Sacramento County is restoring oversight of Sheriff’s Office. Here’s who applied for the job
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is expected to select its new inspector general during its Tuesday meeting, an appointment that will restore oversight of the Sheriff’s Office more than a year after the position was vacated.
Board Chair Patrick Kennedy and Sheriff Scott Jones recommended that recently retired Brentwood Police Chief Mark Evenson be approved by the board last month, after the pair had conducted interviews with three finalists for the position.
Evenson would be someone “who’s going to do a good job” providing accountability for the county law enforcement agency, Kennedy previously told The Sacramento Bee.
So who were the other two candidates?
According to an interview schedule for the position obtained by The Bee, Sacramento-based investigative legal firm Van Dermyden Maddux Law Group, in conjunction with Municipal Resources Group, was one candidate. The other was Timothy Rieger, assistant adjutant general at the California Military Department.
Investigative law firm
Van Dermyden Maddux Law Group is “dedicated to conducting workplace and Title IX campus investigations in California and Nevada,” according to its website.
The firm was most recently in the news when the Sacramento Kings hired it to conduct an investigation into allegations that head coach Luke Walton sexually assaulted a former sports reporter. UC Davis also hired the firm to investigate inappropriate conduct within the school’s marching band.
Van Dermyden Maddux Law Group has been hired to audit and investigate law enforcement agencies in the past. In 2016, the firm was hired to “overhaul and investigate” the Kern High School District’s on-campus police department after administrators misused a law enforcement database to look up students and employees, according to the Bakersfield Californian newspaper.
One of the managing partners is “regularly called upon to investigate high profile matters,” according to the firm’s website, including “charges of excessive use of force and other alleged misconduct by law enforcement and fire department personnel.”
A receptionist for the firm said the law group does not talk to reporters “in any capacity.”
Municipal Resources Group, a management consulting firm, lists Van Dermyden Maddux as one of its clients on its website. A representative for the firm could not be immediately reached for comment.
Former state inspector general
Before starting his job with the California Military Department last year, Rieger had spent more than a decade working at the California office of the Inspector General as a senior attorney inspector general, according to his LinkedIn page.
In his position, Rieger supervised a team of attorneys that provided oversight of Northern California prisons during investigations and disciplinary proceedings, according to OIG spokesman Shaun Spillane.
Attorneys would monitor internal affairs investigations into correctional facilities and employees — inquiries into use of force incidents or allegations of officer dishonesty, for example — and report on the adequacy of those investigations and the disciplinary process, Spillane said.
On his LinkedIn page, Rieger describes himself as an “Experienced Attorney with a demonstrated history of working in government litigation and executive management.”
Rieger could not be immediately reached for comment.
Retired police chief
During the last Board of Supervisors’ meeting, Kennedy touted Evenson’s past experience within an internal affairs department as a key reason he recommended him for the inspector general job.
As a captain in the Seattle Police Department from 2002 to 2004, Evenson was responsible for overseeing all complaints and investigations into alleged employee misconduct.
“This was a high-profile, politically charged assignment that required intense scrutiny of investigative files and constant interfacing,” Evenson wrote of the job on the resume he submitted to the county.
As part of the job, Evenson also designed and implemented internal, written protocols to effectively deal with complaints of biased policing, according to his résumé.
Most recently, Evenson spent 10 years as a police chief of the Brentwood Police Department. There, he established a “professional standards unit to improve and enhance investigations into police misconduct and improve overall police accountability,” according to his résumé.
Evenson has expressed in the past his support for law enforcement agencies developing a stronger relationship with citizen oversight bodies, writing in 2011 “there is no other profession that demands more accountability than that of a police officer.”
Restored oversight on the Sheriff’s Office
The inspector general position hasn’t been filled since last year, when former inspector general Rick Braziel was locked out of Sheriff’s Office facilities after the release of a critical report he made on the fatal shooting of Mikel McIntyre, an unarmed black man.
The county did not renew its contract with Braziel when it expired last winter.
The inspector general is tasked with providing independent oversight of the Sheriff’s Office, including investigating departmental policies, procedures and major critical incidents such as deputy-involved shootings and in-custody deaths.
Also during its Tuesday meeting, the Board of Supervisors will review and vote on a new agreement between the county and the sheriff’s office codifying the overseer’s access.
To avoid a situation similar to last year, when a dispute occurs between the Sheriff’s Office and the inspector general, a mediator will step in to help resolve the issue, according to the memorandum of understanding.