A former North State police officer was the subject of a very long investigative piece in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle. Hossep “Joe” Ourjanian initially worked for the Los Angeles County Office of Public Safety but was close to being fired for allegedly lying to skip work and assaulting his girlfriend while she held their infant son. Instead of being terminated from that job, L.A. County agreed to hide evidence of what Ourjanian had apparently done and findings of misconduct were removed from his personnel file and were kept secret. The newspaper pointed out that this type of situation is not unusual – that police departments throughout California allow their officers to leave with what are called “Clean Record Agreements.” These allow them to work for other agencies without having to disclose past acts of corruption, criminality, and other misconduct. Ourjanian also went to work for the police departments in Weed, Mount Shasta, and Susanville, among others. He rose to the rank of Captain with the Del Norte County Sheriffs Office before retiring last Fall. He is now under investigation by that department as well. According to the Chronicle, Ourjanian became a police officer with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Reno, but he’s been suspended from that job and is also under investigation there.
-John Oertl