— Corina Knoll <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Judy Chu (D-El Monte) e-mailed a letter Wednesday to the Los Angeles County district attorney\u2019s office requesting a review of all rape cases submitted for prosecution in 2009 by the West Covina Police Department. Addressed to Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, the letter asked the office to look into allegations of misconduct by West Covina […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4566,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-334544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}