9 People Arrested At Fairfield City Council Meeting, Police Say

SOLANO COUNTY, CA — Fairfield police allege that nine people who were arrested at Tuesday night's Fairfield City Council meeting "willfully and without authority disrupted the City Council meeting to the point that the meeting could not continue."

Those arrested were at the meeting to protest the Fairfield Police Department's hiring of a former Vallejo police officer involved in the fatal 2012 shooting of Mario Romero in Vallejo.

Council members called a recess and were escorted from Council Chambers when those accused of causing the disruption "did not leave after being requested to do so and were ultimately arrested," Fairfield police Lt. Jausiah Jacobsen said in a news release.

Police accuse the nine people of disturbing a meeting, which is a misdemeanor violation of California Penal Code Section 403.

The elements of disturbing a meeting, Jacobsen said, include the following:

1. That the person intentionally committed acts that violated a public meeting,

2. The person knew or reasonably should have known that his/her acts violated the meeting, and

3.The persons acts substantially and unlawfully interfered with the conduct of the meeting

"The best way to prevent this in the future is for participants in council meetings to be aware of their rights and responsibilities during a council meeting and to respectfully follow established laws pertaining to public meetings," Jacobsen said.

Regarding the hiring of Officer Dustin Joseph and his continued employment with Fairfield PD, the city's chief of police, Deanna Cantrell, penned an open letter to the community.

Joseph was one of two Vallejo police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Romero, 23, in the early morning hours of Sept. 2, 2012.

An investigation by the Solano County District Attorney's Office concluded that Joseph and Sean Kenney, the other officer involved in the shooting, acted in self-defense.

Romero was shot and killed when he got out of his car and the two officers believed he was reaching for a gun, which turned out to be a non-lethal pellet gun.

Cantrell defended the department's hiring process as robust and in line with state standards for law enforcement departments.

She also noted that Joseph's potential involvement in Vallejo police officers bending their badges to signify fatal shootings was not known when he was hired in 2018.

The Vallejo Police Department has launched an independent, third-party investigation into the badge bending practice. The investigation is still ongoing.

"I understand this is concerning to the community," Cantrell said in the letter, "and I want you to know it is equally concerning to me."

Joseph is not working the streets as an officer at this time, Cantrell said.

Regarding the arrests at Tuesday night's City Council meeting, the Fairfield Police Department said that in the days leading up to the meeting, a Facebook group called Fairfield Change posted a message stating, "We will not allow the meeting to proceed if our questions and concerns are not answered. Sign up for public comment to speak, if you don’t know what to say follow the script."

"Trust, transparency, and accountability with regard to how we protect and serve our community is our utmost priority.

"Instead of participating in public comment, the participants chose to disrupt the council meeting to the point it had to be recessed.

"One of the fundamental roles of law enforcement is the protection of the rights all people have to peacefully assemble, demonstrate, protest, or rally. In turn, law enforcement also has the need to ensure public safety and to protect the rights of all people, lives, and property. Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of our society and is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. However, there are situations in which limits on a person’s First Amendment rights are appropriate, especially where the speech in question unlawfully disturbs or breaks up an assembly or meeting, such as a lawful council meeting."

Police continued: "Because trust, transparency, and accountability are some of our highest priorities, Chief Cantrell addressed members of the community during the City Council meeting in hopes of answering questions regarding an officer that works for the department but was previously employed by an neighboring agency. Chief Cantrell addressed many questions about our hiring process, background investigation, and the oversight that the California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) has over these processes.

"Following the Chief’s presentation, the group became increasingly disruptive. The disruption was so severe, the council members called a recess and were removed from the council chamber. The disruption lasted for more than 10 minutes and after being asked many times respectfully to leave, they chose not to ... "

"The following videos are from Fairfield Police Department Officer body worn cameras, capturing the Nov. 17 Council disruption in its entirety. The two videos are of the same incident at the same time, but provide different views. Nov. 17, 2020 City Council Meeting Body Worn Camera Video: https://vimeo.com/fairfieldpolice/councilmeetingvideo1 Nov. 17, 2020 City Council Meeting Body Worn Camera Video: https://vimeo.com/fairfieldpolice/councilmeetingvideo2."

Bay City News Service contributed to this report.