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Judge orders SLO prosecutors to provide records, again

October 15, 2019

Chief Deanna Cantrell

By KAREN VELIE

Judge Timothy Covello granted a motion on Tuesday to compel prosecutors to provide phone records and other evidence in the case against a couple swept up in the search for San Luis Obispo Police Chief Deanna Cantrell’s misplaced gun. [Cal Coast Times]

Cantrell left her pistol in the bathroom of the El Pollo Loco restaurant on July 10. Following up on an inaccurate tip that Cheyne Orndoff had taken the chief’s gun from the restroom, officers conducted a warrantless search of Orndoff and Vanessa Bedroni’s home.

Police failed to find the chief’s gun during the search, but arrested them for child neglect because of a dirty home and paraphernalia found in the couple’s bedroom.

Peter Depew and Jason Dufurrena, attorneys for the couple, filed motions for the chief’s and other officers’ cell phone records and video recordings in an attempt to verify the chief’s account of the incident.

In an attempt to block the release of the chief’s cell phone records, San Luis Obispo administrators hired two private attorneys, Roy Hanley to represent the city and Howard Liberman to represent Cantrell.

In September, Cantrell agreed to release her personal cell phone records. However, prosecutors have failed to provide most of the records sought by the defense.

“We are at somewhat of an impasse,” Dufurrena said on Tuesday. “A third party is not being forthright. We are relying on the DA to make it right.”

Noting that this was the second or third hearing set to discuss the production of records, Covello granted Depew’s motion to compel discovery, and cancelled two hearings scheduled for later this week.

Covello then set a pre-preliminary hearing for Oct. 29. At that time, Covello plans to discuss the production of documents before he sets a preliminary hearing.


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Its not the crime nor the constitutional violations..its the cover up that will get them….


35

Yep. I suspect Cantrell is going to get canned, once the cellphone information is released, hence the struggle over it.


32

I am amused by the entire affair!


First, We, The People have clearly made it known that we worship police (and all authority.) We call them “first responders” even if serf’s are the first to respond….


We want our police well armed, and wearing body armor. We’re fine with giving them a monopoly on the use of force. We demand tough laws and expect those laws to be enforced on us and our neighbors.


We have “coffee with a cop” day….Cop Family Fun Day….all kinds of sacred liturgy with regard to rewarding cops, celebrating retiring cops, newly minted cops and of course cops who die….especially if they die in the line of duty.


No other profession has this degree of state sponsored worship attached to it…..Cops are special indeed.


That’s why I’m so amazed by this recent outcry for Chief Cantrell to turn over information that might be seen as incriminating to her and her department. Do we worship police or don’t we? Obviously, we do!


How dare these lowly serfs and their hired attorneys demand information from our chief! How dare they question her statements, her judgement and her fitness for office.


These pathetic serfs should send “Thank You” notes to Chief Cantrell and her department for not shooting them dead like Bubbers the killer PitBull.


Bottom line: Police should be able to do whatever they want without interference from serfs.


Right?


If you don’t agree with what I’ve said, please explain how we got here. I submit that while what I said sounds outrageous, it is actually true.


51

DocT,

As always, you are spot on in your thinking. And absolutely on target regards We the People and Sheople.


27

This whole matter went sideways on the first flush. There must be a civil resolve that is more focused on the subordinates reaction, that which may of intentionally went south, for a who knows what reason? Personally, I do not see any public benefit in the Beat the Chief movement. How embarrassing it must be to have this common private moment turn into a series of “oh crap”.


-49

Not sure what you are talking about as a private moment.

The chief started this whole fiasco by trying to cover up what she did from the beginning, (at el pollo loco), then she got her crew to act on her behalf. Her crew went rogue when they realized they pursued the wrong lead and then tried to justify the man power used. That is why we are where we are with this.

Heads need to start rolling at the top and hopefully lead to a house cleaning.

Though I won’t hold my breath.

Embarrasing? Yes, I am embarrassed for, SLOPD, SLO City, DA, and all of the tools available to them in order to carry out their jobs and justice.

VERY EMBARRASING, when a family is made to suffer for some else’s shortcomings.

I guess you want the, expectations, bar lowered for the CHIEF OF POLICE.


56

I don’t disagree that she screwed up and then tried a cover up. This is a normal behavior when such an embarrassment. I’m not saying this is her business as usual, honest people make lousy liars even when there is no intent to harm. Sadly being a public figure make one a target for those who value themselves by degrading of others. Yes I a softy in her defense, the consequences to a family was a very unfortunate happening executed by birds of a different feather.


-15

I guess the DA’s office hasn’t watched the movie “My Cousin Vinny” where the prosecutor benevolently provided all discovery as mandated by law without the defense asking.

What about Morro Bay Police phone records. To me it looks like MBPD first searched and arrested Christa Orndoff’s residence in Morro Bay (who was on probation so no warrant needed) before sending the SLOPD/Keystone Cops on the ill fated boondoggle on O’Connor Way. Morro Bay PD should have contacted and tipped the Sheriff to roust Cole/Cheyne Orndoff in the Sheriff’s jurisdiction on O’Connor Way rather than SLOPD.

I’m still curious to see the resultant audit and error rate report on the electronic probation records that gave police confidence to search without a warrant. How many typo’s are permissible when it affects someone’s employment and child custody. If there isn’t an audit system to have second set of eyes look at the recording of probation records then this will happen over and over again.


50

Citizens who tolerate poor behavior from their elected and unelected public servants will continue to receive what they allow.


I hope these comments will inspire more full participation in citizenship.


Freedom comes with personal responsibility. Use it or lose it


Freedom and independence can sound like lofty concepts, but how do they break down for the individual? In the spirit of the Fourth of July, we have compiled a list of seven inspiring quotes culled from a diverse group of important figures – from Coco Chanel to Socrates – whose statements reflect the broad spectrum of meaning of the notions of freedom and independence. What quote do you most identify with?


1.

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”

– Coco Chanel (French fashion designer and businesswoman)


2.

“To find yourself, think for yourself.”

– Socrates (Classic Greek philosopher)


3.

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to

choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

– Vicktor Emil Frankl (Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist)


4.

“My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.”

– Adlai Stevenson (31st Governor of Illinois and United Nations ambassador 1961

1965)


5.

“Freedom cannot be bestowed — it must be achieved.”

Elbert Hubbard (American writer, publisher and artist)


6.

“The great revolution in the history of man, past, present and future, is the revolution

of those determined to be free.”

– John F. Kennedy (35th President of the United States)


7.

“Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.”

-Albert Camus (French author, journalist and philosopher)


40

“To do is to be” – Socrates


“To be is to do” – Camus


“Do Be Do Be Do” – Sinatra


2

We ought never do wrong

When anyone is looking

– Mark Twain


Even in jest, right?


Person of character

Does the right thing

Even if no one is looking

– don’t know who the author is,

C.S.Lewis, (goalcast) comes close to

this when he talks about ‘integrity’


The above is my favorite, and I try to live by that standard


Also like ‘old blue eyes’ and ‘Led Zeppelin’ , lol

‘If it keeps on raining, the levy is going to break’


3

Chief Cantrell is corrupt. The lost gun was one thing but she admits Officer Walsh was wrong in the dog shooting situation. However, she still won’t release either of the two existing police body cam videos. Why is that?


Covering it up instead of “transparency” like she is falsely pledging.


84

How about releasing the dog shooting video too?

“Transparent”? NOT!


79

Julie,

What every bureaucracy counts on is the limited attention span most citizens have, in general.

Why would Cantrell cooperate with her own lynching? Same goes for her dog murderer.

Being transparent in real time erodes the authority they are abusing.


When will enough, be enough?


Talk about SLO walking…


42

From Tacker: “What every bureaucracy counts on is the limited attention span most citizens have, in general.”


Yours is the Comment of the Century, Julie. We all bleat here about the grand failings of SLO area officials, but it is so difficult to achieve improvement. The whole town could pack the streets in and around council chambers, every meeting, and it wouldn’t change Heidi an inch.


27

How true on the limited attention span. All of us could list story after story the media put up as Breaking headliners. Fires, disastrous storms, political events, murders, Hollywood celebs, you name it. Sad part is the media will not follow up or bother with further coverage once its lost its “shock value” They do not care if Joe public knows the ending or outcome, on to bigger stories to make more headlines.

After all, its the job of today’s media journalist to tell the American public whats important and how we should interpret, and respond to daily life occurrences and events.


4

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, ‘this whole thing smells’.

Where is the transparency that the chief always talks about.

So, let’s recap,

Loose gun Cantrell, after practicaly destroying 4 people’s lives, Orndoff, Bedroni, and their 2 children, and almost their dog princess, (to say nothing of the gift she got when her, hair trigger, gun was recovered by a peaceful mentally challenged man instead of a 10 year old boy), gets to keep going as if nothing has happened.

This family’s 4th amendment rights were violated by her thugs with badges and their children taken away, by the same.

They didn’t count on the interest that this case would get as a result of their actions and so now are trying to keep the truth from coming out.

This whole thing makes me sick!!!

In the mean time the children suffer with out their parents.

Where is the justice already!


93

https://youtu.be/xPZ6eaL3S2E

“What are you prepared to do?


4

I, too, find outrage at the disregard for their fourth amendment rights, abuse of authority, abuse of discretion, in the police going into the family’s home on an invalid probationary search condition, though this is so commonly the way law enforcement gets around having to get a search warrant to ease their curiosity, when some one is on probation. But this time they screwed the pooch by acting in haste and without restraint to just get what they were after, not hesitating on pushing there way into the home. Problem is that once they did discover that the kids were at risk, living in unsanitary conditions, in an unstable environment of parental neglect, they had no choice but to then notify CPS as mandated by law. Now normally, depending upon the severity of the charges, the parents could have likely been sited and given a court date to appear with minimal interference, if the detrimental conditions could have been removed immediately, but unfortunately there was a lot more going on than you will read about in the press due to the matter involving minor dependents to be handled in the juvenile court. The parents do have major unresolved issues that had put the kids in a bad situation, but thanks to the way it was handled by law enforcement, the problems have escalated rather than be stabilized. Law enforcement cannot fix this by way of public opinion, as it has been compounded with the numerous abuses being practiced regularly within the department. What we get out of it is a lot of outrage and distrust, rightfully so, since who wants to wait for it to be their turn to have their rights violated without recourse….


1

“City administrators hired two private attorneys to represent the city and Cantrell .” How much will this little charade cost us city taxpayers? If she is so clean and innocent, why not just produce the records? Oh I forgot, she probably left those in the bathroom too?


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