The Costa Mesa police chief forced out of his job during a bizarre expense reimbursement scandal in March 2011 is now accused of stiffing a prominent Southern California clinical psychotherapist and crisis counselor.
According to a lawsuit filed this month in Orange County Superior Court, Dr. Adrienne Pasek claims that Christopher Shawkey has ignored repeated requests to pay $1,440 for services rendered in August 2011.
Pasek’s specific services for Shawkey were not detailed in the small claims lawsuit, but she believes his insurance company paid him the money for the services and he kept it, according to the lawsuit.
A trial date has been set for Sept. 11 at the county’s Laguna Hill’s courthouse.
Costa Mesa city officials hired Shawkey in December 2006 after he rose through the ranks of the Phoenix Police Department to the rank of commander of that agency’s airport bureau.
According to Geoff West’s A Bubbling Caulderon blog, Shawkey’s total annual compensation package was about $300,000 when serious questions were raised about his travel reimbursement claims and he resigned.
In his departure statement, Shawkey–usually a mild-mannered fellow–said he was proud of his service in Costa Mesa.
California’s special interest Peace Officers’ Bill of Rights–written by police union bosses and supported by Republicans and Democrats fearful of appearing weak on crime–ridiculously prevents the public in most cases from learning about ethical abuses or corrupt acts committed
by cops.
Pesak, who has office addresses in Mission Viejo and Newport Beach, offers her clients counseling for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), violence prevention, mediation, depression and conflict resolution.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.