Tow operator faces trial in MSJC case/PE
August 19th, 2010http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_etow14.326ac6c.html
“Pirots business checks paid for a police dispatch radio licensing fee and a repair bill on a damaged police car, and then Chief Kevin Segawa instructed McComas to recoup the money by not forwarding impound fees owed the college, according to court records and testimony.”
Segawa, 39 of Menifee pleaded guilty in June in the case to eight felonies and two misdemeanors, including bribery, perjury and misappropriation of public funds. His sentencing is scheduled Aug. 24.
Blog:
Former probationary released officers attempted several times to inform the college of perceived wrongdoing. Not until the DA arrived with a search warrant was Segawa placed on administrative leave. MSJC has not released internal investigative info in this matter due to the former officers civil suit.
Segawa’s supervisor’s contract was renewed.
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To put it simply, the collective board is useless; it protects the favored few at the expense of all the rest. I seriously wish the DA would go in and look into all the crap that goes on since the board cannot stay true to its mission.
“Former probationary released officers attempted several times to inform the college of perceived wrongdoing. Not until the DA arrived with a search warrant was Segawa placed on administrative leave.”
In fact, while one former officer reported the misconduct at a BOT meeting Segawa’s supervisor, Irma Ramos, laughed at him.
YES, laughed……at a person who had just been wrongfully terminated and was revealing the truth.
It was all recorded. These two facts should help the officer’s case when presented to a jury.
Kevin Segawa cannot testify on the Districts behalf…Admitted to perjury.
Mark Medina Can’t either - Caught lying under oath as well.
Who will they have testify??? Irma, Roger…how will they explain their refusal to do anything right and in accordance with the law?
“Former probationary released officers attempted several times to inform the college of perceived wrongdoing. Not until the DA arrived with a search warrant was Segawa placed on administrative leave.”
In fact, while one former officer reported the misconduct at a BOT meeting Segawa’s supervisor, Irma Ramos, laughed at him.
YES, laughed……at a person who had just been wrongfully terminated and was revealing the truth.
It was all recorded. These two facts should help the officer’s case when presented to a jury.
Kevin Segawa cannot testify on the Districts behalf…Admitted to perjury.
Mark Medina Can’t either - caught lying under oath as well.
Who will they have testify??? Irma, Roger…how will they explain their refusal to do anything right and in accordance with the law?
Meanwhile the district has ruined 4 the lives of 4 honest and ethical Police Officers and 1 district employee (Tomorrow Horton).
What will the districts lack of integrity cost in the end?
Today is the day justice is finally meted out in this protracted drama of corruption, deceit and broken lives: Kevin Segawa is scheduled to be taken into custody today at the Riverside Superior courthouse–part of the guilty plea he entered into some time ago.
At one time Kevin Segawa was living the life: he was a well respected chief of police at the Mt. San Jacinto Community College Police Department, a position that even he knew he was unfit for and unqualified to hold; he had a good paying job and what appeared to be the proverbial Norman Rockwell family life.
One has to wonder if, while contemplating the crossroads of life from his jail cell, Segawa will run through the chain events and poor decisions which led to his downfall , and ultimately his incarceration: will he recall that, through various forms of manipulation and deceit, he (along with the help of Roger Schultz, Irma Ramos, Mark Medina and Ryan Myers) terminated three of his police officers for alleged wrong doing—wrongdoing that was pretext for terminating officers not willing to partake in his insidious law enforcement tactics and policies (i.e., false arrest of Tomorrow Horton, destroying police evidence, perjury and other civil rights violations). Will he recall that his terminated officers suffered great losses as a result of their wrongful termination, and still suffer to this day?
The above notwithstanding, however, Kevin Segawa is to be commended for one thing: PLEADING GUILTY. Evidently, in his final hours, Segawa was able to muster some semblance of virtue, however small and late, thus determining that it was best to admit fault, accept responsibility and face his punishment: the same cannot be said, however, of those behind the scene forces responsible for this debacle and his downfall.
As alluded to before, Roger Schultz and Irma Ramos were, and continue to be, key components in this tragedy. In my opinion, they are just as culpable as Kevin Segawa; they knowingly kept him in a position (chief of police) that they knew he was unqualified for and incapable of handling; they looked the other way when officers within their own department complained about his methods; finally, and perhaps most concerning, they used subterfuge to protect Segawa (In the final analysis, however, Segawa may come to realize the truth: that Roger Schultz and Irma Ramos were not protecting him—they were protecting themselves).
If Roger Schultz and Irma Ramos possessed half the virtue evidenced by Segawa’s guilty plea, they would do as he did: accept responsibility for their actions and admit guilt. Three hundred years before Machiavelli, Lord Acton said it precisely: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Roger Schultz and Irma Ramos are no Machiavelli, however, as that would imply—in part—some degree of greatness and accomplishment. Similar to an individual who is playing checkers when the game is chess, Roger Schultz and Irma Ramos instead typify the small-time, power hungry manager who (in reality) is much smaller and insignificant than they’d like to be.
To prevent the type of abuses perpetrated by the likes of Segawa, Schultz and Ramos, specific structures are built into the organizational body of any successful entity; for the MSJC there is the Board of Trustees. Among other things, the purpose of the BOT is to act as a check against the power of the individual (i.e., Roger Schultz, Irma Ramos and Kevin Segawa). So why didn’t this occur? In fact, quite the opposite occurred—nearly all the BOT members worked in concert with Segawa, Schultz and Ramos to hide the truth and manipulate the situation. Their rubber stamp approval of the three officers’ terminations (without inquiry or investigation) was not only irresponsible and a dereliction of duty, but it was an affront to the entire MSJC student body and top quality staff. Unquestionably, the BOT bears responsibility, save for Ann Motte, who has always been a champion for student rights and transparency at MSJC, for this unbelievably tragic saga. Many lives were forever damaged because of a lack of supervision and lust for more power and control.
Please keep up the good work Ann. You have more supporters than you know.