Between 1965 and 1987 one of the most respected members of the San Rafael Police Department was Bart Stinson. He is famous for his outstanding police work, mild manners and his humor.
While going through some memorabilia Tony Hoke gave me I found a newspaper article about Bart and his retirement in 1986.
I’m posting the article so you can learn a little more about this famous SRPD Officer.
The article is from the Marin Independent Journal and is dated February 25, 1986. The article is found on pages A1 and A10. If you click on the image, it will enlarge so you can read it.
This former Officer joined SRPD after I retired so I didn’t know him but I thought readers might want to know what happened.
Ex-San Rafael cop found dead in jail cell - Marin Independent Journal
By Richard Douglas, Captain (Retired) with editing help from Gene Pennington, Captain (Retired).
What happened next was a stroke of luck. Louis Montanos was the sheriff.
(This part is kind of extraneous but thought it was kind of funny. I first met Louie when I was working as a boat builder in Sausalito (Nunes Brothers Boat Builders). He was the chief of police in Sausalito and was very good friends with the guys who owned/operated the boat building shop. Especially, John Roacha. John was one of those of rough and tumble kind of guys. He took no gruff but gave out plenty. One day, we had two guys living in their boat, in our harbor, getting drunk, who started causing everybody else in the harbor a bad time. John called the police and, as it turned out, all the cops (probably only one on duty) were busy. So Louie himself answered the call. By the time he got there, the two guys had gone back down into the cabin of their boat. Louie went up to the cabin door and asked the guys to come out. They refused. Louie kept asking them to come but they kept refusing. When John saw what was going on, he climbed on board and went down into the cabin. He grabbed one guy and pushed him through the door and then told the second that if he didn't get his ass outside, he would kick him outside. The other guy meekly went along. Both guys were then taken into custody for drunk in public and John had to go along with Louie to protect him from these big bad men.
Back to the story. Louis Montanos had an Undersheriff who I think accepted the job as Chief of Police in Ross. Whatever the reason, that meant that the Under Sheriff's job was open. Louie's term of office was about to expire soon and he would have to run for reelection, for another 4 years. Larry Kelly, being a young and ambitious fellow, contacted Louie and, as the story goes, said, "I'll give you $20,000 if you appoint me as your undersheriff. Then, after you win the election (Louie had won the last 5 elections in a row by landslides) you serve for two years, retire and appoint me as your successor Sheriff. Louie thought that was a good deal so he accepted. Whoopee. SRPD finally got rid of Larry Kelly.
Well, for the first time in many years, Louie finally had some competition running for Sheriff. A Captain from San Anselmo PD thought he had a chance. According to some of the wags around town, Louie was so sure of himself, he didn't really campaign that hard. As it turned out, the Captain from San Anselmo PD, Al Howenstein, was elected and Larry Kelly went back to Campbell to get a job with the sheriff down there.
So Bill Bielser and the City Council had to select another Chief. Again, someone from the outside. This time they selected a Captain from Stanford College Police (note: I think Frank Benaderet came directly from a Pinole PD). His name was Frank Benaderet. He too was a nice enough guy. Probably much more fair minded than Larry. It was about 1976-77 when he took over. He was not a Bielser man as was Kelly. In fact, far from it. Right from the outset, there seemed to be a lot of friction between them. But that story is for Frank to tell. All I will tell you, at this point, is that Bielser forced Frank to retire (disability no less) along with assistance from the Independent Journal and the City Council. I will also tell you he sued them all but I don't know what the outcome was. He will have to tell you.
Under Frank as Chief, I had an easier time. I was promoted to Lt. in 1978 and received the title of Shift Administrator. I was no longer the negotiator for the Police Officer's Assn. Consequently, my relationship with Bielser was not as turbulent. He had someone else he was picking on now. After a year or two, a Captain’s position became available. There were 5 Lieutenants vying for that position. I remember two of them but not the other two. The two I remember were Ken Homen and Jerry Doane. Bill Bielser insisted that he conduct the test himself and that Frank Benaderet was not to have anything to do with it. There were three parts to the test. The first was an interview with members of the citizens of San Rafael; next was an oral board by administrative members of other departments; last was an interview by Bielser himself, along with his newly named assistant. After each test, the numerical score ascribed to each contestant was posted on the bulletin board. I was in last position, after each test. The officer who was in first place after each test was Jerry Doane. After all tests were administered and scored, the City Manager made his announcement. Jerry Doane was to be the next Captain. One day later, Jerry resigned saying he felt he no longer could work for an organization which was so dishonest and selfish. At that point, Bielser said he was unable to make a selection from the remaining contestants and said he was going to throw the whole mess back into the hands of the City Council. The Council then scheduled appointments with the remaining lieutenants. Each of us were then interviewed by the council. When they were through, they passed the information on to the City Manager.
I was working as the graveyard Administrator (nothing but a glorified shift Sgt.) and the next morning, Bill Bielser came in about 5:00 AM. He asked what time Ken Homen came to work. (Ken was the day shift Administrator) I told him about 7:15 - 7:30 AM. He then told me that the Council had selected me as the new Captain but I was not to tell Ken. He wanted to tell Ken himself. (I thought it kind of strange that he would want to break the news to Ken himself but was unconcerned for the other two candidates). When Ken came in I told him to go right upstairs as the City Manager had something to tell him. Ken suddenly beamed. He probably thought he was to be told he was to be promoted. When he came back down from the City Manager's office, he said he was sick and was going to go home. But, like a good trooper, he finally got over it and congratulated me.
As soon as Benaderet retired, the Council needed to appoint a new Chief. This time, however, was different. They decided to stay in house. Not really, but as close to it as you can get. There were three Captains at this point. Gerry Souza, Chuck Brobeck and me. We were all asked to compete as well as a previous Captain, Hank Ingwersen, who had left San Rafael to become Sheriff Al Howenstein's Undersheriff. The competition wasn't even close. Hank won hands down.
When Hank took over, I was assigned back to my old job as the Investigative Division's Commander/Administrator. I stayed in that capacity until I retired on 12/1/1985.
One last little foot note. When I retired, Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., then headquartered in Novato with three multi storied office buildings in San Rafael, hired me to be their Security Manager. I stayed with them for 7 years until they were bought out by Alliance Insurance Co. of Germany. Then in February of 1994, I got a call from Dave Johnson, who was the Sergeant in charge of Adult Investigations, who told me that Jack Needling needed to undergo surgery on his back and that he was their only Fraud Investigator. Dave asked me since I had worked Fraud for many years, if I could come back to work for 3 or 4 months, while Jack recuperated from his operation. He said the department did not have a trained fraud investigator and needed someone who could come in, take over the case load and hit the ground running. I answered, "Three or four months. No problem." The next thing I hear is that Jack's doctor told him, "I'm sorry. I can't let you go back into police work because if someone grabs you by the neck, you'll be paralyzed from the neck down." My 3 or 4 months stretched into three years. I finally retired, "for good" in February of 1997.
One last note about Larry Kelly. After I was retired, I needed something from Costco in Novato. After walking around the store for a couple of minutes, I saw Larry Kelly and his wife Sandy. When we came together Larry said he was sorry for what he had to do to me when he was first hired but he had his orders from Bill Bielser. He said that one of the conditions, under which he was hired, was to find a way to fire me or get me to resign without putting the city in jeopardy of being sued. He said he wanted the job, didn't know me, so it would be OK to accept the conditions. He then said that after he got to know me, saw how resilient I was, and realized that I was not going to do anything wrong, he sort of wanted to forget the conditions. He asked if I would forgive him. I told him that there was nothing to forgive. Going back to graveyard was not the worst thing that has ever happened to me and as for taking the test for captain, it was just delayed a little. So no one was hurt and I didn't hold anything against him.
I think that is the end. If I remember anything else that is newsworthy, I write an addendum.
Note: This concludes Dick’s series of articles titled “My Experience with San Rafael”. Thanks Dick!
Pictured above are Dick Douglas being congratulated by Retired Chief Joe Brusatori at Dick’s retirement party in 1985.
Pictured above are Jerry Green, Dick Douglas, Phil Green, Mike O’Brien, Gary Frugoli, Larry Kelly, Woody Hoke and Ron Averiette. Picture was taken at the San Rafael High School Gym at a charity donkey basketball game.
By Richard Douglas, Captain (Retired) with editing help from Gene Pennington, Captain (Retired).
Bill received some criticism for offering the Police Association something without first checking with the council. Bill was not too happy with that so I got on his bad side.
Anyway, as I said earlier, I received a new title of Chief Criminal Investigator. I was assigned two other detectives, an Identification Officer and a secretary. (My secretary was the mayor’s sister in law. Her name was Christine Rossi). When Joe Brusatori announced his retirement date, the City manager searched for what expertise was available in other police departments and found a young, ambitious guy who was a Captain in Campbell PD. His name was Larry Kelly. Since Joe Brusatori was not yet retired and Larry Kelly was ready to start working, he was hired as a Captain so he could come in and familiarize himself to his new staff. On his first day, Joe took him around the department and introduced him to all the office staff. When he came into my office, Joe said, "And this is Dick Douglas, our Chief Criminal Investigator." Larry then said, "Oh yes. I've heard of you." I stood up, extended my hand and said, "All good I hope." Kelly said, "Nope", turned and walked out the door without shaking my hand.
A few months earlier, I had been nominated to attend the FBI School in Quantico, Virginia. The honor was bestowed on me for helping the local FBI Agents solve a couple of their Federal Crimes. (What they were is of no consequence but the FBI was able to recover many furs and some money, which had been stolen from interstate transport. (Actually, my information came from a couple of the teenagers who I let ride around with me when I was a patrolman) Chief Brusatori approved my attendance and passed the question on to the Council for their approval. The council also approved.
After Larry took over as the actual Chief, he learned that I was slated to attend the FBI School. He called me into his office and told me he was denying my attending the school. His excuse was that he would not allow any of his officers to attend any school without his having attended first so that he could evaluate it for its usefulness in police work. This was in early December and I was slated to fly to the school in early January.
To say that I was mortified would be an understatement. I called Joe Brusatori on the phone and told him about the turn of events. Joe said, "Don't worry. I'll take care of it." Joe then called someone on the council and the next thing I know, I received a request from the council to be at the next council meeting. I showed up and the first thing on the agenda was a question from the mayor, whether I was ready to attend the FBI School. I explained that Chief Kelly had canceled my going. The mayor then turned to Kelly and asked if this was true. He said it was. They then wanted a reason. Kelly told them that he did not want any of his officers to attend a school until he had a chance to attend so that he could evaluate it. The mayor then said that he and the council has enough faith in the FBI that any school they put on would be worthwhile for any law enforcement officer to attend. He then said, "Besides. We have already approved this school and we do not appreciate you countermanding our approval. Needless to say, I found myself in deeper doo doo.
I then attended the school. Towards the end, (it was three months) I received a phone call from Kelly. He called to tell me he was making some changes in the department and that the day I got back I was to go to graveyard as the shift supervisor. He also told me that he no longer wanted a sergeant in charge of investigations, he wanted a captain. So he would be conducting a test to see who would head up the bureau. I asked him if I would be eligible to take the test, since I had been serving in that capacity for a number of years and he said no. To qualify, one had to be a lieutenant.
So back to graveyard I went with Gene Pennington, Tom Smiley, Art Meyers, Mike Miller, Tony Hoke and Woody Hoke. And I can't forget our dispatcher, Jim Wright. What a crew we were. I was left there for the remainder of Kelly's career as Chief of the SRPD.
Pictured above is Dick’s Graveyard Shift. Picture was taken in the 1970s. Pictured in the back row, left to right: Art Myers, Woody Hoke, Mike Miller, Jim Wright and Tom Smiley - Front row, left to right: Dick Douglas, Gene Pennington and Tony Hoke
Pictured above, from left to right, are Joe Leonard, Dick Douglas and Ken Homen. All members of the SRPD Pistol Team. Picture taken during the Captain Weber Memorial 7th Annual Stockton Police National Pistol Championships.
Pictured above with some recovered stolen property, from left to right, are Officer Dick Douglas and Sergeant Tom Stephenson.
By Richard Douglas, Captain (Retired) with editing help from Gene Pennington, Captain (Retired).
So now that I have informed you that I had been selected to be the negotiator for the Police Officer's Association, I should tell you a little about the politics of the PD. We had a mayor and 4 or 5 council members. One of these members was a retired contractor who worked hard all his life. His name was Fred Jensen. He was the most tight fisted person on the council. He did not like to spend his own money and likewise, did not like spending the taxpayer's.
One day, while I was still a beat cop, I received a call to go to a home on 5th Ave., just beyond H Street. Low and behold it was a home next door to where Fred Jensen lived. I talked with the complainant and he told me he saw Fred Jensen walk out of his house with a rifle in his hands and shoot out the windows of his car, which was legally parked, in the street, in front of Fred's home. The complainant stated that he has had numerous arguments with Fred, over parking in the street in front of Fred's home. Fred wanted to save the space for his friends.
I went to Fred's home and contacted him. I asked him if he had a rifle and he said he did not. I told him his neighbor told me he saw you carrying one outside. He said that it was not a rifle, it was a BB gun. I said that must be a powerful BB gun to shoot holes in a car's windows. He said it was a pump and he could pump up a very powerful shot. I asked him if he still had it and he said he did, that it was there in the closet. I asked if I might look at it and he said sure and opened the door. He took it out and gave it to me. I then told him I was going to confiscate it as evidence of a crime. I then took it back to the PD, placed it in evidence and wrote my report, asking for a warrant to be issued. One was issued and Fred surrendered himself, was tried and convicted. He then had to make restitution to his neighbor and pay a fine. Fred didn't like me too much after that.
About 1966-67, the council appointed a new city manager, by the name of Bill Bielser. Bill was a likeable guy but if you ever got on his bad side, he was tough. During one budget session, I was negotiating with Bill for better pay, working conditions and benefits and he would not budge on a pay increase so we pushed for a better retirement package. The one we had was the State's plan of 1/2 pay at age 55. We also were able to collect Social Security at age 65. The California Highway Patrol had a much better plan which we envied.
When Bill Bielser balked at more money we turned our direction to retirement. Bill finally agreed to give us the CHP plan but we had to give up the Social Security Plan. (The City had to pay $45.00 a month for each of their employees into the Social Security plan. (The employee matched the contribution.) [Editor’s Note: I don’t know if we actually agreed to the CHP plan but we ended up belonging to the Marin County Employees' Retirement Association which was created when the County Employees' Retirement Law of 1937 was passed. Those of you involved in contract negotiations can post the correct information in a comment to this article.] Every member of the city had to vote to drop Social Security, there had to be a majority of employees voting to drop and we had to wait one year before it would take effect. We encouraged the rest of the city employees to vote with us because it meant a better retirement plan for the miscellaneous employee. The vote was taken; we achieved a majority of employees so now it was time to take the plan to the City Council. Don't forget. They (City Council) have the purse strings. We were all there that night, listening to the city manager present our case to the council. He said we had met and conferred and we were all in agreement that the better retirement packages were in order. That's when Fred went into action. He called the police department every name he could think up and eventually convinced two other council persons to reject the plan along with him.
One of our officer's father was a council member. The next day we had an informational picket line outside saying the council was unfair. The press had a field day with "Son pickets Father". I think it was a year or so later when we got a better retirement package.
Department inspection in back parking lot of San Rafael PD taken around 1976. Shown is graveyard shift. Pictured above from left to right, 1st row are Sgt. Dick Douglas, Cpl. Gene Pennington, Officers Art Myers and Woody Hoke, back row, Officers Tony Hoke and Mike Miller, back to the camera is Capt. Hank Ingwersen and to his right, Chief Larry Kelly.
End of Part II
By Richard Douglas, Captain (Retired) with editing help from Gene Pennington, Captain (Retired).
Please note that Dick’s article was sent to me in May but it is just now being published. Sorry for the delay.
May 1, 2009
My name is Richard A. Douglas, AKA Dick Douglas. My ID number is 111, which I believe is the second oldest issued number, still alive. Lou Foster (#106) has the oldest number who is still alive and kicking. Jim Carlton (#110) may also still be alive but I haven't seen him in 15 - 20 years. He moved to Oregon and became a sheriff in Josephine County. When the numbering system was first started, about 1970, Joe Brusatori was given the very first number, #101. I will try to name as many of those old timers as I am able (not necessarily in numerical sequence) who received numbers following 101. There was Capt. Tom Stevenson, Lt. Jay Fletcher, Lt. Link Borba, John Rosentangle, Jim Carlton, Earl Christensen, Lou Foster, Carl Selby and Ray Bleasdale.
I was married with two daughters in late 1958 and was attending College of Marin in my final year. My wife's income was the money we had coming into the home and I needed a job very badly. I saw that SRPD was going to have a test to select two or three officers from that test. The Chief at that time was Frank Kelly (photo on blog cover). When the test was completed, two officers were selected - Jim Carlton and Leo Schwab. That was in January or February of 1959. In June, The department called me and Jerry Souza in for additional interviews. From those interviews, Jerry and I were both selected.
I started work at 4:00 PM on 6/15/59 because I had two more weeks of college to complete to get my AA Degree. (After I graduated I went straight to graveyard for the next 6 years) Jerry started at 12:00 Midnight, on 6/16/59. Even though I took the test to become an officer while Frank Kelly was alive, in November of 1958, there was another election and this election proved successful for Charlie Chiesa, who had been a lieutenant under Kelly. So Chiesa was the Chief who actually hired me.
That election may seem strange to some but in those days there were still two cities who still elected their chief of police. One was in the East Bay and San Rafael was number two. When Chiesa retired, the City Council wanted to have control of their chief so they made a deal with Joe Brusatori. They needed to have approval from the voters to do away with the elected chief and asked Joe Brusatori if he would support the vote and he agreed. Joe was then appointed to fill out the rest of Charlie Chiesa's term and he served until his retirement in 73-74. The council then appointed the first chief from outside the department. He was another Kelly. This time it was Larry Kelly. More on Larry later.
My FTO (in those days they were not called FTO's. They simply called them training officers) was John Kingston aka Whitey. Whitey stayed with the department for a number of years before he decided he could make more money as an investigator for the Marin County DA's Office. About seven days onto the job, just after 4:00 PM when we started our patrol, we got a call to respond to a home on Belle Ave. because of unknown suspicious circumstances. It was then I experienced my first homicide/suicide. A school superintendent shot his wife and then committed suicide while their two boys listened upstairs. I also got a chance to witness first hand, how callous newspaper reporters are. At midnight, they were calling people connected to the school system, waking them and asking how they felt about their superintendent shooting his wife and committing suicide. Anything to juice up a story.
In those days there were no separate positions for dispatcher on the swing or grave shifts. If you were hired as an officer, you were also expected to fill in as a dispatcher, on occasion. I forget the name of the officer who was the dispatcher on swing shift but he was one of the most powerful officers on the department because he made out the schedule and you were not allowed to argue with him.
On the graveyard shift, Roy Conyers was the dispatcher most of the time. However, on occasion, Roy would man a beat and handle it very well. I remember on one occasion, we had a near riot at the King Cotton Restaurant. We were always having problems at two teen age hang outs in town. One was the King Cotton and the other was (I believe Foster's) Drive Inn. Each at opposite ends of town. Anyway, Roy was working the beat where King Cotton was located and the dispatcher told him that the rest of the department was on the way. We heard him go out of service there and before the rest of us could get there, Roy had the situation in hand and was bringing one out in hand cuffs. We asked him what he did to calm every one down and he said all he ever does in those situations, is to find the biggest guy there, walk up to him and cold cock him on the spot. He said that everyone else then gets real meek and quiet.
During my 6 years on the graveyard, I made many friends with the younger generation. There were about 8 of these young toughs who hung out till about 2:00 AM. When I found them loitering on my beat, I would pick them up and let them ride around with me while I spot lighted buildings. We would talk about everything from soup to nuts. They were not what I would call thieves or crooks, but just teenagers (they actually were 18, 19 and 20 year olds) with nothing else to do. I became friendly with them and before long, when a crime occurred in town, these guys would come to me and tell me who did it. I passed the information onto Nick Giampoli or Tom Cheetham and we had another case solved. (For your information, Tom Cheetham was the Chief Criminal Investigator and Nick Giampoli was his assistant) The act of driving these young guys around in my car soon became a no, no. When the City Manager found out, he put a stop to it. He was concerned of my exposing the city to excess liability. Eventually however, the city sanctioned "The Ride Along Program".
During this time there was another officer on the department named Richard "Dick" Camper. He was the fraud investigator. In those days, the biggest fraud problem was housewives stretching their budget by writing NSF (Non sufficient funds) checks. Dick decided he had seen enough of law enforcement to last him for the rest of his life, so decided to move on to something more lucrative. (When I started law enforcement, my salary was $365 a month) Partly because I had assisted our Chief Criminal Investigator and partly because no one else wanted to be stuck with an office job, trying to get housewives to make restitution, I was appointed to fill the Fraud Investigators slot.
During this time period, Nick Giampoli (he had been a lieutenant) had opened his own business. He and his wife started a Telephone Answering Service. Nick also had aspirations of becoming the next Chief. He decided he didn't need to go to work so used up all of his sick time and vacation time. So that made me Tom Cheetham's assistant.
On Labor Day, 1965, at 3:00 AM, two ex-cons from San Francisco, decided they were going to rob the Mission Inn (Bar & restaurant) on B St. in town. The owner was Leo Albertoni and his bartender was Mario Ferrari. Mario tried to run out the back door and was shot in the back. He died at the scene. As it would happen, Tom Cheetham was on vacation and out of town. So I was called. This is one of those cases where the blind led the blind. I had no training in homicides, in fact no training in criminal investigations what so ever except fraud. Well, guess what? I got lucky.
There was once an officer who worked for SRPD who thought he could get a better deal by switching to the Marin County Sheriff's Office. He happened to be on duty that night and, when he heard the broadcast of the shooting go out on the air, he took a position at the entrance to US 101, on 2nd St. He saw a car about to leave town, so stopped it to see where they had been. They said they had to go to the bath room so decided to pull off the road. They found a deserted spot and peed.
Matt took their names and addresses and later turned them over to me. As it turned out, they were living in a "Half Way" home in San Francisco. They had been convicted of some crime and were released on parole and living in the half way house. After a couple of days I went to San Francisco and contacted the two. One was a male, the other a female. At first they stuck to their original story but later, when I threatened to have their parole revoked they agreed to tell me what really happened.
I then called Ernie Zunino (he was a deputy DA in those days) and he agreed I could bring the two over for a taped interview. During the interview they both told a story of being threatened by two paroled ex convicts that if they didn't assist them they would be in for some big trouble. They were to drive the two to the Mission Inn, let them off about midnight wait for them to come out later and then drive them back to San Francisco. They went on to say that when they heard the shots they panicked and took off. They never went back. They then identified the two as Jack Gorman and Mark Osuna. We had a warrant issued and later arrested them. So I looked good as a homicide detective when all the glory should have gone to Matt Conlin. I was even honored as Police Officer of the Year by the Ross Valley Kiwanis Club. Being good is one thing but being lucky is even better.
From that point on, my career sort of blossomed. Within 5 years I was given the title of Chief Criminal Investigator. Joe, who was the Captain and Chiesa, the Chief, wanted to make me a lieutenant but since I had been elected as the Police Officers Association to be their negotiator for salary, working conditions and benefits, I couldn't accept a promotion, under the table, when we (Association) had been fighting for some time to only promote those people who could pass a test. Besides I argued, Lou Foster had been the Chief Juvenile Officer for longer than I had been a detective and if anyone was to get a promotion under the table, it should be he. After more haggling, we agreed to split the extra money Nick Giampoli's lieutenant's position offered, giving half to Lou and half to me. We became sort of super sergeants.
End of Part I – Parts II through IV will be published one a week.
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