Two lieutenants fired from police department
Union president, veteran officer let go after internal affairs investigations
Two Vallejo police lieutenants — one the union president and the other an officer with nearly 50 years on the force — were fired this week, the result of separate internal affairs investigations in a department mired in controversy.
The terminations of Lt. Michael Nichelini and Lt. Herman Robinson came within days of each other, and amid ongoing strife between Chief Shawny Williams and the police union.
The Vallejo Police Department remains under the cloud of a state Department of Justice inquiry, after years of growing distrust of the police force by the city’s residents. Over the past decade, Vallejo police officers have shot and killed more people than any other police agency in the state.
The department has been investigating officers for apparent misdeeds in separate incidents, including allegations officers ritualistically bent their badges to signify having shot someone, and destruction of evidence in an officer-involved shooting.
Attorneys for Nichelini and Robinson each said the terminations were unjust and would be appealed. Vallejo police spokeswoman Brittany K. Jackson declined to comment Thursday evening.
Nichelini was put on administrative leave in July, for allegedly destroying evidence in the
the Sean Monterrosa case by Vallejo police. Monterrosa was shot and killed by Officer Jarrett Tonn on June 2 during demonstrations against the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Nichelini was also under department investigation for sending a threatening email through the police union’s email account to San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor.
The email message was sent in December, following Taylor’s announcement that he was leaving the newspaper for a reporting job in Atlanta, and read that “looks like 2021 will be a little bit better not having your biased and uniformed (sic) articles printed in the newspaper that only inflame the public … you have never looked for the truth in any of your writings … We will warn our Georgia colleagues of your impending arrival.” Taylor viewed the message as a threat.
Vallejo police were also investigating the sharing of a 113-year-old police badge with a left-facing swastika carved into the top. Although the police department did not disclose who was the subject of the investigation, Nichelini had shared an image of the 1907 badge he found online with his father, former Vallejo Police Chief Robert Nichelini.
In a lawsuit filed last month, Nichelini claimed Vallejo City Manager Greg Nyhoff and Chief Williams accused him of a hate crime for sharing the image, which he maintained “bore no negative connotations.”
The federal civil rights lawsuit by Nichelini on behalf of the Vallejo Police Officers’ Association seeks $7.5 million in damages and alleges he has been subjected to harassment, retaliation and intimidation by Nyhoff, Williams and city leaders. He had also faced discipline for using his cellphone while in uniform to film civil rights attorney, Melissa Nold, an outspoken Vallejo police critic, during a City Council meeting.
Nichelini, who joined the Vallejo force from the
Oakland Police Department in 2006, did not respond to a request for comment from the Bay Area News Group.
His attorney, Michael Rains, is appealing the termination and said Nichelini will remain as head of the police officer union.
“I am as confident as I have ever been in representing cops for 40 years that Mike will be reinstated with full back back pay when an arbitrator decides this case,” Rains said.
Robinson’s attorney said the lieutenant who has worked for the department for 47 ½ years was terminated for allegedly sharing police information with Vallejo police retirees.
Born and raised in Vallejo, Robinson is the son of the department’s first Black police officer, Alfred Robinson. The elder Robinson had worked as a janitor for the department before getting his badge in 1948, only to have it taken away weeks later after being told the city was not ready for a Black officer. He then went back to his custodial job.
Herman Robinson was hired in 1973 and was named “Officer of the Year” in 2019. Reached by phone, Robinson said, “After 47 ½ years of faithful service, my career was abruptly cut short.”
“They are basically accusing him of disseminating department information that they did not want disseminated,” said Robison’s attorney, Julia Fox. “I think this is the ultimate betrayal of Vallejo’s native son, this is a termination that is not predicated upon legitimate reasons for a discipline that is heavy-handed and imposing. We are very concerned that the motivation to terminate him is simply to get rid of someone, to put him out to pasture.”
Fox is appealing the termination and has demanded an upcoming evidentiary hearing be open to the public so Vallejo residents are “able to come and witness what the city, the police department specifically, is doing to their native son.”
“He wants his job back,” Fox said. “He loves the city of Vallejo and he loves this job.”