OP/ED: Torrance Police Officer and Cerritos City Council Candidate Violated Police Department Code of Ethics

By Brian Hews

Some candidates will do anything to get elected.

When I published an article about  Torrance Police Officer and Cerritos Council candidate Chuong Vo two weeks ago, outlining how Vo took thousands from donors who attempted to frame two councilman, while also finding his website had an unauthorized endorsement, his immediate reaction at the Feb. 3 Cerritos Council Candidate’s Forum was to blast this paper as unethical and then proceed to lie at the public forum.

A friend of mine, a former high-ranking officer with a Orange County police department now retired, saw the article and forum video and texted me saying, “Brian, you need to look at the Brady Decision by the United States Supreme Court, this guy (Vo) is in trouble.”

So I Googled the Brady Decision and was appalled at what I found.

Read about the Brady Decision, click here.

Indeed Mr. Vo’s actions at the forum, lying in public, could jeopardize his credibility as a police detective.

Some candidate’s will do anything to get elected.

In a nutshell the Brady Decision “allows evidence affecting the credibility of the police officer as a witness to be given to the defense during discovery. Indeed, evidence that the officer has had in his personnel file a finding of untruthfulness is clearly exculpatory to the defense.”

Simply put, Vo is no longer a credible witness in any cases he must testify at because he lied at the Cerritos Candidate’s Forum.

The evidence in the Feb. 3 article proved he did take money from the two lawyers involved in a scheme to frame two Costa Mesa Councilmen.

Read entire article click here.

Vo vehemently denied taking money from them at the forum.

He lied and said I threatened him if he did not advertise. I will go to court and swear under penalty of perjury that I did not threaten Vo.

Vo supporters, ask if he will go to court and do the same.

And who threatens a cop anyway, are you kidding me?

He knowingly withheld the fact at the Feb. 3 forum that he had Artesia Councilman Ali Taj as an endorser up to the time I published my story the morning of Feb. 3, then knowingly removed the endorsement hours before the forum, constituting a premeditated lie.

Some candidate’s will do anything to get elected.

HMG-CN will publish an article online in the next few days that will have concrete evidence Vo lied in public, violating his own Torrance Police Code of Ethics and placing himself in the awkward situation of being on the other side of the Brady Decision.

Mr. Vo could have acknowledged the story, said he did take money from the two shady lawyers and gave the money back. He could have acknowledged the unauthorized endorsement and apologized.

Instead he chose to attack this newspaper-and personally attack me-in front of what was obviously an un-spontaneous and partisan audience who yelled and screamed much like the crowd at the Roman Colosseum during gladiator contests.

Vo lied at a public forum possibly jeopardizing his career just to become a Cerritos City Councilman.

If he does something as desperate as that, what else will he do?

Some candidates will do anything to get elected.