By Emerson Drake
3/21/11
Unrest Continues at the Modesto Police Dept.These are anonymous tips that Bob Aaronson should check out BEFORE he closes his investigations.
Following are excerpts from two letters recently received by Chief Michael Harden, the Stanislaus County District Attorney, The Modesto Bee and the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors:The cover-ups at the Modesto Police Department continue.
Investigator Bob Aaronson continues to have Chief Mike Harden’s thumb on him. Chief Harden has been seen having lunch with Aaronson and has successfully embedded Internal Affairs staff into Aaronson’s back pocket.
This investigation is viewed as a cover-up because Chief Harden is controlling the results. It is so obvious that employees who have valuable information have refused to cooperate. They know the information will go directly to Chief Harden, resulting in retaliation.
We all know the end result will be to protect Chief Harden and management. Chief Harden does not hold people accountable.Chief Harden has covered up the suspicious death of a police dog valued at $5,000.
The death involves Officer Jon Cloward’s dog and this dog was city property. Why isn’t the loss of $5,000 of city property investigated? Officer Jon Cloward is Lt. Ron Cloward’s son and godson to Captain Balentine. Lt. Cloward is always working on his outside job while at MPD.
Other times, he leaves his shift unsupervised. People know that there is favoritism and loyalty to the K-9 unit. That favoritism is causing a big cover-up. Chief Harden is to blame for allowing Captain Balentine to cover it up.
Chief, have you noticed that Captain Balentine’s division has fallen apart?Lt. Schlenker was bragging to his police officer friend about his recent trip to Hawaii, which was paid for by the legal defense fund.
The payroll records indicate that Lt. Schlenker was at work while he was actually in Hawaii.. But, that’s okay because Lt. Schlenker named his son after his close K-9 buddy Captain Gene Balentine and Balentine is Lt. Schlenker’s boss.Favoritism played a major roll in the case of Todd Parson, who crashed his car while driving drunk.
You rewarded him for this bad behavior by brining him back to work a desk job, in order to save his sick time. He was brought back because he is a favorite of Sgt. Blom and Captain Balentine.Chief Harden, you allowed Mike Armillias to lie to Lt. Raymer.
You lost your credibility when you refused to fire him, after telling all of us we would be fired if we ever lied. On Saturday, March 19, 2011, you came to the police department with Captain Balentine and placed Armillias on leave because he was driving a marked police car in full uniform while drunk.
You need to hold people accountable.
We are tired of hearing Chief Harden cry about money. Why does he still allow three detectives to drive back and forth to work, in city cars, on city gas for 140 miles a day?
Why doesn’t Chief Harden hold them accountable by making them pay for their own gas when traveling more than 30 miles outside the city, like the rules require?
Detectives, school services, SDEA, the gang unit, patrol and even fire fighters are talking about the mess created by Chief Harden.
