Next month, Jonathon Christopher LaRoche, a detective with the Naval Criminal Investigations Service (NCIS) will face sentencing in federal court for several crimes relating to abuse of a prisoner in his custody.
In July, the San Diego U.S.Attorney's Office announced that LaRoche pleaded guilty to charges relating to his alleged choking of a handcuffed prisoner in federal custody at Naval Base San Diego on Nov. 14.
Specifically, LaRoche pleaded guilty to filing a false statement and deprivation of rights under color of law.
The U.S. Attorney’s filing describes how LaRoche took the handcuffed prisoner “and used his right arm to employ a carotid restraint that lasted 17 seconds,” until the prisoner “GD” lost consciousness.
LaRoche’s misconduct as a Navy detective is disturbing to police accountability advocates. But they are even more disturbed to learn NCIS hired him in the first place.
From February 2013 to May 2018, LaRoche was an officer with the El Cajon Police Department. On multiple occasions, LaRoche employed excessive force on prisoners in his custody according to El Cajon PD records obtained by KPBS. The records showed that after a third internal affairs investigation into his conduct, LaRoche was quietly let go.
Advocates say LaRoche became what is known as a “wandering officer,” an officer who is allowed to leave an agency without significant disciplinary action despite a history of misconduct. These officers can apply for new jobs without having to disclose their troubled pasts.
They’re gone “before any employment consequences such as them being fired can happen,” said Deepak Prekkumar of the Public Policy Institute of California. “Because of the lack of misconduct records, they’re able to get rehired at other agencies.”
Advocates and experts say tracking the number of wandering officers has been next to impossible due to laws that protect the privacy of police personnel. In California, the Peace Officer’s Bill of Rights has made it especially difficult for the public to gain access to police disciplinary records.
“In the absence of systematic data, we simply do not know how common wandering officers are or how much of a threat they pose, nor can we know whether and how to address the issue through policy reform,” said Ben Grunwald, a professor of law at Duke University, who has done extensive research on wandering officers.
When LaRoche left El Cajon PD in 2018, his disciplinary history was hidden from public view.
“Historically, California was an almost complete black hole of police transparency,” said David Loy of the First Amendment Coalition.
However, in recent years, state legislation has forced more transparency regarding officer conduct. Records relating to police shootings and use of force are now more likely to be made public.
“Whenever a police officer discharges their firearm at a person or uses force that results in death or great bodily injury, the public has a right to disclosure of those documents,” Loy said.
A pattern of behavior
Documents obtained by KPBS under the new state laws show LaRoche was investigated by El Cajon Police Department’s internal affairs division in two separate 2017 cases
In one case, LaRoche dropped a handcuffed prisoner to the ground at a San Diego County jail and “bounced his face off the concrete,” according to the records. LaRoche had turned off his body-worn camera, according to the records, but video from inside the jail showed the prisoner posed no threat.
The internal affairs investigation determined that LaRoche’s actions showed “improper use of force,” “improper use of the body worn camera" and that he exhibited a lack of truthfulness, the records show.
The other case involved LaRoche’s treatment of a female prisoner at the Las Colinas Jail. Witnesses saw him hold her down by her neck against the floor, the records show. LaRoche claimed the prisoner tried to kick him but the camera in the jail’s intake area did not show any behavior on her part that warranted his actions, according to the records.
Court filings in the federal government’s case against LaRoche also reference a 2015 incident in which he allegedly used excessive force, but records in that case are not publicly available.
Reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Katie Rusch and UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program revealed many police agencies cut secret separation deals with troubled officers to limit the agency’s exposure.
One of those deals involved the El Cajon PD. While there were no details on which officer 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 labeled “Confidentiality,” and included the following language:
“City will place any and all documents related to the pending termination matter, including any and all related reports, emails, and the settlement of this matter, in a sealed envelope stating on its front ‘Documents Related to Employment of Jonathan LaRoche, To Be Opened Only to the Extent Required by Law.’ This envelope and its contents will be maintained in the office of the City Attorney. No documents related to the pending termination matter, including any and all related reports, emails and the settlement of this matter, will be maintained in any of LaRoche’s Personnel Files with the El Cajon Police Department or the City of El Cajon.”
KPBS asked El Cajon City Attorney Morgan Foley about this confidential agreement with LaRoche. Foley said “there is no policy - written or otherwise - where an employee has the option to resign in lieu of discipline” .
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 showing the extent to which NCIS did a background check on LaRoche before he was hired.
The U.S. Attorney says LaRoche lied when he claimed he left the El Cajon department because he was “hired by U.S. Department of Defense Police” and didn’t resign “in lieu of termination." The federal government says he lied knowing his work history “information was false, fictitious, and fraudulent,” according to the charging documents.
NCIS is unique in that it is a civilian-run agency that employs law enforcement professionals from outside the Navy. They report to the Secretary of the Navy and handle major 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 regarding LaRoche’s hiring.
Navy Region Southwest's spokesperson Brian O'Rourke did respond."We continually look at our hiring and background check procedures to ensure we apply due diligence to all hiring actions," he said in an emailed statement.
In response to a request from KPBS, El Cajon’s Police Records Supervisor said LaRoche’s file “does not have any record of inquiries” by the Navy or “any other policing organization pertaining to LaRoche’s work history while employed by ECPD (El Cajon PD).”
The federal charges against LaRoche state the lies on his application for work for NCIS are considered a more serious issue than his use of excessive force. For filing the false statement he faces five years and a $250,000 fine. For his treatment of the federal prisoner he faces one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.
LaRoche is currently scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 13 in federal court. As part of his plea agreement, the 40-year-old has agreed to leave NCIS and not to apply for other jobs in law enforcement.
"The majority of our civilian and military law enforcement officers perform with honor and professionalism; those who violate the rights of others will be held accountable,” O’Rourke said.
