Many cops got breaks when charged with crimes in SLO County

In October 2017, an off-duty Lompoc police officer named Neil Patel — a recipient of the department’s “Top Cop” award four years earlier — was arrested by the CHP in Paso Robles for drunk driving a Ford F-150 that was pulling a boat and trailer.

His blood alcohol level tested at three times the legal limit — 0.24.

But when it came time for Patel to be sentenced, a handwritten note in his court record shows that the prosecution and his defense attorney agreed to a new number. His blood alcohol level was reduced to 0.19 — five points less than the test had shown.

That change was significant. It allowed Patel to bypass enhanced sentencing rules for anyone over a 0.20 blood alcohol level.

With that, Patel joined the ranks of 11 law enforcement officers who have been charged and convicted of crimes — mostly DUIs, but also assault with a deadly weapon and felony grand theft — in San Luis Obispo County since 2013, according to court records reviewed by The Tribune as part of a collaboration with UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program.

More than half of the off-duty police officers charged within the county since then, including Patel, received some sort of plea agreement that reduced their punishment.

In those agreements, local prosecutors sometimes justified the reduced sentencing by noting the officer showed remorse.

Significantly, The Tribune’s review also reveals that in all but one case where a charge was reduced for an officer, those arrests had not made the news. If there was publicity around the case, the officer was more likely to receive the standard charges and sentencing from the court.

In one such case that never made the news, a corrections officer caught driving with a blood alcohol level over twice the legal limit had his misdemeanor DUI charges dropped to alcohol-related reckless driving — known as a “wet reckless” — because he “demonstrated excellent character,” among other things, the prosecutor wrote.

The Tribune’s review of criminal cases against law enforcement officers in San Luis Obispo was drawn from the Investigative Reporting Program’s list of 12,000 current, retired, and prospective sworn law enforcement officers convicted in a county Superior Court of crimes dating back more than a decade.

In response to questions from The Tribune about the local cases, San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow said county prosecutors do not treat law enforcement personnel any differently than citizens when charged with a crime. Dow reviewed each case provided by The Tribune and gave the newspaper access to dozens of pages of police and investigative reports that are not typically public records.

They showed that, despite sometimes significant breaks, prosecutors acted within the court’s published sentencing guidelines in those cases in which charges were reduced.

As for Patel, the reduction of his blood alcohol level was followed by a plea of “no contest” to a single misdemeanor DUI charge. He was given just five days in San Luis Obispo County Jail, a standard sentence for someone with a blood alcohol level between 0.15 and 0.19, according to the court guidelines.

A BAC of 0.20 or more typically requires the defendant to serve 10 days in County Jail and complete a 9-month course, the court guidelines say.

“Defendant has no record and is employed as an officer for the Lompoc PD. He admitted guilt in the early stages,” the prosecutor wrote. “I agreed to a 0.19 (stipulation) to resolve the case, which results in (defendant) doing a 6-month DUI class instead of a minimum 9-month class.”

According to a CHP report, Patel’s father told the officer he was supposed to be the designated driver but his son took over to move the vehicle while he was changing clothes.

After Patel failed to show up at the jail to serve his sentence, a warrant was issued for his arrest, but it was later recalled without any additional punishment, records show.

That officer resigned from the department in June 2018, the city confirmed. He declined to comment for this story.

Drunken driving arrests dominate

Of the 11 criminal cases in San Luis Obispo County since 2013 involving a law enforcement officer, nine were DUI-related.

Of those, five DUIs were reported by local media prior to the conclusion of their criminal proceedings, including one case in which a sheriff’s deputy was cited for driving down Los Osos Valley Road at 102 mph with a blood-alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit.

In all but one of those publicized by the media, the officers pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor DUI charge and received standard, court-ordered fines and first-offender DUI classes, as well as about a half-day in County Jail, according to a review of court records.

Three of those officers remain on duty.

In one of the publicized cases, however, the DA’s office reduced the DUI charges to a wet reckless in 2013 because the officer was found to have only taken an Ambien sleep aid before he sideswiped two parked cars a few blocks from his home on his way to work, causing minor damage.

The drug was prescribed, and a toxicology report provided by the DA’s office states that the officer had taken an amount within the recommended therapeutic dosage.

Given the amount of time he had been taking the medication, the prosecutor noted in a memo to the court that the officer’s case likely fell under an “involuntary intoxication.”

The officer received a standard wet reckless sentence of 18 months probation, a fine of $1,150, and probation terms that included a three-month DUI class, which is standard for a first DUI offense, not wet reckless.

Such standard recommended sentences are decided upon and published by the judges of the local Superior Court, Dow said.

The use of Ambien came up in another case three years later.

In January 2016, a former San Luis Obispo police officer was found at about 4 a.m. slumped over his steering wheel while parked off the side of the road in Grover Beach.

It appeared he had struck the fender of a car parked in front of him, a police report of the incident says.

After admitting to taking an Ambien sleep aid and drinking beer earlier in the evening at a music concert, the officer was arrested and taken to jail on suspicion of DUI with a BAC of 0.10, according to court records.

His misdemeanor charges were also reduced to a wet reckless following additional investigation by the DA’s Office. An investigator there wrote in a report it was unclear how long the officer had been parked off the side of the road, possibly affecting his ability to prove DUI.

A prosecutor’s memo justified reducing the charges because of a “possible Ambien defense,” and “rising (blood alcohol) and driving issues.”

That officer separated from the department about a week before the District Attorney’s Office filed the charges, the city confirmed.

The charge was later dismissed post-conviction after he completed his probation and filed a petition with the court.

Some charges reduced

Of the six officer-involved cases since 2013 reviewed by The Tribune in which the arrest of an officer didn’t make the news, charges against the officer were ultimately reduced each time. Four of those cases were DUIs, and three were reduced to wet reckless.

Though wet reckless convictions carry less punishment than standard DUIs, they still count as a previous DUI conviction should the defendant again be caught driving over the limit within 10 years.

In 2018, 1,781 DUI SLO County cases ended with some conviction for driving under the influence, according to records provided by the DA’s Office. Of those, 229 — or about 13 percent — resulted in wet reckless agreements.

But that rate was higher for the nine officers convicted of DUI-related charges since 2013. Four of that total, or 44 percent, had their DUIs reduced to wet reckless, according to the data.

In October 2014, a 34-year-old officer currently with the Stockton Police Department was cited for DUI while riding an off-road vehicle at the Oceano Dunes with a broken tail light and a 0.11 blood alcohol level.

The officer’s misdemeanor DUI charges were reduced to a wet reckless due to a “search issue,” according to a disposition statement prosecutors are required to file if asking a judge to dismiss a charge, strike a prior offense, or substitute a DUI for a wet reckless charge.

An email from the deputy district attorney in court records show the prosecutor OK’d the reduction with the State Parks ranger who issued the citation.

In January 2015, a former correctional officer at the California Men’s Colony was arrested in the parking lot of a Pismo Beach Denny’s after being seen by a patrol officer driving at 2 a.m. with two other CDCR officers in a car with the headlights off.

The officer was found to have a BAC of 0.18, well over twice the legal limit.

A police report provided by the DA’s Office states the two friends told the arresting officer at the scene that the driver had driven them all from a bar nearly three miles away.

But one of those friends later claimed in a letter to the judge that the officer was only moving the car about 30 yards from a gas station after the station manager demanded they move it, according to court records.

Despite the contradiction, the officer’s charges were reduced to a wet reckless.

A prosecutor wrote in a memo to the court that the officer had a “viable necessity defense,” that there was “minimal movement of (the) car,” that he took “early responsibility,” and “demonstrated excellent character.”

The officer was required to take a standard three-month DUI course. The state says he currently works as a CHP officer.

‘Strange case’

Though DUIs are the most common crime among officers’ cases reviewed by The Tribune, one retired correctional officer was facing a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon before prosecutors reduced it in a plea deal.

Had he been convicted of the felony, the former officer would not have been allowed to possess a firearm or ammunition.

The 53-year-old former lieutenant with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation at California Men’s Colony intentionally struck a pedestrian with his Range Rover in downtown San Luis Obispo in June 2016.

The man was driving north on Chorro Street and accelerated into an intersection in which pedestrians had not yet finished crossing, according to court records.

Police reports say the retired officer honked his horn at the crowd, causing a 21-year-old man to take offense and slap the vehicle’s back window.

According to a transcript of his preliminary hearing, the driver stopped his vehicle mid-block and accelerated in reverse, hitting the man and fracturing his skull, requiring he be hospitalized for three days.

Though local media reported the incident at the time, it was not revealed publicly that the driver was retired law enforcement.

He was initially charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon with a sentencing enhancement for causing the victim great bodily injury. He faced a maximum sentence of six years in prison, according to a DA’s Office report.

But in February 2017, prosecutors agreed to reduce the charge to a misdemeanor count of reckless driving causing injury.

He still faced up to a year in County Jail under the lesser charge, but the retired officer avoided any jail time, and was instead sentenced to two years of probation, a $1,000 fine, and required to attend six sessions of anger management.

“Strange case,” the prosecutor’s reduction memo reads. “Victim was clearly wasted the night of the incident, and claims he doesn’t remember much.”

The prosecutor added: “Victim is happy and law enforcement is ‘fine’ with the (misdemeanor) conviction.”

Stealing from the jail

In another officer-involved case from 2014, a former San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office correctional deputy was caught stealing bicycles donated to the department’s bikes-for-kids program.

The 53-year-old officer, who headed the program, initially faced a felony charge of grand theft by embezzlement. Court records and records provided by the DA’s office say he stole roughly $1,560 worth of bicycles over a one-year period.

The Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the case for this article, citing personnel issues, but it confirmed he separated from the county in February 2014.

In August 2015, San Luis Obispo prosecutors agreed to reduce the felony to a misdemeanor, and the ex-deputy was sentenced to 45 days in County Jail, three years of probation, and restitution.

“Defendant has no previous record and is very remorseful,” the prosecutor wrote in a disposition form. “He, of course, lost his job over this and is still unemployed.”

The DA’s Office says, with credits, he ultimately served 23 days in County Jail.

Had the former deputy been convicted of the felony, he likely would not have been able to again find employment as a law enforcement officer.

This story was originally published November 12, 2019 at 4:50 AM with the headline "Many cops got breaks when charged with crimes in SLO County."