In October 2014, a judge revoked real estate developer CIM Group’s permits for their controversial Sunset/Gordon apartment building because they had willfully ignored a number of legal requirements. Within days of that decision, HPOA Executive director Kerry Morrison was emailing Hollywood LAPD Honcho Peter Zarcone with some kind of ask about the situation. Zarcone conferred with now-retired Deputy Chief Terry Hara and told Kerry that, while he wasn’t (yet) saying “no” to whatever Kerry was asking, he and Hara needed more information because they were concerned that saying “yes” would “create a perception of [LAPD] being in the pocket of a private developer.” He was right to have worried. The Sunset/Gordon project would go on to be the locus of a great deal of outlawry, and CIM Group is essentially an ongoing criminal conspiracy. I certainly hope the LAPD had the sense to stay out of it.

I only have this little snippet of the email chain, so I don’t yet know the favor Kerry was asking nor the outcome of the ask. I have requests out for the rest, though, and I’ll provide new information as it comes in. I will say that I’d prefer that the LAPD would be concerned more with the reality of not being in the pocket of a private developer than the perception of it, but maybe that’s idealistic. And I’d say that the fact that Kerry Morrison even felt free to ask him for anything on behalf of CIM shows that probably the LAPD essentially is already “…in the pocket of a private developer.” Why did she think that asking him would yield results if similar requests in the past hadn’t already worked? My collection of BID/LAPD emails is presently too fragmentary to allow the drawing of many solid conclusions, but the amount of it that has to do with real estate is surprising.

For instance, here’s another email, this one from HPOA Assistant Boss Joseph Mariani to Hollywood cop Darrell Davis asking for info on Hollywood crime stats that a broker needs immediately to convince a client to buy in Hollywood. Again, I don’t yet know the full story, but I’m working on getting it. However, the level of familiarity that Joe displays suggests convincingly that LAPD assistance with Hollywood real estate transactions is the norm. Says Joe to Darrell: “Ideally he said he would need this today. Let me know if that’s possible. If not I’ll try and buy some time.”

So if Peter Zarcone is worried about creating a perception of LAPD being in the pocket of a private developer, maybe the best thing would be to have his subordinates stop acting like they’re in the pocket of the entire freaking real estate industry. Maybe the best thing to do when he receives what’s almost surely an improper request from Kerry Morrison is to tell her that it’s not the job of the police to facilitate the real estate industry’s criminality, or even its non-criminal daily business. Maybe that would be more effective. Read full transcripts after the break if you don’t like PDFs:

From: PETER ZARCONE
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2014 9:15 PM
To: Kerry Morrison
Subject: CIM

Kerry, I spoke to DC Hara. Our concern is that we create a perception of being in the pocket of a private developer. DC Hara asked if CIM knows the basis of Silverstein’s suit, i.e. does he contend that CIM is in violation of some code or regulation? It’s not a no yet, but I need more info.

Pete

From: Joseph Mariani
To: DARRELL DAVIS
CC: IRVIN ISABELLA
Subject: Area Stats
Created: 08-Sep-2014

Hi Sergeant Davis,

Hope all is well. I wanted to see if you could help me with a request. A broker in the area is getting ready to show a property to a prominent tenant and wanted to see if we had crime statistics that show Hollywood is safer than it was, even compared to last year. Do you have anything you could send me? Ideally he said he would need this today. Let me know if that’s possible. If not I’ll try and buy some time. Thank you!

Joseph Mariani

Image of DC Hara in parade was released by its creator, Jim Winstead under the CC BY 2.0 and it is available via his Flickr stream. Image of Darrell Davis et al. is from Bea Girmala’s official Twitter feed and on the basis of that I’m going to say it’s a public record and can be freely republished here.