Brown decision is on hold

CITY HALL — The City Council deferred a decision on Tuesday over whether to remove retired Burbank Police Department Lt. Don Brown from his post on the BurbankGlendale-Pasadena Airport Authority over comments he made in support of convicted felon Scott Schaffer.

The council voted instead to make a request to the U.S. District Court to be given access to documents containing Brown's comments, which are now under court seal. The City Attorney's Office will make that request in the event that a similar request from the U.S. Attorney's office is denied.

Councilwoman Marsha Ramos had called for consideration of the commissioner's removal from the authority after the Burbank Police Officers Assn. and others in the community expressed outrage that Brown's comments contributed to a lesser sentence for Schaffer. Schaffer was sentenced to 13 months in prison for trading guns for drugs to members of the gang implicated in the March 2003 shooting death of Officer Matthew Pavelka. Schaffer's sentence was eight months shy of U.S. Attorney's Office prosecutors' recommendations.

"I think it's not supporting our Police Department by not requesting that Mr. Brown make clear what his statements were to the probation officer...No one knows unless we have the report in our hands, which we do not," Mayor Todd Campbell said.

Campbell said he also had lingering questions about a letter that Brown wrote to the council in response to calls for his removal. Among Campbell's concerns was whether the telephone call that the probation officer placed to Brown was a 'blind call,' or something that Brown had agreed to beforehand. In his letter, Brown contended that he did not plead leniency for Schaffer, rather he truthfully answered questions that the probation officer posed.

"The probation investigator asked me general questions about how and how long I had known Schaffer, and what I knew about his activities in the community," he said. "I answered those questions honestly, as I am sure any one of you would want me, or anyone else, to answer such questions if you found yourself in such a position."

Some speakers in attendance on Tuesday backed Brown, saying that calls to remove him from the authority infringed upon his rights to freedom of speech.