A DUI checkpoint was the scene of what some call a local politics power play, but the local government candidate in question was acquitted of criminal wrongdoing after interacting with police at the checkpoint.
Planning commissioner Jim Righeimer is a candidate for the City Council of Costa Mesa, California, in the upcoming elections. Righeimer was recently involved in an incident that came under fire, not for being under suspicion of DUI, but after he talked with police officers at a DUI checkpoint in a way that some saw as an abuse of power, according to an article in the Orange County Register.
After the incident – which was investigated by city officials – critics said that Righeimer attempted to misuse his power as planning commissioner to confront the police officers at the DUI checkpoint and to direct them to discontinue their activities.
City Attorney Kimberly Hall Barlow, however, recently concluded that Righeimer’s behavior, while it may have fulfilled some of the characterizations pushed forward by opponents of Righeimer, did not appear to show that he had abused the power granted to him by his position as planning commissioner.
The issue was not a matter of criminal wrongdoing, according to the City Attorney.
The determination came after an investigation and then a report, though the report was not released to the public. Several Councilman told the press that the report wasn’t released because it was exempt from public disclosure as part of an investigation.
The City Council voted on whether to release the record of the investigation to the public, and ultimately shot down the idea with a 3-2 vote against disclosing it.
At least one resident of the city, though, thinks it should be available to the media and the public.
“I have some really serious questions about why this information is being held back from the public,” said Costa Mesa local Regina Mundekis. She went on to say that, though the report is private because, as Councilmembers claim, it is in her words a personnel issue and a “public safety matter.”
Several weeks before the vote, however, the city released a recording of the incident in question at the DUI checkpoint. The recording was of Righeimer talking to the police at the DUI checkpoint in what the Orange County Register called “a taut but even voice, objecting to the timing of the checkpoint and asking who authorized it.”
In the past, Righeimer has criticized how much money the police and other public servants make. The president of the police association, Allen Rieckhof, said outright that Righeimer had abused his power with “thug-like tactics.”
