Judge losing patience with Oakland Occupy probes OAKLAND

Judge Thelton Henderson, the U.S. Justice Department’s first black attorney, recruited minorities to Stanford Law School. Judge Thelton Henderson, the U.S. Justice Department’s first black attorney, recruited minorities to Stanford Law School. Photo: Mike Kepka / The Chronicle Photo: Mike Kepka / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Judge losing patience with Oakland Occupy probes 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A federal judge criticized the Oakland Police Department over the sluggish pace of investigations into officer conduct during Occupy protests last year, and gave the city until Monday to submit a plan for completing the probes.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said the investigations - which Oakland has decided to farm out to a private contractor - won't be finished within the 180-day deadline he imposed for such disciplinary cases.

In fact, the outsourced investigations - which primarily arose from street protests Oct. 25 and Nov. 2 - have not yet begun. The owner of a private firm seeking to do the work told The Chronicle on Wednesday that the city had not yet put the job out to bid.

Given the scope of the Occupy cases, Henderson said, the department may render any potential discipline moot by failing to complete the probes within a year, the statute of limitations under California law.

"Such failures," Henderson wrote in an order filed Tuesday, "would be further indication that, despite the changed leadership at the city of Oakland and its Police Department, defendants might still lack the will, capacity, or both to complete the reforms to which they so long ago agreed."

Henderson is overseeing police reforms he ordered a decade ago. City officials declined to comment on his latest order.

Normally, the police internal affairs division handles disciplinary matters. But Oakland officials have said they lack the resources to review the Occupy protests, which generated 1,039 misconduct complaints through mid-February.

The department has an unusually low threshold for complaints. Most of the Occupy-related ones came from people who learned of alleged police actions through the media, according to a federal court monitor.

Officials have said they farmed out the cases because internal affairs officers had conflicts of interest, having been assigned to help out during the protests.

The city initially gave some of the cases to the Frazier Group, a private firm in Baltimore. Officials said the plan was for that firm to use a subcontractor licensed to handle police disciplinary investigations.

At a City Council meeting Monday night, however, City Administrator Deanna Santana said the city had decided to abandon the arrangement and sign a contract directly with a licensed investigator.

Richard Ehle, the private investigator originally tabbed by the Frazier Group to do the work, said the city administrator's office told him Wednesday that the job would soon be put out to bid.

Attorneys who have worked to reform Oakland's police force said they were alarmed.

"It is disturbing to me that we're six months down the line and this is happening," said John Burris, one of two attorneys who brought a civil suit a decade ago that prompted the federal court oversight. "This is another major area where they will not be in compliance."