When the Santa Rosa Junior College district police department held a botched training exercise in 2012 that sent one cadet to the hospital with alcohol poisoning, the subsequent investigation cost the school nearly $40,000 and resulted in no serious discipline for the officers involved, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation and documents released by the school’s attorney.
The “wet lab” exercise, first reported about in The Oak Leaf in December, was a police training exercise in which three cadets volunteered to consume alcohol in order to study its effects. Senior officers did not monitor the cadets’ consumption of alcohol, and one cadet was transported to the hospital by ambulance at the conclusion of the exercise. One officer shot cell phone video of the two cadets, joking as they vomited and one passed out.
The investigation into the incident was originally tasked to Lieutenant Dave Willat, the department’s second-in-command and an investigator licensed in the State of California.
Mark Paschal, a Bay Area investigator who was not licensed by the state to conduct investigations at the time, was hired by the school to conduct the subsequent investigation. His services cost the school $17,283 according to his invoice released in a California Public Records Act request. Attorney Larry Frierson’s services representing the school in the investigation cost $22,016.
Attorneys representing the officers involved divulged the fact that an unlicensed investigator conducted the investigation in order to demand that the officers receive the smallest amount of discipline available, according to an anonymous source with knowledge of the investigation. According to the source, the officers received a letter of reprimand in their personnel files.
The letters of reprimand were not included in the documents SRJC’s sttorney released in compliance with the CPRA request.
Joe Palla, former district police chief who was the chief at the time denied requests to explain why the investigation was given to Paschal.
Lt. Willat who declined to comment on the investigation or the lack of discipline of the officers involved, referring questions to the current chief, Matt McCaffrey, who is the department’s spokesperson. McCaffrey referred all questions on the matter to Doug Roberts, vice president of business affairs, who forwarded requests for information to the school’s legal council.
Frank Chong, president of SRJC, refused to give any statements about the matter, citing the CPRA request and the decision by the school to have its attorney, Patrick Wilson, handle the request and release of information.
