Vallejo police ‘terrorized’ family in search for lieutenant’s golden handcuffs, claim alleges

VALLEJO – A Vallejo family alleges that a Vallejo police lieutenant searched their home and had their car seized at gunpoint while searching for a pair of inscribed golden handcuffs that she had used during a detention earlier this year. But despite multiple opportunities, Vallejo police have not attempted to arrest the person accused of taking the handcuffs nor charged him with a crime.

A claim filed on behalf of the family by attorney Melissa Nold last month alleges that Vallejo police Lt. Jodi Brown, who was a sergeant at the time, lost the handcuffs, which were inscribed with her name and badge number, during an encounter with 21-year-old Robert Baker in April. The claim alleges that the use of the golden handcuffs in official police duties is a policy violation. 

Six months after the detention incident, Brown has not arrested Baker and has not obtained a warrant for his arrest. Meanwhile, she personally searched and damaged his family’s home looking for the handcuffs, Baker was injured in a pursuit by Vallejo police and Brown falsely reported that the family car had been involved in a robbery, leading to Baker’s family being detained at gunpoint in San Francisco, the claim alleges.

Vallejo police did not respond to repeated questions about why the family’s home had been searched, what the underlying crime that led to the search was, and whether it is appropriate for an officer to execute a search warrant over an alleged crime where they are the victim. Since the search, Brown was promoted to lieutenant.

According to the claim, Brown lost the handcuffs on April 14. She contacted Baker when he was sitting in a parked car on Tuolumne Street and asked him what he was doing. Baker responded that he was waiting for someone and Brown asked to see his ID. He asked her why she needed it, since he was just sitting in a parked car, but when she insisted, he gave it to her, and she walked away.

Brown then returned to the car, grabbed Baker’s arm, tried to handcuff his wrist with her gold handcuffs, and said she was detaining him because he did not have a driver’s license, according to the claim. The claim states that Brown’s “neck and face got very red and she seemed very upset.” Baker was afraid and drove away, with the handcuffs attached halfway to his wrist; Brown did not pursue him but still had his ID, according to the claim. Nold said that Baker dropped the handcuffs as he was driving away.

The claim argues that Brown racially profiled Baker, who is Black, and had no reason to detain or arrest him. Two days later, on April 16, Vallejo police officers visited his South Vallejo home and asked a neighbor who lived there.

Then on April 17, police swarmed the home.

Baker’s parents, Jamal and Kellyann Colter, were in the process of moving out of the house at the time. The couple hadn’t been living there for a month, but hadn’t finished moving out yet. Some items were still in boxes, cabinets and drawers. When the police raided their home, their neighbors contacted the Colters and alerted them. 

“The cops came in and busted down our door,” Kellyann Colter told the Vallejo Sun in an interview shortly after the search. “The streets were covered with cops.” 

Police turned the home upside down, dumping boxes and kitchen drawers, and breaking the locks on their house, gate and garage.

Confused, the couple called the Vallejo police watch commander. They said they received a call back from an officer who did not identify herself but was apparently Brown. The officer said that she had personally searched the house and left a copy of the warrant inside, but the house was boarded up, and the officer said she didn’t have another copy of the warrant. According to the couple, the officer also claimed that there was an arrest warrant for their son and said that he should turn himself in.

The couple wanted more information, and wondered why the police couldn’t provide a copy of the warrant, and why it wasn’t posted on the front of the boarded up house.

Nold said that typically with a search warrant, “If there’s plywood it’s on the plywood.”

“That was odd to me that it would be inside and they would seal it up,” she said.

It took a week for the couple to get into the house as they needed specialized power tools to get the plywood off the door. When they finally got in, they said the house was destroyed.

“It didn't even actually look like they were looking for anything,” Jamal Colter said. “It just looked like some teenagers had broken in and decided to ransack it.”

“They kicked in our side gate, they kicked in our garage door, they kicked in our security screen and then kicked in the door,” Jamal Colter said. “We were in the process of moving and they dumped out all the boxes. They broke mirrors, broke glasses, broke her crafting cups, ransacked upstairs, ransacked the garage, and threw everything around.”

A month later, they were still cleaning up.

In the kitchen, they found the search warrant, which was reviewed by the Vallejo Sun. It was signed by Solano County Superior Court Judge Dora Rios and allowed the police to search the home and a car allegedly associated with Baker for “peerless gold-plated handcuffs with the name Sergeant Jodi Brown #637.”

An inventory of items taken during the search does not include the handcuffs and indicates that the only item officers took was a single piece of mail addressed to Baker. The receipt was signed by Brown, indicating that she personally executed the warrant.

“What judge would sign a full fledged whole house search warrant for a misdemeanor on something for an officer's personal things?” Nold said. “If you have enough reason to believe that this person did that, then go arrest that person. And then maybe you can get a warrant” for that person's particular room within that house.

“But that search warrant isn't for a person, there's not a person listed on it, there's not an arrest warrant, it's a warrant for this particular property,” Nold said.

Six months later, Baker has not been arrested and there is no record of any arrest warrant, according to Nold.

“I contacted the DA’s office, and I wanted to see, is there a warrant, is there something out? Because if that's the case, then let's get him turned in for his safety,” Nold said. But after contacting the Solano County District Attorney’s Office, the court and local bail bondsmen, Nold could find no indication that there was any outstanding warrant for the couple’s son.

Nold also questioned why Brown was apparently serving a search warrant for her own personal property. “If it belongs to one personal individual officer, then she wouldn't be part of the process of trying to execute a warrant on something where she's the victim,” Nold said.

Vallejo police had an opportunity to arrest Baker weeks after the search, but didn’t. Baker was riding a motorbike during the afternoon of May 3 when a Vallejo police officer saw him and started following him. According to the claim, the officer swerved toward Baker and caused him to crash, breaking his leg. The officers stopped, took Baker’s information and he went to a hospital, but was not arrested and the officers said nothing about a warrant, the claim states.

Then on May 18, San Francisco police officers pulled over the Colters and their children and held them at gunpoint, according to the claim. The San Francisco police officers told them that Brown had reported the vehicle was wanted in connection with a robbery and the driver should be considered armed and dangerous, the claim states.

“There was no lawful basis for claiming the vehicle was involved in a robbery,” the claim states. “The labeling of the seizure notice intentionally and unnecessarily endangered Mr. Baker and his family.”

Brown has a checkered history with the Vallejo police. She was once suspended because she was in two car crashes while on duty within a week in 2017. In one of the crashes, she was involved in a pursuit but waited 47 minutes to report it, which the department found was an “unreasonable time delay.” In the second, the investigation found that she was at fault for not properly yielding after a stop.

In 2019, John Mark Raudelunas — a 71-year-old disabled man — sued Vallejo police, saying that when he tried to report another driver throwing an object at his car and striking him in the head, Brown responded, refused to help, then followed him home and Tased him for no reason. The city settled the lawsuit for $37,500 in December.

After Brown was promoted to sergeant, she supervised other officers in the patrol division under Lt. Steve Darden. In that role, the officers under her supervision complained that Brown and Darden had engaged in “retaliation,” “harassment,” and created a “hostile work environment.” The complaint led in part to the firing of Deputy Police Chief Michael Kihmm over his handling of the matter.