Earlier this month, the Fullerton Police Department won positive media attention for announcing it was creating dossiers on the city's homeless population. Cops are identifying, photographing and building files on a community believed to total about 200, ostensibly to assist officers in helping the downtrodden to find shelters, mental-health assistance or obtain substance-abuse counseling.
I don't doubt the sincerity of the officers assigned to the project and hope their work is beneficial. But let's not fool ourselves: The effort comes in the wake of the July 2011 gruesome police killing of Kelly Thomas. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas filed felony criminal charges against three of the six cops involved, who await a summer court date. Even if the program had been around for years, it wouldn't have prevented the Thomas tragedy.
Numerous Orange County police agencies—including in Fullerton—had extensive files documenting Thomas' homelessness, serious mental troubles and the fact that during at least 89 police contacts over an 18-year span, he'd never been violent toward a officer. Yet, that detailed knowledge didn't help save him because the cops involving in the beating didn't care about behaving professionally. They saw an opportunity to pounce on an annoying, defenseless, homeless guy, and they took it. No amount of dossiers can fix that problem.
Based on police reports obtained by the Weekly, here's the disturbing, cop-contact time line leading to the killing:
1990
Jan. 8: 15-year-old Thomas is a homicide witness in Yorba Linda.
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1993
Dec. 9: Los Angeles police arrest Thomas for disturbing the peace.
* * *
1994
Feb. 14: Placentia police cite Thomas, 19, for underage drinking of beer and peach-flavored brandy.
* * *
1995
June 8: Thomas accuses his grandfather of staring at his crotch, then beats him with a fireplace poker. He is arrested by Placentia police for attempted murder. Prosecutors later reduce the charge to assault, and he receives a punishment of 270 days in jail.
July 1: Thomas is assaulted by a fellow detainee at the Orange County Jail.
* * *
1996
Feb. 26: Fullerton cops question Thomas for acting suspiciously.
Feb. 28: La Habra police interview Thomas because he looks as though he has a “mental disorder.”
April 27: Santa Ana police receive a report from a mental facility that Thomas is AWOL; he is suffering delusions and believes he is “Jesus Christ.”
April 28: Thomas' father returns him to the facility.
Aug. 13: Santa Ana police receive a report that Thomas is again AWOL from the facility.
Aug. 14: Cypress police report Thomas stole his father's $550 guitar.
* * *
1999
Nov. 1: Garden Grove police arrest Thomas for drinking alcohol in public.
Dec. 30: Mervyns employees in Cypress complain that Thomas is shoving underwear down his pants and laughing at everybody.
* * *
2000
March 5: Anaheim police stop Thomas for trespassing on railroad property.
March 9: Fullerton police stop Thomas for driving an unregistered car.
March 21: Cypress police find Thomas acting strangely around an elementary school.
April 6: Los Alamitos cops find Thomas acting strangely near a residence.
April 9: Cypress cops arrest Thomas for disturbing the peace.
April 18: La Palma police warn Thomas to stop begging for food at a Denny's.
April 22: Cypress cops detain Thomas on suspicion of vehicle burglary and note he's “very dirty” and “had urinated on himself.”
April 24: Cypress cops find a despondent Thomas, who claims to be upset over his mother's death—something that, in reality, hadn't occurred.
July 19: Fullerton police find Thomas sleeping in a planter box at the Fullerton Transportation Center.
* * *
2003
April 27: Placentia police cite Thomas for starting a fire in a public park.
April 28: Placentia police order Thomas off the roof of a residence.
May 12: Westminster police question Thomas for suspicious activity.
June 18: Fullerton cops identify Thomas as a “new transient” and interview him.
* * *
2004
Jan. 21: Brea police find Thomas, missing from a drug rehab, behind a business.
Feb. 12: Anaheim police find Thomas sleeping at the rear of a business.
Feb. 27: Anaheim police question Thomas for loitering.
March 24: Thomas is ticketed by Cypress cops for walking in a bicycle lane.
May 4: Brea police arrest Thomas for stealing fried chicken and tortilla chips from an Albertsons.
May 5: Thomas is arrested for loitering at an Albertsons in Brea.
May 10: Fullerton cops warn Thomas to stop eating food off customers' plates at Knowlwood.
May 27: Fullerton cops find Thomas loitering at Concrete Park.
July 3: Fullerton cops warn Thomas about residential trespassing.
Aug. 26: Anaheim police arrest Thomas for four misdemeanors.
Oct. 18: Santa Ana police receive a report that Thomas is AWOL from a mental-health facility.
Nov. 2: Fullerton cops warn Thomas about residential trespassing.
Dec. 19: Fullerton cops arrest Thomas for punching a man after being confronted for saying to a 14-year-old girl, “Hey, sexy.”
[
* * *
2005
March 22: Fullerton cops cite Thomas for urinating in public and, 10 hours later, warn him to stop loitering.
June 10: Fullerton cops warn Thomas to stop loitering at a Starbucks.
June 15: La Palma police arrest Thomas on an outstanding warrant.
June 25: Thomas is told to leave an Albertsons because he is terrifying customers, yelling and cussing at cashiers, and urinating in a planter.
July 22: Brea police arrest Thomas at an Albertsons for trespassing.
* * *
2007
Nov. 21: Thomas' mother reports her son is schizophrenic, a runaway, tends to be violent and carries a knife; he is unarmed and cooperative when located by officers.
Dec. 11: Thomas' mother reports her son is off his medications, threatened her with a knife and had been self-committed to Western Medical Center.
Dec. 30: Receiving a report of a naked man in an apartment complex's laundry room, Anaheim police arrive and note the clothed Thomas is “an alcoholic, mentally unstable and transient type.”
* * *
2008
Jan. 15: Anaheim police receive a call that a man “is urinating in view of the children” at a school and arrest Thomas for indecent exposure, plus urinating in public.
Feb. 7: Fullerton cops cite Thomas for jaywalking.
April 9: Brea police arrest Thomas for panhandling at an Albertsons.
April 23: Brea police arrest Thomas for loitering at an Albertsons.
June 4: Brea police arrest Thomas for loitering at an Albertsons.
Nov. 21: Anaheim police receive a report that Thomas is harassing employees and customers at a Circle K.
* * *
2009
Jan. 7: Placentia police cite Thomas for jaywalking.
Jan. 11: Placentia police question Thomas after receiving a call about a “suspicious person.”
Jan. 26: Placentia police cite Thomas for jaywalking.
Feb. 12: Placentia police cite Thomas for disobeying a traffic sign.
March 5: Fullerton police warn Thomas to stop loitering at a Target and “staring down customers.”
March 16: Placentia police question Thomas for bathing inside a 99 Cents Only Store.
April 12: Placentia cops question Thomas in an alley.
May 11: Placentia cops warn Thomas to stop harassing 99 Cents Only Store staff and customers.
May 20: Placentia police arrest Thomas for trespassing at the 99 Cents Only Store after cussing out the store manager.
July 3: Placentia police find Thomas sleeping in the bushes in front of a business.
July 7: Placentia police arrest Thomas for an outstanding warrant.
Aug. 12: Fullerton cops cite Thomas for sleeping in a parking garage.
Sept. 22: Placentia police cite Thomas for littering.
Sept. 24: Placentia police arrest Thomas for an outstanding warrant.
Oct. 27: Placentia police question Thomas, who was found sleeping on a public bench.
Nov. 1: Fullerton cops question Thomas about homelessness.
Nov. 19: Fullerton cops arrest Thomas for trespassing at Starbucks.
Dec. 17: Placentia police question Thomas for “looking into vehicles.”
Dec. 26: Placentia police arrest Thomas for assaulting a restaurant employee who told him to stop digging through the trash.
* * *
2010
May 22: Fullerton cops question Thomas at a Shell gas station after a bomb threat.
June 28: Anaheim police question Thomas for loitering in the parking lot of a Ralphs.
June 30: Anaheim police arrest Thomas for trespassing after he threw rocks at an employee and customers of a fruit stand.
Aug. 7: A Ralphs manager calls Placentia police because Thomas is panhandling and stealing products.
Aug. 9: Fullerton cops find Thomas talking to himself on a street; he is “infatuated with matches” and refuses medical or mental-health assistance.
Aug. 17: Fullerton cops order Thomas to stop loitering at a 7-Eleven.
Sept. 1: Fullerton cops cite Thomas for throwing a lit cigarette butt.
Sept. 26: Fullerton cops find Thomas digging through trash at Ralphs.
Nov. 9: Placentia police arrest Thomas for trespassing at a Subway after he refuses commands to leave.
Nov. 10: Placentia police cite Thomas for “tampering with refuse” after he digs through a shopping center's trash.
Nov. 13: Placentia police arrest Thomas, who has “a strong body odor” and “soiled clothing,” for trespassing at Ralphs.
Dec. 13: At a Fullerton Starbucks, Thomas is accused of throwing a chair at a passing female motorist.
Dec. 27: Thomas' mother obtains a restraining order after he grabbed her neck and refused to let go.
* * *
2011
Jan. 5: Fullerton cops cite Thomas for vandalism after he destroys a payphone.
Feb. 24: Fullerton cops cite Thomas for drinking beer in public.
Feb. 28: Tustin police detain Thomas for loitering.
May 13: Anaheim police receive a call from a bar that Thomas is trespassing.
July 5: Fullerton cops threaten to arrest an unarmed Thomas for a crime he didn't commit and severely beat him until he's grossly mutilated and unconscious.
July 10: Thomas is officially declared dead.
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.