‘You’re Causing Me a Headache’

Cathedral City Police Sergeant to Mayor Ernesto Gutierrez: ‘You’re causing me a headache.’

CATHEDRAL CITY — A longtime employee of the Cathedral City Police Department, Sgt. Corwin De Veas, believes he’s being retaliated against because of his 40-year relationship with Mayor Ernesto Guiterrez, as Uken Report was first to report. So, he used the public comments portion of a recent City Council meeting to air his list of grievances and to plead with the mayor to leave him alone, saying, “You’re causing me a headache.”

“You are ruining and have ruined my professional police career at the Cathedral City Police Department,” a visibly shaken De Veas told the mayor at the start of the May 25 City Council meeting. He pleaded with the mayor to quit trying to fulfill his promises of beautification and fiscal responsibility to his constituency. Especially, De Veas said, when it comes to numerous vehicle code violations he sees on a daily basis because of his occupation as a real estate broker.

“Every time you report them you cause a headache for the city, with the … cops who are forced to take corrective action,” De Veas said. That was only the start of his 3-minute public grievance.

De Veas begged the mayor to quit speaking to retired and former police officers who provide him with detailed knowledge of the inner workings of the police department. He also asked the mayor to quit playing golf with police officers.

“Will you forget every conversation that you’ve had with every member of the city that you’ve known for the last 30 years, including the law enforcement?” De Veas pleaded.  “Regarding matters of the city, will you please not bring them up to the aforementioned subjects, to the City Council, or the chief. You know why? Because every single one of those conversations you share with the City Council, manager or the chief had negative repercussions on me. … I’ve become the target of the administration’s ire due to those conversations.”

De Veas claimed, as he appeared to quiver, that every time Gutierrez talks to a police officer something “bad” happens to him.

“I’ve been accused of being disloyal because of you,” De Veas told the mayor. “I don’t know what you brought up lately, but it must have been a doozy because in the past two weeks I’ve been belittled by the department, I’ve had my hours changed, I’ve had my workdays changed, I’ve been told where to specifically park, I’ve been ordered to sit in the office a specific way because people can’t find me, even though there’s an intercom. My personal time and weekends have been permanently infringed upon. They kicked me off the gang unit. … I went to training at (the) Ben Clark (Training Center) and they knew about a pre-existing injury, which I did not give third party consent for. Isn’t that a violation of my civil rights?”

De Veas also alleged that he was “ordered to sit at the station,” “ordered not to look for a homicide suspect,” “not to look for a gang member,” “ordered to sit in my office to watch two detectives write reports,” and “ordered not to look for murderers” in his own city.”

“So, Mr. Mayor, please leave me alone,” De Veas implored the mayor. “You’re causing me a headache.”

Gutierrez acknowledge that he is personal friends with De Veas but declined to comment on his allegations. All he would say is that, “I am pro police and against laziness in any department.”

City Manager Charlie McClendon told Uken Report that any allegations of wrongdoing will always be investigated whether they are in the police department or any other department.

He declined to comment on De Veas’ specific allegations saying they are a personnel matter.

McClendon also told Uken report that there is an employee grievance procedure in place. To the best of his knowledge, McClendon said De Veas did not use the procedure prior to addressing the mayor and City Council.