New website has officers' names, photos, ranks and ethnicities

The Stop LAPD Spying Coalition launched a database on Friday that makes Los Angeles police officers' information publicly available in an attempt to hold them accountable, the advocacy group says.

Called Watch the Watchers, the database provides officers' headshots, names, hire dates, ranks and ethnicities compiled by volunteers with public-records requests, said Hamid Khan, a full-time organizer with the coalition.

“LAPD officers … will have probably the most contact with the community,” Khan said. “How many times do we go and get in contact with (other) public employees? But cops are a community that for whatever reason, we probably would have the most contact.”

The website includes a search bar where users can type in an LAPD officer's name or serial number, which is an employee number and different from a badge number, to get the information.

LAPD declined to provide photographs of undercover officers, but it wasn't clear if their names and other data were part of the roster LAPD released, said Matyos Kidane, another organizer with the group.

Photographs in the database are from 2022, while officers' ranks, divisions, and bureaus are current as of January, according to the site.

“This website is intended as a tool to empower community members,” the website states. “You can use it to identify officers who are causing harm in your community.”

Obtaining badge numbers is still on the coalition's to-do list, Khan said. So is adding officers' weights and heights, which, he said, LAPD is refusing to provide. Earlier this week, the coalition filed a lawsuit against the LAPD to get the weights and heights.

The coalition, which says the database is the first of its kind in the country, was founded by Khan and others in 2011.

“This is our eighth public-record lawsuit since 2016,” Khan said. “We keep on telling them that this is a waste of our time, and by not releasing it (the requested information) to us — basically, you're denying the whole community (of) having this information.”

LAPD declined to comment, citing a department policy regarding pending litigation.

A Laguna Niguel man allegedly swindled $1.6 million from five investors — including a 92-year-old resident of an assisted-living center who turned over nearly all of her life savings — to pay his mortgage and fund lavish expenses, according to a federal lawsuit filed this week.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaint alleges John David Gessin presented himself as a successful entrepreneur while hiding his real identity to disguise his checkered past, which includes a criminal record and several bankruptcies.

In 2010, Gessin was found liable for defrauding a high school teacher he met on Match.com out of her life savings, which he lost day-trading in the stock market, and also has multiple default judgments against him for failure to repay loans and promissory notes, the lawsuit said.

Gessin could not be reached for comment.

Using the alias “John David,” Gessin allegedly raised more than $1.2 million from the 92-year-old and $429,000 combined from the others — all inexperienced investors — on behalf of his companies, Equifunds and Ice Fleet, between March 2017 and January 2020. Gessin purported that the companies were involved in commercial fueling and renewable energy operations.

Four of the investors — the 92-year-old retired nurse, a digital artist and her military veteran spouse, and a real estate agent — were residents of Playa del Rey. The fifth victim was a 71-year-old former government employee from Culver City. None of the investors was identified by the SEC.

Gessin falsely told investors their funds would be used solely for business purposes, and that “not a dime” would be used for his personal benefit, the lawsuit said.

However, Gessin plundered Equifunds and Ice Fleet to pay the mortgage on a home in a gated community and purchase automobiles, hotel stays, restaurant meals and gifts for friends and family members, according to the SEC.

The retired nurse, who recently died, learned of investment opportunities with Gessin from other investors who lived in her Playa del Rey condominium community, the lawsuit said.

In November 2018, Gessin took her to a refueling depot in Baldwin Park and falsely claimed that he had a contract with Pemex, the large petroleum company owned by the Mexican government, the SEC alleges. A short time later, the woman invested $200,000 in Equifunds in exchange for monthly interest payments at 24%.

When the woman moved into an assisted-living facility in Palm Desert, Gessin allegedly visited her on multiple occasions, including her birthday, and took her out for expensive meals, the suit said.

Gessin also took the woman on a driving tour of gas stations and showed her a video of a rail yard near the Port of Long Beach, from where he said his fuel would be distributed. Gessin also told her he had an insurance policy on the receivables for the fuel he was selling and distributing and would add her name as a beneficiary to the policy, the suit said.

From December 2018 to January 2020, the SEC alleges, the woman made nine additional investments in Equifunds, each ranging from $100,000 to $200,000.

Gessin made monthly interest payments to investors through early 2020, but then abruptly stopped in March of that year. He claimed that operations at his fueling depot in Baldwin Park had been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and payments would resume in a few months, according to the suit.

The investors learned the depot had been operating normally during the pandemic and that Gessin had no ownership interest in the facility. After the investors confronted him about his misrepresentations, Gessin cut off all contact with them and stopped replying to their messages and phone calls, the suit says.

The SEC is requesting a court order requiring Gessin to pay undisclosed civil penalties.