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| Disgraced Police Chief - Michael Taylor |
On May 28, 2022 - former Baldwin Park Police Chief, Michael Taylor, resigned as a board member of West Valley Water District, only five months into his new term of being reelected. In November of 2021, another board member, Kyle Crowther also suddenly resigned. On May 19, 2022 - Shamindra “Rickey” Manbahal, also resigned as district general manager. The sudden resignations follows the same pattern as the City of Bell - where the council members and administrators resigned after the LA Times exposed how public servants were stealing millions of dollars of taxpayer money. Those close to Taylor have stated that Taylor has not been seen in months following his resignation. I suspect that Taylor's entered a plea deal with the FBI, which required him to resign from public office. The Department of Justice said it would not comment on whether this is true.
Taylor has sold his home in Rancho Cucamonga. Sources state he now Rogers, Arkansas. The potential street address is 1122 W Cypress St.
Michael Taylor's been a controversial and corrupt figure in the City of Baldwin Park. Taylor was problematic even as a captain, and several times former Chief, Lili Hadsell had attempted to fire him.
While as Captain, former employees stated that Taylor would work 20 hours a week, while earning about
$250,000 a year. Taylor often went home early to drink at bars and would show up drunk the next day. Taylor was known to be a notorious alcoholic.
Nonetheless, after new council was elected, Taylor plotted to overthrow Lili Hadsell as chief. Taylor succeeded by scheming with Pacheco. Hadsell was fired. The new council appointed him as the new police chief. Council Member Pacheco and Chief Taylor developed a close working relationship, in working together to take as many bribes and taxpayer money as possible by abusing their government authority.
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| Kyle Crowther, potential son of Taylor |
Taylor's most notable scandal was accepting kickbacks for approving marijuana license in Baldwin Park. Imagine a police chief funding his own public office with drug money. After Taylor received this drug money, he laundered that money through a political action committee (PAC), which funded his campaign for a board seat in the West Valley Water District. This was known as TaylorGate.
On September 21, 2016 - the Council fired Taylor without cause. as police chief. Mayor Lozano informally commented that Taylor wasn't pro-Mexican enough.
After winning his board seat, Taylor needed to put in corrupt people that would enable the stealing of public water agency funds. So Taylor fired the human resources manager, finance director, and general counsel, shattering the lives of those who formerly held those positions. And instead, he put in his own finance director; human resource manager; Robert Tafoya (Baldwin Park's City Attorney); and Ricardo Pacheco (Baldwin Park's Council Member).
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| Shamindra “Rickey” Manbahal |
During Taylor's tenure at West Valley and Baldwin Park - a number of corruption cases began to surface. For instance, the new HR Director and her wife pleads guilty to felony tax evasion. The State Controller's audit finds rampant corruption in West Valley - for example contractors were overcharging the district (presumably also giving kickbacks with that overcharge), and public officials and administrators were buying hotels, cigars, and steak dinners of a public credit card. West Valley's former manager
The General Manager Taylor hired, Manbahal, admitted to stealing money from the City of Hawthorne. He gave himself a $25,000 secret "loan" (which he presumably didn't have to pay back), and kept cooking the books for the City Council. (Rose Tam, the finance director of Baldwin Park, appears to be doing the same in the City.)
And although the years of stealing public funds went on, the beginning of the end finally came for the disgraced police chief, when a sting was set up for Council Member Ricardo Pacheco. Pacheco requested $37,900 in cash to be put in brown paper bags. An informant marked the cash. And feds busted Pacheco. Pacheco agreed to be an informant. Pacheco also agreed to plead guilty to corruption charges. As part of the condition of pleading guilty, Pacheco had to resign from public office. Pacheco's been snitching on Taylor, ever since.
Taylor's sudden resignation from public office follows the same pattern as Pacheco's, indicating that he may have already pled guilty in exchange for a more lenient sentence.
Personally, Taylor is one of the most evil persons I've ever met. Recent sources have confirmed that it was Taylor, who fired the former head boxing coach, who complained that it was wrong to give him a forty cent an hour raise after 20 years. (Contrast that with all the money Taylor's been stealing.) Allegedly, Taylor also ordered the officers to arrest and strip search me for booing a public official. Then, when that didn't work, Taylor allegedly ordered Tafoya to file a restraining order against me, which also failed. Also, Taylor has been accused of pedophilia.
Taylor's arrest makes the corruption scheme clearer. For years, activists and citizens believed that Tafoya was the mastermind behind all the outrageous corruption in Baldwin Park and West Valley. Only recently has one source told the Legal Lens that it was actually Michael Taylor who was teaching everyone how to steal as much as possible and get away with it. (Well, at least Taylor thought he could get away with it.)
8 years later, since Taylor started his looting of public funds, he's finally been popped. Martin Luther King Jr. was right - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Sometimes, it's very long.
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| The Real Michael Taylor |
