Towing Scheme, Shmowing Scheme: Here’s what else the King City cops were up to.

What the hell, King City?

The illegal towing scheme that brought worldwide attention to the tiny South County city earlier this year was apparently just the beginning. And it may not even be the most explosive part of the corruption case that saw the arrests of a third of the King City Police Department and the owner of a tow truck company.

Search warrants served in January and unsealed today tell a far more complicated story than the kickback scheme that saw cops seizing cars from immigrants, funneling most of them to a towing company owned by the chief's brother and flipping them for a quick profit. It's one that involves kidnapping, extortion, bribery, illegally accessing computers, covering up crimes for friends and criminal threats against citizens.

In February, Monterey County District Attorney investigators arrested the former King City police chief, the acting police chief, the acting chief's brother and three officers on a variety of charges. Most of those centered around a scheme in which King City Sgt. Bobby Carrillo seized cars from undocumented immigrant drivers and sent the bulk of the towing business to the acting chief's brother, Brian Miller. For every 15 or so cars sent Miller's way, Carrillo got one for himself; Miller's brother, acting Chief Bruce Miller, allegedly got a cut of the action.

But the case against Carrillo may go deeper than him preying on immigrants in the small South County town. Along with the city's IT contractor, a convicted sex offender named Kenneth Tippery, Carrillo allegedly gained illegal access to the city's computer network so he could cover up other crimes, including an assault investigation against the son of a friend. 

Meanwhile, a separate warrant also claims the city manager of King City, Michael Powers, jerry-rigged the phones in the current interim police chief's office so he could listen in on private conversations.

Let's start with Carrillo.

According to the warrant, the investigation into Carrillo began last October, when King City Sgt. Brennan Lux called DA Investigator Roy Diaz and said Carrillo falsified a police report on a domestic violence investigation. Carrillo, according to the warrant, got called out to the scene of an assault last Sept. 30. KC Officer Kip Bowen, the warrant says, saw Carrillo speeding to the call and joined in on a chase that would last about a mile.

A witness reported seeing a man named Jose Rodriguez dragging a woman out of a car and shoving her to the ground. When the police finally pulled Rodriguez' car over, Rodriguez told Bowen that the victim fell to the ground multiple times all on her own. Rodriguez was taken to the station for questioning.

Bowen should have been the primary investigator on the case because he was new to the department and still on probation; instead, Carrillo, who told Bowen that Rodriguez was the son of a close friend, took over. The next day, when Bowen read Carrillo's report, he found that Carrillo allegedly falsified his statement and omitted numerous facts, including that a pursuit had taken place.

While Carrillo was said to have routinely recorded his interviews and download them to his department-issued computer, investigators were unable to find a recording of the Rodriguez interview. 

In another incident, one that's not described in any detail in the warrant's statement of probable cause, Carrillo and KC Officer Abraham Aguayo allegedly conspired to kidnap, extort and threaten an unidentified victim. Aguayo has not been charged in connection with any crime. 

And in yet another incident, Carrillo allegedly took $10,000 from a vehicle he seized from a group of Oaxacans on or around Christmas Day in 2012. When the Oaxacans asked to retrieve the cash from the vehicle at Miller's Towing, company owner Brian Miller told them the money was never found. When the Oaxacans ("they're known to carry large amounts of cash and they often store the currency in their vehicles, especially during holiday times," the warrant states) pressed the issue, Miller called Carrillo. Carrillo told Miller to have the Oaxacans come to the police station, and their money was returned.

But wait, there's more!

Lux also told Diaz that Carrillo gained remote and illegal access to the King City Police Department computer network thanks to his friendship with Kenneth Tippery, the IT contractor and convicted sex offender.

According to the warrant, a forensic examiner found Tippery had set up the King City police network in a way that all logs, used to record anyone accessing the network, were intentionally shut off. Several programs were also installed to erase any evidence of anyone remotely accessing the network; only Tippery was allowed remote access, and he needed permission from Police Chief Bruce Miller (Brian Miller's brother) to use it.

Tippery, the warrant says, told KC Police Sgt. Alejandrina Tirado he had set up Carrillo's home computer to allow him network access. He offered to do the same for her.

Investigators seized flash drives, computers, and smartphones from Carrillo’s Soledad home, scouring the living room and bedroom for digital and paper records on Jan. 17. They also seized a 2001 Ford Expedition.

Sgt. Mark Baker, whose preliminary hearing is scheduled to begin later this month on charges of making a threat, is also named in the warrant.

And then there's Michael Powers, city manager of King City, who also was on the receiving end of a search warrant at his office. 

According to the warrant, first reported on by Alison Gatlin in the Salinas Californian, Powers allegedly arranged for KCPD telephones to be set up in a way that allowed him to activate the microphone in the office of acting Chief Dennis Hegwood without Hegwood knowing it. 

Diaz, the DA investigator, along with Investigator John Ferreria, met with Hegwood on April 17 in Hegwood's office to discuss the towing practices of Officer Christopher Craig, and a concealed weapons permit issued to Powers by former Chief Nick Baldiviez. 

While Diaz, Ferreria and Hegwood agreed to keep the meeting confidential, an hour after it ended, Hegwood called the investigators and said Powers had approached him to discuss details of the meeting he shouldn't have known about.

It wasn't the first time, either; a subsequent search of the department found Hegwood's phone, as well as the phones of department sergeants, were equipped with mics that functioned so that Powers could listen in on private conversations. 

Why haven't Powers, Aguayo or Tippery been arrested? Why hasn't Carrillo been charged with anything beyond the tow scheme?

Good questions.

Deputy District Attorney Steve Somers says there's no immediate plan to arrest anyone else, and that the investigation is ongoing. 

Tippery is connected to another notorious police incident: He was on a civilian ride along with ex-Soledad Police Officer Jesus Yanez last Nov. 27 when Yanez—a former King City cop—shot and wounded a man who was likely not armed.

Yanez was on patrol when he claimed he saw two men—one of them whom he claimed was carrying a firearm. When Yanez tried to stop them, according to published reports, they ran and barricaded themselves in an apartment.

Christopher James Segobia came around the side of the apartment building, allegedly carrying a loaded weapon. Yanez opened fire and shot him once in the stomach and once in the leg. Segobia was charged with two counts of assault on a peace officer with a semi-automatic firearm, being a felon in possession of a firearm and exhibiting a firearm in the presence of an officer and special allegations of using a firearm. He was unable to post bail and was held at the Monterey County Jail to await trial.

In January, just weeks after investigators filed the sealed search warrants involving Tippery, Powers, Carrillo and other King City police, the case against Segobia was quietly dropped and Yanez was fired from the Soledad force.

In all, here's who's been charged in the King City Case:

Bobby Carrillo, charged with conspiracy, accepting a bribe and bribing a public officer;

Acting Chief Bruce Miller, charged with accepting a bribe;

Brian Miller, owner of Miller's Towing, changed with conspiracy and bribing an executive officer (his brother);

Former Chief Nick Baldiviez, charged with embezzlement (unrelated to the towing scheme, Baldiviez allegedly gave a car owned by the department's Youth Explorer Program to another officer) and perjury for allegedly lying during his preliminary hearing;

Officer Mario Mottu, charged with embezzlement (related to the Baldiviez charge and also unrelated to the towing scheme);

Officer Jaime Andrade, charged with possession of an assault weapon and illegal storage of a firearm;

Officer Mark Alan Baker, charged with making criminal threats against a citizen, also unrelated to the towing scheme.