Assistant Hollywood Police Chief Louis Granteed contacted me to rebut the post below. I told him that I'd take down what he said and print it straight from his mouth. In a nutshell, he defended both himself and the department in light of the recent FBI's mafia sting operation that took down four veteran officers whom he considered good friends.
"Remember, this was an investigation that was put together by the FBI," he told the Pulp. "We didn't have corruption in our department. The FBI seeked out an individual. Their investigation started -- and I'm not putting down their investigation at all -- but I'm saying we didn't have corruption here until they came in and started their investigation."
Now let's break down the allegations that were mentioned in the post, starting with those concerning Granteed himself and then moving on to larger issues:
1. That he was named in lawsuit from a female officer alleging that he sexually harassed her.
Granteed: "That woman released me from
the lawsuit and paid me money not to file a suit against her. It happened to be only one dollar, but still. That female officer went AWOL at 5 in the morning when she was supposed to be on duty. We could not find her. We were searching the city for her. One of the options was to go to her house and see if she was home. I never went in anybody's garage. I never opened up any doors. I never spoke to anybody."
2. That he asked two Hollywood commissioners to help him get a promotion, violating departmental rules.
Granteed: "It never happened. I never approached any commissioners to solicit their help in seeking a promotion. That was the interim police chief at the time, Mike Ignasiak, who believed this happened but that was his own personal feeling. I was never disciplined for that and it never happened."
3. On the question of whether he was leaker of the FBI investigation (mainly based on his very close friendship with the so-called "ringleader" of the dirty cops, Kevin Companion).
"I am absolutely not the leaker. I have never had one conversation with anybody about that. I was told by Chief Scarberry, but I never talked with anyone about it. I would never compromise the agency. I didn't get to where I am by making bad decisions and hanging around with bad people. I have nothing to hide. I have done nothing wrong. I had no idea these guys were doing what they were doing. If I did I would have taken immediate action. All they had to do was say no and they wouldn't be in this situation and neither would our department or our city."
4. On his relationship with Lt. Jeff Marano:
Granteed: "He used to be my brother-in-law. He and I married two sisters [Granteed and his wife, Colleen, divorced in 2004]. I don't talk to Marano unless I have to. He sees things one way and I see things a different way. I'm a manager, he's a union representative."
5. On his reaction to find out that his close friend Companion, whom he frequently socialized with outside the department, was at the heart of the scandal and later reports that Companion had told FBI undercover agents that if he were caught Granteed and Capt. Tony Rode would protect him.
Granteed: "I was crushed when I heard [Companion's] name was mentioned. And I was very disappointed that he would make statements of that sort and bring my name into it when I had no involvement whatsoever. I am not professionaly going to jeopardize my position because people decided to make bad choices. He's a close friend. Me, personally, I don't fear anything because I know I haven't done anything wrong."
6. On whether or not there will be more arrests as the four accused cops have all flipped to give up more info on other Hollywood police:
"We don't have any other bad officers here. As far as we're concerned, these four were it. There are none. If we did, where are the complaintants? From what I know there isn't anybody else involved. We have a department full of outstanding people. and this type of stuff hurts everyone of us. you get stygmatized. Chief Scarberry has been an outstanding chief of police. For the last 8 years we have worked day and night to change the culture of our agency, to be recognized as a leading force in law enforcement. We have made great accomplishments both internally in our department and in the community."
