Did San Luis Obispo officials help coverup fraternity misconduct?

June 29, 2026

By KAREN VELIE

Emails garnered through a records request reveal a San Luis Obispo Police Department employee misleading the SLO County Grand Jury and others regarding the department’s knowledge of prohibited fraternity activity in residential neighborhoods.

For years, SLO residents have voiced concerns over noise disturbances, large unauthorized street parties, and fraternity and sorority events hosted in residential areas at non-permitted sites. These issues have led to tensions between some long-term residents and the Cal Poly community.

In response to multiple complaints filed by residents, the Grand Jury launched an investigation in 2025 that found the city failed to protect residents from loud parties and to enforce permit requirements for rowdy fraternities.

Aside from the chief, one officer and Public Affairs Manager Christine Wallace, San Luis Obispo Police Department staff refused the Grand Jury’s interview requests, according to the Grand Jury.

The city has failed to consistently enforce permit requirements that make fraternities provide an annual list of parties and events, notification to neighbors, and parking plans, according to the Grand Jury.

However, texts and emails recently recovered through a recent public records request show Cal Poly sent the police department the list weekly from Feb. 2022 through March 2024.

The email included a weekly list Cal Poly provided of 18 events, the fraternity of sorority hosting the event, the address and the date and time of the event.

In an odd twist, the department not only provided misinformation to the Grand Jury regarding access to the event lists, SLO Police Department’s Public Affairs Manager Christine Wallace told Code Enforcement Supervisor John Mezzapesa she was unaware the lists existed.

Code Enforcement Supervisor John Mezzapesa emails a resident on June 1, 2026

Even though the city has an ordinance making it unlawful for any person to willfully or negligently make “any noise which disturbs the peace and quiet of any neighborhood or which causes any discomfort or annoyance to any reasonable person of normal sensitivity in the area,” the city has failed to fully enforce the law, according to the Grand Jury report.

Multiple residents have voiced concerns that the city did not properly respond to the Grand Jury. It is expected the incoming Grand Jury, to be seated on July 1, will review the city’s actions which include Mayor Erica Stewart violating the law when she shared restricted information and Manager Whitney McDonald texting a Cal Poly administrator during the Grand Jury investigation to “allign” their stories.

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