
The Vallejo Police Department has released new evidence related to the police killings of Mario Romero and Mohammed Naas more than a decade ago, including videos the city had previously labeled destroyed, in response to a public records lawsuit by Open Vallejo.
The recently recovered audiovisual records represent only a fraction of case files that Vallejo illegally purged in 2021 at the request of Det. Sgt. Mathew Mustard with approval from Assistant City Attorney Katelyn Knight. A 2023 Open Vallejo investigation revealed Vallejo’s widespread destruction of evidence in police shootings of six people, including Romero and Naas, based largely on documents and depositions obtained through the newsroom’s public records lawsuit against the city.
In May 2023, Solano County Superior Court Judge Stephen Gizzi ruled that the destruction of evidence violated state law. Gizzi ordered the city to produce all outstanding records by the end of November that year; it has yet to do so.
All of the shootings in which evidence was destroyed involved at least one officer linked to the agency’s “Badge of Honor” scandal, revealed by Open Vallejo in 2020, in which officers bend the tips of their badges each time they kill in the line of duty.
The records released Wednesday include six videos and eight photographs from the department’s investigation into the shooting death of 23-year-old Romero. Vallejo police officers Sean Kenney and Dustin Joseph shot the young father 30 times as he sat in his parked car near his family’s home in Vallejo on Sept. 2, 2012. Romero did not have a firearm, although Kenney claimed he found a pellet gun near the floor behind the driver’s seat following the shooting.
The new evidence, long thought lost, includes footage of Vallejo police investigators Mustard and Todd Tribble interviewing Kenney and Joseph on the morning of the Romero shooting; on-camera statements from neighbors who heard or saw the early morning shooting; and a video clip and photographs from a forensic examination of Romero’s white Ford Thunderbird, its front windshield punctured by dozens of bullet holes.
In 2022, a former Vallejo officer testified that Tribble participated in the badge-bending clique, which was first revealed by Open Vallejo.
Wednesday’s release also included footage of Mustard interviewing Lt. Stephen Darden on June 8, 2013, after Darden fatally shot 57-year-old Mohammed Naas.
Evidence records for case 12-11085, the killing of Romero, show evidence labeled “FR-7: DVD w/Neighborhood canvas video” was destroyed on Jan. 11, 2021. So were items labeled, “CD OF 620 INTERVIEW,” and “CD of 585 INTERVIEW,” which refer to the shooting officers’ badge numbers. Kenney and Joseph allegedly participated in the badge-bending ritual after killing Romero.
The evidence list for case 13-6659 also marks an item called “MM8-DVD LABELED DARDEN” as destroyed. In 2020, Open Vallejo named Darden as a participant in the badge-bending clique, which he has repeatedly denied.
The Vallejo Police Department and Vallejo City Attorney’s Office have yet to explain how the evidence released Wednesday resurfaced. Although city of Vallejo spokesperson Sharon Lund sent Open Vallejo’s request for comment to City Manager Andrew Murray, City Attorney Veronica Nebb, and Vallejo Police Chief Jason Ta, none had responded as of this article’s publication.
When asked during a May 2022 deposition in Open Vallejo’s lawsuit whether Vallejo kept a backup of audiovisual records after deleting files, Joni Brown, then the Vallejo Police Department’s public records coordinator, gave a clear answer.
“No,” she testified.