Tehachapi News

Judge denies restraining order in council member vs. council member

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A Mojave judge refused to order one Tehachapi City Council member to stay away from another council member in a hearing Jan. 21.

Saying that the burden of proof had not been met, the judge denied Stan Beckham's request for a restraining order against Shane Reed. Beckham had accused Reed of harassment and stalking and had been granted a temporary restraining order Dec. 10.

The hearing took all afternoon in Kern County Superior Court East Division.

“Sometimes when you wrestle with a pig you both get dirty and the pig enjoys it,” Reed said as he left the courtroom. “It's time to wash this pig's mud off me and get back to doing what I was elected to do - represent the city of Tehachapi.”

Beckham’s response was more subdued.

“There's more to this than has been presented,” he said.

Reed's attorney Alan Klein produced work records that show Shane Reed, a county firefighter, was on duty at the helicopter port in Keene during the time Beckham said Reed had accosted him at the Albertson's parking lot in Tehachapi.

Beckham testified that Reed pounded on his car roof and yelled obscenities at him a few days following the June 16 City Council meeting. Beckham did not recall the exact day. The work records were for June 17, 18 and 19.

Beckham also testified that Reed drove in front of his house on several occasions and made obscene gestures from his car.

Reed testified that when he was on helicopter crew duty, he could be no more than two minutes away from the aircraft in case it was deployed. He would not have had time to drive into Tehachapi.

Beckham's attorney Robert Brenner called Kern County Fire Department Captain Jason Nava to the witness stand. Nava was supervisor and second in command at the helicopter port until 2004.

Nava testified that any firefighter on the crew could be left on the ground when the helicopter flew missions. The firefighters who remained at the station had access to vehicles and could leave.

“Aren't they supposed to stay there  -- not go out and see a movie?” Klein asked.

Nava said the rules at the station were relaxed when he was working there.

Nava was not on duty during the time in question and neither side presented a witness who was on duty at the same time as Reed.

Nava was the only person besides Beckham and Reed to take the stand. Beckham's attorney had a phalanx of witnesses lined up. But Superior Court Judge Cory J. Woodward, after negotiations in chambers with the lawyers, would not allow their testimony. Brenner said after court he had hoped the witnesses would impeach Reed’s credibility.

“This is an example of the most difficult kind of case,” Woodward said. The party making the accusation bears the burden of proof, he said.

“Can you prove what happened?” Woodward said, noting that Reed's name was on the work records, and that Beckham had only his own testimony as evidence.

“It's speculation,” Woodward said. “The law requires clear and convincing evidence.... That burden of proof has not been met.”

Woodward said each man would pay his own attorney.