Cooley Goes Soft On Greedy Cop

Steven Greenhut: LA County DA Steve Cooley, the attorney general candidate, made some welcome, well-publicized and politically helpful charges against the Bell officials who, as he said, used the city as a personal piggy bank. But he didn’t indict former Bell Police Chief Randy Adams who treated the city in the same way as other officials. According to the LA Times, Adams “had himself declared disabled even as he was hired for the post, a move that could make him millions of dollars in tax-free pension income when he retires, according to records and interviews.” This appears to be fraud, according to the CalPERS spokesman (and CalPERS officials certainly should recognize such things). Furthermore, the Times reported, “In addition, recently released records show that Adams initially signed separate contracts that split his pay between two positions: police chief and “special police counsel” to Rizzo.” That seems to be the same type of scam pulled by former city manager Robert Rizzo and the city’s other greedy degenerates. Adams seems to have mastered the abuse of the disability and pension systems that are so very common among police officials, especially among high-ranking ones. But Adams gets a pass. Cooley says he couldn’t find anything Adams did that was illegal — but I suspect that this is another form of “professional courtesy,” in which police officials get held to a lower standard than others.

Posted Sept. 24, 2010