This email was sent to the Internal Affairs Department & Chief Bratton. What surprises me is that I gave my real name and al the contact information directly to Internal Affairs. Now I'm receiving contacts from with the LAPD Air Support Division by a Sgt. Anthony Demolina. He addresses the emails: to whom it may conern and doesn't know the Internal Affairs complaint number for the case. Isn't that odd?
Dear Chief Bratton:
I'm writing to you here because I've seen how fairly you've handled situations throughout your career. Below is an explanation of what I've experienced over the past year and I believe that it certainly qualifies as harassment and misappropriation of City funds. I've been searching all over the web and have found a site that shows similar behavior by local law enforcement. The site is
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/tests/2004-May/1020-a6.html .
Obviously, some of this does not apply to my story, but there are so many similarities that I believe it to be noteworthy. Certainly the taxpayers of Los Angeles deserve to know where their tax dollars are going.
I am forwarding an email that I've sent to various government agencies over the past week including, but not limited to: The Mayor's office, LA Board of Supervisors, Councilman Garcetti's office, Internal Affairs of the LAPD, LA Superior Court, FAA, the Governor's office, the Office of the Investigor General, the ACLU, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC & FNN.
I spoke with a private investigator by the name of Mr. Nazarian in Beverly Hills and he told me that under the freedom of information act that it was possible for me to subpoena the cockpit records of the LAPD, LASD and possibly the LAFD.
This is a rather lengthy email, but I thought that I would give you a small bit of what has been happening for a year.
I am writing to at the suggestion of the Duty Officer at the local FAA office here in Los Angeles. Please bear with me, as this is a rather long story. I’ve tried to keep it as brief as possible, but given the fact that this has been going on for an entire year, I felt the need to give you as much information as I could.
I should preface this letter by telling you that I have to take responsibility for my actions as described below. Of course you run a certain risk of exposure, but it has gone so far beyond that, it's ridiculous!! My feelings have run the gamut from being hurt, angry, scared and finally resolved to ending this.
Last summer I began listening to our scanner. I became extremely familiar with the voices of the LAPD helicopter pilots, the LAFD pilots LASD and the traffic Cessna’s that circle the city. I had not realized that there was so much air support to the city. It made me feel safer having them in the air. My husband and I moved into an area of Downtown that was presented to us at the time as very safe by the building owner.
For several weeks my husband and I discussed the idea of taking a basket of cookies and brownies that I had made over to the Hooper Heliport to thank them for all of the hard work that they do. The problems started a few days later. I was getting ready for my wedding last summer by tanning topless and that’s why I always had the scanner on, to keep track of the helicopters. A few weeks later an LAPD helicopter flew over very low and said into the scanner "I GOT’ EM" and his tail number matched the person on the scanner, Police 11.
As the summer progressed, I would look up and see a white helicopter very high up, which I assumed was the LAPD. It wasn’t until the black outs last summer that I finally realize that it had been the LAFD and the LASD that were up very high. They literally flew right up to my deck and hovered for several minutes, extremely low, waiving.
Given the conversations that I overheard, I believe that the LAPD, LAFD and the LASD helicopters took photographs of me on my deck, partially naked. I also believe that it is possible that they circulated photographs of my husband and I being intimate on our enclosed deck. I feel this way because there is NO line of sight onto our deck except from the sky. We have a bamboo fence that conceals our deck, unless you are in the air. I've had men that I don’t know walk up to me on the street, come into the shop that I was working in and stores making specific comments to me, calling me by name and mentioning my personal grooming habits. I actually called the Legal Department of the local Rite Aid across the street from my building about their security guard that also works in our building, because of the comments that he made to me. I do have the lawyers name documented here somewhere, but I was afraid to even leave my name for fear of retaliation by the security guard.
I bring this up because every time that I walked into that store a Los Angeles Fire Department Paramedic would walk in directly after me. The security guard walked right up to me and stopped and said “_____, I love the way that you shave” and then looked directly at my groin area and winked. I immediately came home and called my building manager, Nemecio Cervantez and explained how scared I was.
When my husband bought me a toe ring with a cat on it, pilots started to "meow" on the scanner constantly. The Hooper Heliport dispatcher was heard saying "get me a color report" right after that the color of the nightgown that I was wearing was broadcast on the scanner! There were many comments made on the scanner such as, "_____ the porn star" there was a captain that said "I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I'm going to fly over and see the jellyfish for myself" and the other pilot answered by saying "you have to get close they're small, but nice" immediately after that an LAPD helicopter was over my deck. Other LAPD pilots were heard saying "I’m bored, let’s go play with strawberry girl" while I was wearing a nightgown with strawberries on the cups, "let’s drop down and give _____ a call" and within moments my phone would ring. (We do have a log of calls). I would walk across the street to Rite Aid and then the store would start paging _____. I called their Corporate Office and they confirmed that there was no one that works in that store by that name. If I sat out on my deck to smoke a cigarette the pilots would say, “there’s smoke in the hole” and immediately there would be two helicopters flying circles around my deck. There are also two large fixed wing aircraft that I’ve photographed that constantly fly at a low altitude with their red light from their exterior camera on the bottom of the plane going. As soon as they get passed the deck they stop filming. These pilots were heard saying things like, “are her hands moving” or “is she on her knees” and answered by another pilot higher up in a helicopter with “it sure looks like it”. There was a rather large apartment fire a few blocks from our loft last summer and all we saw was LAPD helicopters, no LAFD helicopters, but they were heard on the scanner requesting photographs of “her” and immediately after that the LAPD helicopter that was circling the fire came over our deck saying, “I’ve got it covered” and then their camera on the belly of the helicopter would light up.
We have had the same number for two years with no problems, but suddenly we began to receive numerous prank phone calls. We have the numbers of most of the callers. We had to get new cell phone numbers after getting a brand new account because men were calling and meowing. I did start a file with Cingular about all the harassing calls. Sometimes they would call and specifically ask for “LIZA”. While we were in the midst of putting together wedding music one of our favorites that we discussed was “LIZA” (this will become more significant later in this letter).
My husband had to go to Cedars emergency room on Oct 7 because of a kidney stone attack. I flew down Wilshire from Downtown and passed several police cruisers who obviously saw me speeding and they didn't stop me. When we arrived at Cedars, I tried to get my husband out of the car while two police officers sat in their car literally right next to us and laughed. My husband checked in under his first name, but when we were in the actual hospital room that he was assigned in the ER, there were several nurses talking to two Los Angeles City Fire Department Paramedics around the center console laughing, pointing to his room and saying "_____ and _____ are here from 6th & Burlington".
I have had what I believe to be LAFD, LAPD and LASD employees continue to come into the extremely high end antique store where I was working and repeat specific conversations that I either had on my cell phone or with my husband at home. As soon as I started reporting things to Internal Affairs last fall about people coming into the showroom and repeating conversations cars would pull up in front of the showroom on La Cienega and beep their horns twice and the squeal their tires as the left. Since I stopped working there and staying home again, this now happens right outside my building on a daily basis. It only happened when I was there. Since I stopped working there, I’ve been told by the man still working there that the beeping has completely stopped. If I go into the Melrose Place showroom with my husband on Saturday’s the helicopters fly extremely low over the building, shaking the chandeliers.
The helicopters (police, fire, sheriff’s & local news) circle and fly directly over our unit on top of building ALL the time (we have footage). They fly directly over us and then turn and go in another direction. There are L A City Fire Department Ambulances that go up and down our street with their sirens on and then turn them off immediately after passing our building. I realize that we are very close to a hospital, but I’ve seen them literally circle the block with their sirens on, specifically on September 11th of last year. They have even hesitated between buildings on Union, waived and then continued up and around the block again. This has actually gotten worse in the past few weeks, specifically late at night after reporting these incidents to the Fire Chief via email. Their sirens go off for two cycles directly in front of our building and then they stop and turn down around the block. I have footage of the LA City Fire trucks returning to their fire station and blaring their sirens and horns until they get just passed by building. When I spoke with the Fire Department they told that this station is one of the busiest, but that they should not be running their sirens while on the way back from a run.
I have been followed into restaurants, grocery stores, hair salons, gardening stores and music stores by Fire Department employees in uniform. When I've been out with friends, there have been men that have followed us into stores, so I began to test it. I would ask them which picture was their favorite and they would either turn beet red or in some cases actually drop things that they were holding.
I’ve tried handling all of this in many different ways. I’ve left humorous notes on my deck, I tried being nasty and confrontational but nothing has worked...it just doesn't stop. I even tried emailing the SGT at Hooper heliport and calling there. When I did call to report a channel 5’s news helicopter and a Cessna that were flying extremely low over our deck at 5:00 A. M., I was initially told that the LAPD was not responsible for Cessna traffic, and that I should contact the Fire Department and the Sheriff’s Office. I thought that I was being given the run around, so I wasn’t very nice to the Watch Commander that I spoke with. I thought about it f or a bit and after getting my husband off to work I called back to apologize to the Watch Commander for being abrupt, but I was told by Officer Dyer that because of a shift change that I was not able to speak with him.
Officer Dyer then presented himself to me as THE WATCH COMMANDER. He seemed to be friendly at first, asking where my husband worked, what time he got up and when he left for work. I answered all of these questions honestly, not thinking twice about it. We discussed the fact that I had heard the name of the pilot and her call sign and that I was going to report it to the FAA. I also told him that I had heard Desiree Horton (Channel 5 pilot) at the same time saying things to Grace (the Cessna pilot) and then she flew over our deck extremely low as well and that I was going to report her to the head of Warner Brothers, her employer (I did call the WB and spoke with the Human Resources Department). Then Officer Dyer asked if I was sure that they were not just looking at the 101 traffic, which is quite a distance from my building. I had left a note on my deck for the pilots the weekend before because we had seen a small white dot (a helicopter) above our deck after we had had been intimate on the deck. My husband assured me that they were not there for us….they must have been doing surveillance for the gangs in the area. Later that evening I heard the pilots asking each other if they had seen “ANYTHING ELSE THAT THEY WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO SEE SOUTH OF DODGER’S STADIUM”. I still didn’t know what was going on, so I made a sign “Week End Voyeur Daddy”. When Officer Craig Dyer asked me if I thought that maybe she was just another voyeur? I answered back, “I don’t care what you have been taking pictures of or videotaping, I just want you to make sure that your pilots stay above their 1,000 ceiling and stop waking us up. I then asked his name and he shouted “ D__Y__E__R”, I thanked him and hung up.
The very next day, we started to get phone calls from the security company for the showroom on La Cienega. The vibration sensors were being set off from the roof, but not directly on it. After viewing the exterior cameras we found that there was no traffic on the street at that time. This continued for two more days so I started to become suspicious because of the comments that I was hearing from the helicopter pilots over the scanner. On the third day I got up very early, grabbed the scanner and went outside. I turned it on just a s the phone rang from the security company once again to hear Desiree Horton (channel 5 pilot) talking to two other pilots saying, “go get her, Desiree, you lead the charge” and within two minutes there were three helicopters hovering right in front of our building. I listened to the scanner for possible stories that they might be covering, but there was absolutely nothing going on. My husband had himself removed from the call list as soon as he got to work that day and there has not been a single alarm since then. I have to ask…..who has access to the call lists from the security company besides my husband? The LAPD. I believe that Officer Dyer forwarded the information that I gave him on the phone to Desiree Horton and she retaliated by setting off the alarms. I have spoken to the legal department of NBC Universal and told them all about it.
These people that I’ve mentioned are all colleagues, and I seem to have made them very angry by reporting them. But these two female pilots were in direct violation of FAA rules that state that they have a 1,000 foot ceiling.
More comments heard over the scanner by LAPD Helicopter pilots including: vantage point (just as they passed my apartment), I’m bored, let’s go play with strawberry girl, get me a color report & then having the color of my nightgown broadcast on the scanner; anything else that we weren’t supposed to see? ; let’s drop down and give ____ a call; smoke in the hole; let’s fly-by the hayfield; one day its like Jerry Springer out here and today nothing (the day after I was topless on my own deck and another woman was tanning topless on the main deck of our building) ; I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I’m going to go see the jellyfish for myself and the response from another LAPD Helicopter was- you have to get close, they’re small but nice; jellyfish and I’ve got it covered (while speaking to a LAFD Helicopter) after requesting pictures of “her”. I also heard LAPD Hooper Heliport dispatch requesting a ride along for one of their men so that he could get to Santa Barbara because his father was in the hospital.
When we first moved downtown, we began to notice an elderly homeless man and would give him small amounts of cash or clothing. My husband gave him his business card with all of our contact numbers, and then we started receiving calls from a man claiming his name was Fabreese, around Labor Day weekend. I now believe that this man was a Fire Department employee. It should be very easy to check with our phone logs.
A call came to our home from a man named JR Stewart claiming that he was a "friend" of the homeless man and that he had been attacked (which I do believe happened) and he needed money for medicine. So we called the local Rampart station to check on the validity of the homeless man's story, but they were extremely rude to me. I did make a lot of calls to every homeless shelter on LASA.ORG’s website around the area to find shelter for this man, but to no avail. However, I was able to speak with the people at St. Vincent's Hospital and they offered to deliver food to him three times a day through their Meals on Wheels program. I called JR Stewart back to let him know about the delivery and was told that the homeless man been taken to Hollywood Presbyterian because of a relapse.
I phoned there to see if he was alright, at the urging of JR Stewart. Then we started getting phone calls from people at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital claiming to be doctors that were not even on duty at that time. The woman at St. Vincent’s suggested that I call the social worker handling his case, stating that the more people that mentioned his name, the more apt they were to act on it. So I did call and speak with the head social worker there, Martha (forgot last name, but I have it documented somewhere here). She made an odd comment to me about "how nice I was and that the ENTIRE department would love t o meet me". It was the tone of the comment more than t he actual words. I called the CEO of the hospital after the DR? calls and had an odd conversation with her and mentioned that "if people would just do the jobs that they were hired to do, and put as much effort into helping Poppa Tony (the homeless man) as they were putting into reaching me, that he might actually receive the assistance that he needed.” Those exact words were repeated to me at Cedars Hospital by a nurse when I thanked her for helping my husband.
I believe that it is possible that some of our phone calls have been intercepted. My husband purchased a device to detect eavesdropping and bugging within our home and we have it on video that while we were using our home and cells phones, it was activated.
There is just so much more that I could tell you…..the list goes on and on. I hope that there is something that you can do to help us. I will of course leave you my contact information below, but recently I’ve been told by my building manager that when he calls my cell phone, it’s disconnected. There have been times that my husband could only reach me via email because my cell phone would not ring when he called, nor would t he house phone.
I’ve contacted the city about filing a Civil Grand Jury complaint, but after speaking with the Duty Officer from the local FAA office this morning I decided to contact you. He thought that I was on the right track, but that I should let my local councilmen know about the situation.
I’ve also been in touch with the Legal Department of NBC Universal in NYC. My next step is to contact Internal Affairs if this can not be resolved.
My hesitation in providing it directly to you is because this complaint also involves your Captain (also overheard saying "I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I'm going to check out the jellyfish for myself"). Immediately after that, your Captain was over my deck. His number matched the man on the scanner giving his exact location. I'm sure as the "investigator" of this case you have full access to the tapes from the cockpits of your pilots. I would suggest that you start there.
Please contact me at
maryjane1725@hotmail.com with any comments or questions. I also have tons of video of these helicopters.