Blogger’s Note: The following is a summary of issues in the case of Gabe Dennington against the Riverside Sheriff’s Department. Dennington appears to have been railroaded by his Captain. This is standard practice under Stan Sniff. Also pay attention to the players involved. You will recall that Chrispoher Brandon Ford was involved in the leaked email that shows the open corruption of Stan Sniff’s management team conspiring to campaign on government time. Dennington prevailed in his case despite the appearance of County Admin and Sniff Subordinates committing felonies in an attempt to defend against the lawsuit.

The then Captain that railroaded Dennington retired and is leeching a massive pension off of the taxpayers when he should be prosecuted for what he did in his career (as should Christopher Brandon Ford and Stan Sniff). It is clear that Captain / Chief Deputy John Anderson (promoted by Sniff) was friends with the tow truck company owner and wanted to destroy Dennington for pulling over one of the tow trucks for making illegal tows. This sort of behavior is commonplace in Stan Sniff’s department.

Source documents: Appellate court decision became final on 02/17/2018 upholding the trial court’s decision. The trial court granted the Writ of mandate reinstating Dennington,

The initial complaint encompassed 3 incidents that occurred with Hook and book towing. The complaint was written by the owner, Daniel Morales and his wife. Neither had firsthand knowledge of any of these events and relied on employees who were less than honest.  Sgt. John Whitting, who was a participant in two of the incidents, was initially assigned to handle the personnel investigation and was later removed due to his involvement.

So the first issue is for some reason (Pretty much a personal vendetta of at the time Captain John Anderson of the Moreno Valley Station) Dennington’s incident was the only incident investigated.  Why were the rest ignored?

Second issue, this case was investigated in house at the Moreno Valley Station and not turned over to internal affairs. Odd considering there were criminal implications alleged and by department policy should have been handled by internal affairs. Seems that Anderson, who initiated the PERS, wanted to keep it under his control to get the result he desired (Investigate to terminate).  The investigation is supposed to handled, without any interference to ensure an independent and unbiased investigation, by whoever it is assigned to. Yet Sgt. Gyll met with Anderson and Lt. Brandon Ford (Also promoted to chief deputy after the sheriff was made aware of his involvement and possible criminal acts during this investigation) after each interview and was instructed how to proceed with his investigation, a major POBRA (Police Officers Bill of Administrative  Rights)violation.

Third issue, when Dennington was notified that he was being investigated, the department notified him of all the allegations but left out the most serious charge of destroying evidence. I believe if this allegation was made that Dennington would have brought an attorney with him to his interview and that is why the department omitted it from the notice. This is a major POBRA violation. (The notification is in the Exhibits from the record of appeal)

Fourth issue, the only person to be interviewed twice was the department chaplain who was riding along with Dennington during the incident. Chaplin Jones fully corroborated Dennington’s accounts of the incident in his initial interview.   During his second interview Jones was interrogated rigorously without counsel but did not waiver much from his initial interview other than the doubt the investigators psychologically beat into him about minor details. For this the department (John Anderson after promoting to Chief Deputy) called him a liar and relieved him of his voluntary status as a CHAPLIN. (Investigate to terminate???)

Fifth issue, John Anderson held onto the completed investigation from the beginning of march to the end of June after making his commander recommendation to terminate Dennington, A major POBRA violation. Could this be because he already knew that as soon as Boris Robinson’s retirement was final, he would get promoted to Chief?  Considering that his first act as chief was to put Dennington on administrative leave and ultimately terminate him, one might draw that conclusion.

Sixth issue, Dennington, RSA, and his attorney made two written requests prior to his Skelly hearing, and a verbal request at the Skelly hearing with now Chief John Anderson (I know, you’re thinking the same John Anderson that initiated, supervised, and made the recommendation to terminate based on the investigation after holding it for several months after the investigation  was already complete, then made the final decision to terminate Dennington  John Anderson?  Are you kidding me?) to preserve the camera and SD card after making the argument that there was exonerating proof that could be forensically verified on that evidence.

Then after making the final decision to uphold his self-recommended and determined termination of Dennington, did not preserve the evidence which was argued to him that would exonerate Dennington when examined forensically. When in fact he had the evidence returned to the owner and when they retrieved it for the purpose of examination by Dennington’s forensic expert, the SD card was wiped clean in a way that their own forensic testified would take a special type of program and extensive effort that a normal person would not have access to, essentially destroying exculpatory evidence as was the finding of the trial court of the actions of the department. Evidence “accidently” destroyed AFTER three attempts and the argument made that it was exonerating?

Seventh issue, during the arbitration, the passenger of the tow truck told a very different story than he initially told investigators. When he was questioned on the discrepancies he claimed that he was told what to say by his boss Daniel Morales. My question, one that according to the record was never asked by Dennington’s former attorney, how Morales knew what the questions were going to be? Oddly during Morales’s belligerent testimony, He and John (Yes he and Anderson are on a first name basis) had talked several times DURING the ONGOING investigation (Pretty unethical and illegal I might add) and how he assured him that Dennington would be held responsible. (Investigate to Terminate).

Eighth issue, John Anderson maintained authority and control over the case determining that the department should appeal the decision of the trial court, even after the sheriff was made aware of the corrupt actions of Anderson and Ford during the investigation and destruction of evidence.  Anderson maintained this authority and control until he retired. I bet you won’t believe it, but he handed that control over to none other than Chief Ford……Hmmmm I wonder why.

Blogger’s Note – It should be noted that even after Dennington won his case in resounding fashion that Chief Ford and crew are administratively putting up roadblocks to Dennington returning to work or receiving his settlement in defiance of the court. 

Ninth issue, Appellate court decision became final on 02/17/2018 upholding the trial court’s decision. The trial court granted the Writ of mandate reinstating Dennington, compensating him for lost wages and lost benefits, paying his attorney fees, and remanded the case back to the arbitrator for only determining proper punishment for the remaining allegation, which Dennington openly admitted to without hesitation, which is 8 hours according to the discipline matrix and past practices (Pretty sure this can be handled with a couple emails). Yet Dennington is not back to work or even on administrative leave. He has not been compensated for back wages or benefits. It has been 30days since the court’s decision has been final and un-appealable, yet the Department is blatantly not complying with the courts orders? Is it possible he (STAN SNIFF) doesn’t want to explain having to pay a huge sum of money to a deputy because he was aware of criminal acts committed by his Executive Staff  and did nothing to remedy the situation so close to the election?

How many people did John Anderson destroy in his reign of terror? When I read the complete shellacking the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department took at the hands of the California 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, it was clear that twice that John Anderson and Christopher Brandon Ford got shredded by the judges involved. Yet, here is Brandon Ford in the middle of Stan Sniff’s second floor, still up to his neck in corruption. Of course John Anderson was part of the second floor before he retired, he appears to be the kind of scum that Sniff promotes.

What about the Tow Truck company? Were they illegally towing cars to shake people down for money? Why did John Anderson care so much about Gabe Dennington pulling over a tow truck and arresting the occupants? Was John Anderson making money off the tow operation? Why did Stan Sniff allow the blatant corruption and conflicts of interest to exist? 

Do you see the pattern? There are constants, the investigators try to trick those they are investigating in to talking without representation. In this case, it is likely that John Anderson coached witnesses to perjure themselves. (Btw, the trial judges said as much in their rulings) 

Is Hook and Book towing a County Contractor? If so, why? 

Chief Deputy Brandon Ford – already burnt to a crisp on this blog for campaigning on public time, should be fired and prosecuted for corruption. John Anderson should be brought out of retirement and the same done to him. 

Meantime – in my opinion, due to Brandon Ford’s continued involvement in this case, the county is stonewalling complying with the writ of mandate from the 4th Circuit Court. 

You will never see stories like this in the Riverside Press Enterprise, but I am happy to write them here. Have you been screwed over? Contact RightonDaily, tell your story, you can remain anonymous. Do you know about corruption in the department?, same thing, come forward and tell the story. You can remain anonymous.

P.S. My source(s) for this story do not include Gabe Dennington himself, as typical of the cover ups that have defined the Stan Sniff era, Mr. Dennington is under a Gag Order, which I believe County Admin is taking advantage of to try and defy the court’s ruling.