Ukiah police chief fired
b'June 17, 2022 \\u2014 Noble Waidelich has been fired from his position as Ukiah Police Chief, effective Friday. He was placed on paid administrative leave Tuesday, after city management learned that he was the subject of a criminal investigation into an allegation of an assault on a woman. The Sonoma County Sheriff\\u2019s Office is investigating the charge.\\nThe press release from Friday afternoon quotes City Manager Sage Sangiacomo saying that \\u201cWaidelich was also in violation of police department policy separate and apart from the accusation and ongoing investigation of criminal conduct. He was placed on administrative leave within hours of learning of this incident. His weapons, vehicle, and badge were taken away at that time. Within three days, he has been notified of his termination from City employment.\\u201d \\nDeputy City Manager Shannon Riley said the city was not able to answer questions about how much Waidelich was paid while on leave, or if he received a severance package. City staff would not discuss any details of the termination.\\nThe timeline has been swift. On Monday afternoon, Sheriff Matt Kendall notified the Sonoma County Sheriff\\u2019s office of the matter, and asked them to take on the investigation. Juan Valencia, of the Sonoma County Sheriff\\u2019s Office, said the results would be turned over to the Mendocino County District Attorney\\u2019s office for review. Valencia said investigators interviewed Waidelich, but he was not taken into custody. Sonoma County declined to release the crime report and any related information, citing a continuing investigation.\\nWaidelich is also facing a jury trial in a civil charge of domestic violence. Back in 2016, Waidelich\\u2019s ex-girlfriend Amanda Carley, who was an adult probation officer with the county at the time, was summoned to an interview with a sheriff\\u2019s investigator concerning a report her teenaged daughter had made to her school counselor about Waidelich abusing her mother. Amanda Carley hedged during that interview, then came back a few months later, told the investigator she had not been truthful, and said that Waidelich had been abusing her. Eyster placed her on the Brady list, a roster of dishonest cops whose testimony is useless in the prosecution of criminal suspects.\\nLongtime reporter and former DA spokesman Mike Geniella characterized Eyster\\u2019s decision to place Carley on the list as \\u2018draconian.\\u2019 He thinks Eyster should recuse himself, and hopes someone else will get to the bottom of the most recent charge. \\nThe original 15-count complaint that Amanda Carley filed five years ago is against Waidelich, the county, and the probation department. Her attorney, Richard Freeman, spoke with kzyx on Friday afternoon, saying his client intends to pursue both parts of the case, against Waidelich and the county. Waidelich is being sued personally in this matter. \\nBut there\\u2019s more history to violence within the Ukiah Police Department than the one case with Amanda Carley. \\nIn recent months, the city has paid out more than a million and a half dollars to settle with three different people claiming to have been assaulted by members of the Ukiah police force. \\nForrmer Officer Kevin Murray, who is facing trial next month, was accused of sexually assaulting an unnamed woman, whose settlement came out to a quarter of a million dollars. Christopher Rasku, a disabled veteran, settled for a little over a million for a 2018 assault in which he says Murray broke into his home, beat him, and falsified the report about it. Gerardo Magdaleno and his attorney received $300,000 for a sustained beating that Magdaleno received in a parking lot on the south end of town at the hands of four police officers. Waidelich spoke with kzyx in March, after that settlement, saying the idea of a police oversight body \\u201cdoesn\\u2019t necessarily scare me\\u2026because, along the lines of our equity and diversity committee, if we can demonstrate to those people the work that we\\u2019re doing and the value in it, that only goes to my aid in terms of credibility in the community.\\u201d\\n\\u201cThis is the man who\\u2019s going to straighten things out at the Ukiah Police Department,\\u201d Geniella said. \\u201cAnd here we are.\\u201d'