Outside investigation demanded by Antioch councilwoman costs city almost $45,000
120.2 hours of work to determine all her complaints against police officers during Dec. 2020 traffic stop of her sons were baseless
By Allen Payton
The cost to the City of Antioch for the outside investigation demanded by District 1 Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker into the incident between police, her sons and her last December was $44,610 the city attorney’s office revealed, Monday. In addition, they reported it consumed a total of 120.2 hours for the investigator, billed at $420 per hour, a writer/editor billed at $180 per hour, and an intern, billed at a rate of $120 per hour, to complete their work. A breakdown of their individual costs was also requested of the city attorney’s office.
The investigation, conducted by Oppenheimer Investigations Group, focused on what started as a traffic stop by two Antioch Police officers of Torres-Walker’s two sons, an adult and a 13-year-old, riding a dirt bike and ATV quad illegally on city streets, on December 29, 2020. The older son fled the scene, for which he was later charged with evading police and is still pending. He went home and returned with his mother. Things then escalated with accusations by Torres-Walker against the officers, and continued with an online, profanity-filled video rant against the officers and the department.
The investigation determined that all the councilwoman’s complaints against the two officers were either unfounded or not sustained, according to the executive summary of the report, which was released earlier this month. (See related article)
Ironically, Torres-Walker is now the chair of the city council’s Police Oversight Standing Committee which has its next meeting Tuesday afternoon. (Please see related article)
