PORTERVILLE, Calif. – Public comments made this month at the Porterville City Council by the wife of the city’s assistant chief of police are raising questions about a leadership shakeup in the department.
Earlier this month, the City of Porterville made a surprise public announcement: that its top two police leaders were on "authorized" leave, and that an interim chief of police was stepping up in their absence. Bobby Rader, who had previously served as a captain with the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, has led the department since Nov. 16.
“This interim appointment ensures continued leadership and operational stability within the Porterville Police Department while the current Chief of Police and Assistant Chief of Police are on authorized leave,” a statement from the city reads.
City leaders have not provided further details about why Police Chief Jake Castellow and Assistant Chief Dominic Barteau are out on leave. But during the city council’s biweekly meeting on Nov. 18, Dominic Barteau’s wife, Crystal Barteau, revealed the situation – and timeline – may not be so straightforward.
She tearfully explained that the hiring of an interim chief had blindsided her husband who, according to LinkedIn, has served the department since 2004.
She said her husband recently “came home from work confused, hurt, and struggling to understand a major decision that he had no knowledge of before it was announced.” She added that it was “a decision that placed the interim police chief over [Barteau] without a discussion, a conversation or even the courtesy of a warning.”
This testimony suggests Rader may have been hired before Barteau officially went out on leave. It’s one of many questions surrounding the hiring of the city’s interim police chief – and it’s all with the backdrop of a department facing multiple allegations of civil rights violations in the community.
Just two years ago, the department paid out nearly $1 million to settle a case involving claims of battery, negligence and false imprisonment.
City spokesperson Yuriko Velarde refrained from answering specific questions from KVPR about its police leaders or the legal cases involving the police department.
“The City cannot comment on personnel or medical matters. Likewise, the City also cannot comment on the specifics of pending litigation,” Velarde wrote. “I can assure you that we take these matters very seriously and will respond through the appropriate legal process…The City of Porterville remains as committed to lawful and professional policing as we do to serving our community.”
What we know about Castellow and Barteau
Internal police emails first reported by news outlet Valley Voice, but not confirmed by KVPR, suggest both Barteau and Castellow are out of work on stress-related medical leave. Crystal Barteau suggested similar reasons in her public comments.
“In the last few weeks, I've seen medical issues surface that I've never seen before. Stress, sleeplessness, and symptoms that now affect his ability to make decisions with confidence that [my husband]'s always had,” she said. “These changes have affected him not only as an employee of the city, but as a husband and father.”
The case also attracted interest and concern from the public.
Porterville resident Pamela Thompson spoke during the same city council meeting to express concern that the two men could face illegal retaliation for taking protected leave. Thompson, who described herself as a retired human resources professional, also requested transparency from the city council about Rader’s hiring process.
“The community deserves clarity about the process used for an interim police chief, how or if that process was even followed and assurance that the hiring process of a public safety employee was followed,” she said.
Thompson’s comments to the council aren’t far-fetched. Mental health issues are not uncommon among law enforcement workers. A 2020 study published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Policing found that law enforcement officers are 54% more likely to die by suicide than the general population.
“Officers are socialized into a state of invulnerability and feel that they must always be impervious to complications such as depression,” the authors wrote, adding that reducing the stigma attached to mental health ailments could help prevent suicide and other crises.
The authors also wrote officers are often hesitant to admit mental health problems for fear of being demoted, and they encouraged more education within law enforcement about the topic.
Leadership shakeup shines light on department lawsuits
As the department’s top leaders are out on leave, the shakeup has brought renewed attention to civil rights lawsuits lobbed against the department in recent years. That includes at least five unresolved lawsuits alleging civil rights violations – four of which are likely to go to trial.
The lawsuits, all filed in federal court in the last two years, levy a variety of allegations including gender and racial discrimination, excessive use of force, assault, battery, warrantless entry and false detention and arrest. Most cases name the City of Porterville as the defendant, though one additionally names an individual lieutenant.
In a pair of cases filed simultaneously in 2023, two former police officers alleged a supervisor forced them out of the police department after discovering they were in a romantic relationship.
One of the plaintiffs, Ana Isabel Moreno, alleges Bruce Sokoloff, a sergeant at the time then later promoted to lieutenant, made inappropriate sexual advances toward her, then put her in compromising and even dangerous situations once he found out she was in a relationship.
Moreno eventually resigned. And her partner, Anthony Luckey, alleges Sokoloff discriminated against him for being Black and “ultimately conducted a bogus ‘investigation’ that resulted in Luckey’s termination.” The city has filed motions to dismiss both cases; Moreno and Luckey are pushing for a jury trial.
In 2024, a Porterville resident named Stormy Cox alleged officers illegally detained her and injured her head and back during a welfare check. Cox said her mother called the police to report Cox was suffering a mental health crisis that was not described in the lawsuit.
But when Cox refused to let the officers into her home, she alleged they forced their way in, slammed her head against the floor and handcuffed her in front of her children before booking her in jail. Both she and the police department have requested a trial by jury.
In a different case filed earlier this year, Louis Cruz alleged that after he failed to see traffic officers flashing their lights at him on his motorcycle, they tackled him to the ground, breaking his jaw and five teeth. He alleged the officers then failed to allow him access to proper medical care and he’s suffered long-term complications as a result.
That case is still in the discovery phase, involving the exchange of information between legal teams.
The most recent case, filed this past summer, involves a minor.
A 13-year-old boy, who remains unnamed in the complaint, claimed that on Thanksgiving day of 2024, he was riding his bicycle near where officers were arresting someone else. They tried to get his attention, but he was wearing noise-cancelling headphones and didn’t respond.
At that point, he alleged, officers shoved him off his bike, slammed him to the ground face-first and pinned him down with their knees before detaining him overnight. He was released with no charges. Both he and the police department have requested a jury trial.
The city also already paid out a hefty sum to settle an earlier civil rights case. In 2023, Cecilia Chavez won $900,000 after alleging battery, negligence and false imprisonment.
Early one morning, Chavez claims that officers knocked on her door looking for a cousin of hers who was suspected of committing a crime. Even after she said he wasn’t there, she alleges officers forced her front door open, which knocked her to the ground while she was holding her nine-month-old baby girl, then proceeded to grab her feet and drag her on her back across a gravelly patio.
After they had handcuffed her and searched her home, the cousin they had been searching for appeared and approached her house from down the street.
“It was egregious,” said Stanley Goff, a civil rights attorney representing Chavez. “Instead of apologizing to Miss Chavez and letting her go, they went ahead and arrested her anyway and took her to jail anyway. And she was in jail for three days.”
Goff told KVPR no charges were ever filed from the Tulare County District Attorney’s office.
“They just said she had just been detained and they let her go,” he said.
The settlement included $700,000 for Chavez and $200,000 for her four minor children. Goff said he and his client were satisfied with the settlement, and are glad the children did not have to be subjected to their mother’s trial.
The city of Porterville would not comment on Chavez’s settlement or any of the ongoing cases involving the police department.
“As you know, settlements are not admission of liability but are sometimes used to avoid the cost and uncertainty of extended litigation,” Velarde, the spokesperson, said in a statement.
Goff, who’s been trying civil rights cases for 12 years, doesn’t know enough to determine whether this case represents a systemic problem in Porterville as the department faces other questions about its leadership.
But Goff said he has litigated enough civil rights cases involving police departments across the state to believe that work remains to be done around police reform.
“What's in common with all these experiences is a lot of police officers are emboldened to do things that they know they shouldn't do because I don't believe they're being held accountable enough,” he said.
