Burbank Police Chief Michael Albanese said Wednesday that his officers did nothing wrong when they dropped off a shoeless man who collapsed on the sidewalk outside Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian’s office in June.
Albanese, speaking at a Burbank City Council meeting, said the Police Department had investigated the incident and cleared the two officers involved.
“The allegations are unfounded,” Albanese said. “He is not homeless, and it was not dumping.”
Krekorian did not immediately comment on the Burbank police chief’s findings. On June 6, he accused the officers of dumping the man in his district, releasing video of the incident during a crowded news conference at City Hall.
Krekorian had alleged the officers dumped the man on June 6, and he released video of the incident a day later.
The roughly one-minute video captured by a security camera shows two Burbank police officers pulling over on a North Hollywood sidewalk outside Krekorian’s office and letting a barefoot man out of the back of a police vehicle, releasing him from a set of handcuffs. The man limps out and rubs his face before falling on all fours as the officers drive away. Then, he collapses onto his stomach.
At a June news conference, Krekorian called for an investigation and criticized Burbank for not doing enough for the unhoused.
“We are going to extraordinary lengths,” Krekorian said, “and many of our neighbors are not providing services to people who are unhoused.”
But on Wednesday, Albanese said the video didn’t tell the whole story.
He said his officers acted appropriately and didn’t violate department policy. Then, he pieced together the events of June 6.
The two officers encountered the man naked on a bench outside Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, he said, noting that the man was originally transported to the Burbank hospital by L.A. city personnel.
“They engaged a male who was very lucid, who knew what he wanted and what he didn’t want,” Albanese said. “He wanted to be taken to jail.”
Albanese described the man as provocative and difficult — “a lost soul.”
“They provided him dignity in the moment,” he said. “They were able to get him clothes. St. Joe’s was not.”
Albanese said the officers negotiated with the man to put clothes on, and part of that negotiation was giving the man a ride. He wanted to go to Tujunga, but since that was too far, they agreed on the Metro Red Line.
Albanese said the man was handcuffed, but maintained that it wasn’t the officers’ idea.
“He told the officers, ‘Handcuff me so you feel safe with me,’” Albanese said.
On the way to the Red Line, the man saw a Starbucks and asked to get out. He got out, thanked the officers three times, and the officers left, Albanese said.
Albanese also said the man wasn’t and had never been homeless. He said his investigation, which involved speaking with the man’s landlord, revealed that he’d been renting a room in Sylmar for as long as three years.
“The allegations are really serious — homeless dumping,” he said, adding that Krekorian never reached out to city officials to figure out what happened. “We work really hard to be good neighbors, and that absence of communication was disappointing.”
The Burbank police investigation is complete, but the L.A. County district attorney’s office and the California Department of Justice are also reviewing the situation, Albanese said. He added that the FBI had reached out but, upon reviewing the circumstances, found that the officers acted appropriately.
Albanese said he would release an official statement Thursday.
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
