VALLEJO, Calif. (KRON) — Attorneys are demanding answers from the City of Vallejo after allegations surfaced about a secret file cabinet containing police misconduct records.
Deputy Public Defender James Mulgannon reported that a judge ordered Vallejo to clarify the existence of a ‘secret file cabinet’ allegedly holding records of officer misconduct.
“They have been doing this apparently since 2015 at the earliest,” said Mulgannon, referencing testimony from former Vallejo Police Captain John Whitney.
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Civil rights attorney Melissa Nold expressed concerns about transparency, saying that withholding information from defendants is harmful and undermines the justice process.
Mulgannon and Nold have filed motions to access police personnel records, including testimony from whistleblower John Whitney, who confirmed the existence of a secret filing cabinet.
Adrian Burrell, a client of Nold with a civil rights lawsuit against the Vallejo Police Department, criticized the department’s practices, likening them to gang behavior.
KRON4 reached out to the Vallejo City Attorney’s Office regarding the allegations and received the following statement:
“It has been reported that the City confirmed in court that Vallejo Police kept a separate filing cabinet of officer files that were not brought to criminal court proceedings. That is not true. The City in fact confirmed to the court that all files were brought for the pending motion. The judge stated that he was satisfied that all requested files had been brought to court for that motion. Our longest tenured attorney in the office has been with the City since January of 2018. We can confirm from that time to present Inquiry Resolution files have been brought to criminal court and have not been categorically excluded.“
In 2020, allegations emerged that Vallejo officers bent their badges to mark on-duty killings, prompting an independent investigation whose findings were not released.
All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by KRON4. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat information into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by KRON4 staff before being published.
Lindsey Ford
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