FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
5/31/11
Quartzsite, Arizona Police Chief Jeff Gilbert is struggling desperately to maintain his position after three quarters of his own officers filed formal complaints against him with Arizona Conference of Police and Sheriffs (AZCOPS) and Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board (AZPOST). The timing of these complaints appears to be in response to evidence and testimony expected to be revealed in currently pending lawsuits against the town and the ongoing criminal prosecution of citizens who have a documented history of complaining about the police chief's patterns and practices. Now that Governor Brewer has signed a bill which amends A.R.S. 14 - 1822 and allows AZPOST to revoke an officers certification, many citizens and law enforcement officers are hoping that's the least of what happens to Jeff Gilbert.
A former officer with the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT), Gilbert is also a current legislative member of the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police (AACOP)
Allegations have been made against Quartzsite's Police Chief for both criminal conduct and ethical violations of the town's personnel manual. They range from assault, illegal searches and arrests, surveillance and investigation of political opponents, "official police business" being conducted without reports filed, false reporting, and grant fraud, to abuse of National Crime Information Center (NCIC) background checks for personal use and/or without probable cause. La Paz County Republican Precinct Chairman Michael Roth maintains he was falsely arrested for "disorderly conduct" and placed on the FBI "terrorist watch list" for his outspoken criticism of Police Chief Jeff Gilbert.
After being notified that officers of the Quartzsite Police Department intend to publicly announce a vote of "no confidence", read their formal complaints and ask the Town Council to terminate Chief Gilbert's recently renewed contract for "cause" at the next regular meeting of the Common Council on June 14th, Mayor Ed Foster has now scheduled a special meeting for Wednesday, June 1st at 6 pm, to discuss the situation.
The police chief's current contract, which included additional pay raises, was prematurely renewed on February 8th, 2011 by unanimous council approval, after Mayor Foster recused himself from the meeting. Foster wanted no part of what he believed was an orchestrated plot by Town Manager Alexandra Taft to secure ongoing employment for Gilbert, before the majority of the Quartzsite Town Council faced a March recall election. All five political challengers wanted Chief Gilbert terminated, but narrowly missed in their attempt to unseat recalled incumbents.
Rather than have the officer's complaints investigated at no charge by the Major Crimes Division of the state police, Town Manager Alex Taft has instead chosen to hire a private firm, in what appears to be a pattern of damage control and cover up. Last spring, it was rumored that a friend of Chief Gilbert's at the Sheriff's office was specifically requested to investigate complaints made to AZPOST by Mayor Ed Foster, former Councilman Bill Moore, and businesswoman Jennifer Jones (Harris). This assignment was alleged to be the result of a deal struck between Taft, Gilbert, and La Paz County Sheriff Don Lowery. Lowery had also refused to investigate the assault complaint made by Jones against Police Chief Jeff Gilbert and Quartzsite Detective Felipe Rodriguez on April 13th of 2010, despite the video being posted to Youtube.
A recent town council candidate with no prior criminal history, Jennifer Jones has been arrested three times, and charged with a total of 10 misdemeanors since filing her AZPOST complaint. Her husband John was also arrested over the same incidents, and charged with three misdemeanors. Neither has been brought to trial. The police chief compared Mrs. Jones and Michael Roth to Tucson gunman Jarrod Laughner at the January 11th Quartzsite Council Meeting. After a year and a half of contriving criminal complaints that didn't hold water, the Police Chief finally arrested the mayor May 10th, on charges of "disorderly conduct". Apparently, the result of Foster calling Gilbert an "idiot" five days earlier in the parking lot of Town Hall.
The rift between Chief Gilbert's supporters and numerous critics runs deep. La Paz County Prosecutor Sam Vederman has repeatedly refused to insert his office into the political fray. Pending the results of the current AZCOPS/AZPOST investigation, many in the community are now hoping that the FBI and Justice Department will take a serious look into Quartzsite corruption.
For more information, contact:
Mayor Ed Foster
(928) 750-8113
Michael Roth, La Paz County Republican Precinct Chairman
(602) 791-5401
AZCOPS
http://www.azcops.org/
333 W Ft Lowell Rd Ste 211
Tucson AZ 85705
Office 520.622.2215
(24/7) Toll Free 888.622.2215
Fax 520.622.2216
AZPOST
http://www.azpost.gov/index.htm
2643 E. University Drive
Phoenix, AZ 85034
Voice: 602.223.2514
Fax: 602.244.0477
AACOP http://azchiefsofpolice.org/
75 East Civic Center Drive
Gilbert, Arizona 85296
Office - 480-635-7757
FAX - 480-635-7761 "Quartzsite Police Chief Gilbert assaults man for videotaping " "...Gilbert's warning to town council"
"...Mayor and Publisher arrested"
http://quartzsitearizona.blogspot.com/2011/05/politically-assisted-suicide-mayor-and.html
Jennifer "Jade" Jones
Publisher, The DESERT FREEDOM PRESS
(928) 575-6594
News you can use for La Paz County, AZ!
http://thedesertfreedompress.blogspot.com/
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Posts
How many State and Federal Agencies are now looking into the complaints against Chief Jeff Gilbert that they so willingly ignored in the past? There are just too many people that have been victims at the hands of Chief Jeff Gilbert, his “Brown Nose Posse” of QPD Officers, and the Town Council for the League of Cities and Towns to cover the civil judgments against the Town of Quartzsite!
ReplyDeleteThis is even worse that you can imagine. After the criminal and civil actions against Chief Jeff Gilbert and his “Brown Nose Posse,” every attorney that lost a case for their client will file motions for dismissal and/or retrials while demanding that their client be released from jail or prison. Someone is going to have to pay for the additional civil actions to be added for unlawful search & seizures, false imprisonment, violations of civil rights just to name a few. I don’t think that the League of Cities and Towns has that much money to cover the judgments coming their way from the little Town of Quartzsite, Chief Jeff Gilbert, and the QPD “Brown Nose Posse”!
I would just love to know how far the U.S. Attorney General is going to slam Chief Jeff Gilbert (maybe a long vacation at GTMO) for filing false reports with Home Land Security on residents of Quartzsite, wouldn’t you?
Sam Vederman must be crying, “Oppsss” as he shits his pant with the latest report from Fox News! Yep, the White House is calling for criminal investigations into police misconduct throughout the U.S.!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou see folks, this is what happens when you allow people in positions of authority who simply ignore the Constitution.
ReplyDeleteThe Constitution is the SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND and those who swear an oath to defend it and then ignore it are traitors.
You can tell a traitor by how they don't care about your rights, and are willing to harass, imprison, ticket, and bully you, all the while they live out of town and take cars they don't own and use gas they didn't pay for. (YOU pay for this... in more ways than one)
Let's stop electing these types and consider electing those that will honor the founding documents that made this nation great. We did not become a great nation because of codes, ordinances and statutes. We became a great nation because we revered FREEDOM.
Let's legalize FREEDOM and outlaw tyranny!
Taking Jeff Gilbert down (and it hasn't happened yet) is a start. FIRE and INVESTIGATE ALEX TAFT TOO!
These terrible tyrants, both hired by the Top Tyrant himself, Dan Field, are responsible for many crimes against the citizens of this community. There is a reason why Alext Taft won't release documents folks. She's protecting others. This isn't over until all of the criminals are brought to justice.
Good job all you rebels who stood firm and helped stick it to the man.
Jeff Gilbert made a deal with the devil, now he has the devil to pay!
Alex Taft and Dan Field, You're Next!
“Holy Cow Batman isn’t Al Johnson the Town of Quartzsite Employee that was caught removing legally protected town documents for destruction last year?”
ReplyDeleteAs I remember it, the Town of Quartzsite’s Clerk was out of town when boxes of documents were removed (without her knowledge or permission) after hours by Al Johnson out the back doors and dumped as far away as California in violation of Arizona State Laws! Now you tell me that he is alleged to have told the Town Clerk that he will taken over and decide what documents are offered up to AZPOST in the criminal investigation of Chief Jeff Gilbert!!!
Now this is a true Kodak moment in the Town’s history that the Arizona State Attorney General along with AZPOST should look into. That is if there are any records left…
Sam Vederman is an excellent County Attorney and Quartzsite should support him in 2012!!
ReplyDeleteYou’re a brave man or woman using “Anonymous” while making that kind of statement about Sam Vederman. From my observations, knowledge, and experience, IMHO, he should be disbarred and prosecuted in the Federal Courts for his many violations of Civil Rights and forcing political prosecutions of the innocent!
ReplyDeleteLefts face the facts here. Just how long do you think Chief Jeff Gilbert is going to sit by and keep his mouth shut to save Sam Vederman when the Arizona State and Federal Grand Juries indicts Jeffy boy? When Chief Jeff Gilbert’s Southern Exposure (as one friend of mine that works in the prison system said, “by the time he gets out, every time he farts you’ll never hear his butt whistle”!) is at risk, Jeffy will be singing like a bird to cut a deal!
The residents of La Paz County would be best served when Sam Vederman can only face a Jude in a Court of Law as a defendant!
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteIf Sam is such an excellent county attorney and you are all for him, why don't you come out from behind your anonymous screen name and publicly endorse him?
I know why. Becaause the only people that truly endorse him are the Establishment, who have done a fabulous job of doing the wrong things at the absolute worst times.
Good luck with Sam. He's right down there with Dan Field, or Jeff Gilbert, or Alex Taft. (Let's toss in John Drum and George Nault in there for good measure)
You know how to pick them!
So now we are seeing more money (the town doesn’t have) spent that needn’t be with the use of a Law Firm (How many Town Employees’ will be laid off to cover the cost?) to investigate the charges against Chief Jeff Gilbert (Let’s not forget his Brown Nose Posse) when it could have been done at no cost to the Town of Quartzsite. More miss management by Town Manager Alex Taft or is it?
ReplyDeleteLook at the one truth in all of this. If the State of Arizona or the Federal Bureau of Investigation were to get involved their findings would become public information at some point in time. However, since Town Manager Alex Taft hired a Legal Firm, this is considered privileged information and can be kept from the public (or used to file criminal charges against the Town Council or Town Manager Alex Taft) much less later criminal investigations.
Does this mean that they are also looking into the complaint filed against the chief that were not investigated by the town’s mis-mamager Taft? Has anyone asked the Quartzsite Constable if he has been contacted or the parent’s of the underage girl that was being sexually assaulted by one of the town’s cops? Just how deep and far back do you think they will go?
ReplyDelete“For whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee…”
ReplyDeleteIt is time for Chief Jeff Gilbert to pay the piper. If he were smart (somehow IMHO I don’t think he is smart enough), considering the time he faces in both Arizona State Prison and the Federal Prison system, he better hope he can cut a deal with the prosecutors (and help add the town Council, Alex Taft, & Al Johnson) to lower his time as the inmates pin-up poster boy or make a mad dash for the border. I am quite sure that the drug cartels would love to hire him with his talents!
Has anyone noticed the lack of support for old Jeffy boy since the posted statements of the majority of the officers of the QPD? I for one will pay good money to get a copy of his booking photo (I’m sure that you will see it posted in the Desert Freedom Press) to post on my wall. When my kids and grand kids ask, I’ll just say, “It’s the photo of a foolish cop that thought that he was above the law and now spends 23 hours of every day alone in his prison cell knowing that the Butt-Pirates are circling his cell waiting for him”! Some advice Jeffy, don’t boast about derailing the investigation into one of your officer popping an underage girl…
I'm still skeptical. I think El Jeffy will wiggle out of this one somehow. Maybe he'll lose his job here, but I'm VERY SKEPTICAL he'll see jail time. I hope I'm wrong. If there ever was a dirty cop, this guy is it. But rarely do dirty cops, and especially Chief's of Police, ever see the inside of a jail cell. The only time I've seen it happen is when public pressure is so great that his pals in the Court System turn on him because they can't take the heat. With our Castrated Local Media, there's not going to be an uproar. Unless we somehow get The Desert Freedom Press into every La Paz County residents hot little hand.
ReplyDeleteAre we looking at a prairie grass fire that has started to consume everything within its path? How can the government of Quartzsite justify its walking out on John Stair, Vic-President of the Arizona Conference of Police and Sheriffs Organization? It is unfathomable the consequences that this will bring upon the already troubled Town of Quartzsite!
ReplyDeleteThe Town Councils walking out on VP Stair, only ads support to the rumors that the present investigations into the complaints against Chief Jeff Gilbert is a white-wash in progress by Town Manager Alex Taft and the Town Council to keep the truth from becoming public knowledge. How much of the documented evidence has been removed/destroyed by the now acting Town Manager Al Johnson?
Tell me, how proud are the lame blind followers of Chief Jeff Gilbert, Town Manager Alex Taft and the Town Council Members that voted to keep in office feel now? As they say, “Ya don’t have to be intelligent to vote, even the dead vote in Chicago”!