Editor’s Note: Since this story was first published, US District Judge Dolly Gee denied the motion for sanctions on October 2. She concluded the interrogation video was never designated as confidential and wrote in part: “Steering’s behavior was not in bad faith, or tantamount to bad faith, in abuse of the judicial process, or a reckless multiplication of the proceedings.”
The length and bushiness of a police officer’s beard has become a key issue in a legal fight in California.
The city of Fontana is calling for attorney Jerry Steering to be held in contempt months after Steering publicized a nearly $900,000 settlement. The city says he violated a protective order by releasing confidential images of officers received during the lawsuit, which accused detectives of browbeating a murder confession out of an innocent man during 17 hours of interrogation. The city maintains its officers did not break any laws.
Various media outlets in the US and Europe ran the story after it broke in the San Bernardino Sun at the end of May, many using video and still photos from the interrogation of Tom Perez by Dets. David Janusz and Kyle Guthrie. At least one also used a photo of Janusz in his police uniform, and one of Guthrie taken from a deposition in the case.
But when CNN spoke exclusively to Perez for an in-depth feature and sought comment from Fontana officials, the city accused Steering of blowing a covert officer’s cover and releasing materials in contravention of a court’s protective order, designed to not “jeopardize the Fontana Police Department’s operations and safety.”
The city, through its attorney Shel Harrell, called for Steering to face sanctions and be found in contempt of court, saying his alleged release of Guthrie’s image hurt the officer’s “promising career” as supervisor of undercover operations.
“FPD has now been forced to abruptly pull its key undercover officer from the field in an effort to protect him from the underworld elements he had successfully infiltrated,” the motion said.
“(D)ue to the danger of assassination following his exposure, Sgt. Guthrie’s utility as a field undercover officer has been destroyed. Sgt. Guthrie has been quickly removed from his undercover assignments and his valuable undercover operations have consequently imploded. The people of Fontana community will assuredly suffer as a result,” it continued.
Guthrie was not named as a defendant in the civil suit in which Perez accused the police of false imprisonment and due process violations, among other offenses, though he was a chief interrogator of Perez.
City released photo, but with ‘completely different facial hair’
Steering countered that Guthrie’s appearance was no secret. The city itself had publicized Guthrie’s face, with photos of him receiving an employee of the year award. The award was for his work in 2019, and the photo dates from a February 2020 ceremony during a city council meeting.
“(W)hen in 2020 Officer Kyle Guthrie received the Award for the Fontana Police Department Officer of the Year for 2019, he already sported that long beard,” Steering wrote in his response to the action against him.
He called Guthrie “the most vicious interrogator” of Perez.
The city replied in a September 13 filing: “But the image of Sgt. Guthrie which Steering released to the media is more current and bears his actual likeness during FPD’s 2024 undercover work.”
“Guthrie’s photo from 2020 depicts a heavier man with completely different facial hair than is depicted in Steering’s media release Guthrie photo,” the city wrote.
In both images, Guthrie has a shaved head.
In 2020, his beard is arguably thicker and shorter than it appears in the February 14, 2023, deposition. By 2023, the sideburns are gone, and Guthrie’s cheeks are clean-shaven down to his jawbone. A streak of gray down from the chin is more prominent in the ruddy-colored beard as seen in the later images.
Steering joked in the deposition that he sported a beard to distract people from looking at the top of his head, to which Guthrie replied: “Same.”
When asked if the beard was part of his job, Guthrie replied: “I work in an undercover assignment. So, I’m not a uniform personnel. So, I can choose to grow my hair out, a beard – obviously you can tell I don’t have much hair to grow out. So, this is the only thing I got.”
The city complains that the deposition shows Guthrie’s “current undercover likeness.” And in a supporting document supplied to the court, FPD Capt. Brian Binks said images from the deposition “captured Sgt. Guthrie while he was dressed in his undercover attire.”
But the video shows Guthrie wearing a shirt with the logo of the Inland Valley Special Weapons Team – a regional SWAT outfit.
Undercover police officers typically never wear anything that could link them to law enforcement, even when not conducting operations.
“Mr. Steering elected to publicize Guthrie’s current likeness and implode his in–the-field undercover career,” the city wrote.
City thanked its ‘undercover’ team in public meeting
The still image from the deposition was not covered by the court’s protective order, but the city argues it should not have been released.
“(I)t would be difficult to conceive of more ‘reckless’ conduct than Mr. Steering’s decision to destroy valuable FPD undercover operations and valuable undercover careers by broadcasting FPD officer images to the City’s criminal underworld,” it wrote.
Yet – just four hours after the deposition concluded on February 14, 2023 – Guthrie, with his prominent beard, was thanked and named publicly along with his team as the police department’s employees of the year. He had changed into a suit and tie for the ceremony at a public city council meeting that was broadcast, and a report was later published in the Fontana Herald News. The video from the city council showing Guthrie and his colleagues is still online.
“On behalf of our great citizens, we want to just thank you for all your hard work,” said Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren. “I tell you, I love watching the TV and seeing Fontana’s on the job again, so thank you so much.”
In the meeting, Fontana Police Capt. Jim Burton praised Guthrie and his colleagues in the city’s “Rapid Response Team” for their work tackling illegal firearms and drugs and other emerging crime trends.
He said the team had seized 127,000 fentanyl pills and 25 illegal firearms in just the first six weeks of 2023.
But this is the kind of activity the city now says has been imperiled.
Matters got ‘escalated’
The city argues separately that the court’s protective order did cover a lengthy interrogation video during which police berate Perez, use his dog and his friend to pressure him and ultimately watch while he breaks down.
Steering said he reviewed legal files and did not believe the video was sealed when he provided it to the local reporter who broke the story and “a few other media sources.”
The lawyers have put forward clashing evidence about whether the video was covered by the order.
But Steering was not accused of contempt until CNN began reporting its story, after the other media reports had been published.
The city wrote: “Mr. Steering has now escalated matters by providing Fontana’s officer videos to CNN, which publicly aired them on September 5, 2024 – over the Fontana Defendants’ vigorous objections. Thus, the distribution of Fontana’s protected video now involves many millions of new viewers, some of which could doubtlessly include criminal elements that wish Fontana’s law enforcement officer’s (sic) harm.”
CNN has not reported on how it obtained the materials used in its story.
A court hearing on the motion against Steering has been requested for September 27.
The city of Fontana has asked for Steering’s cut of the $898,000 settlement to be returned and to be compensated for at least $26,885 of legal fees spent investigating his conduct.
Fontana also argued all the materials it views as confidential that were included in CNN’s story should be considered by the court as part of the contempt motion and criticized CNN for the publication.
CNN reached out to Steering and Harrell, the attorney who represents the city of Fontana and its employee Guthrie, for comment on this story. They have not given responses.
The Fontana Police Department didn’t answer any of CNN’s questions before or after the story ran.
“I don’t recall receiving your emails,” Chief Michael Dorsey said when we approached him as he was walking back to the police department after a city council meeting earlier this month.
He then did not respond to questions about how Perez was treated, the actions of his officers, how they took a dog into the interrogation room, and whether he stood by the officers..
Fontana PD does allow and even apparently encourage its uniformed officers to appear on TV. Guthrie himself briefly appears in uniform and is named in an episode of “COPS” in 2018, before the Perez interrogation. The department earlier this year joined the “On Patrol: Live” show that airs live footage of police officers as they respond to situations.