Assemblyman Luis Alejo asks feds to take over King City Police Department.

So much for second chances. Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, is through waiting for the King City Police Department to shape up. 

He's asking U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to take over the struggling small-town PD. He's also asking the FBI to investigate King City PD.

In a letter sent to Lynch Tuesday morning, Alejo laid out KCPD's problems that just started coming to light in February 2014, when the retired chief, acting chief and acting chief's brother were arrested, along with four other police officers. 

"The pattern and practice of illegal behavior by the King City Police Department, the mishandling of evidence, the increase in violent crime, and civil rights abuses of undocumented residents merit the extraordinary step of placing the department under a federal consent decree," Alejo wrote to Lynch.

"The residents of King City and I have had enough of the police department's and the city administration's behavior and we need your assistance as promptly as possible." 

Alejo is asking for the feds, in partnership with California Attorney General Kamala Harris, to seek a federal consent decree in King City. It's a rare, but not unprecedented move that's been utilized in other cities including Oakland, New Orleans, Seattle and Pittsburgh. 

The power for the DOJ to issue a consent decree against a local law enforcement agency was granted by the federal 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, an omnibus criminal justice bill passed during the Clinton Administration. 

Moved by the beating of Rodney King and subsequent riots in Los Angeles, Congress included powers for the DOJ to take control of local police agencies. 

A consent decree is effectively a federal complaint against a local police department, ordering specific reforms and compliance with the law, and allows the DOJ to oversee those changes. 

A DOJ spokesperson was not immediately available to comment Tuesday morning.

"I believe this action by the Department of Justice is urgently needed to restore public trust and ensure policing is conducted in accordance with the law," Alejo wrote. 

Read Alejo's full letter here:

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A state audit—ordered by the Legislature at Alejo's request—is slated to begin soon, but action can't come soon enough, he writes. 

"More immediate action is necessary in light of recent events in King City," according to his letter. 

Those recent events include the sudden firing of the city's new police chief, Ron Forgue, who'd been on the job for three and a half months. He was the first permanent chief to be hired after an extensive recruitment process, and two interim chiefs. 

Forgue's temporary replacement, Acting Chief Alex Tirado, is regularly a King City police commander. Almost immediately after she was appointed, the King City Police Officers Association took a vote of no confidence against Tirado, alleging she interfered on behalf of her brother, helping him get off easy on an arrest for making a criminal threat. 

"The POA’s recent vote of no confidence against Acting Chief Tirado is viewed as a retaliatory act by only a few disgruntled officers resistant to change," according to an Oct. 8 press release issued by King City City Attorney Martin Koczanowicz.

But Alejo's concerns don't stop there: They extend to Forgue's speculation as to reasons he was fired. (City officials will not speak about why, citing privacy rules. From the same Oct. 8 press release: "Due to personnel laws no further comment or elaboration can be made.")

Forgue, a veteran Chicago cop, was in the early phase of probing 28 unsolved murders since 1999, and says he had just asked the FBI to investigate just before City Manager Michael Powers terminated him. 

Beyond that, Alejo cites concern with missing evidence from a 2013 credit union robbery. The missing evidence, in that case, is some $6,000 in cash. 

He also points to a recent murder. Michael Benavides, age 29, was shot and killed in his car just after 9pm on July 1. A 15-year-old suspect, Leonel Camacho, was arrested and charged with murder. 

Benavides' mother has spoken publicly about her son's death, and has said that he'd been shot previously and was supposed to be a protected witness. 

"Rather than place him into protective custody as promised, the King City Police Department sat on the information and then [Benavides] was later shot to death," Alejo wrote. 

Chief Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon says he doesn't know what King City police told Benavides, but there's no way law enforcement officials can guarantee witness protection.

While the Monterey County District Attorney has relocated dozens of people through a state-funded witness relocation program, they can't promise safety, particularly if witnesses choose to stay in their homes, Brannon says: "We don't guarantee witness their safety, that's not possible."

Records show Benavides was never in the DA's witness relocation program, Brannon adds.

While the claim that police offered protections to Benavides couldn't be independently verified Tuesday morning, Alejo says the family's allegation is cause enough to step in. 

"It's a serious enough allegation to ask the feds to investigate it and let us know what really happened," he says. "It's an example of how public safety has been compromised."