By Virginia Hennessey
Monterey County Herald
The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office is investigating a Seaside police officer for possibly faking his own stabbing at his Pacific Grove home in July.
Officer Justin Gill reported he had been stabbed in the chest by a Latino male who fled with another Latino man in a silver Honda about 2 a.m. July 31. Court documents said investigators believe Gill either stabbed himself, was stabbed by one of many girlfriends or by one of their angry spouses.
Gill gave officers conflicting stories about where he and his attacker were standing when he was stabbed, said a probable cause affidavit filed for a search warrant served on his house Aug. 7.
District Attorney investigator John Coletti said Gill’saccounts appeared physically impossible.
Additionally, police found a knife with blood on it in a drawer in Gill’s house and blood leading away from, but not to, a bathroom sink.
When police arrived at Gill’s home after he called them, they found him wearing pajama bottoms with a Glock handgun holstered on his right side and a Seaside Police Department badge pinned to his left. He was sporting a head-mounted flashlight around his head and a bandage on his bare chest where he said he’d been stabbed by a Hispanic male who fled in a silver Honda with another man.
He said his two children, ages 5 and 7, were sleeping inside.
Over the course of the next few hours and days, Gill told investigators inconsistent stories about how the assault happened, saying either he was standing at his back door or on the back porch. But investigators only found blood inside the house, where they also found a blood-stained knife in a drawer.
Court records said the District Attorney’s Office is investigating whether any of Gill’s versions is true and believes he may have stabbed himself or been assaulted by one of many girlfriends or their angry spouses. The blonde, blue-eyed Gill told police he dates 30 to 40 women a year, many of them married and many of those the wives of other police officers.
Vicki Myers, chief of police for Seaside and Pacific Grove, declined to comment on the investigation, since it is being handled by the District Attorney’s Office. She said Gill is on paid administrative leave, but also declined to say if there is an ongoing internal investigation.
No criminal charges have been filed against Gill. Reached Friday evening, Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Hulsey said her office was awaiting a briefing by Coletti before it would comment on the case, possibly Wednesday.
In an affidavit in support of an Aug. 7 warrant to search Gill’s Forest Avenue home, Coletti said there were many inconsistencies and questionable claims in Gill’s account. The first to arrive on the scene, Pacific Grove police Sgt. Jeff Fenton took Gill’s loaded Glock from him, noticing blood on the gun. As Gill was being loaded onto an ambulance gurney, he handed Fenton a loaded .357 revolver he said he’d also been carrying at the time he was stabbed.
Coletti and others questioned why Gill, a trained SWAT officer, would not have shot an attacker with one or both of the guns. They also said Gill was oddly calm as he described the stabbing. While Gill appeared to be intoxicated, Fenton said, he did not smell alcohol on him, though one of the other officers did.
Gill told Fenton he’d heard a banging on the back door. When he opened it, he was immediately stabbed by a Hispanic male, who impaled him with a straight forward thrusting motion, like a boxer’s jab. He told other investigators he was stabbed on the back porch. In one version the attacker was standing on the stairs, in the other the man reached up from the bottom of the stairs and stabbed Gill.
Investigators found each version unlikely, given Gill is six feet, one inch, his attacker allegedly fiv feet, six inches to to five feet, eight inches, and Gill was stabbed in the upper left chest.
Then there was the blood, or lack of it. There was none on the back porch, but plenty in the house. Bloody foot prints led away from, not to, the bathroom. Blood was also found in the kitchen, foyer, dining area, Gill’s bedroom and in front of both doors.
Several knives were found in the house, including one that was wet and had a spot of blood on it when investigators removed it from its sheath. The search warrant authorized investigators to take a DNA swab from Gill for comparison to the blood on the knife. It also authorized seizure of all of Gill’s computers and cell phones for explorations of his recent and past communications. The return on the warrant has not yet been filed with the court.
While he acknowledged his many affairs, investigators said, Gill was evasive about whether he thought someone in particular might want to harm him. In the affidavit, Coletti said he hopes the records will reveal Gill’s past love interests. “Being that Gill has been evasive and reluctant to fully cooperate with law enforcement,” Coletti concluded, “I believe there are at least three possible scenarios that could have occurred that night: (1) Gill was stabbed as he reported; (2) Gill was stabbed by someone he knows and does not want to say what happened because it may damage his career; (3) Gill injured himself ... for reasons that are unknown to law enforcement at this time.”
Copyright 2012 The Monterey County Herald