Tag: DA Ramsey

Sheriff: school’s “vulnerability” exploited by gunman

DA: Suspect had history of mental health problems
by Yucheng Tang | Posted December 19, 2024

photo by Yucheng Tang
Elias Wolford, one of two shooting victims.

The Dec. 4 Palermo school shooting that severely injured two kindergarteners appears to fit more under “domestic terrorism” than it would under the hate crime category, says Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey.

Ramsey also indicated, in a recent telephone interview, that he believes the violence was related to the suspect’s mental health problems.

Meanwhile, in a social media post last week, a woman who identifies herself as Debbie Wolford, the grandmother of victim Elias Wolford, said Elias hadn’t had movement of his legs since being hospitalized. In another update this week, a post indicates that Elias had undergone emergency surgery that went well.

The two victims, Elias and Roman Mendez, both still hospitalized, had a short visit with each other, said the Butte County Sheriff’s Office in a Dec. 13 statement. read more

DA Ramsey, Chico PD skirt sunshine laws

Information withheld in Butte County officer-involved killings
by Leslie Layton | Posted November 4, 2021

photo by Karen Laslo
2017 Desmond Phillips vigil at Chico Police Department.

story updated at 4 p.m. Nov. 4

Local law enforcement agencies violated the law when they failed to respond fully and promptly – the Butte County District Attorney’s Office didn’t respond for months — to public record requests made by a local journalist.

District Attorney Mike Ramsey didn’t respond to a pair of public record requests made by ChicoSol contributor Dave Waddell during the 10-day period required by the California Public Records Act (CPRA), and in fact didn’t respond at all until Waddell hired an attorney.

Waddell, formerly this publication’s news director, says records were “unlawfully withheld” by both the DA and Chico Police Department. He has now spent about $20,000 in attorney fees seeking documents related to law enforcement killings that occurred during the 34-year tenure of DA Ramsey. (Read Waddell’s three-part series for ChicoSol on newly released records here, here and here.) read more

Desmond’s killers told inconsistent stories

DA's interview dubbed incompetent by cop expert
by Dave Waddell | Posted September 22, 2021

Desmond Phillips was killed by police on March 17, 2017.

Editor: This is part 3 in a three-part series based on newly released documents and video.

Two young Chico police officers, on the night in 2017 they gunned Desmond Phillips down, told conflicting stories to investigators about what Phillips was doing in the seconds before he was slain.

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey, apparently uncomfortable with those discrepancies, brought Desmond’s killers together nearly three weeks later for a group re-interview that “no competent investigator” would have conducted, says Seth Stoughton, a former detective and nationally recognized expert on police practices.

“Separating witnesses is such a basic component of an investigation that it has been referred to as ‘Investigations 101,’” said Stoughton, an associate professor of law at the University of South Carolina, in an email reply. “The only reason to interview witnesses together is to get one coherent, consistent story. But that’s not what an investigation is supposed to do.” read more