Last King City cop to be sentenced in corruption scandal is jailed.

It started with a knock on a door.

Monterey County District Attorney’s Office Investigator Roy Diaz was looking for information regarding an unsolved murder in King City. When he got what he needed, the investigator asked the resident why he didn’t come forward before.

In the words of Deputy District Attorney Steve Somers, the resident said: “Because we don’t trust the police, they take our cars.”

What happened next was the arrest of nearly a third of the King City Police Department—six cops arrested on charges that linked them to a sophisticated towing scheme targeting low-income Latinos in a span of four years.

On Friday, Bobby Carrillo, the former cop pinned as the mastermind behind the towing scheme, was sentenced to two years in prison, with the sentence suspended, and placed on felony probation for three years. He was also ordered to serve a year in county jail—effective immediately. 

Monterey County Superior Court Judge Julie Culver ordered him to be remanded, and he was cuffed and taken into custody.

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The rest of the King City crew, including former Police Chief Dominic Baldiviez, has been convicted. All received probation or jail time that ended up being served in home confinement. These lean sentences, in part, led Monterey County Superior Court Judge Julie Culver to sentence Carrillo to the lower spectrum of the recommended sentence of two years in state prison.

The judge had harsh words for Carrillo's superiors, calling Baldiviez an alcoholic who was often absent from the department, and adding that even when he was there, he often made decisions that allowed corruption to flourish.

She also pointed out the weak leadership of Acting Chief Bruce Miller, whose brother, tow company owner Brian Miller, was at the heart of the scheme. 

“It is difficult to see people who have been at the top of this situation being treated a certain way and then I’m being asked to send Carrillo to prison,” Culver said. “I have to go through the legal objectives and put that into perspective with the rest of the people.”

Uniformity: the word used by the court before Carrillo received his punishment.

“I need to put his sentence in the appropriate place and in uniformity of what others have received,” Culver said.

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All former cops received their sentences after striking plea deals with the D.A.’s office.

• Baldiviez, the former chief who failed to note what was happening under his nose due to an alcohol problem and continuous absence at work, received a 30 day sentence, which was served at home. He went to jury trial and pleaded no contest to charges after jurors could not reach a decision.

• Former police Sergeant Mark Baker, who threatened “to make a resident disappear" while holding his gun, was sentenced to probation and home confinement.

• Bruce Miller, a former police captain who accepted a vehicle as a bribe from Carrillo and allowed the towing scheme to continue, which in part allowed his brother, Brian Miller, owner of Miller’s Towing, to profit from it, received probation and home confinement.

• After cooperating with prosecutors and confessing to the towing scheme, Brian Miller was sentenced to 120 days in jail, which will likely be served in home confinement.

• Mario Mottu, a former cop who took personal ownership of a police car meant to be handed over to a police explorer program, received 30 days jail time which was served in a work-alternative program.

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After the hearing, Somers told reporters a “lack of proof” made the cases difficult to prosecute. He said Carrillo's case was the one where there was sufficient evidence to prove he bribed police officers, towed hundreds of cars and profited from it. Somers hoped Culver would side with him and send him to prison.

But Somers says he is happy knowing all these “bad cops” are no longer working.

“We’ve been successful at that,” he said, “they are all convicted and done with law enforcement.”

Carrillo’s attorney Susan Chapman argued Carrillo was a good police officer, adding that the people he pulled over and had their vehicles impounded were all “driving illegally.” She added that all the stops Carrillo made “were sprinkled around town,” and did not target specific low-income neighborhoods.

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“He is a good man. He made a really poor choice that affected the community," Chapman said. "He is not a criminal mastermind."

Chapman added that Carrillo suffered from post traumatic stress disorder from working in a hostile environment, and referred to the department being divided into two camps: Team Tirado, a reference to one-time acting chief Alejandrina Tirado, and Team Carrillo.

"He had been charged with six Internal Affairs cases and all were cleared," Chapman said. She added, "He enforced the law in a way that benefitted him, but you can't ignore the people whose cars were being towed were breaking the law."

Chapman told the court that on Thursday night, Carrillo sat down with his two young children and explained to them that he had done something wrong and would have to be gone for awhile. "'I need to take responsibility for it,'" Chapman told the judge Carrillo had told his children.

Somers, however, said investigators were “shocked” to find out how many people were pulled over without probable cause, but simply for driving without a license. No traffic violations, no broken tail lights, they simply appeared to be Latino.

Somers says Carrillo would target farmworkers, who may have appeared to be undocumented, and subsequently would cite them for driving without a license.

Hundreds of vehicles were towed, and were disproportionately sent to Miller’s towing in exchange of money, or vehicles. From the four towing companies that were supposed to be receiving business from tows, Miller's got more than half for four years. Eventually, one of the four companies went out of business, Somers says.

“He then bribed a captain to keep things hush hush,” Somers said. “He had this lawless attitude and thought the rules did not apply to him.”

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Culver told Carrillo she hopes his sentence serves as a message to people in law enforcement that there are consequences to committing crimes that "tarnish the badge."

The resolution of Carrillo's case marks the end of an era for the corruption scandal that rattled south county, but the small city continues to recoup.

As it turns out regaining trust with the community and rebuild a police force is easier said than done.