Oakland internal affairs wants state to take over Bailey probe

Inside Bay Area ^ | 12/09/2008 | The Chauncey Bailey Project

[CE2949BB]

OAKLAND — Police internal affairs detectives investigating the handling of journalist Chauncey Bailey's slaying will have state investigators present when they interview members of their department's command staff.

Investigators from the attorney general's office will be there to monitor the interviews, according to a letter the Department of Justice sent to Mayor Ron Dellums in November.

But the Justice Department won't take over the whole investigation — which is apparently what Oakland internal affairs investigators wanted, the letter stated.

"We do not believe, as has been suggested by the Police Department's Internal Affairs investigator, that the Police Department investigation be halted or postponed pending our review," George B. Anderson, Director of the Division of Law Enforcement, wrote to Dellums on Nov. 26.

While urging the mayor to order police to keep probing how the Bailey case was conducted, Anderson told Dellums that state investigators will take "appropriate independent actions such as "... pursuing their own investigative leads" and "we should be present" at any interviews with department commanders.

Detective Sgt. Derwin Longmire, the lead investigator of Bailey's killing; his boss, homicide unit Lt. Ersie Joyner; and Deputy Chief Jeffrey Loman are being investigated.

[CE2949BB]

Oakland Pride