Drug Task Force Crew Parks Illegally for Lunch, Goes Ballistic on Tow Truck Driver; Disciplinary Action and Probable Lawsuit Ensues

Hank Sims / January 18, 2012 @ 4:23 p.m.

On Feb. 22 of last year, six police agents working with the Humboldt County Drug Task Force went to lunch at Eureka’s Pho Thien Long restaurant. One of them parked illegally in a private lot. When a tow truck driver came to haul the vehicle away, the DTF agents rose from their lunch and rushed to stop him.

Agent Kevin Stonebarger of the Arcata Police Department assumed leadership of the situation, according to testimony collected later in a confidential APD internal investigation. He quickly antagonized both the tow truck operator and the owner of the private lot.

Assuming what another agent described as a “command presence,” he threatened to arrest one or both of the men while at the same time refusing to provide any police credentials apart from a quick flash of a badge. He shouted at the tow truck driver, or merely “spoke loudly,” depending on whose testimony you trust — in any case, enough to draw the attention of passers-by.

According to the tow truck operator — Leroy Hoffman, owner of Humboldt Towing — he asked Stonebarger to calm down and lower his voice. Stonebarger accused him — sarcastically, presumably — if he was making fun of his hearing disability. (He has no such documented disability.) Stonebarger threatened the owner of the lot — Kevin Sweet of Partrick’s Candy — with jail, because Sweet pulled out his phone and started recording the incident.

January 2, 2011: We found the below composite article ("Citizen, police accounts differ in two incidents") while looking for reports online about Arcata cop, Don Arminio.

Just in the past two weeks, people have told us their personal experiences of being hurt and violated by aggressive, violent, and illegal behavior from Don Arminio, a young war veteran-turned cop.

The first account here is about how Arcata Officer Don Arminio hit a pedestrian in his car- then, to distract and cover-up, the Arcata Police made criminals of the victim and her friend, who was upset about what happened.

Drawing people out of their homes and then arresting them is a tactic that the Arcata Police have been consistently using on people.

Search warrant folly: An open letter to Paul Gallegos

[It's in the first 11 minutes.]

http://archive.kmud.org/mp3/kmud_101210_180000newspm.mp3

I recently was pulled over by the Arcata Police Dept. The two officers approached my vehicle and asked me to open my door. I complied but did not unlock the rest of the doors. While the officer on the driver's side was talking to me about why he stopped me, he unlocked the doors. I re-locked them, and he said " leave the doors unlocked!"

A 50-something year old disabled man woke up getting his ass kicked by the Arcata Police during their recent sweeps at Anarchists' Field. His service dog was taken & is scheduled to be murdered after she defended her master from this sudden violent ambush.

The man is called Tweety, after a similar sounding part of his surname. The dog is named Dirtnap. She likes to roll around in dirt. I was unable to find any info of the incident online.

Assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons are being supplied by a large corporation (Target) and the DA. TAZERS Tazers give off a 50,000 volt blast. EPD is expecting to have a new batch of tazers soon. The body count in North America now stands at 287 after having been tasered with this "less than lethal" device. 15 Canadians and 272 Americans since 2001, 9 dead in August of this year alone. Tazers in Humboldt have been used, for instance, on a person sneaking into a concert at the Eureka Muni and people following police orders (to walk away) in Arcata.