Police Department Responds to Lance’s Handwriting Expert

I am shocked by the comments made by Deputy Police Chief Frank Mannix. Having a document titled "Field Evaluation Notes" filled out prior to going on patrol does not seem like good policy. It may make the officers more efficient, but puts the general population at risk. How could Beutel have known ahead of time if the person is diabetic, or if they take insulin? How would she know that that the weather was cool and the road was flat? Last night, is the pre-recorded answer to the question "when did you last sleep?" Did she ask the people these questions or did she not even bother to ask?
What if the answer was different than what was on the form? Would she then discard that one and start all over on a blank form? That does not sound very efficient.
Mannix is going to great lengths to cover for Beutel. Why is there no mention of the forged signatures? Does he have an excuse for the testimony of the hand writing expert who says the signatures were forged? Someone should call Mannix and ask him to give an answer to that question as well. We are waiting for the truth.

>>"What if the answer was different than what was on the form? Would she then discard that one and start all over on a blank form? That does not sound very efficient."<<

This is a great question. I

I am shocked that these are the things that you people are focusing on. THE MAN WAS DRIVING DRUNK. PERIOD. But by finding faults with each action that led up to his arrest, hes successfully taking focus off of that fact. Please dont be so gullable, and let him use the system to get away with an illegal and dangerous act. He could have hurt or killed someone. Driving drunk is illegal for a reason.

akballard really wheres the proof he was driving drunk? The same people who say he was at least according to this article (Auchincloss) are looking into the "possibility" of dropping the case against him. I was more concerned with the "pupil" checkout on the earlier story than some of the others.

sbs124 and Tambora - let me help with your question. My contact at the PD told me that everyone is asked all of the questions during a DUI investigation and if the answers are different, then the pre-filled answer is crossed out and the subject's answer is written next to it. There are plenty of examples of this available but of course Lance and Genis would never want the public to know about it....just like the recording of Michael Kenny telling a male officer after his arrest that he resisted arrest and ran because he knew he was probably over the limit (.08) and didn't want to get another DUI. Lance apparently "forgot" to publish that transcript in his "investigation." I'm curious as to why Lance's investigation into all of this alleged corruption only includes information that is self serving to his case and doesn't include anything from the opposing point of view. Lance is making up his own stories to print now.... the alleged Worker's Comp fraud case that was being investigated by the Calif. Dept. of Insurance....well, he went to them and presented erroneous information that they were required to investigate. Lance then came back with the headline: State opens criminal investigation into Beutel...blah, blah, blah. He created the investigation so that he could report it to the uninformed public. The truth is that Beutel never received a dime for the injury she sustained when the 200+ lb. criminal (Michael Kenny) kicked her and knocked her down while resisting arrest. In fact, I heard that she was never even off of work. The State Insurance investigators probably figured out Lance's game and closed the investigation in about 20 minutes. The truth is out there, just be careful not to believe everything that Lance and Genis tell you.

>>"My contact at the PD told me that everyone is asked all of the questions during a DUI investigation and if the answers are different, then the pre-filled answer is crossed out and the subject's answer is written next to it."<<

That makes absolutely no sense.

If they are already asking all the questions with a pen in hand, what's the point of filling out the form ahead of time?

And as jfklbj said, if the officer "forgets" to ask a question the question isn't blank, but pre-filled with an incriminating answer.

Sorry, but this just smells bad.

I highly doubt the pre-filled out form is really acceptable police policy. Deputy Chief Mannix is probably just saying this to cover for Beutel. What other explanation can they possibly have for what she did? I am just curious to see what excuse the SBPD comes up with to cover the forgery of signatures. Will Mannix say that is also acceptable police policy?

The sad thing about this case is that it appears as if Genis and courts are going to unleash another unpunished drinking driver to prowl around our roads putting all of us in danger. The drunk driver team process has been evolving for a long time with the goal of making the most efficient use of a very few officers in order to make contact with and take off the road as many drinking drivers as possible during any night. It appears as if the process efficiencies that have evolved have put the validity of evidence in question. The whole drunk driving team process needs to be analyzed and re-conceived to ensure that the evidence that is collected is valid. I don't know how many of you actually know a police officer, but if you did, you would know that there is no personal gain to be realized from arresting strangers in the middle of the night. In fact it is a dangerous and soul scarring process that leaves one with a very negative view of the human species as a whole. The drunk driving teams are just trying to protect you and me from being killed by some narcissist whithout the judgment to know that he or she should not consume alcohol and then drive. I just hope that the result of all this is not more drunk drivers on the road. I for one try to stay off the roads after 9:30 or 10:00 at night so as to reduce my chances of being killed by some drunk.

Good call JFKLBJ. This SBPD needs to put down the doughnuts and start doing a little SELF PATROL instead of filming ON PATROL. It would seem to me this sort of starts at the top, so hopefully Cam will take his new job in the meth capital of the world, and we will get someone in that position with some nads to clean house. Remember the old adage "to serve and protect"?

I wonder if these are walking orders to pre fill out DUI arrest forms? Did Miss Casey take initiative for this novel method to speed up due process or was it someone telling her to do this? And how many other super cops take part in such practices? Obviously drinking and driving is a huge problem. But a rail roaded DUI conviction can also ruin things for people. This prefilled out form thing seems kind of like guilty until proven innocent rather than the other way around.

"The drunk driver team process has been evolving for a long time with the goal of making the most efficient use of a very few officers in order to make contact with and take off the road as many drinking drivers as possible during any night."

Eckermann - Have you seen the results of the last few DUI checkpoints? The last one I read stated 0 DUI's and 14 cars towed for licensing issues. Does this seem like making the most efficient use of a very few officers? I too am concerned about drunk drivers. I am very aware of the possibility that someone may be driving drunk, especially at night, and keep as much space as possible between myself and other drivers. If the SBPD would spend their energy actually looking for drunk drivers near the bars and stopping them with probable cause I would feel much safer. Unfortunately they instead set up checkpoints in areas where they are more likely to find unlicensed drivers. There must be more money to be made by the SBPD impounding cars, or targeting poor people. Forging signatures and using pre-filled out forms is not the appropriate manner to be more efficient.

I see the article got clarified with Auchincloss clarifying his remarks, one thought that keeps going through my head.

If the case is dismissed a few thoughts:

-Outside investigation of the SBPD, DA and City's role in this.

-The city is not qualified to run the investigation, they couldn't do the workers comp claim effectively and allowed that to turn into a fiasco (requiring more staff time to clean it up). If they can't budget a new Police Station on their own they don't have the expertise to run a investigation on integrity in the deptartment.

-They should also review use of force policy, the department uses their tasers far to often. Tasers were supposed to be the line before a service weapon was used, instead it now appears its the go to item before club, pepper spray, etc. When and how was this policy approved.

-Investigation should also include searching computers at DA's and SBPD if municipal computers have been used to comment on those stories its a abuse of authority and due process. Yes they are held to a higher standard than Genis.

Allow me to translate the latest attempt by the DA to spin this case in the media:
"deputy district attorney Gordon Auchincloss called to say his office is not necessarily looking into dismissing the case, but is instead examining the information provided by Genis regarding the handwriting analysis, and what that information might mean for the case"

The DA knows their expert Joseph Merydith agrees with Mr. Blanco's findings that the so called "original" in the John Page case was in fact a copy as to as many as 22 items, (a matter upon which Deputy Police Chief Frank Mannix has now admitted in this article to being the SBPD SOP for DUI cases). Here is what was said (recreated from shorthand notes):
Jim Blanco: OK and I would suspect that you Joe, would really not dispute any of this. It is what it is. And it means what it means.

Joe Merydith: Right. I think that it appears black and white in the document and I would be surprised if I had a different reaction. The interpretation -- there could be a number of reasons why these were done. And I don't necessarily have to answer that at this time. And I don't know if i would have the answers. But as far as the findings that you're finding and the reaction that you're seeing I would be surprised if I didn't have the same reaction -- given a black and white examination.

The DA's office is trying desperately to put off the end of this case in hopes that they could somehow win by attrition, they will now issue swap and say they are concerned with the Forgery issue.

But lets face the simple fact that the DA can NEVER put Kasi Beutel on the stand, and she will not take the stand and subject herself to cross-examination under oath. Even the so called declaration she signed (which was prepared by the DA's office) where she stated that she did not forge any of the 7 signatures WAS CONVENIENTLY NOT SIGNED UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY. Is anyone stupid enough to believe that was an oversight or an accident???

The DA is giving the public the "bad news" in small bite sized pieces so when they finally dismiss the case it will already be old news.

"Prefilled Forms Are Not a Violation of Department Policy"???

Really? Let's see what the SBPD Policy manual says. Take a look at Section 344.1, et seq.:
www.peterlance.com/SBPD_Policy_Manual...

The same manual has a "code of ethics" which states among other things that the police have a duty to "Protect the innocent against deception".

The media spin "sound bite" given by Deputy Police Chief Frank Mannix contradicts his departments own manual, and he knows it, and so does the DA.

The police dept and the district attorney's office are both corrupt. To them, justice is quite unimportant.

To those who insist that Peter Lance was in fact guilty of drunk driving, I ask, who are YOU to circumvent this American's right to a fair trial, where he has the Constitutionally guaranteed right to face his accusers and present a case and evidence in his own defense?

What has always made our nation special, as opposed to repressive countries like Iran, Syria, Libya, etc, is the principle that the accused is INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY.

And when the law enforcement authorities "we the people" rely on to protect us against wrongdoers, mishandle, manipulate, and manufacture evidence against the accused, they are willfully violating his/her constitutional rights, and any criminal accusation against that party is rendered INVALID and the only correct judgment is "CASE DISMISSED". If YOU were in Lance's position, you would be insisting the exact same thing!

If you don't like this current mess, then band together with other Santa Barbarans who are FED UP with the Bullcrap we're being force-fed by our top law enforcement officials, and boot their sorry asses back to L.A. or whatever other Hell they came from. If we're any kind of good citizens, we should be dedicated and resolved to persisting in doing this until we actually have Public Servants in the Police and Sheriff's Departments who are ethical and honest about doing the job their taxpaying employers wish them to do.

It's real simple if you just have the guts and moral strength to do it.

Y’all:

As I have previously indicated, I attended 7 grammar schools in the 1950’s, most in the rural south, including Alabama, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. The “n” word was a term of frequent daily discourse. On point, I played in North Carolina’s “Little Tar Heel” baseball league. The “Little Tar Heel” league separated from “Little League Baseball, International”, because the Tar Heels would not tolerate “n ….rs” to play with us white boys.

I cut my litigation teeth in Compton, California, in the 1970s. Compton was then the town where Black people who couldn’t afford to live in South Central L.A., took economic refuge. My grammar-school experience of the 1950s South, resonated with my experience of the 1970s Compton. R

Remember Flee Bailey’s question to the racist, Mark Fuhrman:
“Mr. Fuhrman, what does the radio call NVNNHI mean?
Fuhrman, in his sworn testimony in 1997 at the O.J. trial, professed complete, naïve ignorance about the law enforcement radio code.

I had been exposed to precisely such radio transmissions in 1975, when I subpoenaed the Carson Sheriff’s tapes: N…er Versus N…er, No Human Involved = NVNNHI. it meant: finish your donuts, no reason to hurry your response to “bullets fired”.

Around the same time I overheard law enforcement personnel who had been subpoenaed to court engage each other: “Hey, what are you doing here?” - “You know, I have to testilie.”

To y’all naïve doubters about the essential proclivity for law enforcement people to corrupt themselves vis a vis the “ends justify the means” mantra, I recommend another of my personal experiences:
In 1997, I traveled with my family to the east coast to see potential colleges that my 16 year-old son might attend. Friends, Nelson and Anne, were, respectively the dean of admissions and deputy general counsel for Cornell, in Ithaca New York. As we drove up their driveway to meet them, we encountered a cordon of federal agents who had been assigned to protect them from possible assassination by members or agents the New York State Police. True: the New York State Police, who, because rural New York counties couldn’t afford the cost of local sheriffs,served and protected rural communities, including Ithaca, were fighting mad enough to assassinate Nelson, Anne and their young daughters.

Long story short: Nelson, appointed to investigate a suspicious trial, had uncovered and demonstrated to a scientific certainty, supported by the multiple confessions of the highest ranking officers of the New State Police that they had, for decades, regularly and institutionally engaged in a systematic practice of planting finger prints at crime scenes in a thirty-year effort to “solve crimes” and “close cases”. You know: the suspects are, to quote Santa Barbara District Attorney Joyce Dudley, “felony ugly”.

http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/facu...

http://www.slipperyslope.org/evidence...

Michael Ganschow

Y’all:
As I have previously indicated, I attended 7 grammar schools in the 1950’s, most in the rural south, including Alabama, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. The “n” word was a term of frequent daily discourse. On point, I played in North Carolina’s “Little Tar Heel” baseball league. The “Little Tar Heel” league separated from “Little League Baseball, International”, because the Tar Heels would not tolerate “n ….rs” to play with us white boys.
I cut my litigation teeth in Compton, California, in the 1970s, the town where Black people who couldn’t afford to live in South Central L.A., took economic refuge. My grammar-school experience of the 1950s South resonated with my experience of the 1970s Compton.

Remember Flee Bailey’s question to the racist, Mark Fuhrman:
“Mr. Fuhrman, what does the police radio call NVNNHI mean?
Fuhrman, in his sworn testimony in 1997 at the O.J. trial, professed complete, naïve ignorance about the law enforcement radio code.

I had seen precisely such radio transmissions in 1975, when I subpoenaed the Carson Sheriff’s tapes: N…er Versus N…er, No Human Involved = NVNNHI. It meant: finish your donuts, no reason to hurry your response to “bullets fired”.
Around the same time I overheard law enforcement personnel who had been subpoenaed to court engage each other: “Hey, what are you doing here?” - “You know, I have to testilie.”

To y’all naïve doubters about the essential proclivity for law enforcement people to corrupt themselves vis a vis the “ends justify the means” mantra, I recommend another of my personal experiences:
In 1997, I traveled with my family to the east coast to see potential colleges that my 16 year-old son might attend. Friends, Anne and Nelson, were, respectively the dean of Law admissions and deputy general counsel for Cornell, in Ithaca New York. As we drove up their driveway to meet them, we encountered a cordon of federal agents who had been assigned to protect them from possible assassination by members or agents of the New York State Police. True: the New York State Police, who, because rural New York counties couldn’t afford the cost of local sheriffs, served and protected rural communities, including Ithaca, were considered by the Feds to be fighting-mad enough to assassinate Nelson, Anne and their young daughters.
Long story short: Nelson, appointed to investigate a suspicious trial, had demonstrated to a scientific certainty, supported by the multiple confessions of the highest ranking officers of the New State Police that they had, for decades, regularly and institutionally engaged in a systematic practice of planting finger prints at crime scenes in a thirty-year effort to “solve crimes” and “close cases”. You know, the suspects are, to quote Santa Barbara District Attorney Joyce Dudley: “felony ugly”.
http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/facu...
http://www.slipperyslope.org/evidence...

I've got my popcorn buttered and ready to watch how forensic science, legal justice, and clever sleight-of-hand will confer to partially pre-filled field forms the ability to make drunken amateur journalist drivers blow over the legal BAC and fail field sobriety tests.

I think we should get Peter Jackson to write & direct the trilogy of "The Fabulously Magic Pre-filled Fieldsheets" as such a fiction has never been brought to the table of common sense.

Until now.

You don't punish the unconvicted defendant for the Police and DA screw-ups. We, as the employers of these agencies, take the ultimate responsibility, and accountability, for not having had the guts and integrity as citizens, to band together to remove the incompetent or dishonest members of law enforcement agencies.

Otherwise, all this armchair condemnation of Peter Lance, becomes quite harmonious with the old Deep South KKK lynch mentality, as ugly an illiterate death squad can ever be. Don't start that kind of toxic crap in SB, please!!!!!