Contra Costa Sheriff staff let civilians take home gun parts, ammunition that was marked for destruction
Practice ended after an internal investigation
Contra Costa County Sheriff’s staff for years allowed a volunteer and staff at one of its gun ranges to make off with unwanted gun parts and ammunition that had been acquired by the department, in some cases leading to those weapons parts ending up back on the streets.
The ammunition, empty magazines, holsters and gun parts were supposed to be catalogued, reported to the state Department of Justice, and either destroyed or used for official law enforcement duties, per state law. Instead, for “well over a decade,” staff at the sheriff’s property room would send such items to a department gun range in Clayton, where deputies and civilian volunteers were free to take them home, according to testimony from a lieutenant who investigated the practice and recommended it be stopped, as well as from the gun range master who said the weapons parts had been available to “anybody who walked in.”
Sheriff officials said they only learned of the practice in January 2020, after a Contra Costa woman informed them that her ex-husband, a sheriff volunteer named John King, made off with thousands of such items, including bullets that had been bagged as evidence in closed criminal cases and gun parts that King later sold online, according to police testimony given in King’s divorce case.
The Contra Costa County sheriffs’ officials testified they weren’t sure how many parts and ammunition were taken from the range. And despite the state law, the office’s internal affairs investigation found no sheriff policies in place that would prevent the practice.
“I would say common sense said it shouldn’t have happened, but it did,” Lt. Kenneth Westermann, who led the IA investigation into the practice, said in a deposition.
Asked about the practice of letting civilians take parts and ammunition from the range, sheriff’s spokesman Jimmy Lee said the case has “long since been closed.”
“This matter was investigated two years ago when it first came to light. The former range volunteer in question was on occasion allowed to take small parts and pieces that would have been discarded. That practice was immediately stopped,” Lee said. But Lee refused to clarify whether there are now written policies preventing the practice.
When asked if the investigation addressed potential state law violations, Lee reiterated that the matter was closed two years ago and added, “We will have no further comment on this.” Lee did not respond to questions asking if any disciplined was handed down, though Westermann testified no one was punished.
San Francisco-based attorney George Lee, who specializes in gun cases, said the practice appears to have violated a part of the California penal code that lays out specific steps law enforcement agencies must take with guns or gun parts that have been slated for destruction. While the law allows the use of the items for training or by officers in their official capacity, it does not allow agencies to hand them out to civilians or to officers’ for their personal use.
“They need to keep really close track of any parts and make sure they’re only used for official duties,” he said.
The items taken from the range included old gun parts from decommissioned police firearms, ammunition that was seized in criminal cases that had since been closed, and items turned in by citizens in noncriminal matters, like when a person inherited gun parts or bullets from a deceased relative.
The sheriff’s decision to handle the matter internally, rather than calling for an outside investigation, raises questions about accountability, said Michael Cardoza, a former Bay Area prosecutor and current defense attorney.
“You’d want another agency investigating the sheriff when it has to do with weapons and guns,” Cardoza said. “You don’t want them investigating themselves.”
“I would think the sheriff would be interested in getting this stuff off the street and not just be willy-nilly giving them to people,” he added. “It concerns me that we’re putting more bullets out there and more gun parts out there. Why are you doing that?”
An examination of the garage at King’s former home in Clayton by Westermann and two other internal affairs investigators found that the inventory he amassed was extensive: Rounds of ammunition and magazines filled shelves to the brim, much of it stored in boxes or plastic bags; in the middle of the garage was a large, locked safe, which King’s friend testified had at one point contained semiautomatic rifles and other guns.
Westermann said that before their IA probe, he and other investigators were not aware that civilians had been taking home gun parts. But at least two staffers did know it was happening — the property room technician Dep. Kevin Lee, and the gun range master, John Mudrock, who oversaw King’s work as one of four volunteers at the gun range, according to Mudrock’s testimony.
That work included odd jobs around the gun range, such as cleaning weapons and escorting inmates to job sites. King also worked on the Sheriff’s Office Posse, a community organization that fundraises for the department, and contributed $1,675 to Sheriff David Livingston’s re-election campaign in 2013.
In a deposition during his divorce, King testified that the gun parts belonged to the sheriff’s office before he took them home. He said the safe at his former home in Clayton did store guns, but that they were rusted and damaged weapons he intended to clean on behalf of a Pittsburg Police Department employee.
He also admitted to selling parts online a “couple times a year,” but added that it would be a “pretty far stretch” to suggest he was “some kind of guns dealer.”
“My attorney has explained to me that income made is considered income, and therefore, I guess you call it a business,” he testified. He also asserted his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination numerous times when questioned about the practice of taking gun parts from the range.
During his questioning by an attorney for King’s ex-wife, Mudrock was confronted with an email from King to Kevin Lee asking to be on the look out for “Savage rifles, barrels and bolts,” because “Mud and I would like to build a couple” but Mudrock said he still couldn’t remember if the two ever built a gun from discarded parts. He appeared at the civil deposition with a criminal attorney, whom he retained at King’s suggestion, but only so he would be more “comfortable,” he testified.
Seven months after tipping off internal affairs, in August 2020, King’s exwife wrote a letter to Sheriff David Livingston, which says the stash of guns and ammunition looked “ready for World War III.” It’s unclear if Livingston ever responded to the letter.
“I am concerned for the safety of myself, children, and my neighborhood for if there was a fire at my residence it could put many in harm’s way,” she wrote.