The victim in a Little Saigon loan-sharking operation that FBI agents believe used at least one dirty lawman as an enforcer is suing the Westminster Police Department, its chief, three cops and the alleged loan shark.
Lounge owner Hanh Le claims in her 11-count federal lawsuit that a “team” of defendants “conspired” to “frighten, pressure, harass, intimidate, assault and threaten” her into making payments on “usurious loans” totaling $170,000 with an illegal 60 percent annual interest rate to accused loan shark Kevin Khanh Tuan Do of Fountain Valley.
Last August, prosecutors inside the U.S. Department of Justice charged officer Anthony Duong Donner and Do in the case, but Hanh believes the corruption extended to her named additional defendants: Police Chief Kevin Baker as well as veteran officers Phuong Pham and Timothy Vu, according to the lawsuit.
Hanh claims police repeatedly “carried out drive-bys” at her residence in their patrol vehicles, entered her business and residence without permission, directed high-intensity spotlights from their patrol vehicles inside her shop while customers were present, harassed patrons with interrogations under false pretenses, sent threatening messages, pulled her and her employees over in bogus traffic stops, and threatened her with arrest and imprisonment when she fell behind on making payments to Do.
In the case of Baker, the chief is not a criminal defendant and has cooperated with federal authorities, but Hanh’s lawsuit names him for allegedly condoning the loan-sharking scheme or possessing “a reckless or callous indifference” it.
Unless Hanh possesses presently unknown evidence directly against Baker, it’s likely he’ll eventually be dismissed from the case.
The impact of the alleged scheme caused Hanh to suffer loss of income as well as “severe mental anguish” for the deprivation of her constitutional rights to be free of police officers acting under the color of law for a loan shark, according to the lawsuit written for the plaintiff by Irvine-based attorney Mark W. Eisenberg.
Westminster city council members rejected an opportunity to settle the civil dispute with Hanh late last year and lawyers for the defendants are asserting that police should be immune to such lawsuits and denying their clients did anything wrong.
On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter scheduled a June 17 trial for Donner, a graduate of Golden West College’s police program, and Do, the owner of a construction company.
Carter also will handle Hanh’s lawsuit that seeks unspecified damages.
Assistant United States Attorney Brett A. Sagel is in the process of turning over a large amount of investigatory discovery to criminal defense lawyers.
Westminster PD has superb officers but continually faces embarrassment from the dubious conduct a few rotten cops on the force.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.
CBD exceeded my expectations in every way thanks https://www.cornbreadhemp.com/blogs/learn/can-you-take-cbd-oil-on-a-plane . I’ve struggled with insomnia in the interest years, and after trying CBD because of the first once upon a time, I finally practised a full night of calm sleep. It was like a force had been lifted off my shoulders. The calming effects were calm despite it intellectual, allowing me to meaning off naturally without feeling groggy the next morning. I also noticed a reduction in my daytime desire, which was an unexpected but welcome bonus. The cultivation was a bit lusty, but nothing intolerable. Whole, CBD has been a game-changer in compensation my nap and solicitude issues, and I’m thankful to keep discovered its benefits.