SALT LAKE CITY MAYOR ROCKY ANDERSON DOESN’T NEED TO LOOK MUCH FURTHER THAN A MIRROR TO SEE WHO IS CORRUPT AND A LIAR.
Former Salt Lake City police officer Rob Joseph says Rocky Anderson has no standing to call for the impeachment of President Bush. Joseph alleges Rocky Anderson participated in a cover up of police corruption and went to great lengths to cover the city’s tracks and discredit him. State Grand Jury Panel and Division of Occupational Licensing (DOPL) findings support Rob Joseph’s claims.
Rocky Anderson was invited to testify in Washington DC last month at the invitation of Senator Eric Oemig, D-Kirkland, calling for the impeachment of President Bush. Rocky Anderson has accused the President and Vice President of numerous corrupt acts, including, lying and cover up.
Joseph finds it hard to believe that Rocky of all people would be the one pointing the finger and calling the President or anyone else for that matter misleading or a liar.
Joseph is a former Salt Lake City police officer that was falsely accused and charged after a March 26, 1999 police shooting. The charges against him were false and politically motivated by scandal ridden Dee Dee Corradini. Joseph was terminated after he refused to accept a plea deal brokered by the police administration and the District Attorney. After seven months of grueling prosecution, Joseph’s defense team dismantled the City and County’s investigation and filed a motion with the court to dismiss all charges on the grounds that the shooting was justified and in self defense. The prosecution agreed and the court dismissed the charges.
The day after the dismissal of the charges defense attorney Loni DeLand held a press conference where he highlighted the flaws in the investigation and leveled charges against Salt Lake City and County investigators for concealing evidence and lying to prosecutors. Joseph alleged that the investigators Sergeant Jerry Mendez and Steve Bartlett knew that he was justified and yet fabricated a probable cause for his arrest, using false findings and misrepresentations of the facts. At the press conference Joseph personally called for the FBI and Justice Department to investigate the misconduct and corruption. Prosecutor Ernest Jones came out publicly claiming that Joseph was justified and stated that while the investigation might have been flawed he did not agree with the allegations of corruption.
Dee Dee Corradini plagued with the Bonneville and Olympic Bribery scandals decided not to seek re-election. Chief Ruben Ortega in press statements said that his department did a good investigation and he stood behind his decision. Ortega was terminated by Corradini prior to her leaving office. Rocky Anderson took office in January 2000 and reinstated Joseph to police department. The City ruled Joseph justified on condition that he did not pursue his corruption allegations. In a recorded meeting with Interim Chief Mac Connole, Joseph was told that the chief had nothing to do with the adverse actions against him, that it was all the city attorneys “just posturing” against his claims. Joseph was promised if he dropped everything, that his career would be unaffected. The ball in Joseph’s court, he could have quietly returned to duty and salvaged his career. Joseph rejected the offer and demanded a full internal investigation.
At that time the press ran a series of articles addressing the botched investigation, Joseph’s allegations and the changed findings by the police department. Prompted by the negative press, Connole contacted Deputy District Attorney Richard Shepherd and asked for a letter with new findings that indicate Joseph was not justified. Connole in depositions denied soliciting the letter, while Shepherd freely admitted to it along with the fact that then District Attorney David Yocom did not authorize the letter. Shepherd also acknowledged that the press release prepared by prosecutor Jones was the official findings of the District Attorney’s Office.
Connole advised Joseph in their meeting that an investigation was not going to happen and Joseph was ordered to undergo a fitness for duty evaluation with psychiatrist Dr. David McCann. Rocky’s first public hearing was overshadowed by Rachelle Joseph’s public call for an investigation into her husband’s allegations. The Salt Lake Tribune article “Anderson Rolls With the Punches at First Public Conference” now pitted Rocky against Joseph. The controversial Shepherd letter was released to the press and Dr. McCann attacked Joseph’s allegations against the department. McCann in his findings determined that Joseph now had an Axis II delusional disorder, this information was also released to the press in an effort to discredit Joseph and put an end to his allegations of corruption. Joseph was then fired for not being fit for duty.
Peace Officer Standards and training opened an investigation into Joseph’s shooting and termination from the police department. After a protracted 17 months investigation POST determined that Joseph was justified and had no cause to take action against his peace officer certification.
During this period Joseph made several requests to Rocky Anderson to look at the evidence and reinstate him to the police department. Joseph appealed his termination to the Civil Service and was denied. During Civil Service and shortly thereafter Joseph became aware of evidence that was deliberately concealed from him by investigators and attorneys in the city. Later after Joseph lost his Civil Service case the chiefs in depositions made statements contrary to what they told the civil service Commissioners. Now they deny reviewing the evidence. Recently discovered concealed evidence was presented to the chiefs who expressed surprise and even stated that the outcome could have been different had they been provided with the evidence. Executive Chief Wasden who admittedly was the decision maker and recommended that Joseph be fired, said in his deposition that Joseph was “absolutely justified.” Prosecutor Jones now district judge testified in his deposition that they had made a real mistake in terms of prosecuting Officer Joseph and that even though he knew Joseph was justified after the preliminary hearing, testified that the prosecution continued because it was political and Yocom would have gone ballistic if he [Jones] had dismissed the case.
Frustrated with the courts refusal to compel the city to cooperate with his discovery requests Joseph initiated other actions. This strategy proved fruitful and new evidence began to emerge that supported Joseph’s allegations. Joseph pursued Dr. McCann through the State Division of Occupational Licensing and uncovered the degree of corruption and what lengths Rocky’s administration was willing to go to cover up and discredit Joseph’s and defuse his allegations. DOPL concluded that McCann had committed malpractice and could not have concluded that he had a pre-existing Axis II personality disorder. Joseph had past pre-hire and post shooting evaluations that found no disorder. What really convinced the DOPL panel was Dr. McCann’s own admissions during the hearing that he refused to consider or even look at any evidence not spoon feed him by the city and that he changed his findings at the behest of the city. McCann’s defense was simply that he owed no duty to Joseph. The matter was before the courts until this month when the court turned a blind eye to the fraudulent evaluation report and agreed that McCann didn’t have a duty to be honest or maintain a level of care consistent with other medical providers in the same profession because Joseph was not a patient and his duty was only to the city.
In 2004 Joseph testified before a State Grand Jury Panel. Based upon the evidence presented to the Panel they determined that there was sufficient evidence of corrupt acts, i.e. obstruction of justice, evidence tampering, witness tampering, perjury and the suborning of perjury by investigators and city attorneys involved in the case to warrant a criminal investigation. This cover up and actions taken by the city attorney’s office was all at the direction of Mayor Rocky Anderson. Despite being directed by the Grand Jury Panel, the District Attorney’s Office and the County Sheriff refused to investigate. Joseph also asked Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to investigate. Shurtleff declined, apparently upset that Joseph had recorded State Investigators threatening him to shut his mouth and not make waves. Joseph was told by investigators that exposing corruption was not in the public interest because “it would diminish the public’s trust in law enforcement.”
The Grand Jury and DOPL findings were then filed in the Federal District Court to support Joseph’s corruption and racketeering (RICO) claims in his civil suit against the city. Rather than address the evidence the court refused to hear testimony from witnesses, placed the evidence under seal, and made public the false fitness for duty evaluation and then dismissed Joseph case just weeks before trial calling his claims frivolous.
As a result of these and recent events Joseph feels that he has no other choice but to take his case to the court of public opinion. Rocky has no place questioning the integrity of the President and Vice President or calling for their Impeachment and Removal from Office. Rocky needs to look in the mirror before labeling anyone corrupt or misleading. Rocky has been actively involved in all aspects of Joseph’s case, has been given numerous documents to support his allegations, including the DOPL and Grand Jury findings. Rocky has just sat on his hands throughout this ordeal, only removing them now and again to point his finger at somebody else.
Rob Joseph can be reached at Robert.l.joseph@att.net
