Badge of discourage: Former SMPD officer charged with stealing
AIRPORT COURTHOUSE Felony charges have been filed against a former Santa Monica police officer and writer who is accused of snatching up historic items from the department.
Evan Mason, who resigned from the SMPD in 1985, is accused of withholding several pricey collector’s items from the department, including a 1930s badge worn by the late Police Chief Clarence Webb, a cartoon drawn by “Popeye” creator Elzie Segar and historical photographs of the department.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office filed the charges — two counts of theft by embezzlement — on Jan. 12.
“The city [of Santa Monica] and the police department allegedly made numerous attempts to get the badges back and he allegedly didn’t return some of the historical badges,” said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the DA’s Office.
But Mason, an avid police memorabilia collector who had been the honorary volunteer SMPD historian, was actually never in possession of the 1930s badge, according to his attorney, Stephen Wood, of Quinn Emanuel Trial Lawyers in Los Angeles. The badge has been in the hands of Webb’s daughter, Fay Webb, since her father’s death in 1973 and does not belong to the department, Wood argues.
Neither Wood nor the Santa Monica Police Department would comment on the case or the charges filed.
At the center of the issue is a manuscript chronicling the history of the Santa Monica Police Department. It’s a manuscript that the 52-year-old Mason has been working on for years, and one that served as the source of conflict between Mason and former Police Chief James T. Butts Jr. over copyright issues.
Police conducted a search at Mason’s home and car in Paso Robles on Jan. 26, 2006, seizing a number of items, including an Apple computer tower, a laptop, RCA police radios and a manila envelope containing the manuscript. A “list of items to be seized” in the search warrant named the Webb badge and “articles or manuscripts written by Evan Mason that describe or depict property misappropriated by Mason from the Santa Monica Police Department.”
In a letter to the City Attorney’s Office, dated in April of last year, Wood contends that Butts and the police “abused their authority” in conducting the search warrant and that the manuscript does not appear to have any relationship with the collector’s items.
Mason became the department’s historian after he served as a member of the SMPD Centennial Committee, which was charged with preparing for the 100-year celebration in 1996. As the volunteer historian, Mason had access to the SMPD archives and attained a number of historical items from the family of deceased department employees on behalf of the department, according to a “Statement of Probable Cause,” written by Lt. Michael Beautz, who signed off on the search warrant.
As the historian, Mason was entrusted with storing historical photographs at his home in Paso Robles when the SMPD moved from it’s old headquarters to the new Public Safety Facility in 2003. At the time of the move, there was no space to hang the photographs in the new facility, the statement read.
“Mason volunteered to store the items in his barn at his home in Paso Robles until a determination was made concerning the location and size of the Police Museum.”
Without the manuscript in his possession, it’s proven more difficult finding a publisher to ink a deal, Mason’s lawyer contends.
“Evan has been in contact with several publishers,” Wood said on Monday. “Publishers weren’t interested in publishing text that’s currently in possession of the police department.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 6, 2007. Read the original PDF.