TERRY VAU DELL - Staff Writer
Copyright 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
Chico Enterprise-Record
OROVILLE
Decade-old photos allegedly depicting two Butte County sheriff’s officers wearing a hooded Ku Klux Klan outfit have appeared on a former officer’s Web site.
After resigning from the force, David Martin, a veteran 20-year sheriff’s officer, said he downloaded the photos on his personal Internet blog as a criticism of past sheriff’s administrations.
Martin claims he was present one night in the mid-1990s in a downstairs room that then served as the sheriff’s main dispatch center in Oroville, when two fellow officers had themselves photographed wearing a white 1930s-era robe and hood. The outfit was emblazoned with an Oakland KKK chapter emblem. Martin claims it had been collected as either “coroner’s or found property.”
Martin, a regular critic of the Sheriff’s Office before he resigned in 2001, currently has a lawsuit against the county over a workers’ compensation dispute.
Current Sheriff Perry Reniff said last week he attempted to investigate the Web site photos but had little more than “rumor and innuendo” to go on.
Reniff, who was elected sheriff in 2002, well after the alleged photos were taken, said the two officers “rumored” to have posed for the camera are no longer working for the Sheriff’s Office.
“The whole thing bothers me, both the misappropriation of property and a person putting on such a racist garment in our dispatch office,” the sheriff said.
“If an incident of this nature occurred, and it was proven who the individuals were, they would be terminated and prosecuted,” added Reniff.
District Attorney Mike Ramsey also has viewed Martin’s Web site. He believes that while the KKK photos “may be in bad taste, it is not a criminal offense.”
“The Internet is notorious for prevarication and misstatements. We don’t do our investigations based on what someone puts up on a Web site or we’d be doing nothing else,” the district attorney observed.
In his recollection of the 10-year-old incident, Martin claims a then “duty sergeant” no longer working for the Sheriff’s Office “seemed absolutely giddy” as he posed in the Ku Klux Klan garb while taking a call inside the old dispatch room.
Martin alleges an unnamed deputy also had himself photographed in the outfit in a standing position, holding his police baton overhead in one hand.
A female dispatcher who was asked to take the photos later turned the negatives over to Martin, he says.
Martin does not identify either officer on his Web site, and now is only willing to name the sergeant allegedly involved, not the deputy.
The Enterprise-Record has refused to identify either officer without further proof.
Martin claims he complained to his supervisor about the KKK photos at the time, but as far as he knows nothing was done about them.
Mick Grey, who served as sheriff from 1990 through 1998, said he had “absolutely no knowledge” about the photos until they appeared on the ex-officer’s Web site.
“No one ever brought it to my attention. ... This is outrageous and never would have been tolerated,” the ex-sheriff said Tuesday after examining the Internet pictures.
Since he didn’t know the identities of those involved, Grey said he couldn’t either confirm or deny allegations one was later promoted.
Reniff also denies being aware of the photos until they appeared on the ex-officer’s Web site.
Reniff said several officers he questioned about the Internet photos remembered hearing “rumors” about such an incident a decade or so ago.
On close inspection, Reniff said, the radios, phones and desk in the background of the photos resembles the old sheriff’s dispatch office, which Reniff notes has not been used since a new center was opened adjacent to the main Sheriff’s Office in 2000.
Though clearly upset by the dated photos, Reniff says, “I can’t control what someone puts on a Web site.”
Reniff also noted Martin’s frequent criticism of the department during his 20-year employment and his current lawsuit against the county.
Martin’s Web site includes a lengthy laundry list of complaints about past sheriff’s administrators
As for the KKK photos, Martin writes: “A guy dressed in a Ku Klux Klan get-up is easy to recognize as a racist, but the person who protects the guy in the get-up can hide behind the power and authority of government and the facade of good public servant.”
February 8, 2006