Broken Blue Line
The other photograph, taken a few moments earlier from some distance, show a man with Nielsen’s appearance hauling a rubber raft on his shoulder, walking away from a truck and boat parked behind the city car. A woman in sunglasses is standing in the boat. In his e-mail, “John Smith” alleges that the woman is Tawnie Hansen, and that he took the pictures the day previous at a campground near Lewiston, in Trinity County.
The story told by “John Smith” in his letter to city officials is improbable in the extreme. “Smith” — who claims to be an average citizen with a friend in the EPD — says he was driving to Redding on the previous Monday when he was passed by the city car at a high rate of speed. Though “Smith” says he does not work for the city, he claims he identified it immediately as a Eureka city vehicle driven by Garr Nielsen.
“HE HAD DONE THIS BEFORE ABOUT SIX WEEKS AGO NEAR LEGGETT AND IT UPSET ME AS I KNEW IT WAS THE EUREKA CHIEF OF POLICE,” wrote “Smith” in capital letters.
“Smith” claims that he called a friend in Eureka after being passed. The friend allegedly told “Smith” that Nielsen was likely visiting “his girlfriend” — Tawnie Hansen — at her vacation place near Lewiston. On his way back from Redding, “Smith” continues, he decided to take a detour to Lewiston to check it out. “Smith” then opined that Nielsen had “BROUGHT DISGRACE” to the Eureka Police Department, and threatened to release the photos to the public if something were not done. On Friday, he forwarded his correspondence and the pictures to the Journal, saying that he had heard this paper was writing a story on the subject.
Calls to Nielsen were referred to EPD Personnel Director Teresia Haase who, when asked about the photos, said “I’m sorry, I have no comment to make on that.”
Alan Goldberg, the attorney who is representing Hansen in the libel suit, said Tuesday that Hansen’s family had been at the Lewiston property at the time.
“I understand he visited the whole family, including Tawnie’s husband,” Goldberg said. “I don’t know if [her husband] was there at the specific time the chief was there, but there’s nothing untoward about this visit.”
Councilmember Larry Glass — a strong Nielsen supporter who had not received the photos — said Monday that he knew Nielsen had, in fact, traveled to Trinity County last week for a short vacation to visit Hansen. Glass said that he had called Nielsen on his cell phone the previous Monday to invite him to come to a meeting. Glass said that Nielsen told him that he was at Lewiston with Hansen’s family for a few days.
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13 Comments
Comment / By pogo / July 2, 2009, 7:04 a.m.
why would you want to resuscitate malaise? Morale, maybe, but morale is always internal. Maybe you should avoid using French. And stick to short words.
Comment / By Hank Sims / July 2, 2009, 7:16 a.m.
Good point.
Comment / By Mike Goldsby / July 2, 2009, 10:48 p.m.
So this story on the Times Standard website, alleging internet harassment, attracts anonymous comments that eventually cause them all to be taken down?
Is that weird or predictable or sad? I feel like it resuscitated my malaise.
Comment / By Charles / July 3, 2009, 6:15 a.m.
Well, with removal of the last EPD chief, the city looked at bringing someone in who was not a local good ole boy to the city.
They were at war with him from day 1.
Comment / By Kate / July 3, 2009, 3:42 p.m.
Good Ole Boys in Eureka will dig in and be ferocious in order to keep their illegal and immoral activities secret. These people don’t care that poor people and middle class are getting poorer, they only care that they stay in power.
Comment / By Carol Conners / July 4, 2009, 8:08 a.m.
Having been a victim of anonymous blog comments, I find all this quite distasteful. Not your writing about it, Hank, but personal attacks on public figures regarding their private lives. Anyone with a computer can type absolute lies when they are anonymous. A friend of mine sent me a link to the Above the Law blog and I looked at it once. IMHO, it looked politically motivated. I felt like I need to take a shower after reading it. Yuk.
Comment / By Magdeline Pereira / July 4, 2009, 2:51 p.m.
EPD female officers/employees need to be treated with the utmost respect and kindness. Imbecile jokes and pranks from male chiefs, reveal unevolved lowlife exploiters, ejaculators and perpetraitors whos’ DNA need to be eradicated from the human genome.
Comment / By lol / July 5, 2009, 12:49 a.m.
When organizations change there are always people who find themselves unable to change with it. They tend to work themselves out of the organization in time.
I’m certain that this vocal group of anti-Nielson employees will be little missed when they eventually move on. Sorry folks, but if you spend the bulk of your time inciting lawsuits and creating drama within a team unit you are doing a bad job.
No matter how you feel about tactics, behavior or whatever it’s important to act in a professional manner and continue working toward your official job goals. Sabotaging the operations of the PD over petty, small-time fueds regarding a couple of people’s career stagnation is not called for.
Anyone with two brain-cells to rub together can see what’s really going on here.
Comment / By backstabbed / July 5, 2009, 10:51 p.m.
If anyone with a BRAIN had done a real background on Garr he never would have been hired. No one asks why a road deputy was shoved into a closet in a jail and left there until he found another job to go to–YOURS. Geezus, someone opened the door and this clown walked right in.
Comment / By john q public / July 6, 2009, 4:33 p.m.
To backstabbed/aka mcso: Poor baby. Still holding your little immature grudge after all this time. You need counseling bad. You apparently don’t know that it was more than 1 person with a brain who contacted the dept up there & did a background. I bet it really pissed you off when the council down here voted unanimously to give this guy a 5 yr contract because of his good work. You are probably still bringing embarassment to yourself up there. And, by the way, this paper was a little late in their investigating. A grand jury exonerated the chief from all the petty complaints that 2 folks filed, and 1 of them just quit. Get a life, you poor sap.
Comment / By Hank Sims / July 6, 2009, 4:51 p.m.
And, by the way, this paper was a little late in their investigating.
A little early, you mean.
Comment / By john q public / July 6, 2009, 8:47 p.m.
Yes, true, you’re right. NCJ just dredged up, sensationalized & exaggerated old news, did no new creditable research, certainly didn’t get all perspectives, and now they look silly in light of what the grand jury said.
Comment / By magdeline pereira / July 17, 2009, 3:10 p.m.
I nominate Lyn Soderberg for Chief of Police, Eureka, CA and may the Nacho chips fall to the Blessed Peacemakers, USA