Peter Lance - Investigation Into Police Corruption in Santa Barbara, CA Following DUI Arrest

Investigation Into Police Corruption in Santa Barbara, CA Following DUI Arrest

On January 1, 2011, Lance was driving home from a New Year’s Eve party. Shortly after 1:00 am he was pulled over by Santa Barbara Police Officer Kasi Beutel who breath-tested Lance and then arrested him for Driving under the influence (of alcohol). Lance pleaded innocent, and was exonerated after his criminal case was dismissed on November 15, 2011.

In fighting the charges of drinking and driving, Lance began an investigation of practices of the Santa Barbara police department that was published in a 13-part series for the Santa Barbara News-Press alleging the police systematically falsified evidence to obtain DUI convictions. The reporting provoked controversy among other reasons because Lance was one of the DUI defendants victimized by the alleged practices during the same period of time that he was investigating the police department and reporting his findings.

On August 2, 2011, the mayor and city administrator of Santa Barbara City pledged to investigate Lance’s findings.

In his series in the Santa Barbara News-Press Lance charged that officer Beutel used pre-filled forms that would meet certain criteria “to guarantee a successful DUI arrest.” Commenting on the series, Lance told the Santa Barbara Independent: “This is the essence of a dirty DUI cop framing innocent people.” He compared the use of prefilled forms to “something that would happen in the old Soviet Union.”

In the 2011 News-Press series Lance also wrote that officer Beutel “may have committed bankruptcy fraud in 2000;” that she "perjured herself during divorce proceedings in 2005;” and that “she’d suborned the perjury of the minister who married her in 1999 by asking him to back-date her marriage license so that she might receive more post-divorce support.”

On December 6, 2011 Lance filed a 21 page formal complaint against Police Chief Cam Sanchez of the Santa Barbara Police Department, asking for a full investigation of his allegations. The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) dropped all charges against Lance on March 6, 2012. On March 8, 2012, the Santa Barbara News-Press revealed that an outside consulting firm had been paid $12,000 for a report on the matter that they then kept secret.

In October 2012 the News-Press published a new five-part series by Lance that reported on “a local defense lawyer (who) suspected that someone in law enforcement had planted heroin on one of his clients — a woman arrested on suspicion of DUI by Officer Beutel” On October 7, 2012, Lance wrote:

“At first I didn't believe it, despite the evidence I'd assembled by then, proving that Officer Beutel, the former head of the Santa Barbara Police Department's Drinking Driver Team and two-time Top DUI officer in the county had falsified police reports, committed perjury on a DMV form, witnessed at least five forged blood test waivers, withheld evidence from two suspects in violation of Brady rules, and pre-checked DUI forms before going into the field, suggesting a pre-determined mindset to frame innocent drivers.

“I'd uncovered additional evidence regarding the accountant-turned-cop possibly committing bankruptcy fraud in 2000 and perjury in the course of divorce proceedings just months before she donned the uniform of the Santa Barbara Police Department in 2005.

“Knowing all of that, I refused to accept that a sworn officer of the law could do something as repugnant as planting drugs on a suspect, much less heroin. Still, as with all the evidence in this investigation, I vetted the allegation with an open mind.

“Over the months since then, as more and more information surfaced, including a videotape from County Jail where the discovery of the drug took place, I came to believe that it wasn't just possible, but probable that someone in law enforcement — perhaps Officer Beutel — had intentionally planted that bindle of black tar heroin at the feet of the DUI suspect, causing the District Attorney's Office to charge her on additional charges beyond driving under the influence.”

On December 5, 2012 the Santa Barbara City Council voted to spend $208,000 to install video cameras in 27 Santa Barbara Police Department patrol cars. The move came after the recommendation of the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury in October, 2011 following Lance's first series in which he reported for the first time that the SBPD was the largest police agency in the county without onboard video in patrol units; a factor that can lead to misconduct in DUI arrests.