Episode #1.2 (2023) - full transcript
♫♫
-Officers say a
standard traffic stop
quickly escalated to a shootout.
Both suspects died on-scene.
-I was very angry at the fact
that they were constantly
calling my son a suspect.
It didn´t sit well with me.
-BPD says Harger began
shooting at the officers
and the officers fired back,
killing both Ramirez and Harger.
-I knew that there was
something else going on,
than just what they were saying.
-The Ramirez family was
searching for answers
when they discovered
mysterious text messages
between Jorge Jr. And
an unknown number.
-Soon as I logged in, I
went to the very first text.
We were so stunned and
surprised that we found this.
-There was a conversation
about where they were,
where they were going,
after the final moments.
-So, as I read more, I
was like, "Holy shit.
He was working with the cops."
Just felt like I just found
all my brother´s
innocence right here.
He wasn´t a suspect.
-I had to be active in
finding out the real truth.
Who holds these
people accountable?
And when?
It just never happens.
Guess what.
They met their match.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
-For three weeks
after his death,
Jorge Ramirez was
portrayed in the media
as a suspect who
could´ve been working
with dangerous and wanted
felon Justin Harger,
a story the police
didn´t correct.
But that version of the
story never sat right
with the Ramirez family.
And it turned out
there were others
with their suspicions as well.
♫♫
-Kiyoshi Tomono knocks
on my dad´s door.
-The Bakersfield Police
Department says...
-Kiyoshi was one of our
prime time news anchors.
He did big stories.
So, if Kiyoshi
came to your house,
this is the real deal.
And he said that my brother was
working as a police informant.
I did not sleep that night.
And I get a call from my sister.
She´s like, "Turn on
the news, right now!"
And I was like, "Why?"
She´s like, "Just turn it on!"
-Bakersfield Police
Chief Greg Williamson...
-I turn it on and it´s
our chief of police.
-Was Jorge Ramirez
Jr. A police informant
and was he acting
in any capacity
for the department
that early morning?
-Mr. Ramirez did
contact an officer
of the Bakersfield
Police Department
and provide information as to
Mr. Harger´s whereabouts
and where he would
be on that evening.
-Kiyoshi circled back
and asked a follow-up,
as any good journalist
would do, and say,
"I just want to confirm that
he was in fact, an informant."
-Was he working in the
capacity of an informant,
leading officers to the
Four Points Sheraton
that night, to Harger?
-He was. We had several
correspondence with him.
They then rallied to make a plan
and set up around the
Four Points Sheraton.
-Ultimately, getting that
confirmation from Williamson
changed everything.
-It wasn´t until that interview
that we learned that
Ramirez was an informant
and working with police.
-Jorge´s family had
been in the dark,
searching for answers
they couldn´t get
from the Bakersfield
Police Department,
answers they felt
the police had.
Look at Mama.
Say, "Hi!" Say,
"Merry Christmas!"
-I had never heard
of another case
where a informant
was injured or killed
the way it happened to him.
-How did this unfold?
If Ramirez was working
with law enforcement
to lead them to their suspect,
a known violent offender,
how did Ramirez end up dead?
-My son, prior to his death,
he started to kind of get
sentimental and started crying.
I said, "What´s wrong, son?"
He goes, "Hey, Dad, you know,
I got to tell you something."
He says, "I done
some stupid stuff."
I said, "What are you
talking about, son?"
He goes, "Yes, Dad.
If something happens to me,
you got to remember this, Dad...
It wasn´t my choice."
♫♫
-Bakersfield has long been known
as a town that
supports its police.
Detective Damacio Diaz
arrived as an outsider
from nearby McFarland, a
smaller, more rural, town.
-I was the first one in our
neighborhood, in our family,
in our church, that
became a police officer.
When I put on the uniform,
there was a lot of pride.
-Diaz was determined to
make his mark on the force.
But it wasn´t always by
following the typical path.
-I wanted to be the kind
of cop that was in the mix.
I didn´t want to be the kind
of cop that was writing tickets
or going to a report call.
Most police officers
will catch the bad guy
with just doing police work.
But there are some criminals
that are not going to be caught
or they´re not going
to be prosecuted
because there´s just
not enough evidence.
I didn´t notice when I
was crossing the line.
So, by the time I went
to a narcotics unit...
it was very clear what
I was willing to do.
Things like go undercover
and buy drugs and sell drugs.
For me, my life changed
when I began to to
live that lifestyle
in these dark areas,
these dark corners.
♫♫
-Young police officers can
be pretty impressionable.
What is important
is how do agencies
put checks and balances in place
to ensure that people are
not going down a bad path?
-I believed, with
all my heart, that,
so long as the end result was
a bad guy going to prison
for a long, long time,
it didn´t matter
how he got there.
I had always been
the kind of guy
who was never afraid
to take those steps.
-As Damacio Diaz and his
partner, Patrick Mara,
rose up the ranks
of the Bakersfield
Police Department,
they quietly kept their
methods under wraps.
-I can tell you that there
are many, many police officers
that I was friends
with, that knew me,
that didn´t know how far
I had crossed the line
because we didn´t
discuss those things.
They were not part of
that small, small group
and Patrick Mara and I were.
Me and Pat Mara
were great friends.
We were very close.
Working with informants was
one of our primary duties.
There are some strict guidelines
that are expected to be followed
and we are trained on how to
go about signing somebody
up to be an informant.
But there are rules and policies
and then there´s doing
things that most cops,
most police officers in America,
have no idea takes place.
-For years, Diaz and
Mara worked undercover
and under the radar.
And then, suddenly,
Damacio Diaz found
himself in the spotlight.
♫♫
When the "McFarland,
USA" movie came out
and it was an instant success,
of course, everybody in
Kern County and Bakersfield
loved the movie because
it put us on the map.
-Diaz.
Diaz.
Diaz.
-I could never imagine that
anyone would be interested
in our story in McFarland.
- Coach.
- It´s not going to matter,
unless...
- Coach.
-It´s a story about
a hard-working family
that comes from nothing,
that have great values.
-Hey, Damacio.
-Look, you wouldn´t understand.
-It´s about Damacio Diaz
and his family of farmworkers
and how he and his brothers
became champion runners.
-He really became like
an overnight celebrity.
The local officer
became this movie star.
He attended the premiere
of "McFarland, USA."
I can distinctly remember the
shot of him on the red carpet,
smiling ear-to-ear.
-You know, this is just
way beyond our dreams,
but we are enjoying it.
We´re enjoying the show.
During that time,
I had a lot of
arrogance about me.
Did it change me?
Yes, it did.
Was it for the better?
I would say no.
I allowed myself
to get caught up
in all of that
Hollywood limelight.
-And, soon, Diaz and the
Bakersfield Police Department
found the spotlight
a difficult place to be.
-How do you do, friends?
Welcome to...
-I think Bakersfield
is most well-known
for the Bakersfield sound,
which is essentially like a
subgenre of country music.
-One of the most popular songs,
of course, with Buck Owens, is
"Streets of
Bakersfield."
-♫ How many of you
that sit and judge me ♫
♫ Ever walked the
streets of Bakersfield? ♫
♫♫
-Bakersfield is like
so many other towns
across the American West...
Migrants and outsiders vying
to stake their claim
and make a home.
♫♫
-Bakersfield was a destination
for migrants during
the Great Depression
that were coming out
from places like Oklahoma
in the 1930s, especially.
-Never had to lose
everything I had in life.
-The Joads, in "The
Grapes of Wrath,"
were portrayed as
struggling and poor
and they´d lost their
land and they were pulled
into California in search
of new opportunities.
-The diversity that we
see in Bakersfield today
is really just an outcrop
of the historical diversity
that we´ve always had here.
Some of my ancestors came
straight out of Oklahoma
to do some of the different
things in agriculture.
We had Basque families
that raised sheep.
We had Italian families that
migrated here years ago.
But there are also
some pieces that
are more sordid
and more shameful
and we don´t always
talk about those,
but they have been here.
♫♫
So, one of the things
that you always get,
with any kind of diversity...
Often, there are
social tensions.
-How do I want to say this?
There are definitely
areas of town
that are known historically
for being areas where
mostly one race lived there.
Oildale?
Pretty much all-white.
-Oildale was a sundown town.
A sundown town is a town where,
if you are brown or Black,
you shouldn´t let
the sun set on you,
meaning you will get killed
in one of these towns
that calls themselves white.
-Historically, whites
controlled law enforcement
throughout Kern County.
In the 1920s, certain leaders
of the Bakersfield
police were revealed
to be Klan members.
And, to some members
of the community,
that legacy informs their
relationship with police
to this day.
Law enforcement has had a
controversial history here
in Kern County.
It had that good old boy
community feel to it.
-From 2009 to 2019,
68 people in Bakersfield
were shot by police.
81% were people of color.
Black people were four times
more likely than a white person
to be shot by a BPD officer.
Latin people were
twice as likely.
-One thing about Kern County is
that many Latino residents say
that they weren´t understood
by law enforcement...
and that was, perhaps,
something that fueled
these confrontations, which
sometimes turned deadly.
-Calahan. Bakersfield
police still investigating
that high-speed chase
along Highway 178
that ended up in
a deadly shooting.
-We were just like, "Oh,
my gosh, another thing?
This is exactly what
we´re talking about."
-At the time,
there were stories of
law enforcement officers
doing whatever
they wanted to do.
There were stories
that I didn´t know of,
where law enforcement
were killing people.
-For the Ramirez
and Silva families,
every headline about another
killing rips open old scars
and adds new members
to their grieving
and growing group.
♫♫
James De La Rosa had just left
a night out with his girlfriend
when he encountered
Bakersfield police.
He was 22 years old
and had never had any
trouble with the law.
-On November 13, 2014,
officers attempted
to stop a Jeep
with James De La Rosa inside.
They said he was
driving erratically.
-They follow him
and, at some point,
on Highway 178, try to
initiate a traffic stop
and that´s when
he starts to flee.
-There was a brief
chase that ensued
and he ended up pulling up
to Mount Vernon and 178.
-It was onto the freeway,
missed one exit, got
off on the second exit,
hit the center divider,
which was a huge impact.
Did he hit his head
on the dashboard?
Did he hit his head on
the steering column?
Was he dazed?
-It´s impossible to know James´
state of mind after the crash.
But the police
released their version
of what happened that night.
-Immediately upon him
exiting his vehicle,
he began behaving aggressively,
charging towards the officers.
He was yelling obscenities.
-There´s something that happens
inside of the
minds of an officer
when you turn on those
red and blue lights
and you´ve got a car
that´s not stopping.
-You have to remember that those
officers had adrenaline pumping.
They were excited.
They didn´t know
what was going on.
-He reached suddenly
for his waistband
and grabbed onto his waistband,
at which point
officers opened fire.
-Mr. De La Rosa was unarmed
and there are witnesses
who says that he was
holding his hands up.
-We don´t have
witness statements
saying that he had raised his
hands in a... to surrender.
-In fact, witnesses
told a different story,
with some capturing
cellphone video on-scene.
-We just seen a guy
wreck and then he got out
and just he got out of the car
and just waved his
hands up in the air
and the cop shot
him in the head.
Yeah, oy.
-They fucking killed him.
-Oh, my God!
He got shot!
-Reaching for a waistband
has basically been used
to justify many shootings
of unarmed people around America
and James De La Rosa
was one of them.
-The more the police repeated
their version of the story,
the more his family questioned
why they would kill someone
who never had a record.
Or a gun.
-James is not a weapon person.
There was no weapons on
him, no weapons found.
-Why would a person
just charge the police?
So, why would a person rapidly,
quickly advance on police
and reach for their waistband?
You know, are they suicidal?
Are they crazy?
-James´ family points to
one possible explanation.
He had recently
lost a lot of weight
and his pants were often loose
and would start to fall down.
-If he reached for
his waistband...
If that did happen,
that if that occurred...
It would only be for James
lifting up his pants.
They stuck with the
story of James got off
and approached the officers
and they murdered him.
-To the police, this was
another justifiable shooting.
But not to the
families of those lost.
Don´t shoot!
Don´t shoot!
Don´t shoot!
-Yet, everyone agreed
that what came next
was completely unjustifiable.
-So this is kind of where the
story takes a very bizarre turn.
-Because of it being an
officer-involved shooting,
they assigned an officer to
stay on guard of the deceased,
which was Aaron Stringer
and his trainee.
-What happens, according
to two documents...
Which was really the chilling
side of the end of the story...
Was one of the officers,
Aaron Stringer, allegedly,
according to his trainee,
manipulates the corpse.
-He moved towards
the decedent´s feet
which had been uncovered
when the sheet was moved
off of the upper torso.
While "joking around"
Senior Officer
STRINGER reached out
and touched the bottom
of the decedent´s feet
and said, "Tickle, tickle."
-Police officers have often
been accused, rightly,
of having a morbid
sense of humor.
You are a firsthand witness
to man´s inhumanity to man.
However, there are certain
actions and behaviors
that are indicative
of a deeper problem.
-Senior Officer STRINGER
turned the decedents head back
to a straight forward
position, two times...
It was at about this time
that Senior Officer
STRINGER said he...
and laughed.
-For them to play with
their deceased bodies,
you know, so disrespectful
and uncalled for.
-He touched them in ways
that he shouldn´t have.
My son was a joke to him.
That was no joke.
-This is somebody we
held dear to our heart,
that
we miss very dearly.
-Aaron Stringer was placed
on administrative leave.
-Officer Stringer may have been
fired or may have just resigned,
but no criminal charges
were filed against him.
It certainly was a black
eye to Bakersfield police.
-Aaron Stringer left the
department in August of 2015.
Stringer did not respond
to our request for comment.
-I think, when you hear a
story about an unarmed man
who´s been shot dead
by police officers
having their corpse
tampered with
and made fun of,
that is a very dark,
very disturbing
thing to know about.
♫♫
-When I sat down and
spoke to Chief Williamson
about some of these
really quite shocking
officer-involved shooting cases
that had happened in his
city, under his watch,
I asked him about one
case in particular...
James De La Rosa.
-Sometimes
things just ha...
Things happen to officers
and they´re put in situations
and they have to make the
split-second decisions
and that´s what why
they´re out there.
-I mean, just going back
to one of those cases,
Mr. De La Rosa was unarmed.
-I don´t know who he is.
Which one is he?
-James De La Rosa.
He didn´t know who he was.
And, to me, at that point,
it was pretty clear
there was something
pretty extraordinary going on
in this part of the country.
-By 2015, as the
number of people killed
in officer-involved
shootings actually increased,
so did the frustration
of grieving families
with law enforcement.
-An officer involved in the
shooting with my brother
was also involved in the
shooting of James De La Rosa.
-Name is Rick Wimbish.
R-i-c-k.
Excuse me.
Last name is W-i-m-b-i-s-h.
-The detail that we would
start to sort of pick out
of these cases was
the repetitiveness
that these officers
were involved in the shootings.
-An officer shot a
man allegedly breaking
into a Subway sandwich shop.
-One officer fired
several shots.
Alderman later died...
-Along with the
increase in killings,
a pattern appeared to emerge.
-Alderman was shot seven times.
-After the initial
police version
was released to the public,
new details often raised
serious questions.
In many cases,
it seemed there was
more to the story.
♫♫
♫♫
-It was about 4:20,
4:30 in the morning.
The police knocked at my door
and
the police said,
"Jason Alderman reached for
his pocket and he´s dead."
And they told me to have a
good day and walked away.
Didn´t tell me how it
happened, where it happened.
Just told me they shot
and killed my son.
♫♫
♫♫
-On August 22, 2015,
two Bakersfield police
officers passed by a Subway
near Olive and Roberts Lane
that they believed a
burglary was happening at.
So, they pulled in and they said
that´s when they saw a
man walking out armed
with what they
believed was a firearm.
-They confront Aldermen,
who´s coming out of
the establishment.
That´s where an officer-involved
shooting happened.
-Jason Alderman was shot
and killed by police
at a Subway
restaurant in Oildale.
-That man, 29-year-old
Jason Alderman,
was pronounced dead
at the hospital.
-The news was hot to
trot that, you know,
Jason had some bumps in the road
and had some criminal history.
-Alderman has a lengthy
criminal record,
including arrest for burglary.
-I mean, I don´t even
think it was six hours
and it was all over the news.
That´s all that played
on the news for days.
-A court search shows
past cases against him
for drugs, alcohol,
battery on an officer,
and vehicle burglary.
-People were just, you
know, thanking the officers
because another criminal´s
out of Kern County.
-I know my son
made a bad choice,
but the police are...
They´re not supposed to be
judge, jury, and executioner.
-Jason Alderman was caught
in the middle of a burglary.
But why was he
killed by the police?
-I was told by the
detectives and the BPD
I needed to contact you in
order to get a coroner´s report.
So, there´s nobody
assigned to this case.
So...
No. My nephew got murdered.
The person accused
of killing him
is the Bakersfield
Police Department.
Alright. Thank you.
-There was obviously
initial calls
for whether or not there
was surveillance video
in that store when
the shooting happened.
Initially, police reported
there was no surveillance video
and they did not have
it, if there was.
-To our knowledge,
there is no video,
has never been video,
and we certainly don´t
have any video in evidence.
-The news report was saying
that the surveillance cameras
were down from 11:00 at night
to like 6:00 in the morning,
which, again, I found odd
because, if you´re a business,
I mean, I would
think, at nighttime,
you´d definitely
want to make sure
your cameras were rolling.
-We went to that Subway and
took pictures of the area
and there was cameras
outside of the Subway.
And then when we
later went back,
they had dismantled the
cameras out of the roof.
-What was the real
story of what happened?
-Whatever evidence is
there should be, you know,
obtained and
catalogued, documented.
So, it´s vitally important that
video evidence, especially,
is handled appropriately.
-So, a woman from Subway
reached out to me.
-She had posted on
Facebook, "The video was on.
I turned it on before I left."
-We did get legal
representation immediately.
His legwork was definitely
to find out what happened.
In fact, there
was police footage
and surveillance
video and it did work
and the police confiscated
it and took it.
Nothing made sense.
So, I was trying to get as much
information as I possibly could.
I asked, I begged
for that video.
I wanted to see it.
-One pattern that
became clear to us
was that information
was slow to be released
and transparency
was hard to come by.
It was sometime right
before Christmas
and I got a phone call
from the police department
and they told me that I
could come to the lobby
and pick up the video, so I did.
♫♫
-Mr. Alderman exited the Subway.
He´s essentially shot dead
pretty much straightaway.
-I was completely flabbergasted.
There´s no way he
saw those officers.
He crouches under the door,
literally almost on his knees,
and then you just see gunshots.
There´s no aid rendered.
Two officers pick Jason up
and put him through
the hole in the glass
and lay him on the concrete
in front of the store.
Like if he was a piece of trash.
♫♫
-I´ve never seen the video.
I´ve seen the
clips from the news
that they made my
son look, you know,
like he deserved it.
I´m not
able to watch that video.
-I remember getting
that surveillance video
and it revealed that the weapon
that police were talking about
was, in fact, a tire iron.
-He did not have a gun.
He was holding a
black BMW tire jack,
that police ultimately
said resembled a rifle,
and that´s why they
believed he was armed.
-I saw he had some type
of an object in his hand.
I was at a distance
that I just couldn´t
tell at that point.
-Part of the equation is how
fast can you pull the trigger
before they have a chance
to pull the trigger?
-At that time, you believed
he was holding a gun?
-Absolutely, yes.
-I think a lot of officers
would´ve seen that
as a weapon, to be honest.
But you can buy yourself
time, if you´re behind cover.
You can buy yourself time,
if you´re making a
good tactical approach.
The problem is, is
that, when you´re
at a point of no return
and you don´t have
time and distance
that allows you
to make decisions,
you are going to have to deal
with the very first
danger that comes to mind.
♫♫
-He was in the process of
either pointing it out the door
or coming out the door with it
about the time I
heard the shots.
-I´m going to call that bullshit
because that is what it is.
If you were to watch
the entire video,
that tire jack is
never pointed up.
It is always on the side of him.
He is carrying it,
but not like a rifle
would be carried,
and it was never
pointed to anyone.
-It follows this pattern that
community members talk about,
which is shooting first
and asking questions later.
-And you don´t really
start looking at it
from a different perspective,
until it does affect you.
You know, I´ve always
heard about it.
I did follow the
Ramirezes´ case,
the De La Rosas´ case.
I followed that, too.
But I thought, "Man,
that just must´ve been
a couple bad officers."
And, as you start
unraveling the layers
and looking at the
pieces of the puzzle,
you start to see
that there´s more
than just a couple bad officers.
-When you ask about what
discipline officers have faced,
you don´t get an answer.
A shooting is ruled justified
and an officer is
returned to work,
but if anybody faces discipline,
it´s very hard to know what
sort of discipline that is
because it´s all
shrouded in secrecy.
There is a single
officer who was involved
in all three of those cases.
I think, for some
people, it´s bad luck,
but for other people,
it may display
a chronic lack of training and
a real culture of impunity.
-Jason Alderman died.
What is this chief
going to do now?
He declared it was justified
and Rick Wimbish
went back to work.
-Rick Wimbish
declined to comment
on his role in these shootings.
But controversy over
policing in Kern County
was just heating up.
A blockbuster story of police
corruption was about to erupt
and shed new light on the
death of Jorge Ramirez.
-Police Chief Greg
Williamson addressed concerns
about police corruption...
- Bakersfield Police Department
detective pleads guilty...
- Admitted his guilt
in federal court today,
in an ongoing scandal.
♫♫
♫♫
-So, I show up to the
police department.
I´d never seen so many
law enforcement officers
from different agencies in
a room like that before.
So many different media
organizations were there.
Walking into that room, it
was a very serious tone.
The public information
officer walked around
and handed us each a packet
that sort of detailed the
indictment and what happened
and everything kind
of blew up from there.
-This morning,
Bakersfield Police
Detective Damacio Diaz,
43, of McFarland, was
arrested in this building.
He was charged in a
16-count indictment
that was returned yesterday
by a federal grand jury.
It charges Detective Diaz
with one count of conspiracy
to distribute and possess
with intent to distribute
methamphetamine,
three counts of bribery,
with nine counts of
attempted possession
with intent to distribute
methamphetamine,
with one count of
illegally disclosing
the contents of a wiretap,
and two counts of filing
false federal tax returns.
♫♫
-Damacio Diaz had
collected drugs
while working for the
Bakersfield Police Department
and, instead of submitting
them into evidence,
he put just a
portion into evidence
and then sold the rest for
his own beneficial gain.
-You can´t make this stuff up.
One side, a celebrated
character in a Disney movie;
and then the fall from
grace as a disgraced officer
who´s basically
trafficking narcotics
onto the streets of Bakersfield.
-He was also working
with this informant,
telling him information
about what law
enforcement was doing,
to help keep him from
being prosecuted.
-Along with local
hero Damacio Diaz,
his partner, Patrick Mara,
was also arrested
in the scandal.
-Another former
detective, Patrick Mara,
admitted his guilt in
federal court today,
working with Diaz in
an ongoing scandal.
-We couldn´t believe it.
I just said, "You know,
how can them guys do
that kind of stuff, you
know, who was watching them?"
I just couldn´t understand it.
-I did what I did and I
was wrong for doing it
and I admit that today.
But I will tell you,
in full disclosure,
that I didn´t know
how to get out.
I had discussed it
with my partner,
Pat Mara, numerous times.
We both knew we had to walk away
and stop this behavior,
but we were stuck.
I was stuck. I didn´t
know how to get out
and I was very scared
about what was going
to happen to me in the future.
But within a few minutes,
after being arrested,
there was such a
relief in my spirit,
in my heart, that it was over.
I was relieved.
I lost focus on who I was
and what my purpose was.
I began to not only
bend the rules,
I began to cross the line.
In very tiny, incremental steps,
but those small steps added up
and, sooner or later, I
was way beyond the line.
Meeting with
informants by myself,
paying the informant
off the books,
whether it was in money
or whether it was in
drugs or in favors,
was a practice
that was standard.
That was normal, for me.
♫♫
-If you fail to
respond to the cues,
if you fail to acknowledge
that there are problems
within your midst,
you´re going to have corruption.
-As the scandal engulfed the
Bakersfield Police Department,
questions surrounding police
conduct over the years
intensified.
If this kind of
corruption had taken hold
among BPD officers and the
informants they managed,
then what really happened
with Jorge Ramirez?
-We realized that Patrick Mara
had actually been involved in
the Jorge Ramirez Jr. case.
-You can draw the conclusion,
from what ultimately
happened to these officers
and their fall from grace,
that they didn´t always do
their job in the right way,
that there was kind of a fly
by the seat of your pants
type of informant management
process that was going on,
and that very well
could have contributed
to some of the components
where Mr. Ramirez was killed.
Everybody kind of
put a spotlight back
on that Jorge Ramirez case.
-We were all watching the
news and we were like,
"Oh, my God!"
And when they said on
the news, you know,
they were putting
informants in danger,
like that could be what
happened to my brother.
♫♫
-Bakersfield Police
Chief Greg Williamson
addressed concerns about
police corruption today.
-I remember we
were all just mad.
This is exactly what
we´re talking about.
This department is corrupted.
-After the corruption
scandal was revealed,
there were increasing
concerns about how informants
were handled by BPD
officers, like Diaz and Mara.
But despite the scandal,
the department remained
tight-lipped on the details.
-Ramirez´s family is now asking
whether Ramirez was
a police informant
who was leading
officers to Harger
through a deal that was
brokered with the department.
-On August 14, 2013,
a Bakersfield police
officer named Lerry Esparza
searched Jorge´s home,
a legal search that was a
condition of Jorge´s parole.
-My brother just kept breaking
his probation or parole.
I think it was really hard to go
through that short
period of time
of the life he was living,
that he wanted out.
He didn´t want to
go back to jail.
He was about to have a baby
that he wanted to be there for.
Jorge was arrested
by Officer Esparza
and taken into custody.
Mr. Ramirez inquired
that there´s got to be
something he can do for me
to help make his
case go away for him.
He did not want
to go back to jail
and asked if there´s
anything that he could do
to help make this case go away.
My response was that,
if that was something
he was willing to do,
we exchanged phone numbers
and I said to give me a call
and we would move
forward from there.
-I was not part of the
Jorge Ramirez case.
I was never there.
I never met him.
I won´t speak on anybody
else, but for me, personally,
I handled informants for
many years, all the time.
Sometimes they were arrested
and, instead of
being prosecuted,
they became an informant
and they had an obligation
to work off their case.
-In my heart, now, I believe
that my son was trying
to just get this out
of the way, you know.
"Just leave me alone!
Let me live my life!"
-I showed him the
confidential informant packet.
He didn´t want to sign it.
He didn´t want to put
his fingerprint on it,
for fear that that information
might be somehow
given to the public.
-If you put out their name,
saying Joe Blow
was an informant,
helping law enforcement,
the criminal activity around
him and those that commit it
can be very vicious
and vindictive.
-You have a process
established in your agency
that requires registration of
your confidential informants.
Why? Because there has to be
some level of documentation.
-Officer Lerry Esparza
saw enough potential in
Jorge as an informant
that he arranges a covert lunch
with one of BP´s
then-rising stars...
Detective Patrick Mara.
-I was aware that my
partner, Patrick Mara,
had met with and
knew Jorge Ramirez.
Pat himself told me
that he knew him.
Patrick Mara was
a very tough guy.
He was fearless.
He had brass cojones.
-Detective Mara said those were
all handled with informants
and he was just trying
to get his point across
that informants are
utilized all the time.
The information is not leaked.
He was just trying to gain
some trust with Ramirez.
At the end of that meeting,
Ramirez acknowledged
that he felt comfortable
with Detective Mara.
-Mara was intrigued enough
to delay one of Jorge´s
court appearances,
to give him a chance to prove
how valuable his
information could be.
-Ramirez had an
upcoming court date
and, perhaps, that was
the point of leverage
to be able to get the
information that they wanted.
-Patrick Mara says nothing
came out of his plans
to use Jorge as a
narcotics informant.
But in the days
after their meeting,
Jorge thought he could
provide police information
on the whereabouts
of Justin Harger,
a dangerous criminal high
on their most wanted list.
-So, Chief, how was Jorge
Ramirez then killed?
If he, as we understand,
was not armed,
was he shot accidentally?
-Well, I think the problematic
issue in this case is
that Jorge Ramirez placed
himself in this position.
We were responding to the
flash and sound of gunfire
and returning fire
at the same time,
so, it´s quite possible
that Mr. Ramirez was
shot at that time.
-While not a registered
confidential informant
that night, Jorge
behaved as if he was
and probably never
thought he´d lose his life
to the very same police he
was providing information to.
-Informants are human
beings, just like you and me,
and we need to protect them.
-This goes back to the lack
of checks and balances.
-Because of the
decisions that they made,
they failed miserably.
-Justice is what we want to...
I´m waiting to see
the real story.
I´m waiting for
them to expose to us
what really happened that night.
-There´s just so many
turns and twists to it
that you go like,
"Where´s the truth now?
Where does it go from here?"
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
-The discovery of text
messages and phone calls
gave the Ramirez family a window
into what actually occurred
the night Jorge died.
Calls and texts between Jorge
and Officer Esparza began
around lunchtime.
Sometimes Esparza
reaches Ramirez...
-3pm - Esparza texts Ramirez.
3:03pm - Ramirez texts Esparza.
- and sometimes Ramirez
can´t reach Esparza.
-At one point or
another, we figured out
that my son was
talking to an officer.
-I honestly didn´t even
know my brother was talking
with Lerry Esparza
until the text messages.
-The Bakersfield Police
Department had been looking
for Justin Harger in relation
to a shooting investigation
that they were working on.
-Justin Harger... wanted
as an armed shooting suspect.
-Ramirez was was
acting as an informant
and helping police that night.
In broken conversation
and missed calls
and cut-off texts,
but was trying to
lead police to Harger.
And then, just before 10:30,
Jorge Ramirez sends the text
that would set this
tragedy in motion,
two simple words,
letting the police know
the whereabouts
of Justin Harger.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
-Officers say a
standard traffic stop
quickly escalated to a shootout.
Both suspects died on-scene.
-I was very angry at the fact
that they were constantly
calling my son a suspect.
It didn´t sit well with me.
-BPD says Harger began
shooting at the officers
and the officers fired back,
killing both Ramirez and Harger.
-I knew that there was
something else going on,
than just what they were saying.
-The Ramirez family was
searching for answers
when they discovered
mysterious text messages
between Jorge Jr. And
an unknown number.
-Soon as I logged in, I
went to the very first text.
We were so stunned and
surprised that we found this.
-There was a conversation
about where they were,
where they were going,
after the final moments.
-So, as I read more, I
was like, "Holy shit.
He was working with the cops."
Just felt like I just found
all my brother´s
innocence right here.
He wasn´t a suspect.
-I had to be active in
finding out the real truth.
Who holds these
people accountable?
And when?
It just never happens.
Guess what.
They met their match.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
-For three weeks
after his death,
Jorge Ramirez was
portrayed in the media
as a suspect who
could´ve been working
with dangerous and wanted
felon Justin Harger,
a story the police
didn´t correct.
But that version of the
story never sat right
with the Ramirez family.
And it turned out
there were others
with their suspicions as well.
♫♫
-Kiyoshi Tomono knocks
on my dad´s door.
-The Bakersfield Police
Department says...
-Kiyoshi was one of our
prime time news anchors.
He did big stories.
So, if Kiyoshi
came to your house,
this is the real deal.
And he said that my brother was
working as a police informant.
I did not sleep that night.
And I get a call from my sister.
She´s like, "Turn on
the news, right now!"
And I was like, "Why?"
She´s like, "Just turn it on!"
-Bakersfield Police
Chief Greg Williamson...
-I turn it on and it´s
our chief of police.
-Was Jorge Ramirez
Jr. A police informant
and was he acting
in any capacity
for the department
that early morning?
-Mr. Ramirez did
contact an officer
of the Bakersfield
Police Department
and provide information as to
Mr. Harger´s whereabouts
and where he would
be on that evening.
-Kiyoshi circled back
and asked a follow-up,
as any good journalist
would do, and say,
"I just want to confirm that
he was in fact, an informant."
-Was he working in the
capacity of an informant,
leading officers to the
Four Points Sheraton
that night, to Harger?
-He was. We had several
correspondence with him.
They then rallied to make a plan
and set up around the
Four Points Sheraton.
-Ultimately, getting that
confirmation from Williamson
changed everything.
-It wasn´t until that interview
that we learned that
Ramirez was an informant
and working with police.
-Jorge´s family had
been in the dark,
searching for answers
they couldn´t get
from the Bakersfield
Police Department,
answers they felt
the police had.
Look at Mama.
Say, "Hi!" Say,
"Merry Christmas!"
-I had never heard
of another case
where a informant
was injured or killed
the way it happened to him.
-How did this unfold?
If Ramirez was working
with law enforcement
to lead them to their suspect,
a known violent offender,
how did Ramirez end up dead?
-My son, prior to his death,
he started to kind of get
sentimental and started crying.
I said, "What´s wrong, son?"
He goes, "Hey, Dad, you know,
I got to tell you something."
He says, "I done
some stupid stuff."
I said, "What are you
talking about, son?"
He goes, "Yes, Dad.
If something happens to me,
you got to remember this, Dad...
It wasn´t my choice."
♫♫
-Bakersfield has long been known
as a town that
supports its police.
Detective Damacio Diaz
arrived as an outsider
from nearby McFarland, a
smaller, more rural, town.
-I was the first one in our
neighborhood, in our family,
in our church, that
became a police officer.
When I put on the uniform,
there was a lot of pride.
-Diaz was determined to
make his mark on the force.
But it wasn´t always by
following the typical path.
-I wanted to be the kind
of cop that was in the mix.
I didn´t want to be the kind
of cop that was writing tickets
or going to a report call.
Most police officers
will catch the bad guy
with just doing police work.
But there are some criminals
that are not going to be caught
or they´re not going
to be prosecuted
because there´s just
not enough evidence.
I didn´t notice when I
was crossing the line.
So, by the time I went
to a narcotics unit...
it was very clear what
I was willing to do.
Things like go undercover
and buy drugs and sell drugs.
For me, my life changed
when I began to to
live that lifestyle
in these dark areas,
these dark corners.
♫♫
-Young police officers can
be pretty impressionable.
What is important
is how do agencies
put checks and balances in place
to ensure that people are
not going down a bad path?
-I believed, with
all my heart, that,
so long as the end result was
a bad guy going to prison
for a long, long time,
it didn´t matter
how he got there.
I had always been
the kind of guy
who was never afraid
to take those steps.
-As Damacio Diaz and his
partner, Patrick Mara,
rose up the ranks
of the Bakersfield
Police Department,
they quietly kept their
methods under wraps.
-I can tell you that there
are many, many police officers
that I was friends
with, that knew me,
that didn´t know how far
I had crossed the line
because we didn´t
discuss those things.
They were not part of
that small, small group
and Patrick Mara and I were.
Me and Pat Mara
were great friends.
We were very close.
Working with informants was
one of our primary duties.
There are some strict guidelines
that are expected to be followed
and we are trained on how to
go about signing somebody
up to be an informant.
But there are rules and policies
and then there´s doing
things that most cops,
most police officers in America,
have no idea takes place.
-For years, Diaz and
Mara worked undercover
and under the radar.
And then, suddenly,
Damacio Diaz found
himself in the spotlight.
♫♫
When the "McFarland,
USA" movie came out
and it was an instant success,
of course, everybody in
Kern County and Bakersfield
loved the movie because
it put us on the map.
-Diaz.
Diaz.
Diaz.
-I could never imagine that
anyone would be interested
in our story in McFarland.
- Coach.
- It´s not going to matter,
unless...
- Coach.
-It´s a story about
a hard-working family
that comes from nothing,
that have great values.
-Hey, Damacio.
-Look, you wouldn´t understand.
-It´s about Damacio Diaz
and his family of farmworkers
and how he and his brothers
became champion runners.
-He really became like
an overnight celebrity.
The local officer
became this movie star.
He attended the premiere
of "McFarland, USA."
I can distinctly remember the
shot of him on the red carpet,
smiling ear-to-ear.
-You know, this is just
way beyond our dreams,
but we are enjoying it.
We´re enjoying the show.
During that time,
I had a lot of
arrogance about me.
Did it change me?
Yes, it did.
Was it for the better?
I would say no.
I allowed myself
to get caught up
in all of that
Hollywood limelight.
-And, soon, Diaz and the
Bakersfield Police Department
found the spotlight
a difficult place to be.
-How do you do, friends?
Welcome to...
-I think Bakersfield
is most well-known
for the Bakersfield sound,
which is essentially like a
subgenre of country music.
-One of the most popular songs,
of course, with Buck Owens, is
"Streets of
Bakersfield."
-♫ How many of you
that sit and judge me ♫
♫ Ever walked the
streets of Bakersfield? ♫
♫♫
-Bakersfield is like
so many other towns
across the American West...
Migrants and outsiders vying
to stake their claim
and make a home.
♫♫
-Bakersfield was a destination
for migrants during
the Great Depression
that were coming out
from places like Oklahoma
in the 1930s, especially.
-Never had to lose
everything I had in life.
-The Joads, in "The
Grapes of Wrath,"
were portrayed as
struggling and poor
and they´d lost their
land and they were pulled
into California in search
of new opportunities.
-The diversity that we
see in Bakersfield today
is really just an outcrop
of the historical diversity
that we´ve always had here.
Some of my ancestors came
straight out of Oklahoma
to do some of the different
things in agriculture.
We had Basque families
that raised sheep.
We had Italian families that
migrated here years ago.
But there are also
some pieces that
are more sordid
and more shameful
and we don´t always
talk about those,
but they have been here.
♫♫
So, one of the things
that you always get,
with any kind of diversity...
Often, there are
social tensions.
-How do I want to say this?
There are definitely
areas of town
that are known historically
for being areas where
mostly one race lived there.
Oildale?
Pretty much all-white.
-Oildale was a sundown town.
A sundown town is a town where,
if you are brown or Black,
you shouldn´t let
the sun set on you,
meaning you will get killed
in one of these towns
that calls themselves white.
-Historically, whites
controlled law enforcement
throughout Kern County.
In the 1920s, certain leaders
of the Bakersfield
police were revealed
to be Klan members.
And, to some members
of the community,
that legacy informs their
relationship with police
to this day.
Law enforcement has had a
controversial history here
in Kern County.
It had that good old boy
community feel to it.
-From 2009 to 2019,
68 people in Bakersfield
were shot by police.
81% were people of color.
Black people were four times
more likely than a white person
to be shot by a BPD officer.
Latin people were
twice as likely.
-One thing about Kern County is
that many Latino residents say
that they weren´t understood
by law enforcement...
and that was, perhaps,
something that fueled
these confrontations, which
sometimes turned deadly.
-Calahan. Bakersfield
police still investigating
that high-speed chase
along Highway 178
that ended up in
a deadly shooting.
-We were just like, "Oh,
my gosh, another thing?
This is exactly what
we´re talking about."
-At the time,
there were stories of
law enforcement officers
doing whatever
they wanted to do.
There were stories
that I didn´t know of,
where law enforcement
were killing people.
-For the Ramirez
and Silva families,
every headline about another
killing rips open old scars
and adds new members
to their grieving
and growing group.
♫♫
James De La Rosa had just left
a night out with his girlfriend
when he encountered
Bakersfield police.
He was 22 years old
and had never had any
trouble with the law.
-On November 13, 2014,
officers attempted
to stop a Jeep
with James De La Rosa inside.
They said he was
driving erratically.
-They follow him
and, at some point,
on Highway 178, try to
initiate a traffic stop
and that´s when
he starts to flee.
-There was a brief
chase that ensued
and he ended up pulling up
to Mount Vernon and 178.
-It was onto the freeway,
missed one exit, got
off on the second exit,
hit the center divider,
which was a huge impact.
Did he hit his head
on the dashboard?
Did he hit his head on
the steering column?
Was he dazed?
-It´s impossible to know James´
state of mind after the crash.
But the police
released their version
of what happened that night.
-Immediately upon him
exiting his vehicle,
he began behaving aggressively,
charging towards the officers.
He was yelling obscenities.
-There´s something that happens
inside of the
minds of an officer
when you turn on those
red and blue lights
and you´ve got a car
that´s not stopping.
-You have to remember that those
officers had adrenaline pumping.
They were excited.
They didn´t know
what was going on.
-He reached suddenly
for his waistband
and grabbed onto his waistband,
at which point
officers opened fire.
-Mr. De La Rosa was unarmed
and there are witnesses
who says that he was
holding his hands up.
-We don´t have
witness statements
saying that he had raised his
hands in a... to surrender.
-In fact, witnesses
told a different story,
with some capturing
cellphone video on-scene.
-We just seen a guy
wreck and then he got out
and just he got out of the car
and just waved his
hands up in the air
and the cop shot
him in the head.
Yeah, oy.
-They fucking killed him.
-Oh, my God!
He got shot!
-Reaching for a waistband
has basically been used
to justify many shootings
of unarmed people around America
and James De La Rosa
was one of them.
-The more the police repeated
their version of the story,
the more his family questioned
why they would kill someone
who never had a record.
Or a gun.
-James is not a weapon person.
There was no weapons on
him, no weapons found.
-Why would a person
just charge the police?
So, why would a person rapidly,
quickly advance on police
and reach for their waistband?
You know, are they suicidal?
Are they crazy?
-James´ family points to
one possible explanation.
He had recently
lost a lot of weight
and his pants were often loose
and would start to fall down.
-If he reached for
his waistband...
If that did happen,
that if that occurred...
It would only be for James
lifting up his pants.
They stuck with the
story of James got off
and approached the officers
and they murdered him.
-To the police, this was
another justifiable shooting.
But not to the
families of those lost.
Don´t shoot!
Don´t shoot!
Don´t shoot!
-Yet, everyone agreed
that what came next
was completely unjustifiable.
-So this is kind of where the
story takes a very bizarre turn.
-Because of it being an
officer-involved shooting,
they assigned an officer to
stay on guard of the deceased,
which was Aaron Stringer
and his trainee.
-What happens, according
to two documents...
Which was really the chilling
side of the end of the story...
Was one of the officers,
Aaron Stringer, allegedly,
according to his trainee,
manipulates the corpse.
-He moved towards
the decedent´s feet
which had been uncovered
when the sheet was moved
off of the upper torso.
While "joking around"
Senior Officer
STRINGER reached out
and touched the bottom
of the decedent´s feet
and said, "Tickle, tickle."
-Police officers have often
been accused, rightly,
of having a morbid
sense of humor.
You are a firsthand witness
to man´s inhumanity to man.
However, there are certain
actions and behaviors
that are indicative
of a deeper problem.
-Senior Officer STRINGER
turned the decedents head back
to a straight forward
position, two times...
It was at about this time
that Senior Officer
STRINGER said he...
and laughed.
-For them to play with
their deceased bodies,
you know, so disrespectful
and uncalled for.
-He touched them in ways
that he shouldn´t have.
My son was a joke to him.
That was no joke.
-This is somebody we
held dear to our heart,
that
we miss very dearly.
-Aaron Stringer was placed
on administrative leave.
-Officer Stringer may have been
fired or may have just resigned,
but no criminal charges
were filed against him.
It certainly was a black
eye to Bakersfield police.
-Aaron Stringer left the
department in August of 2015.
Stringer did not respond
to our request for comment.
-I think, when you hear a
story about an unarmed man
who´s been shot dead
by police officers
having their corpse
tampered with
and made fun of,
that is a very dark,
very disturbing
thing to know about.
♫♫
-When I sat down and
spoke to Chief Williamson
about some of these
really quite shocking
officer-involved shooting cases
that had happened in his
city, under his watch,
I asked him about one
case in particular...
James De La Rosa.
-Sometimes
things just ha...
Things happen to officers
and they´re put in situations
and they have to make the
split-second decisions
and that´s what why
they´re out there.
-I mean, just going back
to one of those cases,
Mr. De La Rosa was unarmed.
-I don´t know who he is.
Which one is he?
-James De La Rosa.
He didn´t know who he was.
And, to me, at that point,
it was pretty clear
there was something
pretty extraordinary going on
in this part of the country.
-By 2015, as the
number of people killed
in officer-involved
shootings actually increased,
so did the frustration
of grieving families
with law enforcement.
-An officer involved in the
shooting with my brother
was also involved in the
shooting of James De La Rosa.
-Name is Rick Wimbish.
R-i-c-k.
Excuse me.
Last name is W-i-m-b-i-s-h.
-The detail that we would
start to sort of pick out
of these cases was
the repetitiveness
that these officers
were involved in the shootings.
-An officer shot a
man allegedly breaking
into a Subway sandwich shop.
-One officer fired
several shots.
Alderman later died...
-Along with the
increase in killings,
a pattern appeared to emerge.
-Alderman was shot seven times.
-After the initial
police version
was released to the public,
new details often raised
serious questions.
In many cases,
it seemed there was
more to the story.
♫♫
♫♫
-It was about 4:20,
4:30 in the morning.
The police knocked at my door
and
the police said,
"Jason Alderman reached for
his pocket and he´s dead."
And they told me to have a
good day and walked away.
Didn´t tell me how it
happened, where it happened.
Just told me they shot
and killed my son.
♫♫
♫♫
-On August 22, 2015,
two Bakersfield police
officers passed by a Subway
near Olive and Roberts Lane
that they believed a
burglary was happening at.
So, they pulled in and they said
that´s when they saw a
man walking out armed
with what they
believed was a firearm.
-They confront Aldermen,
who´s coming out of
the establishment.
That´s where an officer-involved
shooting happened.
-Jason Alderman was shot
and killed by police
at a Subway
restaurant in Oildale.
-That man, 29-year-old
Jason Alderman,
was pronounced dead
at the hospital.
-The news was hot to
trot that, you know,
Jason had some bumps in the road
and had some criminal history.
-Alderman has a lengthy
criminal record,
including arrest for burglary.
-I mean, I don´t even
think it was six hours
and it was all over the news.
That´s all that played
on the news for days.
-A court search shows
past cases against him
for drugs, alcohol,
battery on an officer,
and vehicle burglary.
-People were just, you
know, thanking the officers
because another criminal´s
out of Kern County.
-I know my son
made a bad choice,
but the police are...
They´re not supposed to be
judge, jury, and executioner.
-Jason Alderman was caught
in the middle of a burglary.
But why was he
killed by the police?
-I was told by the
detectives and the BPD
I needed to contact you in
order to get a coroner´s report.
So, there´s nobody
assigned to this case.
So...
No. My nephew got murdered.
The person accused
of killing him
is the Bakersfield
Police Department.
Alright. Thank you.
-There was obviously
initial calls
for whether or not there
was surveillance video
in that store when
the shooting happened.
Initially, police reported
there was no surveillance video
and they did not have
it, if there was.
-To our knowledge,
there is no video,
has never been video,
and we certainly don´t
have any video in evidence.
-The news report was saying
that the surveillance cameras
were down from 11:00 at night
to like 6:00 in the morning,
which, again, I found odd
because, if you´re a business,
I mean, I would
think, at nighttime,
you´d definitely
want to make sure
your cameras were rolling.
-We went to that Subway and
took pictures of the area
and there was cameras
outside of the Subway.
And then when we
later went back,
they had dismantled the
cameras out of the roof.
-What was the real
story of what happened?
-Whatever evidence is
there should be, you know,
obtained and
catalogued, documented.
So, it´s vitally important that
video evidence, especially,
is handled appropriately.
-So, a woman from Subway
reached out to me.
-She had posted on
Facebook, "The video was on.
I turned it on before I left."
-We did get legal
representation immediately.
His legwork was definitely
to find out what happened.
In fact, there
was police footage
and surveillance
video and it did work
and the police confiscated
it and took it.
Nothing made sense.
So, I was trying to get as much
information as I possibly could.
I asked, I begged
for that video.
I wanted to see it.
-One pattern that
became clear to us
was that information
was slow to be released
and transparency
was hard to come by.
It was sometime right
before Christmas
and I got a phone call
from the police department
and they told me that I
could come to the lobby
and pick up the video, so I did.
♫♫
-Mr. Alderman exited the Subway.
He´s essentially shot dead
pretty much straightaway.
-I was completely flabbergasted.
There´s no way he
saw those officers.
He crouches under the door,
literally almost on his knees,
and then you just see gunshots.
There´s no aid rendered.
Two officers pick Jason up
and put him through
the hole in the glass
and lay him on the concrete
in front of the store.
Like if he was a piece of trash.
♫♫
-I´ve never seen the video.
I´ve seen the
clips from the news
that they made my
son look, you know,
like he deserved it.
I´m not
able to watch that video.
-I remember getting
that surveillance video
and it revealed that the weapon
that police were talking about
was, in fact, a tire iron.
-He did not have a gun.
He was holding a
black BMW tire jack,
that police ultimately
said resembled a rifle,
and that´s why they
believed he was armed.
-I saw he had some type
of an object in his hand.
I was at a distance
that I just couldn´t
tell at that point.
-Part of the equation is how
fast can you pull the trigger
before they have a chance
to pull the trigger?
-At that time, you believed
he was holding a gun?
-Absolutely, yes.
-I think a lot of officers
would´ve seen that
as a weapon, to be honest.
But you can buy yourself
time, if you´re behind cover.
You can buy yourself time,
if you´re making a
good tactical approach.
The problem is, is
that, when you´re
at a point of no return
and you don´t have
time and distance
that allows you
to make decisions,
you are going to have to deal
with the very first
danger that comes to mind.
♫♫
-He was in the process of
either pointing it out the door
or coming out the door with it
about the time I
heard the shots.
-I´m going to call that bullshit
because that is what it is.
If you were to watch
the entire video,
that tire jack is
never pointed up.
It is always on the side of him.
He is carrying it,
but not like a rifle
would be carried,
and it was never
pointed to anyone.
-It follows this pattern that
community members talk about,
which is shooting first
and asking questions later.
-And you don´t really
start looking at it
from a different perspective,
until it does affect you.
You know, I´ve always
heard about it.
I did follow the
Ramirezes´ case,
the De La Rosas´ case.
I followed that, too.
But I thought, "Man,
that just must´ve been
a couple bad officers."
And, as you start
unraveling the layers
and looking at the
pieces of the puzzle,
you start to see
that there´s more
than just a couple bad officers.
-When you ask about what
discipline officers have faced,
you don´t get an answer.
A shooting is ruled justified
and an officer is
returned to work,
but if anybody faces discipline,
it´s very hard to know what
sort of discipline that is
because it´s all
shrouded in secrecy.
There is a single
officer who was involved
in all three of those cases.
I think, for some
people, it´s bad luck,
but for other people,
it may display
a chronic lack of training and
a real culture of impunity.
-Jason Alderman died.
What is this chief
going to do now?
He declared it was justified
and Rick Wimbish
went back to work.
-Rick Wimbish
declined to comment
on his role in these shootings.
But controversy over
policing in Kern County
was just heating up.
A blockbuster story of police
corruption was about to erupt
and shed new light on the
death of Jorge Ramirez.
-Police Chief Greg
Williamson addressed concerns
about police corruption...
- Bakersfield Police Department
detective pleads guilty...
- Admitted his guilt
in federal court today,
in an ongoing scandal.
♫♫
♫♫
-So, I show up to the
police department.
I´d never seen so many
law enforcement officers
from different agencies in
a room like that before.
So many different media
organizations were there.
Walking into that room, it
was a very serious tone.
The public information
officer walked around
and handed us each a packet
that sort of detailed the
indictment and what happened
and everything kind
of blew up from there.
-This morning,
Bakersfield Police
Detective Damacio Diaz,
43, of McFarland, was
arrested in this building.
He was charged in a
16-count indictment
that was returned yesterday
by a federal grand jury.
It charges Detective Diaz
with one count of conspiracy
to distribute and possess
with intent to distribute
methamphetamine,
three counts of bribery,
with nine counts of
attempted possession
with intent to distribute
methamphetamine,
with one count of
illegally disclosing
the contents of a wiretap,
and two counts of filing
false federal tax returns.
♫♫
-Damacio Diaz had
collected drugs
while working for the
Bakersfield Police Department
and, instead of submitting
them into evidence,
he put just a
portion into evidence
and then sold the rest for
his own beneficial gain.
-You can´t make this stuff up.
One side, a celebrated
character in a Disney movie;
and then the fall from
grace as a disgraced officer
who´s basically
trafficking narcotics
onto the streets of Bakersfield.
-He was also working
with this informant,
telling him information
about what law
enforcement was doing,
to help keep him from
being prosecuted.
-Along with local
hero Damacio Diaz,
his partner, Patrick Mara,
was also arrested
in the scandal.
-Another former
detective, Patrick Mara,
admitted his guilt in
federal court today,
working with Diaz in
an ongoing scandal.
-We couldn´t believe it.
I just said, "You know,
how can them guys do
that kind of stuff, you
know, who was watching them?"
I just couldn´t understand it.
-I did what I did and I
was wrong for doing it
and I admit that today.
But I will tell you,
in full disclosure,
that I didn´t know
how to get out.
I had discussed it
with my partner,
Pat Mara, numerous times.
We both knew we had to walk away
and stop this behavior,
but we were stuck.
I was stuck. I didn´t
know how to get out
and I was very scared
about what was going
to happen to me in the future.
But within a few minutes,
after being arrested,
there was such a
relief in my spirit,
in my heart, that it was over.
I was relieved.
I lost focus on who I was
and what my purpose was.
I began to not only
bend the rules,
I began to cross the line.
In very tiny, incremental steps,
but those small steps added up
and, sooner or later, I
was way beyond the line.
Meeting with
informants by myself,
paying the informant
off the books,
whether it was in money
or whether it was in
drugs or in favors,
was a practice
that was standard.
That was normal, for me.
♫♫
-If you fail to
respond to the cues,
if you fail to acknowledge
that there are problems
within your midst,
you´re going to have corruption.
-As the scandal engulfed the
Bakersfield Police Department,
questions surrounding police
conduct over the years
intensified.
If this kind of
corruption had taken hold
among BPD officers and the
informants they managed,
then what really happened
with Jorge Ramirez?
-We realized that Patrick Mara
had actually been involved in
the Jorge Ramirez Jr. case.
-You can draw the conclusion,
from what ultimately
happened to these officers
and their fall from grace,
that they didn´t always do
their job in the right way,
that there was kind of a fly
by the seat of your pants
type of informant management
process that was going on,
and that very well
could have contributed
to some of the components
where Mr. Ramirez was killed.
Everybody kind of
put a spotlight back
on that Jorge Ramirez case.
-We were all watching the
news and we were like,
"Oh, my God!"
And when they said on
the news, you know,
they were putting
informants in danger,
like that could be what
happened to my brother.
♫♫
-Bakersfield Police
Chief Greg Williamson
addressed concerns about
police corruption today.
-I remember we
were all just mad.
This is exactly what
we´re talking about.
This department is corrupted.
-After the corruption
scandal was revealed,
there were increasing
concerns about how informants
were handled by BPD
officers, like Diaz and Mara.
But despite the scandal,
the department remained
tight-lipped on the details.
-Ramirez´s family is now asking
whether Ramirez was
a police informant
who was leading
officers to Harger
through a deal that was
brokered with the department.
-On August 14, 2013,
a Bakersfield police
officer named Lerry Esparza
searched Jorge´s home,
a legal search that was a
condition of Jorge´s parole.
-My brother just kept breaking
his probation or parole.
I think it was really hard to go
through that short
period of time
of the life he was living,
that he wanted out.
He didn´t want to
go back to jail.
He was about to have a baby
that he wanted to be there for.
Jorge was arrested
by Officer Esparza
and taken into custody.
Mr. Ramirez inquired
that there´s got to be
something he can do for me
to help make his
case go away for him.
He did not want
to go back to jail
and asked if there´s
anything that he could do
to help make this case go away.
My response was that,
if that was something
he was willing to do,
we exchanged phone numbers
and I said to give me a call
and we would move
forward from there.
-I was not part of the
Jorge Ramirez case.
I was never there.
I never met him.
I won´t speak on anybody
else, but for me, personally,
I handled informants for
many years, all the time.
Sometimes they were arrested
and, instead of
being prosecuted,
they became an informant
and they had an obligation
to work off their case.
-In my heart, now, I believe
that my son was trying
to just get this out
of the way, you know.
"Just leave me alone!
Let me live my life!"
-I showed him the
confidential informant packet.
He didn´t want to sign it.
He didn´t want to put
his fingerprint on it,
for fear that that information
might be somehow
given to the public.
-If you put out their name,
saying Joe Blow
was an informant,
helping law enforcement,
the criminal activity around
him and those that commit it
can be very vicious
and vindictive.
-You have a process
established in your agency
that requires registration of
your confidential informants.
Why? Because there has to be
some level of documentation.
-Officer Lerry Esparza
saw enough potential in
Jorge as an informant
that he arranges a covert lunch
with one of BP´s
then-rising stars...
Detective Patrick Mara.
-I was aware that my
partner, Patrick Mara,
had met with and
knew Jorge Ramirez.
Pat himself told me
that he knew him.
Patrick Mara was
a very tough guy.
He was fearless.
He had brass cojones.
-Detective Mara said those were
all handled with informants
and he was just trying
to get his point across
that informants are
utilized all the time.
The information is not leaked.
He was just trying to gain
some trust with Ramirez.
At the end of that meeting,
Ramirez acknowledged
that he felt comfortable
with Detective Mara.
-Mara was intrigued enough
to delay one of Jorge´s
court appearances,
to give him a chance to prove
how valuable his
information could be.
-Ramirez had an
upcoming court date
and, perhaps, that was
the point of leverage
to be able to get the
information that they wanted.
-Patrick Mara says nothing
came out of his plans
to use Jorge as a
narcotics informant.
But in the days
after their meeting,
Jorge thought he could
provide police information
on the whereabouts
of Justin Harger,
a dangerous criminal high
on their most wanted list.
-So, Chief, how was Jorge
Ramirez then killed?
If he, as we understand,
was not armed,
was he shot accidentally?
-Well, I think the problematic
issue in this case is
that Jorge Ramirez placed
himself in this position.
We were responding to the
flash and sound of gunfire
and returning fire
at the same time,
so, it´s quite possible
that Mr. Ramirez was
shot at that time.
-While not a registered
confidential informant
that night, Jorge
behaved as if he was
and probably never
thought he´d lose his life
to the very same police he
was providing information to.
-Informants are human
beings, just like you and me,
and we need to protect them.
-This goes back to the lack
of checks and balances.
-Because of the
decisions that they made,
they failed miserably.
-Justice is what we want to...
I´m waiting to see
the real story.
I´m waiting for
them to expose to us
what really happened that night.
-There´s just so many
turns and twists to it
that you go like,
"Where´s the truth now?
Where does it go from here?"
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
-The discovery of text
messages and phone calls
gave the Ramirez family a window
into what actually occurred
the night Jorge died.
Calls and texts between Jorge
and Officer Esparza began
around lunchtime.
Sometimes Esparza
reaches Ramirez...
-3pm - Esparza texts Ramirez.
3:03pm - Ramirez texts Esparza.
- and sometimes Ramirez
can´t reach Esparza.
-At one point or
another, we figured out
that my son was
talking to an officer.
-I honestly didn´t even
know my brother was talking
with Lerry Esparza
until the text messages.
-The Bakersfield Police
Department had been looking
for Justin Harger in relation
to a shooting investigation
that they were working on.
-Justin Harger... wanted
as an armed shooting suspect.
-Ramirez was was
acting as an informant
and helping police that night.
In broken conversation
and missed calls
and cut-off texts,
but was trying to
lead police to Harger.
And then, just before 10:30,
Jorge Ramirez sends the text
that would set this
tragedy in motion,
two simple words,
letting the police know
the whereabouts
of Justin Harger.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫