Councilman Says Son’s Ticket Part of Vendetta

Councilman James B. Dimas has accused a local sheriff’s captain of having his son ticketed for possessing beer in a city park as part of a personal vendetta, an allegation that has been denied by Sheriff Sherman Block.

James B. Dimas Jr., 23, was suspended and fired from his part-time job with the city Parks and Recreation Department partly as a result of the citation, and his father was furious. The councilman, who also is a deputy sheriff, wrote to Block on July 20 alleging that his son was the victim of a personal vendetta.

The younger Dimas maintained his innocence from the beginning. The district attorney’s office dropped the case against him last week because of insufficient evidence.

No Special Treatment

“Capt. (Lynn) Poos has personally attacked me through my son, which is unforgivable,” Dimas said. Poos is the commander of the sheriff’s East Los Angeles substation, which provides police service for Commerce.

Block responded that he had looked into the incident and determined that Poos and the deputies involved acted properly in citing young Dimas and a friend.

Then Block wrote in the July 27 letter: “I am sure it was not your intention to ask for special treatment for your son . . . .”

Dimas, a councilman since 1974, said in an interview last week that he was not seeking favored treatment.

“I was dissatisfied about the way my son was treated,” Dimas said. “If they construed that as me asking for a favor, that’s baloney, because I’ve never done that for anybody and I won’t.”

Dimas said he and Poos have been at odds for several years, ever since the councilman said Poos was insensitive to the city’s mostly Latino population and to Latino deputies who work at the East Los Angeles substation. Dimas, a deputy since the late 1960s, said he has never worked directly under Poos.

As a result of his criticism, Dimas alleged, his son has been the victim of petty harassment by Poos’ deputies. The alleged harassment includes unwarranted traffic stops.

“The feud is between me and the captain,” Dimas said. “Enough is enough. I’ve had it.”

Poos was on vacation last week and unavailable for comment, but Lt. Dennis Dahlman said the councilman and his family have not been targeted.

“We target crime and we target criminals,” Dahlman said. “We’d have no reason to target him for anything and we don’t.”

Young Dimas and Ernesto Cardenes, also a Commerce employee, were cited in the parking lot of Rosewood Park about 2 a.m. on June 27. The Commerce Municipal Code prohibits drinking or possession of alcoholic beverages in city parks.

Deputies reportedly spotted the two men trying to hide something when the lawmen drove up to Dimas’ car, according to a memo from Poos.

Can of Beer

The deputies allegedly found Cardenes with a partially filled can of beer, according to Poos’ memo. They reportedly found several open beer containers on the floor of the car and in a bag on the ground along side, the memo said. The car mats were wet with beer, the deputies reported.

The next day, Poos notified Commerce City Administrator Louis Shepard of the incident. The young Dimas was suspended without pay and dismissed on July 21, officials said. In an interoffice memo, Parks and Recreation Director Tom Maples told Dimas he was being fired because of the citation and past employment problems.

Dimas, a college student, was employed part-time as a recreation leader. He supervised and coordinated numerous recreational activities at city parks.

Shepard said Dimas would be rehired if he was found innocent. But he said last week he had not been notified about the dismissal of the case against Dimas and could not comment on whether he would be rehired.

Cardenes is still employed as a full-time assistant supervisor of one of the city’s recreation centers. But he said he has been placed on employment probation for one year and had his salary cut as a result of the incident. Cardenes said he will contest the infraction, which carries a $65.50 fine, in a trial scheduled for Sept. 25.

Shepard said the action taken against Cardenes was not as severe as that taken against Dimas because Cardenes “did not have a history of disciplinary problems.” Shepard said Cardenes will be taken off probation and restored to his previous salary level if he is found innocent.

In the letter to Block, Councilman Dimas alleged that the deputies decided to cite his son only after they learned his identity.

Cardenes said in an interview that “as soon as junior told him who he was, the deputy was very, very aggressive.”

Notification Questioned

In addition, Councilman Dimas accused Poos of improperly notifying the city.

“It’s a breach of confidentiality,” Dimas said. “What you do off duty is your own business. You don’t have to bring it to the attention of his boss. That’s wrong.”

But Sheriff Block found “the actions of East Los Angeles station personnel, and specifically Capt. Lynn Poos, station commander, were appropriate and consistent with Sheriff’s Department procedures.” Lt. Dahlman said the Sheriff’s Department is, in essence, Commerce’s police department and must report problems with its employees.

Shepard agreed.

“If an employee was cited or arrested in an act that had a direct relationship to that employee’s job to the city, we would expect the Sheriff’s Department to notify us,” Shepard said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Rachel Ewing said the case against Dimas was dismissed last week in East Los Angeles Municipal Court.

“It didn’t sound like this defendant was the culpable party,” Ewing said. “It sounded as though he was merely cited because he was there.”