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Ex-Slidebar bouncer: I knew Kelly Thomas report was false

in Employment Law, News

Originally published June 13, 2012 by Doug Irving at The Orange County Register

Michael Reeves, center, prepares to read a brief statement flanked by his attorneys, Stephen Allen Jamieson (standing) and Stephen Warren Solomon (right)

Michael Reeves, center, prepares to read a brief statement flanked by his attorneys, Stephen Allen Jamieson
(standing) and Stephen Warren Solomon (right). DOUG IRVING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

An ex-bouncer who claims he heard the phone call that drew Fullerton police officers to their fatal encounter with Kelly Thomas said Wednesday that the call was bogus and he lost his job fighting it.

Michael Reeves was working the door at the Slidebar Rock-n-Roll Kitchen on the night half a dozen officers took down Thomas, an unarmed, mentally ill homeless man who frequented the area. He claims in a lawsuit that a manager at the Slidebar falsely reported that Thomas was trying to break into cars, setting in motion the events that led to his death.

Slidebar owner Jeremy Popoff confirmed this week that one of his employees did call police that night from her cell phone. He declined to say what she reported, citing the criminal investigation into Thomas’ death, but said a recording of the call has been reviewed by the District Attorney’s Office and other investigators.

Neither Popoff nor the manager named in Reeves’ lawsuit has been charged with filing a false police report, court records show.

Reeves appeared Wednesday at a brief press conference in the Playa del Rey office of his attorneys. He read a short statement and then sat quietly as his attorneys answered questions. “I heard (the manager) report that Kelly Thomas was in the parking lot breaking into cars,” he said in his statement. “I knew her report to be false.”

The Slidebar fired Reeves in September; its attorney says he confronted a manager in front of customers. He claims he was fired for complaining about the police report and talking to the District Attorney’s Office about it. He filed suit late last week, demanding at least $4 million for lost wages and emotional distress, and to punish the Slidebar.

Reeves says in his lawsuit that Thomas was doing nothing more than picking up cigarette butts outside the Slidebar. He claims the Slidebar had a policy of keeping homeless people like Thomas away – a claim Popoff and his attorney refuted as absurd and insulting.

Reeves’ lawsuit claims that the manager who called police that night ensured a quick response by reporting that Thomas was trying to break into cars. Responding officers arrived on scene thinking there was a crime in progress, he says, not just a loitering homeless man.

“Mr. Reeves heard what he heard,” said Stephen Warren Solomon, one of his attorneys. “And he was terminated for doing the right thing.”

An outside investigator hired by Fullerton to look into the events leading up to Thomas’ death included a recording of that initial phone call in his review. The investigator, Michael Gennaco, reported that the caller told a police dispatcher that a man she identified as “Kelly” was roaming the parking lot, looking into cars and “pulling on handles.” Gennaco did not identify the caller in his initial report.

Police have said officers stopped Thomas as they investigated a car break-in report, and that he struggled when they tried to arrest him. A surveillance video captured two officers tackling and then wrestling with Thomas; four other officers join them and hold Thomas down as some officers hit him and at least one shocks him with a Taser.
Thomas died of chest and head injuries five days later. One of the officers, Manuel Ramos, has been charged with second-degree murder. Another, Jay Cicinelli, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

https://ssjlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/SSJLaw-Attorneys-Logo530.png 0 0 ssjadmin https://ssjlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/SSJLaw-Attorneys-Logo530.png ssjadmin2012-06-14 09:35:472012-06-14 09:35:47Ex-Slidebar bouncer: I knew Kelly Thomas report was false

Civil lawsuit alleges false police report in beating death of homeless man

in News, Personal Injury
Former security guard Michael Reeves and his attorneys, Stephen Solomon and Stephen Jamieson.

Former security guard Michael Reeves and his attorneys, Stephen Solomon and Stephen Jamieson.

Originally posted on June 13, 2012 by Michael Martinez at CNN

The police beating of a California homeless man has spawned a civil lawsuit in which a bar doorman claims he was fired after he cooperated with investigators and claimed his manager made a false report to police about the homeless man’s activities.

Michael Reeves, who also worked as a security guard, is suing his former employer, the Slidebar Rock-N-Roll Kitchen in Fullerton, California, for more than $4 million, according to the lawsuit.

Eric Dubin, attorney for Slidebar and Jeremy Popoff, who’s listed in state records as president of Slidebar Inc. that owns the establishment, said Reeves’ claims are “completely false and fabricated.”

Reeves “was simply fired for getting confrontational with a manager after he let girls in a side door,” Dubin said in an e-mail to CNN. “He never mentioned any of these alleged claims to (the) DA when interviewed, during his sworn employment hearings for unemployment, nor in his signed termination papers last year.”

Popoff, who’s also a guitarist and singer in the rock band Lit, is about to release an album, and the “bogus” lawsuit was timed to that release, Dubin charged.

“We will fight this with everything we have,” Dubin said.

According to the suit, Reeves’ manager called police on July 5, 2011, to falsely report that “Kelly Thomas is in the parking lot breaking into cars.”

Councilmen face recall over alleged beating death in California

Thomas, 37, a homeless man with schizophrenia, was severely beaten by Fullerton police and he later died in the hospital. In connection with his death, Officer Manuel Ramos, 37, is charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, and Cpl. Jay Patrick Cicinelli, 39, is charged with involuntary manslaughter and felony use of excessive force. They have pleaded not guilty.

On Wednesday, Reeves issued a statement in which he stated that “a Slidebar manager called Fullerton Police and I heard her report that Kelly Thomas was in the parking lot breaking into cars.

“I knew her report to be false. I complained about that false report that night to my manager and continued to complain about the false report until the date I was terminated, on September 23, 2011,” said Reeves, who was hired in March 2010.

Reeves said in the lawsuit that Thomas wasn’t breaking into cars but rather was in a parking lot picking up cigarette butts.

Reeves refused to adopt his employer’s “false mantra that ‘Slidebar had nothing to do with Kelly Thomas’ death,’ ” said the lawsuit, filed last week.

When managers realized “that they, too, could face legal consequences for their involvement, not to mention the harm it would cause to Slidebar’s and (its owners’) images, they decided to terminate Mr. Reeves to keep him and law enforcement investigators as far away from Slidebar as possible,” the lawsuit said.

Reeves was terminated two days after prosecutors announced they were pursuing criminal charges against Fullerton police officers, the lawsuit said.

According to a review of the Thomas incident by an independent consultant hired by the Fullerton City Council, police received a call from a woman who referred to Thomas as “Kelly” and said he was “roaming the parking lot,” “looking in cars,” “pulling on handles,” and “pacing through the cars and between each car,” the consultant’s report said.

The Orange County District Attorney’s office wasn’t commenting Wednesday on the civil suit’s accusation of a false police report, a spokeswoman said.

“Just in general, we don’t comment on investigations,” chief of staff Susan Kang Schroeder of the district attorney’s office told CNN.

The Slidebar website says the independently owned and operated establishment offers food, drinks and live music.

“We pride ourselves in offering a cool environment, free from idiots. So don’t act like one, or you will be asked to leave — very politely of course. Have fun, rock on, be yourself … just be cool,” the website says.

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Wrongful Termination Lawsuit Filed Against Sidebar

in News, Personal Injury

Reeves_v._Sidebar_case_no._00575023 (Original PDF Document)

STEPHEN WARREN SOLOMON (State Bar No. 36189)
STEPHEN ALLEN JAMIESON (State Bar No. 115805)
RYAN MICHAEL KROLL (State Bar No. 235204)
D. ANDREW QUIGLEY (State Bar No. 280986)
SOLOMON, SALTSMAN & JAMIESON
426 Culver Boulevard,
Playa Del Rey, California 90293
Telephone: 310.822.9848
Facsimile: 310.822.3512
Attorneys for Plaintiff
MICHAEL REEVES

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
THE COUNTY OF ORANGE 30-2012
Filed June 8, 2012

MICHAEL REEVES, Plaintiff,
Vs.
JEREMY POPOFF: SLIDEBAR INC.
DBA SLIDEBAR ROCK N ROLL KITCHEN
And DOES 1through 50.
Inclusive.
Defendants.
Case No. 00575023

Read more

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