Comments by a Santa Ana councilmember known for his vocal criticism of police conduct will be investigated by the city, a majority of his colleagues decided this week, after three Santa Ana Police officers filed complaints over statements that included calling some \u201ckiller cops.\u201d<\/p>\n
The debate over whether Councilmember Johnathan Hernandez<\/a> should be formally censured took center stage at Tuesday\u2019s meeting when Mayor Valerie Amezcua and councilmembers Phil Bacerra, Thai Viet Phan and David Penaloza directed city staff to conduct a formal investigation into the complaints.<\/p>\n Councilmembers Benjamin Vasquez and Jessie Lopez were opposed.<\/p>\n A city staff report for Tuesday\u2019s meeting<\/a> said the City Council had \u201creceived complaints alleging that Councilmember Hernandez defamed, harassed and retaliated against certain officers of the Santa Ana Police Department,\u201d and one of those who raised complaints also filed a civil lawsuit in August seeking financial compensation, accusing Hernandez of violating the city charter. Neither the officers\u2019 official complaints nor specific details about the allegations have been made public \u2014 a previous closed session when the council discussed the complaints was not open to the public.<\/p>\n \u201cThis attempt to silence a dissenting opinion is a violation of my First Amendment right to free speech,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cI strongly oppose this censure because using a censure in response to public criticism risks undermining free speech and the ability of elected officials to advocate for their constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n City Attorney Sonia Carvalho outlined the censure process as an official condemnation or expression of disapproval. Acts such as improper interactions with city employees or the illegal disclosure of closed-session information in violation of the Brown Act would be grounds for censure, she said. A censure could result in restrictions such as removal from committees, loss of travel funds, or limited staff access.<\/p>\n Hernandez recused himself from Tuesday\u2019s discussion, instead leaving the dais and addressing the council during the public comment portion of the meeting. He wore a shirt with \u201cArrest the cops who killed Brandon Lopez,\u201d a reference to his cousin.<\/p>\n Hernandez has been critical of police in the past over his cousin\u2019s death<\/a>. Lopez was shot and killed in Santa Ana by Anaheim police officers<\/a> during an hours-long standoff in 2021 following a pursuit. Hernandez, who witnessed the shooting, had arrived with other family members to the scene and identified himself to police as a mental health professional. He accused police of ignoring information he offered about his cousin\u2019s mental state, after Hernandez said he told them his cousin was mentally ill and suicidal.<\/p>\n Several residents spoke in support of Hernandez, urging transparency regarding the complaints. A few characterized the move as censorship or retaliation.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore you move forward with any kind of censure, the public deserves full transparency. What exactly are the allegations? Who\u2019s behind them?\u201d asked one public comment speaker, Aliyah Nunez. \u201cWho\u2019s the next person that\u2019ll be silenced for asking the hard questions or standing up to power? This is how corruption grows \u2014 not from outsiders, but from within.\u201d<\/p>\n Another speaker, a woman from Ward 4 who identified herself as Sue, said Hernandez should recuse himself from voting on police matters because of his \u201cpersonal issues\u201d with the department. \u201cWhatever is inside of you that makes you feel so much hatred toward our police \u2014 I don\u2019t understand it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Carvalho described the censure process as \u201ca form of self-policing,\u201d adding that while censure does not remove an elected official from office, it publicly states that certain behavior is unacceptable to other councilmembers.<\/p>\n Amezcua said the issue was not about Hernandez personally. She argued that his comments could be used in a lawsuit against the city and warned of \u201cvile words that will cost us as a city millions of dollars if it goes to court.\u201d<\/p>\n But, Hernandez said \u201cusing a censure in response to public criticism risks undermining free speech and the ability of elected officials to advocate for their constituents,\u201d he said. \u201cIn censuring me, you are also censuring my neighbors and my constituents \u2014 your residents.\u201d<\/p>\n A report with the investigation\u2019s findings will be presented to the council in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Comments by a Santa Ana councilmember known for his vocal criticism of police conduct will be investigated by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,179,1071,23,611,338,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-community","13":"tag-local-government","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-orange-county","16":"tag-santa-ana","17":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618","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=618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}