P.I. Lanzillo Arrested in Mensinger/Righeimer Case (UPDATED)*

LANZILLO AND ASSOCIATE ARRESTED
The office of Orange County District Attorney, Tony Rackauckas, today issued a press release, HERE, announcing the arrest of Private Investigator Chris Lanzillo and an associate, Scott Impola, for what is described in the press release as, "committing crimes against two Costa Mesa council members and a competitor attorney."  According to the press release, each are charged with two felony counts of conspiracy to commit a crime of unlawful use of electronic tracking device, one felony count of false imprisonment by deceit, and one felony count of conspiracy to commit a crime of falsely reporting crime to agency.  Both are being held on $25,000 bail and will be arraigned at a later date.  Each could face a maximum of 4 years and four months in jail, plus revocation of their private investigators' licenses.

FULL DETAILS IN THE PRESS RELEASE
The press release provides all the details of these allegations.  I won't reproduce them here.

COMPLICITY BY THE CMPOA IMPLIED
The language of the press release implies complicity by the Costa Mesa Police Officers Association (CMPOA).  That is VERY troubling.  As you will read in the press release, the CMPOA retained the law firm Lackie, Dammeier, McGill and Ethir (LDME) to do "candidate research", which apparently included surveillance on Costa Mesa city council members in the run-up to the November, 2012 election.

BAD NEWS!
This is a VERY unpleasant turn of event for the already-beleaguered CMPD, which has had the staff slashed by 30%, specialty units disbanded and its outstanding police chief, Tom Gazsi, depart for another job last week.

AWAITING WORD...
So far, no word is forthcoming from the CMPOA or their legal representatives.  I'll report more when I know more.

*UPDATE
Later in the day two attorneys representing the Costa Mesa Police Officers Association issued statements.  The first, Paul S. Meyer, said:
“The Association had the Lackie firm on retainer for years for general
legal work and administrative representation for its members. The law firm was quickly terminated when the controversy arose. The Association cooperated with the District Attorney investigation, and appreciates that the Association has not been implicated. The Association puts its members first and continues to provide strong representation.”

The second, Seymour B. Everett, said:
"The CMPOA will continue to cooperate and support the DA's office with any investigation and is confident justice will be served for all parties.  As it relates to the Mensinger and Righeimer civil action, the DA's action further demonstrates that the CMPOA did not instruct, direct or encourage any alleged illegal acts by independent private investigators hired by the Lackie firm."

CMPOA President Rob Dimel, when asked about this situation, deferred to his attorneys.

Additionally, Costa Mesa Communication Director Bill Lobdell, when asked if The City would have any comment on this issue, said: "Nope."