{"id":451953,"date":"2026-09-03T07:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T07:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/451953\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T07:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T07:12:16","slug":"what-fresno-police-union-challenger-says-about-presidents-sexual-harassment-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/451953\/","title":{"rendered":"What Fresno police union challenger says about president\u2019s sexual harassment probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brandon Wiemiller is ready to return to police union leadership.<\/p>\n

The Fresno police sergeant is a patrol supervisor in the northeast district, and a former president of the Fresno Police Officers Association, the union.<\/p>\n

He intends to run again for president against incumbent, Sgt. Jeff La Blue, who is facing a city investigation into sexual harassment.<\/p>\n

The union is currently taking nominations for its leadership election.<\/p>\n

Wiemiller said he did not intend on challenging, but members reached out encouraging him to run.<\/p>\n

“They didn’t feel like they were getting the help they needed and the service that they needed. And some of these people were in some really difficult situations. The more people I talked to, the more it weighed heavy on my heart,” Wiemiller said.<\/p>\n

La Blue is subject to a city of Fresno administrative investigation<\/a> for allegations of sexual harassment. The union and La Blue settled a sexual harassment civil lawsuit with a former union office employee earlier this year for an undisclosed amount.<\/p>\n

The city said the investigation stems from the lawsuit. A third-party is conducting the probe.<\/p>\n

Wiemiller agrees with the city looking into La Blue.<\/p>\n

“The allegations themselves have been a distraction from what the FPOA’s purpose is and its standing in the community and the trust that its members are supposed to have,” Wiemiller said.<\/p>\n

Wiemiller served two, two-year terms as FPOA president from 2020 to 2024. He said he did not seek reelection so he could return to the field \u2014 the police department considers union leadership full-time work away from patrol duties. La Blue succeeded Wiemiller in 2024.<\/p>\n

Union: investigation is retaliation<\/p>\n

Union officials called the city’s investigation “retaliation” for a grievance filed by FPOA in July. The issue is a 1% raise the union feels the city owes.<\/p>\n

Attorney Michael Rains said the city reached out to La Blue about the investigation on Aug. 18.<\/p>\n

“The timing of this is transparent. There was no effort whatsoever to interview or investigate Mr. La Blue for these allegations at all for six months,” Rains told The Bee.<\/p>\n

Rains said the city is manipulating the upcoming leadership election.<\/p>\n

City Manager Georgeanne White disputed the allegations, telling The Bee the investigation started in February, a few weeks after the former FPOA employee filed her lawsuit. White anticipates the investigation concluding in 60 to 90 days.<\/p>\n

“In no way is this investigation retaliatory, nor does it have anything to do with an upcoming FPOA election. The City is simply exercising its responsibility to investigate these types of personnel matters,” White said in a statement to The Bee (the full statement can be read here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Rains said he intends to file a complaint with the California Public Employment Relations Board.<\/p>\n

La Blue, through Rains, declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n

In the civil lawsuit filed in January, the accuser alleged the union records and maintains audio and video in its offices.<\/p>\n

“I was quite shocked when I heard that. I was in that office for four years,” Wiemiller said. “I found that out with everybody else when it was shared in the lawsuit.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brandon Wiemiller is ready to return to police union leadership. The Fresno police sergeant is a patrol supervisor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[178640,112,114,113,178639,178638],"class_list":["post-451953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fpoa","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-la-blue","tag-wiemiller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}