The “roving officers” case highlights the struggle to hold police accountable

Next month, Jonathon Christopher LaRoche, a detective with the Naval Criminal Investigations Service (NCIS), will be sentenced in federal court on multiple felony charges related to the mistreatment of a prisoner in his custody.

In July the This was announced by the US Attorney's Office in San Diego that LaRoche pleaded guilty in connection with the alleged suffocation of a handcuffed prisoner in federal custody at Naval Base San Diego on November 14th.

Specifically, LaRoche pleaded guilty to making a false statement and depriving him of rights under the guise of the law.

The U.S. Attorney's filing describes how LaRoche took the handcuffed prisoner “and applied a carotid restraint with his right arm that lasted 17 seconds” until prisoner “GD” lost consciousness.

LaRoche's misconduct as a Navy detective is troubling to police accountability advocates. But they're even more disturbed when they learn that NCIS hired him in the first place.

From February 2013 to May 2018, LaRoche was an officer with the El Cajon Police Department. According to El Cajon police records obtained by KPBS, LaRoche used excessive force against prisoners in his custody on multiple occasions. According to the records, LaRoche was quietly fired after a third internal investigation into his conduct.

Supporters say LaRoche has become a so-called “wandering officer,” an officer who is allowed to leave an agency without significant disciplinary action despite a history of misconduct. These officials can apply for new positions without having to reveal their checkered past.

They're gone “before any employment consequences, such as being fired, can occur,” said Deepak Prekkumar of the Public Policy Institute of California. “Because there is no record of misconduct, they can be reinstated at other agencies.”

Advocates and experts say it is nearly impossible to track the number of roving officers because of laws protecting the privacy of police personnel. In California it is Peace Officer's Bill of Rights has made it particularly difficult for the public to gain access to police disciplinary records.

“Because there is no systematic data, we simply do not know how common wandering officers are or what threat they pose, nor do we know if and how we can address the problem through policy reform,” said Ben Grunwald, a professor of public policy law degree from Duke University who did this extensive research about wandering officers.

When LaRoche left El Cajon PD in 2018, his disciplinary past remained hidden from the public.

“Historically, California has been an almost complete black hole of police transparency,” said David Loy of the First Amendment Coalition.

In recent years, however state legislation has forced more transparency regarding officers' behavior. Records of police shootings and use of force are now more likely to be released.

“Anytime a police officer fires his firearm at a person or uses force that results in death or serious bodily injury, the public has a right to disclosure of these documents,” Loy said.

A behavior pattern

Documents obtained by KPBS under new state law show that LaRoche was investigated by the El Cajon Police Department's Internal Affairs Division in two separate cases in 2017

In one case, LaRoche threw a handcuffed prisoner to the ground at a San Diego County jail and “slammed his face into the concrete,” records say. Records show LaRoche had turned off his body-worn camera, but videos from inside the prison showed the prisoner posed no threat.

The internal affairs investigation found that LaRoche's actions demonstrated an “improper use of force” and “improper use of the body-worn camera” and that he demonstrated a lack of truthfulness, records show.

The other case involved LaRoche's treatment of a female prisoner at Las Colinas Prison. According to the files, witnesses saw him pinning her to the ground by her neck. LaRoche claimed the prisoner tried to kick him, but the camera in the prison's entrance area did not show any behavior on her part that justified his actions, according to records.

Court filings in the federal government's case against LaRoche also reference a 2015 incident in which he allegedly used excessive force. However, the records of this case are not publicly available.

Reporting by Katie Rusch of the San Francisco Chronicle and the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley revealed that many police departments had entered into secret separation agreements with troubled officers to limit exposure to the department.

One of those deals involved the El Cajon Police Department. While there were no details about which official might be involved in the initial Chronicle story, Rusch provided KPBS with a document titled “Separation Agreement and General Release of Claims.” One section of the agreement was entitled “Confidentiality” and contained the following language:

KPBS asked El Cajon City Attorney Morgan Foley about this confidential agreement with LaRoche. Foley said, “There is no policy – written or otherwise – that gives an employee the option to resign in lieu of disciplinary action.”

The separation agreement was signed by LaRoche, his attorney and El Cajon City Manager Graham Mitchell. The section for Foley's signature is blank.

Questionable background check

The Navy hired LaRoche in 2022. There are no publicly available records indicating the extent to which NCIS conducted a background check on LaRoche before hiring him.

The U.S. attorney says LaRoche lied when he claimed he left the El Cajon department because he was “hired by the Department of Defense Police” and did not resign “in lieu of termination.” The federal government says he lied because he knew his professional history. The information was false, fabricated and fraudulent,” the charging documents state.

NCIS is unique in that it is a civilian-run agency that employs law enforcement experts from outside the Navy. Reporting to the Secretary of the Navy, they conduct serious crime investigations for both the Navy and Marine Corps.

Neither the NCIS office in San Diego nor the Secretary of the Navy's office in Washington, D.C. responded to KPBS requests for comment on LaRoche's hiring.

Navy Region Southwest spokesman Brian O'Rourke responded: “We continually review our hiring and background check procedures to ensure we apply due diligence in all hiring actions,” he said in an emailed statement.

In response to a query from KPBS, El Cajon's police records manager said that LaRoche's file “contains no record of any investigation” by the Navy or “any other police organization that relates to LaRoche's professional history during his employment with ECPD (El Cajon PD).

The federal charges against LaRoche say the lies in his application for a job at NCIS were a more serious problem than his use of excessive force. He faces five years and a $250,000 fine for the false statement. He faces a year in prison and a $100,000 fine for his treatment of the federal prisoner.

LaRoche is currently scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on November 13th. As part of his plea agreement, the 40-year-old agreed to leave NCIS and not apply for other law enforcement positions.

“The majority of our civilian and military law enforcement officers perform their jobs with honor and professionalism; those who violate the rights of others will be held accountable,” O’Rourke said.