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Thursday, December 14, 2017 - December 20, 2017
PASADENA_INDEPENDENT
Since 1996
VOLUME 20, NO. 50
Pasadena City Manager to Release Camera Footage of Violent Arrest Cell phone video allegedly shows Pasadena Police Officers brutally beating suspect By TERRY MILLER tmiller@beaconmedianews.com
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social media post of a cell phone video of two Pasadena police officers beating a suspect last month who was resisting arrest following a traffic stop has gone viral in the local Facebook and Instagram community, and now print media. The victim, Chris Ballew, 21, posted on his Facebook account: This is what “(an) Assault by a Police Officer with a NonFirearm” looks like, I guess.. All I can say is Glory be to God. I just posted early this morning for anyone to have a video and lo’ and behold i wake up to find this.” According to, James Farr, who also posted on Facebook: “I spoke with Vice Mayor John Kennedy this morning about the recent video that has surface involving Pasadena Police and an unarmed motorist. “...I do not have all of the facts on the matter involving Chris Ballew and the Pasadena Police Department. Additionally, I do not know when the City will release Body Worn
Camera video of the incident, assuming that it exists.” At Monday’s council meeting the victim’s mother and next door neighbor gave some testimony during public comment, in addition to a couple of other residents. The next door neighbor actually brought still shots of the video to show to the council - he especially focused on when one officer wound up his baton like a baseball bat and smashed the victim’s back when he was already in fetal position. He described the victim as a “great kid” and talked about how his kids played with him growing up. Another speaker described the victim’s only crime as being “black and driving a Mercedes.” The mother wanted the council to understand who they were as a family - they have been residents of Altadena for over 20 years (the mother, an electrical engineer, is originally from Compton and graduated from UC Santa Barbara). She worked for ATT and Kaiser Children’s Hospital before becoming a minister she says she received a “higher calling.” Mother said she has SEE FOOTAGE PAGE 12
A frame taken from the video posted on Facebook depicting Pasadena Police officers apprehending Chris Ballew. – Courtesy photo
CITY COUNCIL RECAP: AFFORDABLE HOUSING REMAINS PASADENA’S GREATEST NEED Gus HERRERA gherrera@beaconmedianews.com
Housing, particularly affordable housing, proved the be the theme of the Pasadena City Council’s latest regular meeting, which ran close to midnight following lengthy deliberations and hours of public testimony.
Council’s work included the approval of a new, 16-unit affordable home ownership project on North Fair Oaks Avenue, various zoning code amendments pertaining to accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and a first reading of the city’s new home-sharing ordinance – all very relevant housing-related items that
in turn packed the council chambers with concerned residents. As one public speaker put so aptly, the evening was truly an example of “serendipitous synchronicity,” the way these three items came together on one agenda. SEE HOUSING PAGE 13
Prominent Pasadena Appeals Court Judge Accused of Sexual Misconduct A prominent federal appeals court judge in Pasadena has been accused by several former clerks and junior staff members of sexual misconduct. Six women — two of whom spoke on the record — said Judge Alex Kozinski had “subjected them to a range of inappropriate sexual
conduct or comments” over the years, as recently as 2012, The Washington Post reported. One ex-clerk said Kozinski, 67, a veteran jurist and former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, repeatedly showed her pornographic images on his computer and
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asked if she was sexually aroused by them. This has been widely reported in New York Times and Huffington Post. “I was in a state of emotional shock,” Heidi Bond, who clerked for Kozinski in 2006 and 2007, SEE JUDGE PAGE 12
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