Former Compton Mayor Omar Bradley was born in Compton on May 9, 1958, in a family of eight kids. He attended Centennial High School and matriculated at a couple of state colleges, at which he majored in education and acquired credentials to embark upon his career of teaching English at Hosler Junior and Lynwood High schools. He married Robin, had a son and a daughter and four grandsons and four granddaughters. Then he entered politics.
Bradley was elected city councilman for Compton’s 1st District in 1991, and two years later, he won a close election to succeed the legendary late Mayor Walter R. Tucker III. He served two terms as mayor. He handled Compton’s business and, despite a couple of glitches, his constituents were happy with him as mayor. And the mayor was happy with his city administration — until midway through his second term he concluded he had to get rid of the Compton Police Department.
Bradley said he was constantly troubled by Compton’s high crime rate and the police department’s ineffectiveness in lowering it. But the problem hit him dead in the face when he came to regard the police department as his city’s primary criminal element.
According to a 95-page report of a confidential investigation conducted by the Internal Affairs Division of the Compton Police Department from Sept. 8, 1999 and issued on Nov. 4, 1999 under the title of “Investigation of Missing Narcotics from the Narcotics Vault,” Bradley said he had no choice but to disband the city’s police force and contract with the County Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement services in Compton.
Mayor Bradley said he ordered the investigation by Internal Affairs because a Long Beach police officer, Bryant Watts, was shot by a gun that was later found to have been in the possession of the Compton police. While the investigation originally focused on the inventory of guns at the Compton Police Department, it quickly refocused on missing drugs, such as cocaine, PCP and marijuana that should have been destroyed at a Long Beach Burn Station.
However, the report states those same drugs were hidden at the Compton Police Station long after the dates appear on ledgers indicating that the drugs in question had in fact been destroyed.
The investigation also detailed how large quantities of drugs were seized by the Compton Police Department and how drug cases that should have been prosecuted were rejected by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The report singles out a specific case in which 60 kilos of cocaine had been seized by the Compton police in 1992, as well as property such as cars, motor homes, vans and other valuables.
However, upon rejection of the cases by the district attorney, the properties were kept by the Compton Police Department. Moreover, the report states: “the drugs that were seized cannot be produced and their destruction was never recorded by any official Burn Station. However, court papers ordering the destruction of these drugs were indeed found.” (So, where did the dope go?)
What the investigators noted as even more shocking is that when the Compton Police’s Internal Affairs Division forwarded a case regarding these matters to the district attorney against then-Compton Police Chief Hourey Taylor — whose locker they said contained two kilos of the missing 60 kilos taken from the 1992 drug bust — the case was rejected by Deputy D.A. Kerry White. This is the same deputy D.A. who prosecuted Bradley.
It is interesting to note that the D.A. began prosecuting Bradley and then-City Manager John Johnson, Councilman Amen Rahh and Councilwomen Delores Zurita and Yvonne Arceneaux during the same month the Internal Affairs Division concluded its investigation of Police Chief Taylor and forwarded the results to White for prosecution: November1999.
According to page 49 of the report, Taylor told the investigators that the 60 kilos of dope were turned over to the FBI. The FBI told investigators they had no record of it. The investigation report includes copies of the logs which people must sign before they enter the Compton Police Department’s narcotics vault. It shows that Chief Taylor entered the vault 2,700 times between 1992 when the drugs went into it and 1999 when they were reported missing. It also shows that Percy Perrodin, Mayor Eric Perrodin’s brother and a former Compton Police Department captain whom the mayor wants to lead the Compton Police Department he so desperately tried to reinstate, signed into the vault on pages 44 and 45. Officer Barclay, whom I’m told is Mayor Perrodin’s election campaign treasurer, signed into the narcotics vault on pages 41, 42 and 45.
As we all know, Mayor Eric Perrodin was a Compton cop and is now a fully functioning assistant district attorney. He is seeking re-election in April, and the district attorney is set to retry Bradley for misappropriation of funds, a conviction the state Appellate Court has already overturned.
“Almost everybody mentioned in this report worked on Eric Perrodin’s campaign against me,” Bradley said, “And he has had only one item on his agenda since he’s been in office — to get the Compton Police Department back in business. Why is that?” Bradley asked. “I got rid of them, and crime has gone down since they left.”
Reginald Wright was a patrol partner with Mayor Perrodin when he was a Compton cop. Wright posted his picture, along with a nasty comment, on Bradley’s Facebook page when he learned Bradley’s conviction had been overturned. He wrote: (The spelling and punctuation are his) “Hate to see anybody in jail these Days, but hope you don’t plan to run for Mayor again now you no longer a convicted felon!!! Probably wouldn’t had this problem if you wouldn’t mess with the C.P.D. For those who thank i’m hateing on him, he accused me of stealing a Gun that was used to shoot a LBPD cop, when he knew it wasn’t true he was just tryin to make a deal with the D.A.!! I’ll unfriend myself.”
Wright is right. Bradley wouldn’t have had the problem if he hadn’t “messed” with the Compton Police Department.
creolemommie posted at 12:20 pm on Thu, Feb 21, 2013.
It will be interesting to see the final vote tallies in this election. Compton residents have a lot to consider this election year.