Tuesday, March 7, 2017 • City asks for independent investigation into police chief’s hiring questions

Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, March 7, 2017 edition of the Lassen County Times.

The city of Susanville has asked for an independent investigation into questions regarding the recent hiring of John King as the city’s new police chief.

Jared Hancock, city administrator, and John King, the city’s chief of police, both declined to characterize the nature of the investigation. King said he didn’t want to put a label on something that wasn’t appropriate.

“At this point, it’s an investigation,” King said.

“The investigator’s been told there’s a situation, and he’s been given no direction … I’d rather just let the investigator come in and let the investigation take him where it takes him. I don’t have anything to hide, but I don’t want it to look like I’m pointing him in the wrong direction or in a particular direction. I don’t want to make it look like a witch hunt, and I don’t want to make it look like I have to hide to protect myself.”

While King said he did not want to discuss the exact scope of the investigation, he said he expects the investigator will investigate every part of the city’s hiring process from the beginning to now. He said different factions in town might accept the results of an investigation conducted by an independent party.

While Hancock also wouldn’t comment of the issues being investigated, he said the city’s decision to launch the independent investigation was in direct response to questions asked by this newspaper.

The newspaper asked the city to respond to concerns raised by readers about the process the city followed in hiring King.

According to the readers, the matter has been turned over to the Lassen County Grand Jury and a criminal complaint was filed with the California Department of Justice.

The California Attorney General’s Office did not respond to this newspaper’s inquires by deadline.

Last week, the newspaper filed a Public Records Act request regarding a Susanville Police Department regarding a crime report allegedly was filed in the matter. The department has 10 days to respond to that request.

“We’ve hired an independent person because everybody’s kind of accusing everybody else of inappropriate behavior,” King said. “There are a lot of accusations, so we’ve decided to get an independent investigator. At this point, everyone is a potential witness, including Jared, excluding myself because I wasn’t here.”

King said there’s been a lot of finger pointing, and while he was not involved in any of the decisions made during the hiring process, he said, “I’m kind of the subject of the whole thing.”