...A temporary restraining order was issued April 8, ordering [Eureka Police Officer Daniel "Danny" Jason] Kalis to stay away from his ex-wife and his four kids and to either turn his firearms over to law enforcement or sell them... "Danny motioned for the children to come over to his truck; he reached into his truck and removed a plastic bag, which he handed to my son," she wrote in the document. "Inside the plastic bag were some freshly cut dog tails... Danny was controlling and abusive during our marriage... I believe the risk of serious abuse from him towards me and the children is significantly increased... I am afraid for myself and the children that Danny's initial reaction to this request will be extreme anger and potentially violent conduct"... Three of the charges filed against Kalis Thursday -- vandalism, petty theft and false imprisonment -- name Kalis' ex-wife as the alleged victim...
FORMER EPD OFFICER FACES DRUG CHARGES: OFFICER RESIGNED AMID INVESTIGATION; Faces Nine Counts
The Times-Standard
Thadeus Greenson
Posted: 04/15/2011
[Excerpts] The Humboldt County District Attorney's Office filed drug possession, theft and a host of other charges against a former Eureka police officer Thursday, alleging that some of the crimes were committed while the officer was on duty. The criminal complaint charges Daniel "Danny" Kalis with a total of nine offenses... Kalis was placed on administrative leave March 7, the same day the department launched a formal internal affairs investigation looking into his conduct while on the force. He officially resigned April... DA Chief Investigator Mike Hislop issued a statement Thursday commending the joint investigation. "Although it is unfortunate when law enforcement is forced to investigate one of their own, this investigation demonstrates our common position that abuse of authority by police officers will not be tolerated," he said... Kalis is accused of felony heroin possession, committing vandalism causing more than $400 in damage, falsely imprisoning someone, communicating with a prisoner without permission, possessing more than an ounce of marijuana, the unauthorized disclosure of records, unauthorized computer access and petty theft... [Full article here]
ACCUSED OFFICER ON THE JOB WITH WARRANT OUT; OFFICER FACED MISDEMEANOR CHARGES IN 2010; Ex-Wife Files For Restraining Order
The Times-Standard
Thadeus Greenson
Posted: 04/16/2011
[Excerpts - This seems long but the article is a lot longer.] A Eureka police officer charged Thursday with nine criminal counts had a prior run-in with law enforcement and faced allegations of domestic abuse, according to court records. It also appears Daniel Jason Kalis, 36, of Eureka, worked as a police officer for five months with a warrant out for his arrest... Eureka Police Chief Garr Nielsen said his department didn't learn of the active warrant out on Kalis until Friday. Nielsen said his department isn't notified when warrants are issued, and it's not standard procedure to run warrant checks on officers during internal affairs investigations... The misdemeanor charges filed against Kalis in 2010 stem from allegations that he caught a wild steelhead while fishing without a license... Nielsen declined to comment on the disciplinary action taken against Kalis... A temporary restraining order was issued April 8, ordering Kalis to stay away from his ex-wife and his four kids and to either turn his firearms over to law enforcement or sell them. In requesting the order, Kalis' ex-wife cited a number of instances when she felt scared or threatened by Kalis, including times when he was on duty. On Jan. 25, she was driving on Broadway in Eureka when Kalis passed her in his patrol car, according to a "description of abuse" she wrote in requesting the restraining order. "He cocked his hand like a gun and pointed it at me," she wrote. "I took the action as a symbolic threat to use a gun." Five days earlier, she claims she was driving in Eureka with her son and two cousins when a police car pulled behind her, flashed its lights and stopped her. Kalis was driving the patrol car, the ex-wife alleges, and pulled alongside her, rolled down his window and called her a "bitch" and mumbled other profanities. Nielsen said he's aware of those allegations and said they were looked into as a part of the internal affairs investigation that was ongoing when Kalis resigned. Kalis' ex-wife also claims he engaged in "stalking behavior," sleeping in his car outside of her house, text messaging her repeatedly and showing up at various events she was attending after they separated. She also describes an incident that allegedly occurred in the parking lot of Redwood Acres in Eureka last spring. "Danny motioned for the children to come over to his truck; he reached into his truck and removed a plastic bag, which he handed to my son," she wrote in the document. "Inside the plastic bag were some freshly cut dog tails. ... Danny was controlling and abusive during our marriage." Gallegos said he had not heard anything like the allegation in the family law file from his investigators. "I'm not aware of any allegations of animal abuse," he said, noting that such allegations would be taken very seriously. In the request for a restraining order, Kalis' ex-wife indicates she is more afraid now that Kalis is no longer employed as a police officer. "I believe the risk of serious abuse from him towards me and the children is significantly increased," she wrote. "... I am afraid for myself and the children that Danny's initial reaction to this request will be extreme anger and potentially violent conduct." Three of the charges filed against Kalis Thursday -- vandalism, petty theft and false imprisonment -- name Kalis' ex-wife as the alleged victim. The criminal complaint filed against Kalis indicates the vandalism was carried out on his ex-wife's car, and a document in the couple's family law file states that she suspected him of carving the word "bytch" into her car in the summer of 2010. Gallegos said the case remains under investigation, and anyone with information regarding the potential criminal conduct of Kalis is asked to call EPD Detective Todd Wilcox at 441-4315 or DA Investigator Wayne Cox at 268-2591. A day after news broke that Kalis was facing a felony criminal complaint, Nielsen characterized the climate at EPD as somber. "I think the rank and file understand that we have a responsibility to maintain and reflect a level of integrity, and that the public expects that of us, and when one of us violates that public trust it impacts us all negatively," Nielsen said. "Not only is it embarrassing for Danny, it's embarrassing for everyone who works at EPD, and it's embarrassing for the profession as a whole. "It's one of those things you just hate to see happen, but we have to remember that police officers and public servants are human beings and we're all fallible," Nielsen continued. "At times, things like this are going to arise and we just have to work past them and prove constantly -- every day -- that we are worthy of the public's trust." [Full article here]
[police officer involved domestic violence oidv intimate partner violence ipv abuse law enforcement public safety lethal brutal animal abuse torture california state politics]
(From Comment Posted on Humboldt Herald:
ReplyDeletehttp://humboldtherald.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/epd-officer-charged/#comments
Dear Humboldt Herald,
Thank you for hosting this ebullient back and forth discussion.
I'll have to agree with Mark Sailors insofar as cops and department line-of-command should be held to a higher standard than civilians--not in terms of normal human foibles but in terms of law and order. They've gone to college in many cases, then onto the academy, taken sworn oaths, are sent annually to training courses to keep up skills and acquire additional skills all to uphold complex laws and to work to keep communities more safe, more peaceful. Law enforcement officers are considered 'experts' by the public and, given their years of specialized training, would be expected to understand what is right and wrong not only in spirit but by the letter of the law.
In reference to "Tra's" and "Henchman of Justice's" threads above, in my opinion the public should call for the immediate appointment of a Grand Jury to investigate EPD and DA management (or lack of management) of the entire matter. A Grand Jury would first be expected to receive a full set of the EPD's written policies and procedures. At this point, the Grand Jury could compare and contrast all of the current evidence in the case in order to make a recommendation to indict one or more members of the entrenched EPD culture based upon who was responsible for both developing exceptional cops and for disciplining cops who aren’t able to live and work up to the high expectations this and any community has of their well-paid, well-insured and well-pensioned police force.
And one doesn't need to attend the police academy to know that, as Mark Sailors so eloquently put it, the harmless homeless soul just walking across the wrong plaza at the wrong time of day is consistently approached under the auspices of local panhandling ordinances. Upon contact with the citizen, an ID is requested, a search for warrants conducted, a citation issued (or, worse, a visit downtown to finger-paint with print-grease). And given the particulars, most of us who have seen even a few crime dramas on the Lifetime channel know that bail is set and, if the citizen has no assets to post bail, countless numbers simply sit in tiny cells throughout the process, often for months. Most of the most vulnerable amongst us who are charged with non-violent offenses are never set free to continue to kill poor 'fishies' without a license as one reader stated. For the rest of us, its strictly ‘by the book.’
An immediate probe into this matter by a Grand Jury will go along way towards re-establishing any trust the local community had for the Eureka Police Department before this matter became the scandal it is quickly becoming. At this point, the entire situation just doesn't smell right. Unless we search for and find the rotting source of the smell, the smell usually just gets worse.
Looks like a few folks got some 'splainin to do.
Respectfully submitted,
On Twitter @JackieWellbaum
don't click on the comment I just posted and deleted right away. it may be a trick.
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