A Fresno police patch on Wednesday Oct. 16, 2019, at Fresno City Hall.
FRESNO BEE FILE
A state board that regulates police officers has recommended that a 32-year veteran of the Fresno Police Department be decertified for making bogus 911 phone calls to harass an ex-girlfriend.
Khammouane Kevin Thakham admitted to making multiple calls to 911 in 2023, according to a letter he submitted to the advisory board on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). He did not attend the hearing on Feb. 5.
“I take full responsibility for my actions in 2023,” Thakham said in his letter. “I violated department policy and state law, and I am deeply remorseful. My conduct does not reflect the standards I have upheld throughout my career.”
His letter pointed to a stressful time in his life as he cared for his mother, though the letter, including the part that described her illness, is partially redacted.
Thakham was a corporal in 2022 when he began a relationship with the unnamed victim, POST records say. About a year later, in July 2023, the woman stopped communicating with the officer, records say.
In an attempt to compel her to speak to him again, the records say, Thakham made bogus 911 calls of a disturbance at the woman’s home, where she lived with a young son.
“(Thakham) stated he did this because he believed the disruption caused by the police response would prompt Victim 1 to reach out to him for advice and perhaps resume their relationship,” the POST’s records say.
Video from the body-worn cameras of responding officers showed the son telling officers that Thakham had continued to text him and his mother. He said the mother also received calls from others they believed the officer had arranged to get her to attend a party with the officer, the video shows.
His fake phone calls and video of police responding to the home were included publicly in POST’s records.
Fresno Police Department conducted an Internal Affairs investigation into Thakham, who admitted to making the calls in an October 2023 interview, the records said.
He was disciplined with a 160-hour suspension, demotion from the rank of corporal and given a last chance agreement, the records say. A last chance agreement sets out strict guidelines for the officer under discipline.
Thakham remains employed by Fresno Police Department.
His case next goes to the POST commission for a formal hearing on March 4 and 5. If the commission votes to decertify him, the case would go to a hearing before an administrative law judge.
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Reporter Thaddeus Miller has covered cities in the central San Joaquin Valley since 2010, writing about everything from breaking news to government and police accountability. A native of Fresno, he joined The Fresno Bee in 2019 after time in Merced and Los Banos.