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Is SLO firing fighting firefighter?

September 8, 2011

John Ryan Mason

City officials appear to have taken the first steps toward terminating the employment of San Luis Obispo firefighter John Ryan Mason, including filing of a formal accusation in the wake of a June 4 bar room altercation in which he was involved, sources have told CalCoastNews.

Mason, 34, is in the midst of a preliminary hearing in San Luis Obispo Superior Court, where he faces charges of assault causing great bodily injury, and battery with serious bodily injury. Mason was off-duty when the incident occurred. He is accused of beating Jory Brigham, 32, unconscious at Pappy McGregor’s Bar & Grill in San Luis Obispo.

Mason is claiming self-defense, and the hearing continued today.

San Luis Obispo City Attorney Christine Dietrick declined to confirm that an accusation had been forwarded to Mason, saying in an email to CalCoastNews that “the city is not at liberty to disclose any document reflecting a charge or disciplinary action against an employee, because such a document would be part of a confidential personnel file.”

Dietrick also noted that the applicable city rule “provides that an employee may respond to a written charge within five business days of being served with the charging document.”

Police reported that the fight between the men occurred following an eight-month quarrel regarding the firefighter’s alleged affair with another man’s wife. Brigham had posted a message on his Facebook page that men should not leave their wives for women with whom they are involved. Brigham is married to the best friend of Mason’s wife.

Mason has returned to work at the San Luis Obispo Fire Department, where he has been on desk duty while the city performs its investigation.


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Here’s an idea. Let’s do a kind of “Dirty Dozen” offer to the two brutes — Mason the firefighter and Sommers the SLO police officer who likes to beat up developmentally disabled people.


Call them in and say, “Here’s our offer. We’ll give you two a chance to redeem yourselves.” Then send them up to north Paso Robles for a minimum of two years and turn them loose on the street gangs up there. See if these two guys can beat the crap out of enough gang bangers to restore the peace.


Do that — they can come back to work with full benefits.


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dirty cops


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What is the relevance?


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After seeing the photo of Brigham’s beated and bloody face and this mug-shot of Mason without a scratch,It just seems more like a beatdown than a fight. When convicted Mason should be fired.


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Why wait for a conviction? He didn’t walk away, he caused great bodily harm to another person, He dishonored the service of firefighters and his government by willfully putting himself in a situation that could have been avoided. Just how low should the bar be for the government of the people be to allow this kind of conduct of their sworn employees? Jeheebus H cristo He would have been fired at Taco Bell!


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If they fire him before the conviction, a platoon of pro union lawerys will sue the city of San Luis for wrongful termination.


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As they should…


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And they should be soundly beaten and charged for the court costs


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platoons of pro temp robot lawyers with lazor eyes, ten feet tall, if your’e going to make stuff up go all out.


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I think it is likely he committed at least one act that would be grounds for termination.


Mason abandoning an injured person when other trained personnel were not present to provide care to the injured person may be enough to terminate Mason’s employment.


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Mary…….they are not obligated to act if they are off duty. Google it.


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Once in awhile it is inspiring to go back and read the IAFF Code of Ethics for fire personnel.


“As a firefighter and member of the International Association of Fire Fighters, my fundamental duty is to serve humanity; to safeguard and preserve life and property against the elements of fire and disaster; and maintain a proficiency in the art and science of fire engineering.


I will uphold the standards of my profession, continually search for new and improved methods and share my knowledge and skills with my contemporaries and descendants.


~~~~I will never allow personal feelings, nor danger to self, deter me from my responsibilities as a firefighter.~~~~


***I WILL AT ALL TIME***, respect the property and rights of all men and women, the (LAWS of my community and my country), and the chosen way of life of my fellow citizens.


I recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of *public faith*, and I accept it as a public trust to be held so long as I am *true to the ethics of the fire service*. I will constantly strive to achieve the objectives and ideals, dedicating myself to my chosen profession–saving of life, fire prevention and fire suppression.


As a member of the International Association of Fire Fighters, I accept this self-imposed and self-enforced obligation as my responsibility.”


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In the words of the Donald, YA FIRED!


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So.


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The SLO City Council also needs to find out why it took five (5) days to arrest Mason through an INDEPENDENT investigation. If any laws were broken the people involved also need to be canned and/or indicted…


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Think about this, if he had failed a piss test for pot, he’d have been canned on the spot.


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Ha Ha Ha love looking at these from time to time. I think its hilarious how many of you who weren’t there or even know these people can convict a man before a jury of his peers does. Wait I know lets get rid of the justice system and just kill anyone accused of a crime. Oh wait then the lawyers wouldn’t be able to make all the money they do. American society has begun to fall apart because of this stupidity, let the system work and also grow up people. Men and women throughout this country get in fights and no one goes to jail you learn not to mess with someone that may be able to jack you up. Sometimes you need to mind your own business


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No problem, I hope he gets a job as a bouncer at a biker bar, people that get in fights have no business working as sworn government employees, period.


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Some of us don’t let the courts do our thinking for us. Some of us remember the inane stupidity of the OJ Simpson verdict.


The fact is, many criminal assaults (such as Cramer the Atascadero police officer who attempted to murder a disabled man) and other crimes never get to court because of weak sock-puppet DA’s like SLOCo Shea.


Your attempt to dismiss the psycho-firefighter Mason’s attempt to murder Brigham are duly noted. It’s the kind of attempt to spin the reality of what SLOFire Department’s “finest” to being just a bar fight used by firefighters who post here and on other local message boards.


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Why would slo want to fire him before he even goes to trial. Where are the facts that all of you claim to have? I have been amazed at the comments that are posted here with no solid evidence. I hope none of you ever get accused of something. With what comments I have read on this whole subject I have decided to convict most of you of being stupid and not living in the real world, wake up.


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In the real world, it isn’t legal to punch someones brains out because “you say” they poked you.


Mason knew Jory was no match for him. No one believes for a stinking minute that Mason felt threatened. Mason sounds like a nasty bully that knocks people off the head with bottles and beats up anyone that doesn’t approve of the fact that he can’t keep his dick in pants.


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You can certainly defend yourself (and often the best way to do that is to get the hell away from the other person) but you cannot give someone a beating like Mason did once they were clearly no longer a threat to your safety.


Mason needs to do some jail time — and I suspect he will.


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I think he should be admitted indefinitely to Patton State. Mason is psycho and should not be let loose to attempt to kill again.


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I’m sure a few sessions of internal prostate massage will do wonders to give him a new outlook on life…


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Unfortunately, he’ll probably be the massager and not the massagee.


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hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah… I know it’s not funny , but I had to laugh . This is the Cindy that I know and love .


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Solid evidence might be that he put himself into a situation that resulted in actions that dishonor the service of the government, caused bodily harm to another person, and had the perception of breaking the law.

Is that enough for you to get canned from a sworn position of authority? Or is your bar set much lower?


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SLO Police Officer Cramer told Atascadero police that Summers was the aggressor, called him “a pussy,” pushed him, and attempted to strike him.


THIS is the same Mantra that all “BADGES” quote when in trouble, even though the opposite is true.


Why wasn’t Mason charged with assault, (attempted murder), when he hit that man over the head with a wine bottle? Who covered up for Mason back then and did Chief of Police Deborah Linden and Charlie Hines, San Luis Obispo Fire Chief know about that incident?

Hopefully, time will tell ! ! !


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I think SLOfire knows more of the facts than we or anyone else does. After all, they helped keep Mason out of jail for five days, giving him plenty of time to destroy evidence and meet with various attorneys, such as the union and city attorneys.


There are enough witnesses, and Mason’s own bragging to his chief the morning after his attempted murder of Brigham, to indicate he is guilty.


If you want a good idea of what “stupid” is, check out the firefighters who have posted here and on other message boards, and have done nothing but make the public even MORE outraged at Mason and his fellow firefighters who are covering up for him. In fact, you can think Mason and the loud-mouthed, arrogant, insulting firefighters who posted here, at the Tribune and elsewhere for measure A/B passing so handily.


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I feel that this is great, but they had better not fire him until he is found guilty of the crime or else they might have a lawsuit on their hands.


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I think the charges should be attempted murder. I mean, it is hard to claim self defense when you attack someone from behind (allegedly) and knock them unconscious (allegedly) and then continue to kick their face while they’re down and out (allegedly).


That sounds like a cowards way of killing to me. His life is over. Period. The rest is just a circus for us.


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IMO, being beaten so severely, far after the victim was unable to defend himself, that it required five metal plates to stabilize the victim’s skull, qualifies for attempted murder. The skull needing the metal plates indicates PsychoMason’s attack could have easily killed Brigham.


The fact that PsychoMason then cowardly deserted Brigham, leaving him there without qualified first-responder help, just made it more likely that Brigham would die.


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I think he has broken enough major FF rules that they have ample reason to fire him.


Here’s a big one: After Mason attempted to murder Brigham, Mason cowardly ran away so he wouldn’t get caught.


I would bet this broke at least one major regulation–abandoning an injured person when there was no other qualified first-responder able to continue emergency treatment and stabilization.


I bet, when this is all over, we’ll find out that Mason didn’t even call 911 to report Brigham as being seriously injured and in need of first-responder care.


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Premeditated assault…imho…Mason wouldn’t “back-off” when Jory told him to “let it go.”


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It’s about time somebody did something about this piece of s#@t!


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I agree. I also think that Karen Velie and CCN had a lot to do with the story getting enough outraged momentum behind it to make the city wake up.


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Seems like we need to know who started the fight etc.


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By Mason’s own word, he is the one who threw the punches. Even is Jory did poke him which isn’t what the witnesses say, Mason over reacted with near deadly force and then was seen kicking Jory when he was on the floor and unresponsive.


Force is generally met with reasonable and equal force. If someone pokes you, you push them away. Maybe you might hit them once but what happened here was criminal assault with serious bodily injury.


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This is something we can agree on.


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Does not matter as a trained professional should be able to defuse the situation and walk away, instead he chose to beat the shit out of a person who himself attempted to stop any aggression before fists flew. Lets not forget Mr. fireman busting Al of Al’s pumping over the head with a bottle also, I suppose that was self defense or play fighting also???


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Therein lies the crux of this problem. I think most people who meet this clown will know in seconds what kind of person he is; however, I wonder if anyone will dig up the past issues and scare the roaches that covered for him the other time(s)? Not likely, but I bet the problem goes pretty deep.


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Try reading the articles on this site and others.


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