ACLU calls for independent investigation of Vallejo city attorney over police issues

VALLEJO - The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California is calling for an independent investigation into the Vallejo City Attorney’s Office over what it calls “credible allegations of serious, sustained misconduct.” 

The ACLU, in a letter released Thursday, said that City Attorney Veronica Nebb and her staff have engaged in various forms of misconduct. It cited that the city attorney’s office destroyed records from multiple police shootings and obstructed civilian oversight of the Police Department. 

It also questioned whether the city attorney’s office participated in the Vallejo Police Department’s “suppression of extensive records of misconduct” and failure to investigate allegations of misconduct and retaliation within the police department. 

ACLU senior attorney Allyssa Victory wrote that leaving these misconduct allegations unaddressed would undermine confidence in city government, leaving Vallejo open to further liability, and would worsen an existing public safety crisis. 

From April 2001 to June 2020, Vallejo police officers shot 56 civilians, killing 30, and a study by Campaign Zero determined that the department’s officers used more force per individual arrest than any other law enforcement agency in California, Victory said. 

The ACLU therefore says that the city attorney’s failure to properly address these serious incidents within the police department must be addressed by the Vallejo City Council, which is scheduled to meet July 29. 

“The Vallejo community has suffered through a long history of police violence with neither accountability nor transparency,” Victory said. “Reports that the Vallejo City Attorney’s Office has conspired to conceal, allow, and enable such police misconduct have undermined public trust. To preserve the integrity of the city government and its ongoing attempts to reform the Vallejo Police Department, city leaders must immediately authorize an independent investigation of these grave allegations.” 

Members of the City Council did not respond to requests for comment. Nebb’s office said in an email Thursday that the ACLU’s letter contains many allegations it called “not factual.”

The ACLU’s letter named many misconduct allegations reported in depth by the Vallejo Sun. The city attorney’s office destroyed substantial records from previous police shootings despite pending records requests and said it had done so “inadvertently.” 

More recently, testimony of a former department recruiter taken by civil rights attorney Melissa Nold indicated that former Police Chief Shawny Williams received racist threats that drove him out of the department. The ACLU questioned whether Nebb’s office was aware of the threats without disclosing them publicly or to the California Department of Justice. 

Former police Chief John Whitney also recently testified that the Police Department systematically withheld misconduct records from criminal courts and there was a culture of retaliation in the department. The Vallejo Sun reported earlier this month that Vallejo police had hired at least one officer who was found by a background investigator to be disqualified for integrity issues.

Victory also pointed to the city attorney’s office’s intransigence in hiring a civilian police auditor and long delays for the Police Oversight And Accountability Commission, the creation of which is one of 45 reforms required by an agreement with the Justice Department.

After Whitney’s testimony became public, Mayor Andrea Sorce called for an investigation into the allegations during a City Council meeting. Nebb said during the meeting that one was already underway. But Sorce and the ACLU called for an outside investigation.

Nebb’s office has an “irreconcilable” conflict of interest in investigating itself, the ACLU said, requiring the City Council to hire an independent investigator or legal counsel. The organization said that California law authorizes local governments to contract with any firm to do so.

“Public perception that a city attorney and his deputies might be influenced by [improper considerations], at the expense of the best interests of the city, would insidiously undermine public confidence in the integrity of municipal government and its city attorney’s office,” Victory’s letter said. “Moreover, such allegations come amidst an ongoing, and worsening, crisis of faith in the VPD. Accumulating evidence that the City Attorney has conspired to conceal, allow and thereby enable such police misconduct can only deepen public perception that its policing problems are intractable, and that its government is corrupted.”

Attorney Mike Nisperos, who resigned from the police commission out of frustration for its lack of progress, told the Vallejo Sun on Thursday that he thinks the city council has no choice but to act to fire Nebb due to the seriousness of the allegations. He said in his opinion, after leaving the commission, Nebb’s actions have obstructed implementation of many reforms of the police department which the council has promised.

“She’s stonewalled everything to do with oversight,” Nisperos said. “She chooses to bury shit. She overloads the agendas and has effectively turned City Council into a rubber stamp.”

Nisperos has been a member of the informal community group meeting with the ACLU as it drafted Victory’s letter, which he said was “a brilliant job.”

“I think it compels action,” Nisperos said of the ACLU’s call for investigation.

Retired attorney Brien Farrell, who helped form the ACLU community group and reviewed evidence collected to write the letter, said that it does not make sense to continue allowing the city attorney’s office to conduct what should be independent investigations. He said the letter is based on “persuasive evidence and case law.”

Farrell said the city cannot risk any appearance of conflicts of interest, especially given the city attorney’s adjacency to what he called “a pattern of making very large payments in whistleblower retaliation lawsuits.” The city has settled multiple lawsuits involving whistleblower allegations, including $900,000 to Whitney, and currently faces new, similar litigation.

“They [Nebb’s office] should not be involved in the investigations,” Farrell said. “As a former city attorney that is my opinion, and this is about whether there is an appearance of conflict of interest based on evidence that would be harmful to the city attorney's office.”