Who Needs Badges? History Will Tell

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

April 13 -- Who owns the rights to the memorabilia, notes and content featured in two competing books chronicling the history of Santa Monica’s Police Department?

That question has spawned serious allegations of criminal misconduct traded between a retired police officer and high-ranking officials within the department, including Chief James T. Butts, Jr., according to documents analyzed by The Lookout.

A rare public airing of the dispute between the men in blue at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting has uncovered a true-life tale involving 70-year-old police chief badges, a cat-and-mouse game at a collector’s show and the search of a retired officer’s home more than 200 miles away.

Police allege Evan Mason -- who served on the force for 15 years and was the department’s volunteer historian after his retirement -- embezzled department memorabilia, including at least one police chief badge dating back to 1938, while working on a book of the Police Department’s history.

Attorneys for Mason who spoke at the council meeting denied their client took the badge or other memorabilia without permission.

Instead they countered that police overstepped their powers by launching a criminal investigation into what should be a civil dispute over publishing rights, going as far as seizing documents, floppy disks, memorabilia and a manuscript from Mason’s house.

City officials did not weigh in on the controversy Tuesday, which was not on the agenda and came during public input at the end of the meeting. Instead, City Attorney Marsha Moutrie noted that the Los Angeles District Attorney has received a complaint on the matter.

It is unknown whether a formal investigation has been launched by the DA’s office. Mason’s attorneys are currently pushing either Santa Monica or the DA’s office to undertake an independent probe.

Lt. Frank Fabrega, the police department spokesman, declined to comment because the matter is considered an ongoing criminal investigation.

While neither side agrees on all the facts, both sides acknowledge that the dispute involves a key question: who owns the rights to use the notes and relics of the Santa Monica Police Department’s past in any future book deal?

Mason is currently pitching his book to publishers, who have expressed interest, his attorneys said. And the Police Officers Association (POA) last year began selling pre-orders of the department's book to offset publishing costs, according to a letter to Mason from Butts.

“This is a civil dispute about the ownership of intellectual property about a book authored by Mr. Mason concerning the history of the Police Department of Santa Monica,” Katherine B. Bonnici, an attorney for Mason, told the council Tuesday.

“The use of City and police department resources as part of a criminal investigation, based on unfounded allegations…constitutes misconduct,” Bonnici said.

Based on prior correspondence, police counter that it is Mason -- an avid collector of police artifacts -- who has acted with criminal misconduct, stealing valuable collectors items that, along with any research for the book, belong to the department.

“Let me make it perfectly clear, the department still reserves its prerogatives to be the final editor of this project undertaken on its behalf,” ended a sternly worded letter written by Chief Butts to Mason on June 13, 2005.

In the letter, Butts threatened “legal measures,” including criminal and civil action against Mason.

“It is our position,” according to Butts’ unsigned letter, “that neither the memorabilia in your possession nor the work product generated of our history in your role as historian, belong to you.”

As part of a committee formed over a decade ago to research and write a centennial book on the Department -- which was founded in 1896 -- Mason received clearance to go through police files and conduct interviews with the relatives of former officers, according to police records.

He even received an official “historian badge” and permission to store some memorabilia at his house in Paso Robles, while a new police facility was being constructed, according to Butts’ letter.

During the ensuing decade, Mason gave regular reports to the department on the status of the book until late in 2004, according to Butts’ letter.

“During the latter part of last year, you stopped returning phone calls” to the department, the chief wrote. The SMDP “left messages regarding your progress on the book, forwarding new chapters for me to review, and setting up displays throughout the new Santa Monica Public Safety Facility,” Butts wrote.

“You have failed to return (phone) calls. When asked to provide work product to date on the history project, you indicated that you have given the completed draft to Sergeant Brackett, who is retired and is not authorized by the Chief of Police to participate in this project,” Butts wrote, referring to Steve Brackett, the former head of the police union.

“You also refused to provide a copy to the Department or the Chief of Police,” he wrote. “This is unacceptable.”

After the June 2005 letter, Mason met with the City attorney and returned some items in his possession, including a cartoon drawn by Elzie Segar, the originator of “Popeye.”

Still, police believed Mason possessed several more items, including the chief ‘s badge, and drove to Claremont where they confronted him at a badge collectors’ show in January 2006.

Shortly after the encounter, where police said they felt Mason acted “alarmed” by their presence and questions, the department obtained a search warrant for Mason’s home some 200 miles away in Paso Robles, as well as the home of a former fellow officer in Claremont.

During a January 26 search of Mason’s home and car, police confiscated several items, which the retired officer had “embezzled,” according to police records.

Mason, whose book deal is on hold until the investigation is completed, sees the situation differently, his attorneys said.

According Bonnici, the confiscated items included “a number of his personal belongings, including the manuscript that is at issue in this civil dispute.”

“Regrettably the police department and the Chief of police have improperly sought to exercise their authority with regard to this civil dispute, going so far as to launch an unfounded criminal investigation of Mr. Mason,” Bonnici told the council.

Mason and his attorneys assert that the search warrant itself was founded on allegations that Mason stole a badge from the 1930s once owned by the late Police Chief Clarence Webb.

“This allegation is demonstrably false,” said Bonnici. “Mr. Mason did not steal this badge. He never possessed this badge.”

Mason’s attorneys contend that the badge -- which they allege was one of the main reasons the search warrant was generated -- was actually the property of Webb’s family, who gave Mason permission to photograph the badge and other badges at the Webb home. Pictures of the badges appeared in a 2003 annual police report accompanied by an article Mason wrote.

A sworn declaration by Fay Webb, daughter of the former police chief, states that the badge, and two other badges photographed by Mason, were always in her family’s possession.

With the Santa Monica Police Officers Association already selling pre-orders of the book and Mason lining up publishers, who gets to tell the history of Santa Monica’s Police Department and who receives the proceeds may have to be settled in civil, or criminal, court.