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originally published at www.pressdemocrat.com

Family of man killed by deputy wants more answers

By JULIE JOHNSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Friday, June 25, 2010 at 6:40 p.m.

Officials with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office are still withholding the name of the deputy who shot and killed a Santa Rosa man in a June 1 pursuit, saying they continue to investigate possible threats made against the deputy.

Until they feel certain that the deputy has a plan to manage any threats made against him for his role in the incident, they won’t release his name or any details about his history with the office, Capt. Matt McCaffrey said Friday.

“We have some risks to verify,” McCaffrey said of what Sheriff Bill Cogbill had previously called possible gang-related threats against the deputy. The assessment will determine whether the safety risks are “above and beyond what would normally come with the job,” he said.

The son of the man killed in the encounter, 49-year-old Albert Mike Leday, Jr., said Friday that he has been frustrated by unanswered calls to police and sheriff’s officials as he seek more information about his father’s death.

Leday was shot in the chest after he led deputies on a high-speed chase through Larkfield that ended outside Coddingtown Mall when he crashed into a light pole. Witnesses and police officials said Leday refused to surrender and reached behind his back. The deputy shot three times and struck him once, police said.

His son, Justin Leday, 25, of Santa Rosa said calls to police and sheriff’s officials went unanswered until this week, and he said he’s still trying to get more information about the incident.

“Someone from the sheriff’s called me and said they had information on their website if I wanted to know more,” Leday said.

The family has hired an attorney to help them get a report on the shooting, he said.

Sheriff’s officials can’t tell the family anything more than they’ve released to the public, McCaffrey said. He said he hopes for an update on the investigation sometime next week.

“Some threats had been ruled out,” McCaffrey said. “We’re closer to being comfortable to releasing the deputy’s name.”

Santa Rosa Police Department officials are in charge of investigating the shooting. A countywide protocol calls for an outside agency to evaluate officer-related fatal incidents. That investigation could take months, police have said.

Law enforcement agencies are required by law to release details about a public officer’s involvement in a fatal incident. Experts in First Amendment laws have said that agencies also have a legal basis to investigate threats against their employees before making information public.

Leday’s family members have said they will not give up until they can get a fuller explanation from the sheriff’s office, including the identify of the deputy.

“I don’t want people to forget about this, I feel like they’re trying to prolong it so people forget,” Justin Leday said. “I want to make it clear I’m not going away until my questions are answered.”

originally published at www.pressdemocrat.com

Law enforcement officials refuse to release name of deputy involved in shooting

By JEREMY HAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Monday, June 7, 2010 at 6:16 p.m.

Authorities continue to withhold the name of the deputy who shot and killed a man after a high speed chase a week ago.

They say that information developed during the investigation has indicated that there may be a threat to the safety of a Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputy involved in the case.

“There is an officer safety and employee safety aspect to the investigation,” said Santa Rosa Police Lt. John Noland, who is heading the investigation into the June 1 shooting of Albert Mike Leday, 49.

“We are trying to get that addressed as quickly as we can,” Noland said.

The Santa Rosa Police Department is investigating the shooting under a countywide protocol in which outside agencies investigate officer-involved shootings.

Noland said he could not reveal details about the nature of the threat, or even confirm that they revolve around the specific deputy who shot Leday.

“We can’t because of the nature of it,” he said.

That has upset some activists who say that the public has a right to know the names of law enforcement officers involved in such incidents.

“The question I have is why are the police delaying in giving out the name of the deputy who shot and killed this Army veteran,” said Alicia Roman, a Santa Rosa attorney who is a supporter of the Police Accountability Clinic Helpline, or PACH, a group that works with people who believe the police have mistreated them.

She said police have also not adequately explained the details that they have released. For example, she said, police have not fully described the “confrontation” that occurred between Leday and the deputy after Leday got out of his car and before he was shot.

“What was the confrontation,” Roman said.

Steve Fabian, a director of the Sonoma County Chapter of the ACLU, said, “This should be public information.”

Sheriff Bill Cogbill said he met with Santa Rosa police investigators Monday about the case and is “in agreement” with the decision not to release the name.

“It is a legitimate reason we feel for not releasing the name,” he said.

Fabian said that is not a sufficient answer.

“I think at the very least they should be giving the reason and they should be giving specific reasons why,” he said. “What information that could cause them to have a reasonable belief that this is needed. I don’t think that is asking too much.”

Leday, who had a long criminal record, led sheriff’s deputies and Santa Rosa police on a chase from Larkfield to the intersection of Guerneville Road and West Steele Lane. There he crashed into a light pole at the entrance to the Coddingtown Mall parking lot.

According to police, he got out of the car and refused to comply with “numerous orders” to surrender and reached behind himself into his waistband. Police said that after he reached into his waistband a second time the deputy fired three times, striking him once.

Despite a search that lasted for nearly a day, no weapon was found.

The deputy involved has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard in such cases.

originally published at www.pressdemocrat.com

Son says his father ‘made mistakes’ but was a good man

By JEREMY HAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 3:00 a.m.

The man shot dead this week by a sheriff’s deputy after a chase through Santa Rosa was an avid athlete who ran in San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers races, worked full time and was trying to carve a straight path in his life, family members said Thursday.

“Yeah, he made mistakes in his life, but he was a good man,” said his son, Justin Leday, 25, of Santa Rosa.

Albert Mike Leday Jr., 49, of Santa Rosa was killed Tuesday afternoon in a dramatic encounter at an entrance to Coddingtown Mall, just as rush hour began.

Police said he was a dangerous felon with a long history of criminal convictions, most recently in 2003 for burglary. He was paroled on that sentence in October 2009.

Court records dating from 1994 show that he had been convicted on charges that included burglary, assault with a deadly weapon and causing great bodily injury, and that he several times had restraining orders issued against him.

Justin Leday said his father, who lived in an apartment near West Third Street, was an Army veteran, a loving father of three boys, a doting grandfather and excited to be working as a maintenance technician for a Santa Rosa company that repairs Amtrak buses.

“I don’t understand,” he said through tears. “I just want to know why my father was shot with no weapon on him.”

Leday said he didn’t know why his father led deputies on the chase from Larkfield to its fatal conclusion at Guerneville Road and West Steele Lane.

“I don’t know what was going through his head. I don’t know why he ran,” he said.

Leday speculated his father, who two weeks ago bought the white Volvo that on Tuesday he crashed into a light pole, bringing the pursuit to a close, didn’t want to be pulled over because he had a lengthy criminal record.

“My father’s been arrested before. It’s not a secret that he’s been in trouble a lot before,” Leday said. “Two weeks ago, we were talking and he said he hoped he didn’t get pulled over by sheriff’s deputies.

“He felt like his life was threatened by them, not that literally they were out gunning for him, but he just didn’t want any trouble.”

According to the police account of the events, after Leday crashed his car he got out and “confronted” deputies and “refused to comply with … numerous orders to surrender.”

He then appeared to reach behind himself into his waistband, which he jerked up several times, leading the deputy to believe he had a weapon and to shoot at him three times, police said.

Justin Leday suggested his father was reaching for his wallet, which he kept in his back pocket. He pointed out that investigators have not found a weapon of any sort, despite a search that lasted nearly 24 hours, and he said the shooting was unjustified.

“I’m not going to say he didn’t do do it (reach behind himself). I’m not going to say he wasn’t a knucklehead, but he didn’t have a weapon on him, they didn’t see a weapon on him,” he said.

Santa Rosa police, who are investigating the shooting as part of a countywide protocol, have declined to release the name of the deputy involved in the shooting.

Late Wednesday night, Police Lt. Paul Henry said he expected the name would be released soon. He said the delay was typical, to “give the deputy or the officer involved time to talk to his family and to begin to cope and process what occurred.”

On Thursday, Police Lt. John Noland said the name wasn’t being released because of concerns that that would put law enforcement personnel in danger.

“There’s information that would indicate that if we released a name or names, there’s a possibility that that could place a person or persons in jeopardy,” Noland said.

Police said there is no gang involvement in the case. Noland would not elaborate what the danger or safety issues are.

He said one of the deputies pursuing Leday during the chase had had previous contact with him and knew at least some of his criminal history and background.

He would not say if that deputy was the one who shot him. Three shots were fired and one hit the suspect, a fatal wound to the chest.

A statement released by the Sheriff’s Office the night of the shooting said the events leading to it were triggered by a woman at the La Mancha apartment complex in Larkfield who called for help, saying she believed her ex-boyfriend had stolen jewelry from her. She also said he had assaulted her a few days earlier and at the time had carried a knife.

When a deputy arrived at the apartment, he saw Leday’s car and tried to pull him over, said Sheriff’s Lt. Chris Spallino. But Leday drove off at speeds up 90 mph on Old Redwood Highway south to Santa Rosa, passing cars on the left and right to try to elude the deputy, Spallino said.

Justin Leday said his father was going to move into the La Mancha apartments, but not with the woman, and that he was picking up some of his belongings from her.

He said his father and the woman had known each other for only two weeks and said that when his family questioned the apartment manager, the manager said there were no disturbances that might have been an assault.

Leday was the 21st person to be killed in a confrontation with law enforcement since 1999 in Sonoma County.