Slain deputy was investigated before deadly 2012 ambush

A deputy sheriff killed during a 2012 eviction at a Modesto fourplex had been investigated by his own department when a fellow Stanislaus County deputy lodged a complaint shortly before the deadly ambush.

Reasons for the complaint against Deputy Bob Paris, and results of the investigation, have been sealed from public view by a judge presiding over a high-stakes wrongful-death lawsuit.

Survivors of Glendon Engert, a locksmith killed with Paris in April 2012 at the Chrysler Drive fourplex, hope their case against the county will proceed to trial in August. A federal court judge in Fresno could decide as early as this week.

The county Sheriff’s Department, two supervisors, Paris’ estate and his partner at the time of the shooting are defendants. Attorneys representing Paris’ estate and former deputy Mike Glinskas, who was not shot and has since retired, complained in a recent court document that opponents have gone “to great lengths to vilify Robert Paris, going so far as to call the late deputy ‘incompetent,’ ‘contemptuous’ and even ‘dangerous.’

“No amount of name-calling will change the undisputed facts,” the briefing continues. “Engert was not put in danger by Paris, who was covering him and arguably lost his life because he was in that position of cover.”

Engert, 35, backed by the deputies, was attempting to disable a security door lock when Jim Ferrario, 45, fired an assault rifle from inside, piercing the door. A much-publicized standoff ensued, ending several hours later with the complex going up in flames. Ferrario’s body was found next to a cache of weapons and ammunition, and an autopsy found that he had shot himself in the abdomen and head.

The lawsuit claims the deputies did not tell Engert about warnings regarding Ferrario’s instability and military-grade weapons. Two investigations found fault with Sheriff’s Department management for mishandling the eviction and failing to address concerns about Paris’ cavalier approach to evictions.

For example, Paris, 53, had been observed in other evictions whistling, talking on a cellphone and searching with hands in pockets. When a clerk alerted him to warnings about the Chrysler Drive property the day before the ambush, he replied, “Whatever,” a probe found.

A judge’s order, signed April 15, continues to shield from public view various sheriff’s records, including “training and performance evaluations,” Paris’ poor hearing and “any information reflecting a complaint lodged by Deputy Mike Veil against Deputy Paris.” The order also seals “administrative notes reflecting steps taken by Lt. Cliff Harper, Sgt. (Manuel) Martinez and Capt. Bill Duncan to address the concerns raised by Deputy Veil, as well as investigative efforts relating to same.”

Harper and Martinez are defendants, while Sheriff Adam Christianson was released from the lawsuit earlier this year. The property owner paid $230,000 in an out-of-court settlement.

Substantial portions of several court documents in the case have been blacked out, and 22 entire documents have been withheld in the past four weeks. But an April 7 brief notes that Glinskas and Paris received safety training only hours before the ambush, partly “to reiterate the concerns Martinez had about Paris’ officer safety tactics.”

Another document, also dated April 7, quotes Veil, who since has retired, as saying that the eviction unit’s “standard practice for years” was to position locksmiths to the side of a door, not directly in front like Engert was. Veil was reassigned to other work not long before the killings, and Glinskas had been working evictions for three weeks.

The county’s latest brief notes that Paris was felled first and that Engert “was shot as he was fleeing, an opportunity Paris never had because he was standing behind Engert, at the ready, in case an uncooperative tenant was inside the house. The inescapable tragedy is that (the men) entered a situation created by Ferrario.”

Guessing Paris’ “state of mind or ‘attitude’ is wholly insufficient” in a civil rights lawsuit, the county contends, saying attorneys representing Engert’s widow and parents have not shown that the officers had “deliberate indifference” or “willful blindness to elevated risk.”

“None of the deputies’ actions did anything to unleash the latent danger – Ferrario,” the document says.

This story was originally published April 20, 2015 at 2:26 PM with the headline "Slain deputy was investigated before deadly 2012 ambush."