PASADENA - A Police Department spokeswoman announced Wednesday that an internal probe into the actions of a homicide detective have been turned over to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Detective Keith Gomez is the second Pasadena police officer placed under the scrutiny of the Sheriff's Department in less than two months. He is accused of threatening to kill a suspect in a homicide case.
"Chief Phillip Sanchez ... decided that the Sheriff's Department would also review the case," Pasadena police Lt. Phlunte Riddle said. "Once the Sheriff's Department finishes its investigation, and makes a determination, the chief will decide what action to take."
The investigation into Gomez was launched after Pasadena resident Jamaul Harvey filed a complaint with police Chief Phillip Sanchez. Harvey was accused by Gomez and officer Kevin Okamoto of participating in a 2007 murder. A jury later found Harvey not guilty.
According to a signed statement by Harvey, Gomez threatened to kill him during an interview. A juror in Harvey's case signed a declaration in which she said Gomez "invented evidence" to assure a conviction.
Okamoto, at one time Gomez's partner and a detective, remains under Sheriff's Department scrutiny for failing to provide evidence - some of which was exculpatory - in a felony battery case.
Officials placed Okamoto on paid leave of absence last week. Gomez remains on the job, Riddle said. Gomez is the lead investigator into the March 24 officer-involved shooting that killed 19-year-old Kendrec McDade on Sunset Avenue in Northwest Pasadena.
Neither Okamoto nor Gomez have returned phone calls seeking comment.
The investigation into Gomez by the Sheriff's Department comes as additional allegations have emerged in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by the McDade family.
Attorney Caree Harper, who filed the original lawsuit at the behest of the family in April, amended the lawsuit Tuesday to include allegations that Gomez failed to record the interview of a 17-year-old boy who was with McDade on the night of the shooting.
In the amended lawsuit, Harper writes: "Gomez's tape-recorder mysteriously malfunctioned for 25 minutes during the questioning of the minor with Kendrec that evening. Plaintiffs further assert that PPD (Pasadena Police Department) is and was aware that Gomez's tape-recorder commonly `malfunctions,' or is stopped and started, during critical interviews as said occurrences has been the subject of personnel complaints for intimidation during the interviews."
In the lawsuit, Harper also raised concerns about Gomez's presence during the autopsy performed on McDade by the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. The autopsy failed to examine McDade's back despite the existence of bullet entry wounds to the back of McDade's arms. The lack of a back examination has further fueled Harper's claims that the Pasadena Police Department is engaged in a cover-up.
In Tuesday's amended claim, Harper asks: "What role did Defendant Gomez play in what seems to be a failure to completely examine Kendrec's body?"
In her initial court filing, Harper said Gomez's presence on the McDade case made her suspicious that the department was engaged in a cover-up.
Gomez led the investigation into the 2009 shooting death of Leroy Barnes, according to court documents. That shooting led to a federal lawsuit being filed against Pasadena and its Police Department.
In 2004, according to published reports, Gomez shot and killed a 30-year-old Pasadena resident named Maurice Clark. A Police Department internal investigation later deemed the shooting justified.
Harper's amended lawsuit also details McDade's treatment at the hands of Pasadena cops.
Shooters Mathew Griffin and Jeffrey Newlen handcuffed McDade after the shooting and allowed the Citrus College student and one-time Azusa High School football standout to suffer "painfully for nearly 90 minutes before succumbing to his injuries," according to the lawsuit.
"To watch a human being suffer on the ground and you don't undo the handcuffs, and to listen to the puppets at the Police Department say it's up to officer's discretion, makes my stomach turn," Harper said.
Riddle said the autopsy report contradicts Harper's claims.
"That didn't occur," she said.
The report indicates that paramedics were called to the scene at 11:09 p.m. on March 24 and that McDade died on at 12:28 a.m. on March 25 at Huntington Hospital. The report does show that McDade was handcuffed at the time the paramedics arrived, but does not show whether the paramedics took off the handcuffs to administer First Aid.
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