Latest / Hell and Gone: Murder Line / 5150

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5150 · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: School of Humans. Hi, I'm trying to reach Charon Cummings.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Let's call it. My name is Catherine Townsend, and I'm
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: actually working on a podcast for iHeartMedia and we're covering Well,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: there you have it. Okay, we called Charon Cummings. She
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: was the jailer who was working the night that My
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Trese went missing. Obviously, she doesn't want to talk about
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: My Trees these days, but at the time when My
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Trees went missing, she did give several interviews. She told
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Times that after my Trease was released,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: she was given a phone and made several calls. Cummings
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: told the paper that she did not listen to My
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Teresa's conversations, but she said she did have discussions with
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: her about topics including gospel music and karma. Steve Whitmore,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the LASD Community Information Officer, talked about coming statement in
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: a press conference. Cummings said that she encouraged my Trees
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to stay the night and told her that she could
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: have breakfast in the morning. Before leaving. She said that
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: My Trees seemed to waver for a moment and said
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: maybe I'll stay, But then My Trees told Cummings that
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: she had changed her mind. She wanted to leave, Cummings
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: told Eyewitness News in a two thousand and nine interview.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: When I found out she didn't have a ride, I
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: asked her, why don't you stay? It's kind of dark
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and a bit cool. You don't have a jacket. I
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: knew she lived out in la and didn't know the area,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: but she said she didn't want to spend the night
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: in jail, and she was hooking up with some friends.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: So my Treece walked out the side door of the
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: police station. One of the main criticisms that has been
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: leveled at the Lost Hill Sheriff's station is the fact
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: that the officers should have recognized that my Treece was
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: in a fragile mental state. My Teres's family believed that
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: all evidence points to the fact that she should have
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: been taken to a hospital, not a jail cell, But
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: in later depositions, the officers denied that my Terce was
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: behaving strangely. They said that my trees passed a field
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: sobriety test and that she seemed to be absolutely fine,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: so their decision to release her in the middle of
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: the night was the right call. So is it possible
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: that the officers did not realize that my Teres was
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: having some sort of mental breakdown. I'm Catherine Townsend. This
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: is hell and gone. Almost everyone who encountered my Trees
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: in the twenty four hour period before she disappeared agreed
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: something was wrong with her. This included her mother, her
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: aunt Ronda, her former professor, and her boss. It also
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: included the Geoffrey staff and the diners at the restaurant
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: who interacted with my Trees and then later gave their
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: statements to police. Police officers who were put in a
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: position of determining someone's mental health and deciding whether to
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: hold someone against their will without violating their civil rights
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: or in a tough position, so we wanted to know
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: what were the police officer's options at that point. In
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the state of California, arrested individuals who were considered to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: be a danger to themselves or others due to signs
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: of mental illness can be subject to involuntary psychiatric evaluation
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: and commitment for up to seventy two hours. This is
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: called a fifty one fifty hold, and my Teresa's family
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: is adamant that a fifty one to fifty hold is
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: exactly what should have happened prior to her arrest. My
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Trees did not have an official mental health diagnosis, but
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: based on the way that she was acting, people close
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: to her believed she was undiagnosed by polar and could
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: be experiencing some type of manic episode. Now, making an
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: armchair diagnosis, especially in hindsight, can be dicey. We know
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: that my Trees was exhibiting symptoms, including possible hallucinations because
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: we know that she told one of the diners that
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: a character on a soap opera had been talking to her.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Also delusional thinking based on a lot of the comments
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: that she made, and potentially hypersexuality when she offered to
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: settle her bill for sex if she was experienced sing
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: a bipolar episode. My Trese was in a very vulnerable position.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Early on, police speculated that my Tries could have died
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: of suicide, particularly because she appeared to be suffering some
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: type of mental distress, but they also said in their
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: depositions that she did not exhibit behavior that they believe
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: qualified her for a fifty to one to fifty hold.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: They insisted that having made that determination, they had no
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: legal reason to hold her and were correct in their
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: decision to release her after midnight. So police have stated
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: both that my Trees was in such mental distress that
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: she could have run off a cliff and plunged to
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: her death, and that she seemed to be absolutely fine.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: So which is it. To get answers, we have to
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: dive into the hard evidence that we do have from
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: the night that my Terse went missing, including the messages
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: sent between the officers and their radio communication records. First,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: there's the arresting officer, Armando Lurero. He said in a
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: deposition that when he went to Joffrey's, he was responding
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to a possible three ninety, which is the code that
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: would indicate a drunk person for a black female unable
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: to pay her bill. But the defrauding and innkeeper charge
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: and the small amount of pot that my Trees had
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: on her were misdemeanor citations, and his fellow officer on
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: the scene, Frank Brower, testified that my Trees passed a
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: field sobriety test. So if she wasn't under the influence
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and he believed that she was fine, why did Lurero
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: make the decision to impound my Trees's car, hard book her,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: and take her into custody. After Lurero and his fellow
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: officers were finished at Joffrey's, he transported my Trees to
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: the station in his cruiser. This was around eight forty
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: five p m. In a later deposition, Lorero said that
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: he believed that he arrived with my Trees at the
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: station at around nine fifty p m. Once they arrived,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Jaylor Charon Cummings fingerprinted my trees and took her photograph
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: to assist in the booking process. Lorero said he never
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: discussed any concerns with my Teres's mental state, either to
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Charon or to his watch sergeant when he went in
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: to discuss the probable cause statement, basically laying out the
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: reasons for the arrest. He said in a deposition that
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: he had observed my Trees for any potential signs of
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: her needing to be detained for a fifty one to
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: fifty mental health evaluation, and apparently he determined that this
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: was not necessary. But an email mentioned in that deposition
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: could provide some clues to his motive. The email, which
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Mike Kessler quoted in his Los Angeles Magazine story, was
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: from one of Lorero's Lost Hills colleagues. Lieutenant Scott two
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Kessler wrote, quote, deputies had considered letting Richardson go with
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: a citation, but decided to arrest her in part because
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: witnesses had said she'd been acting strangely end quote. Chu
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: said in the email that Lorero told him that he'd
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: made the decision to hard book my trees at the
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: station because she was acting in a bizarre manner, and
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: he said that he wanted to quote make sure that
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: she was all right end quote. Now this was in
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: direct contradiction to Lorero's testimony, and many people also questioned
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: what was transmitted over the police messaging system. It later
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: emerged that Lorero and John McKay were assigned to take
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: the call, but Brower had assigned himself after seeing the details.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Why did they need three officers to respond to a
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: call of a young woman who couldn't pay a restaurant tab.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: John McKay, one of the officers on the scene, said
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: that at ten thirteen pm, he sent a message to
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: another officer that read citizens arrest. He got a message
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: back that read why didn't you help a sister out?
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: So officially, the police's line was that they never believed
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: that my terse was showing signs of mental instability. Remember
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Kenneth the valet. He was the first person who encountered
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: my terse at Jeffrey's that night, and the first one
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: to notice that she seemed to be acting off. He
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: spoke to the deputies who came to Jeffrey's, and afterwards
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: they provided him with a written statement summarizing what he said.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: But when he took a closer look, he noticed that
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: some of the descriptions in the statement didn't match what
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: he said, so he corrected those statements, crossing some of
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: it out and making additions in his own handwriting. The
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: details and the rewritten statement are jarring. For example, the
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: typewritten statement reads, at no time on the night of
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: September sixteenth, or during the early morning hours September seventeenth,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, did I ever speak to any
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: of the LASD deputies that arrived or any other law
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: enforcement personnel. But Kenneth crossed that part out. He wrote,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: I spoke to two of the LASD deputies who were
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: on the scene. I asked what happened and or what's
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: wrong with her? One deputy replied, she's a ding. I
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: told the other deputy that it seemed like she was
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: off her medication or had too much medication. Doctor Ronda
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Hampton spent years reading and obsessing over every single minute
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: detail of the communications among these officers. Many times she
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: saw that the police made reference to my trese as
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: a ding and that Kenneth the valet also said he'd
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: overheard the police officers calling her a ding. At first,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: she said, she didn't realize the significance of this information.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I'll be she thought it was short for a dingbat,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: but she later learned that in law enforcement circles, it's
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: shorthand for someone who probably needs a fifty one to
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: fifty psychiatric evaluation. And she discovered that by happenstance, my
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: dumb ass didn't even know what a ding was. I
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: just thought, oh, I mean a ding that well, I
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: knew it meant somebody was dinghy right, Yeah, but I
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: didn't realize it was like an official thing that they
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: called people who had were fifty one to fifty from
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: the shriff of herm right, So me and mind her.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I'm taking a crochet class at Michael's Right. The person
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: who was giving the class was a sheriff, and I
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: don't know she sent something about either giving Croeschek houses
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: and it's somehow she used the word ding and while
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: she was telling us about this crochet thing, and I
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: was like Dan, I was like, why you said ding?
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: And then she goes, oh, that's what we call people
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: who need to be on a fifty one fifty. And
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: then we have a Dan Ward that's in the jail. Wow. Yeah,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: so that's how I found that out. Wow. I'm like,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: so when they said ding, they know damn well that
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: that's an official Well, they're not supposed to say it,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: but you called some high a ding. Then you know
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: they asked me to be a fifty one fifty. So
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: who I mean, they get back to the station, they decide,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: for whatever reason not to not to fifty one fifty
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: or her And why did they They ever tell you
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: why they did that. Well, what they will tell you
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: is that she was acting perfectly normal. So you've got
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: somebody at the scene who passes to feel sobriety test
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: who talk about she's from Mars reading people's palms, crazy
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: as fuck, and you call her a dank and then
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: you send your email to your captain say she did
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: see but she was perfectly fine. Make no damn sense.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Once police found out that my Trees had no outstanding warrants,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: and crucially, having apparently made the determination that she was
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: not a fifty one to fifty risk, my Trees was released.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Cummings said that jailers are trained to contact their watch
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: sergeant or watch commander if the detainees show signs of
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: mental instability, but she said that my Trice was calm,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: so this didn't happen. And one of the biggest challenges
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: of diagnosing mental health issues is the fact that someone
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: experiencing an episode can seem lucid one minute and unstable
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: the next. And if the arresting officers did not tell
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Cummings about my Terce's bizarre behavior, she may not have
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: known that there could be potential mental health issues. Reading
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: between the lines of the comments she's made in interviews,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: it does seem that Cummings was nervous about letting my
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Trees leave in the middle of the night, but she
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: seemed to think that there was nothing more that she
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: could do. Once again, it seems that at every turn,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: My Trees slipped through the cracks. So much joint down
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: right now, okay, Weta Reservation put three for a thousand.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Ye all, we're back at Jeffrey's, the restaurant where My
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Trees's Night began on the night she disappeared, and this
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: time were with reporter Cec Woods. I've got my mole,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: which I still don't even know who my mole is,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: but my mole, actually I don't. I have no idea,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: but I do have to tell you. So he's like,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: just show them that picture of you in the bikini
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: on Instagram. That'll man, that'll work. In twenty fourteen, Cec
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: started the local Malibu. She's currently editor in chief of
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: that publication. She also founded the magazine Malibu nine oh
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: two sixty five. She describes herself as an activist and reporter.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: They treat me like I'm a nobody, and I really
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: don't care. It's okay, because guess what, I have multiple
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: projects going on that are all national, global, whatever you
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: want them to be, and they're all involving you. And
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: yet they think I'm just this little blondie for Malibu,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: which is okay, go ahead, I'll give fuck. She's in
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: your face and sometimes says outrageous things, but she is
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: getting taken seriously and she's broken some huge stories. Yeah,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: I love being underestimated. I fucking love it. And that's
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: what happened with the Malbury Creek State Park shootings. I
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: was underestimated. I was this little blonde Malibu barbie to them,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: and blahbery blah blah blah whatever. I don't give fuck.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Over the years, she has developed a tight knit working
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: relationship with the Lost Hills Sheriff's Department. She has a
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: close relationship with a lot of the officers, but she's
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: not afraid to hold them accountable, so much so that
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: she says her reputation is on the line if they
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: ever pull any bullshit. I'm like, my reputation is tied
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: to you guys. Don't you ever motherfucking do this shit
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: on my watch? Okay, whatever they did, and I mean
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: that like I'm willing to lose my life over this shit.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Like my kids can take care of themselves, but you're
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: not doing this on my watch in my community with
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: me supporting you guys. Fuck that shit. I don't want
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: this shit happening in my community. That's like number one.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: And knowing that there's a bunch of fucking rogue cops
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: getting away with abuse of power at my local station
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: like nothing makes me angrier. She's also on a first
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: named basis with the Sheriff of Los Angeles County, Alex Villanueva.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: He's the most powerful law enforcement official in the largest
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: county in the country, but CEC's texts always get priority,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: despite an atmosphere that can make it challenging for law
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: enforcement to have relationships with journalists. CEC has several sources
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: inside the department. During our meeting, she gets a call
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: from one of them. It's true, I love you. I
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: always say that in this job, a lot of the
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: most productive information comes out at happy hour, and she
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: clearly believes in the power of building relationships that is.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Ceci's also seen the dark side of the Sheriff's station
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: and exposed a lot of their dirty laundry, including in
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: one of the biggest cases that she's worked on so far,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the Malibu Creek State Park shootings. Cec said that crime
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: was never her area of expertise until true crime came
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: to her neighborhood. She said she was terrified when her
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: neighbors started talking about multiple shootings in Malibu and a
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: possible serial killer on the loose, one that, she says
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: the police were not warning the public about I exposed
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: the Malibu Creek State Park shootings, and that was by accident.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: I was just in public safety reporting doing my thing,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, this shooting happens, and
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: I'm like, Wow, what the fuck? There's a murder happening.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: And I don't even know how to deal with the
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: murder because murder's not my wheelhouse. But I don't do
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: that shit. It was just instinctual, like people just started
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: emailing me and sending me information. I'm like, Okay, I
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: guess I have to write about this. How am I
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: going to write about this? I had to sit down
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: and think about how I'm going to write about murder,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: and so I sat down and I kind of figured
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: it out. And in the beginning I was a real
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: smart ass, and I kind of want to go back
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: to being smart ass. I have to tell you, because
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: you know what, I like smartass. Alex would say, tell
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Ussy to write an article. I need a laugh, okay,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: because I would just make fun of the homicide. I
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: would make fun of everybody. When thirty two year old
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: father of two Tristan Boudette was found shot to death
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: in his tent on June twenty second, twenty eighteen, the
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: case made international headlines. Then in October twenty eighteen, a
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: drifter named Anthony Rauda was arrested for a parole violation.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: According to the local Malibu he was arrested for possession
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: of a weapon authority says can assistant with and or
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: a matching the murder weapon that killed Tristan Bodett. But
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Ceci says she doesn't believe that Rauda is responsible for
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: all of the shootings, and she says that there's been
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: a law enforcement cover up dating back to twenty sixteen.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: She reported in the paper that several shootings took place
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: before a Bodett was shot, and that quote the shootings
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: were purposely hidden from the public by state parks officials
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, under the direction of
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: former Sheriff MacDonnell, who was complicit in the cover up
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: end quote. Eventually, Rauda was charged with Bodet's murder and
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: with ten other counts of attempted murder and five counts
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: of burglary. But cec continues to question every piece of
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: information that's released by the Sheriff's department. She says that
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: her sources tell her there's no ballistics match to the
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: alleged murder weapon. She says that there continues to be
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: unexplained gunfire in Malibu Creek State Park and that she
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: believes a killer may still be out there. Cecy found
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: out about my Teresa's case after one of her readers
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: saw Ronda and Chip's documentary and forwarded it to Cec.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Then she met Ronda, and working together, they started to
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: dig deeper into my Teresa's case. After all of the
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: investigating that I've done and the hundreds of thousands of
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: man hours that I've logged in with Ronda at four o'clock,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: three o'clock in the morning, five o'clock in the morning,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: like we get up and we call each other. It
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: doesn't matter what time it is, Like that's the reality.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Her and I are like on the same speed. She
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: is a cyberstalker in extraordinary and what she does is
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: she just goes and digs shit and she sends it
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: right to me, and I'm like, Okay, what do you
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: want to do with it? Do we write about it?
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Do we sit on it? What do we do? And
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: So what I believe happened was that as we sit
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: at Draffrey's right now, and as I talk to the
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: owner of Draffrees not too long ago, probably about a
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: week ago, they felt that she was in the best
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: hands for public safety. When the cops came, they should
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: have called the MET team, which is the mental evaluation team.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: They did not. The police have admitted that mistakes were
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: made on the night that my Terse went missing, but
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: through their investigation, CC and Ronda began to believe that
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: something much more sinister than just a miscall and a
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: mental health evaluation went on at the station. CC has
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: written several expose as on alleged law enforcement cover ups.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Earlier this year, CC broke the story of a young
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: woman who was sexually assaulted at a Malibu condominium in
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the early morning hours of February eighth. A transient walked
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: in an unlocked door and allegedly fondled the victim, but
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: when the incident was reported to police, officers reportedly took
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: forty five minutes to arrive at the scene and basically
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: concluded that the alleged victim may have had too much
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: to drink. CECI heard about the story, she helped the
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: victim track down surveillance footage which clearly showed a man
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: entering her home. A few days later, thirty four year
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: old Matthew Fairchild was arrested and charged with intent to
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: commit a sex crime. According to the Malibu Times quote,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: the matter was festering until a Malibu tabloid publisher, CEC
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Woods reportedly sent the photos and a complaint to Sheriff
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Alex Villanueva, who has been known to frequently consult with
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Woods on Malibu issues end quote. After CEC's article came out,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the Times received complaints from residents who were outraged that
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: police did not immediately warn them of potential danger or
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: try to track down the suspect, and then Lost Hills
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Captain Matthew Vanderhork was demoted and relieved a duty when
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: this sexual predator happened. When I got the captain because
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: he fucked up, I literally texted the captain and I said,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: I want to know who those motherfucking deputies are. I
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: want to come into your station. I want to look
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: them in the motherfucking face, and I want to let
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: them fucking know you will never do this in my
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: community again. And I am not kidding. I was so angry.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: I was ready to take the bar alloh yank it
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: and throw it against the wall when the community member
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: came to me and told me what had happened. CEC
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: has also written an expose about former Lost Hills Captain
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Tom Martin. Martin was accused of sexual assault and the
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: alleged victim says that the incident took place just months
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: before my trees ended up at Lost Hill Station. In
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: no way does CEC's experience prove that something more sinister
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: happened to my trees at the Lost Hill Station, but
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: it does paint a compelling picture of the Sheriff's department
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: at the time. Basically, CC labels the era at the
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Lost Hill Station before Sheriff Llanueva took office the wild West,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: and she describes the environment there zero oversight, populated with
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: rogue cops. She talked about this when we talked on
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the phone with her a few weeks before in person meeting.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: It's a station that has been known for a rogue
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: pop behavior, and I am very happy to report that
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: since we had a change in captain, which I was
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: instrumental in exposing some of the things this captain was
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: not taken care of, which allows these cops to get
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: in that rogue cops way, and you know, if you
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: don't have the right leadership, they're just gonna see what
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: they want. Now they know that they especially now after
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: this whole George Floyd and the civil uprising, but even
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: before this happened, being able to expose this behavior on
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: social media and the relationships that I've been able to
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: nurture with a sheriff's department and with the sheriff has
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: really made a serious difference in our community and at
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: the station. Now, some of this may sound like a
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: movie plot, but the LASD has been involved in scandals
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: to make the movie LA Confidential look like a documentary.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: In twenty thirteen, following a massive investigation, federal officials and
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: dieted eighteen current and former LASD deputies, lieutenants, and sergeants.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: The charges included corruption, obstruction of justice, and fabrication of
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: police reports. According to the se of Independent Review report,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: allegations against LASD officers included rape, kidnapping, and smuggling heroin
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: into a jail cell. This rogue cop situation is what
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: she thinks happened to my trees. I mean, obviously, people
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: at the restaurant were telling them, you know, she's acting strange,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: and they knew that she might have mental health issues,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: but yet then later they said she didn't, which was
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: it was very strange. Now that was I mean, for
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: lack of a better word, absolute nonsense. And well, here's
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: the thing. The thing is is if you are not
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: well versed in mental health issues, especially like bipolar or
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: any of those issues, and if you don't really recognize
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: it and you're not trained, then you know what, you
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: might make those mistakes, which is another reason why you know,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: the shirt depart and has the mental health evaluation team.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: And so again I'm going to go back to the
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: roade cop thing, and that was especially rampant at that time.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, they just did whatever they wanted, and it
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: was clear by the radio call and how they responded
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: to it and talking about doing a FEN search over
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: the radio. It's like, you know, what kind of behavior
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: is that there was a female jailer already on duty
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: at the station, so why would they need to refer
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: to searching my trees? C C believed that these communications
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: could have been some type of sinister shorthand they said that, hey,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: you know, time to do a FEN search. We should
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: do a FEN search. So they talked about doing a
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: FEN search on my trees, and to me, that's just
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: alerting the troops. Hey, we've got a really good looking
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: woman coming and you know, might be time for a
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: FEN search. And you know, I mean, who says that? Really?
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Who says that over the radio? Ceci isn't the only
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: reporter who has made this observation about Lost Hills. Scott
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Johnson wrote about the Lost Hills station being under investigation
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: in a twenty sixteen article in The Hollywood Reporter. Johnson
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: quoted a source who said that the station was dis
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: like the departed. The story quotes a woman who claims
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: that certain deputies would do favors for her and her
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: ex husband, a former American gladiator star, but after a
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: bitter split. She said that the deputies maintained improper personal
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: relationships with her ex husband and that they refused to
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: look into charges of alleged child abuse and rape. According
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: to The Hollywood Reporter, the La County Sheriff's departments internal
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: affairs investigators were taking a serious look at the allegations,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: which was quote raising new questions about a police station
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: that has been embroiled in controversy numerous times in recent years.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: End quote. One source told the Hollywood Reporter, you can't
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: throw a stone without hitting a rat. There there's rats
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: on every side, criminals, cops, everyone, and they're all riting
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: on each other. We've mentioned Mel Gibson, who was arrested
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and six on drunk driving charges getting
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: a ride back to his car, as an example of
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: celebrity favoritism, but he's also evidence of something else, police
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: cover up. Mel went on an anti Semitic rant against
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: the arresting officer, who was Jewish. Then LASD managers buried
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: the deputy's report, which led to accusations that they were
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: giving the actor preferential treatment. The report was leaked to
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: TMZ and the deputy was fired. After his attorney claimed
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: that the LASD fired him and retaliation for leaking the information,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: he was reinstated. We've tried calling the police department for comment.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: They've denied our multiple requests. After they got to the station,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: my rise was put into a holding cell with a
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: woman named Chermaine Henderson. Our producer Gabby was able to
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: speak to her on the phone. What happened? I remember
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: how I've ended up in jaimed, but I ended up
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: in the red sit and going to jail, but they
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: released me. Oh h second, and I remember walking and
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: I remember walking down that heal wow wow great. Chermaine
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: had been deposed from my Teres's parents civil suit, and
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: according to Chermaine's deposition, my Terse was talking to her
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: and for the most part, she seemed to be in
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: a good mood, chatting in a friendly and animated fashion,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: as she had with the diners at Jeoffrey's. According to
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: the deposition, my Trees asked Ermaine if she wanted to
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: get high, and at one point was so disruptive that
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Chermaine asked to be moved to another cell. But when
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: we spoke to Chermaine, what she told us contradicts her deposition.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: She also says that my Trees seemed to be behaving
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: normally while they were in the cell together, and Chermaine
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: denies the fact that she said she wanted to be
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: moved to avoid my Trees. But I remember, I remember she.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: I remember she had that that good curly hair, I
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: remember it, and she was so talkative. She was no
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: slender girl, but I remember her like it was yesterday,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: and she was perfectly normal. She was perfectly normal, sweetheart.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: And I did not actually get moved to another spell
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: and nothing. Obviously, it's been ten years since this all happened,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: and witness memory is always something to be taken into account.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: But Chermaine is emphatic when she says that my Trees
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: was behaving pretty normally. We had a good conversation and
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: she didn't. I didn't get no bad or nothing, no, no, nothing,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: nothing like, nothing bad from her, nothing like. And she
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: was she was she was cool. And then it's like
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: when I seen that shit on the news, it was
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: like and then it was like I was trying to
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: contact like but it was it was very hard to
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: get in contact with people like that, say like I
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: was there with her, like, you know, let them know
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: that she was okay, like her last moments like like
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: and she was in a self she was all right.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: She said that she's been hoping to talk to more
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: people about the investigation, so somebody following up with me,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: and I've been wanting I really wanted to speak for
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: someone about that night because she was normal. It was nothing,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: she she was okay, she was okay. It was nothing wrong.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Where we was going to fell together, and she was
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: she was she was very like, she was very like
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: like you know, like very polite, like you know, she
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: was very talkative. She wasn't like isolating herself for nothing.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: She was like, Okay, so are you saying that they
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: also released you in the middle of the night. Yes,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: I got reased in the middle night too awesome. No,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: it's no one for you to get nowhere. And I
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: had to I had to walk, I was, I was
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: in my lap and it's like, it's like it was
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: it was no way to get a no vicin on nothing.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: It was so it was so like like assholes, like
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: and it's like as far as as being a woman,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: you know, like and they released us at that time
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: of night, It's like, you know, it wasn't okay. What
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: would clarify a lot of the discussion over my Teresa's
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: behavior is if there was evidence that we could look
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: back on. And the thing is there is there's video
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: of my terse in herself two hours on four different
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: cameras eight hours total, that the LASD has refused to
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: release for ten years, despite lawsuits and endless complaints by
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Ronda and my Teresa's family, And the question remains, why
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: won't they release the tape next time on Helen Gone?
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: And then that's when they start out, well there's no video.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: It's like, really, that makes no sense. I was sitting
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: right next to Captain Martin, Well, I'm sure if I'm
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: going to ask him that question, you don't have any
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: video of my treats in jail, and he turned be read,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: I mean really be read, and just said, well, I
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: do have this tape in my desk. My community needs this.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: You need to set it right. Come out here, tell
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the people you are reopening the investigation. Do the right thing.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: I'm Katherine Townsend and this is Helen Gone. Helen Gone
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: is a production of School of Humans and iHeartRadio. It's
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: written and narrated by me, Catherine Townsend. Our producers are
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: Gabby Watts, Taylor Church and James Morrison. Music is by
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Ben Sale. Mix is by Tunewelders. Our executive users are
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Brandon Barr, Elsie Crowley and Brian Lavin. Special thanks to
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: Chip Craft for use of footage from his documentary Loss Compassion,
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: School of Humans. School of Humans