David Garzoli, 43, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff's office, was no longer with the agency as of May 12, according to Sheriff Rod Mitchell.
“We're fighting it,” said Garzoli's attorney, Dan McNamara of the Sacramento firm Mastagni, Holstedt, Amick, Miller & Johnsen.
Because the issue is a personnel matter, McNamara said he could offer no further details.
Mitchell also could offer no further statements because of Garzoli's personnel protections and right to privacy.
County Counsel Anita Grant told Lake County News in a previous interview that employees have protections in the California Constitution and in state law, with peace officers having additional statutory protections.
Last June, Garzoli and a flight instructor were involved in a hard landing during an autorotation maneuver in a helicopter owned by Cutting Edge Helicopters while on a flight from Ukiah to Lakeport, as Lake County News was first to report.
Cutting Edge Helicopters is one of several firms with which the sheriff's office has contracted for marijuana reconnaissance services under a federal Drug Enforcement Administration marijuana eradication grant.
It later was discovered that Garzoli was learning to fly under the auspices of the grant, and that he had authored an operations plan for the DEA grant allowing for pilot training that the DEA approved.
Garzoli, who had a private pilot's license and was training for a commercial one, also had proposed to create a sheriff's helicopter program that would include pilot training which, he suggested, could save costs and be useful to other agencies.
While Garzoli's proposal had been sent to Mitchell for his consideration, the sheriff told the Board of Supervisors that he did not know the extent of Garzoli's actual flight activities.
Those activities reportedly included night flights to various parts of the state, including Half Moon Bay, according to documents associated with the County Administrative Office's initial inquiry into the matter, conducted last year.
The issues with the helicopter flights became public in early July 2009; by the time Garzoli appeared to give testimony in the Bismarck Dinius sailboat crash trial on Aug. 14, 2009, he already had been demoted, identifying himself on the stand as a sergeant.
In an e-mail Garzoli sent to Mitchell on Sept. 9, 2009, he apologized for the situation with the helicopter, stating, “I feel like I have compromised any usefulness I could offer the you or the sheriff's department because of what I became involved in. This was a profession I loved and felt I was pretty good at and was always proud of the work I did and things I had accomplished. Because my choices over the past year relative to the helicopter issue were mine and I should have been more clear on what I was doing, I have caused you, the department and myself a great deal of trouble.”
He said that the Board of Supervisors meetings where he was the topic were difficult because they often included “blatant misrepresentations of things such as commercial drivers licenses & special flight suits etc.” which he said “severely impact my character and ability to do my job. It is hard enough to face the problems you did cause and even harder to accept criticism for things that are patently incorrect.”
Garzoli went on to explain a phone call he made to a radio talk show to ask for job advice. During that call, he had stated that he was having job issues because of a political situation.
“I have been dwelling on my situation for months now and decided to call in and ask what a person with my skills could do outside law enforcement,” he said in the Sept. 9 e-mail. “Rather than the host simply answering my question he unexpectedly dug into my job status. Because of my embarrassment and inability to accept responsibility for the fact that this was all my own doing my knee jerk reaction was to place blame elsewhere, causing you further problems.”
He continued, “In closing I want to sincerely apologize for everything I have done to you and put you through. None of it was intended to hurt you or your position yet it did and I am sorry for that. I assure you I will not address this issue further with anyone for any reason and I will continue to try and do the best I can,” and ended by offering that Mitchell could provide the e-mail to the board or the press if it would help.
About three days later, early on the morning of Sept. 12, 2009, he posted a comment on an insurance forum, noting he was working on becoming an insurance agent.
He asked other agents for advice, noted he was tired of “thankless government work” and was considering going into work for himself.
“I plan to use my knowledge of local crime trends to exploit peoples emotions to get appointments, such as going back to neighborhoods where we have taken crime reports and knocking on doors and/or leaving 'Community crime alert flyers' at homes and on cars encouraging people to call me for an insurance review/quote/policy app.,” he wrote. “After all we will have not caught the suspect yet and you certainly would not want to be the next victim of a burglary (homeowners), car vandalism (auto policy) or WORSE (life insurance) now would you? ....Call me to arrange the proper coverage for you and your loved ones ...”
He also stated he had been a deputy coroner for 20 years and can speak to the “suddenness and unexpectedness of the grim reaper and how often I have seen it leave families financially devastated.” Garzoli wrote that he also was seeking a legal opinion on whether or not he could use “deputy coroner” on his insurance business cards.
That forum post later was taken down as, apparently, was a partially built Web site registered to Garzoli that was created for a Ukiah insurance firm.
The Board of Supervisors has discussed the flight training matter over several meetings beginning last summer and up until as recently as last month.
Earlier this year the supervisors requested the DEA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the California Attorney General's Office look into the matter on grounds of propriety.
The DEA said it considered the matter closed, the FAA found no rules were broken regarding Garzoli's aviation training and flying and the Attorney General's Office sent the matter back to the county.
In April, District Attorney Jon Hopkins agreed to investigate the board's concerns about the use of public funds for the training.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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