Open Vallejo (https://openvallejo.org/page/2/)
Open Vallejo has cautioned Vallejo’s new outside counsel to ensure officials refrain from destroying evidence, as a Solano County judge sets a special hearing in the newsroom’s public records lawsuit against the city.
The Vallejo city attorney’s office has recused itself from an investigation into the destruction of evidence in multiple police shootings, according to a statement from the city manager’s office — but concerns about the process remain.
Du Sault won the award for her “tireless and meticulous” investigation into the Vallejo Police Department, which was co-published by Open Vallejo and ProPublica.
The Vallejo city attorney’s office has long resisted public scrutiny of the police department’s frequent shootings. With a new law poised to force the release of shooting records, a lawyer and a detective made a decision no court can reverse.
A disturbing history of domestic violence, verbal clashes with colleagues and constituents, and vocal support for Vallejo police defined the former council member’s turbulent tenure.
The Vallejo City Attorney’s Office hopes to identify the authors behind two pseudonymous social media accounts, confidential records obtained by Open Vallejo show.
If Nichelini is reinstated, “it should raise concern from the streets of Vallejo to the attorney general’s office about how seriously the police department is taking reform,” Otis R. Taylor, Jr., the reporter who received the menacing email, told Open Vallejo.
The Journalistic Integrity Award is Open Vallejo’s eighth since 2019, and its second from an organization focused on criminal justice.
In 2020, the California DOJ endorsed 45 reforms for Vallejo police. The department has implemented just two of them.
The City of Vallejo has signed a $100,000 consulting agreement with former Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn, whose tenure included the fatal shootings of Stephon Clark and Darrell Richards.