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The front entrance to the Cerritos Sheriff’s Station, the infected deputy entered through the entrance on Friday April 10, 2020 possibly exposing others entering the busy building.
BY BRIAN HEWS • April 23, 2020
A deputy who usually works at the Lakewood Sheriff’s station, but was working overtime at the Cerritos Sheriff’s station located at City Hall two weeks ago, tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus after leaving the station.
Hews Media Group-Los Cerritos Community News was given internal communications by a source confirming the deputy roamed the Cerritos Station and Community Center for over seven hours while infected with the highly infectious disease.
HMG-LCCN was told by the source that some personnel inside the Community Center were ordered to quarantine themselves, it is unknown if any sheriff’s deputies in the building also came under that order.
The Station and Community Center provides a full range of public safety services for Cerritos residents, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Station serves as headquarters for LASD personnel serving Cerritos and the City’s Community Safety Division.
The center is located adjacent to Cerritos City Hall, and the public entrance to the building is on the top floor of the facility.
The City’s Community Safety Division is located on the top floor, along with the Sheriff’s service counter, a communications/dispatch center and meeting rooms.
The second floor contains Sheriff’s Department operations, including a training/briefing room, booking and custody areas, holding cells and lockers. Some 14,000 square feet of secured parking for Sheriff’s personnel is also located on this level.
The bottom floor consists of parking for City staff with a stairwell and elevator used by everyone at City Hall.
The subsequent investigation by Cerritos management found that the deputy worked from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday April 10, 2020.
After being contacted by Cerritos Sheriffs, the deputy stated he did not go inside City Hall or have any interactions with City Staff.
But he did walk the halls inside the Sheriff’s Station interacting with staff “to complete his tasks,” which evidently took over seven hours.
In his summation, dated April 14, newly appointed Cerritos Station Captain Minh Dinh described the deputies movements that day, which HMG-LCCN obtained through the source.
According to Dinh, the infected deputy entered the front public entrance of the station, which has glass doors that must be opened manually.
THE LOBBY of the station the LASD offices are on the left, the Community Center offices are on the right. Behind the glass in the back is the dispatch center.
The Deputy entered into the secretary area of the sheriff deputy’s offices, and then went into the dispatch room to obtain an overtime slip which he filled it out inside the room.
Normally two sheriff’s personnel are inside the dispatch room.
The deputy then left the dispatch room and went to the watch commander’s office to have his overtime slip signed, later using the copy machine to make a copy of his slip.
The deputy “walked the hallway” to the men’s locker room, where he used the restroom in the locker room and washed his hands.
During the time he also entered the building through the lower garage entrance which is next to the parking spot of City Manager Art Gallucci.
Dinh finished by writing, “The Lakewood Station deputy only stayed in the building as long as he needed to complete his tasks. He did greet some Sheriff’s employees but had no interaction with city staff. In fact, he was never in close proximity with any city staff. Also he did not visit any other city facility.”
MEMO FROM City Manager Art Gallucci
PARTIAL MEMO FROM Station Captain Minh Dinh describing the deputy’s movements in the building.
Sources said employees inside City Hall and the Community Center were livid that the Deputy came to work at the Cerritos Station.
None wanted to be identified, but one employee remarked, “they waited four days to tell us, they did not shut the building down and clean it, that’s not right.”
A former Cerritos Mayor and Councilman told HMG-LCCN, “why are we mingling sheriff’s deputies between stations during a pandemic, it makes no sense.”
Several emails into Cerritos Mayor Solanki and Mayor pro tem Vo, along with Councilmembers Hu, Edwards, went unreturned.
In those emails, HMG-LCCN asked if the City informed residents, who might have entered the Sheriff’s Station that day, of the infected deputy’s presence, the question went unanswered.
Councilmember Frank Yokoyama commented, “I ask the City Manager everyday for updates and if anyone else has tested positive for COVID-19. We should’ve done COVID-19 testing for everyone at the Cerritos station by now. My prayers go out to the Cerritos station deputies and personnel and their families.”
What’s this “roamed the Cerritos Station and Community Center for over seven hours” all about? Captain Minh’s memo doesn’t sound like he was there very long.
The memo from Gallucci says he worked from 8-4….
The SARS CoV2 Coronavirus begins to shed from its host before it experiences symptoms. Sometimes an infected host will never experience symptoms, but they’re still shedding the virus. LA County has begun random tests of people sampling from different areas to determine the number of people who have been infected and have recovered without knowing it. The first tests revealed that about 4.1% of adults living in LA County have already become immune through infection and don’t know it. That is around 300,000 more cases of infected people who recovered than they have detected with PCR testing. Considering that after testing nearly a half million people there are less than 40,000 confirmed cases in the state, accounting of infected people by trying to count the number of patients they are able to confirm are infected is pointless. Antibody testing may only reveal the people who are immune after overcoming the coronavirus infection, but it will be a good count of resolved cases. The testing of people who are experiencing symptoms is confirming less than 10% of the cases they are testing. Before they were able to confirm their diagnosis with a lab test, Chinese doctors were diagnosing the disease based on symptoms. Either less than ten percent of patients experiencing symptoms are actually sick, or the PCR tests are not very accurate. Antibody testing is accurate, and we need to rethink the importance of PCR testing in determining actual transmissions. Laboratory tests are not necessary for a doctor to diagnose a cold or flu, and they rarely bother to confirm their diagnosis with lab tests.
Lakewood Deputy Who Worked at Cerritos Sheriff’s Station Tested Positive for COVID-19
If this occurred on 4/10/2020, why was it just released to the public on 4/23/2020? Isn’t disclosure part of PUBLIC SAFETY?
https://www.loscerritosnews.net/2020/04/23/lakewood-deputy-who-worked-at-cerritos-sheriffs-station-tested-positive-for-covid-19/
We have not had any communications from Neighborhood Watch (NW) program for more than a month. Members of the NW should have been notified about this and others, rite after 4/10. No one has any idea of the tract record this infected cop could have had with the community at large, so this info is valuable information which should be citywide broadcasted via NW/ Whatsapp. Cops do have a tract record of lying, really don’t believe the entirety of this saga.
Also, section of Ironwood/Construction site, construction employees have been positively tested for Covid-19 and are in quarantine, since this is a public course, no one has come clean on this site too. Two members playing at the Palos Verdes Golf Course have died from Covid-19, so this could be a fatality in the works for the Cerritos Ironwood Golf Course too.
https://www.pvnews.com/news/partygoer-at-trump-national-golf-club-dies-of-coronavirus/article_d4ad333e-7929-11ea-8303-3f72726d35bd.html
City government is for the people, by the people and the residents are not kept informed on day to day basis. CCC has done a very poor job of daily reports/ updates/ aid to seniors during this pandemic.
Captain Minh’s re-cital could barely be understood during CCC on 4/23.
Covid-19 guidelines, pandemic virus can be transmitted via HVAC so has that been cleaned and disinfected? If the person in question parked adj to CM Mercedes, was the car cleaned, as droplets can be spread past the safe distancing of 6 ft.? If you review some of the footages being released from Rome and NYC, giant sanitizing crews are busy cleaning structures, 24/7 and I have not read /heard about this in Cerritos.
http://cerritos.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=15&clip_id=4560
Additionally, rite after the CCC election, Ret. Cerritos Commissioner has full blown Covid19 and his councilman, alleges to have the virus too. Since these are both public figures, public needs to un-peal Hipaa laws and tract their contacts during this 2020 election.
Depart of Health is not doing any community justice, only reporting positive Covid19 cases and not reporting fatalities per each city. Cerritos is reporting 50 active cases, but not reporting fatalities, which could be an infinity of numbers. City has had fatalities and public need to know the exact numbers and not hear say from various medias.