HUMBOLDT COUNTY — Graham Hill was the police chief in the tiny Humboldt County town of Rio Dell when he took a chance on a rookie cop with a criminal past.
That officer just so happened to be Hill’s brother-in-law. And it wouldn’t be the last time he broke the law.
“Maybe I made a mistake,” Hill said recently during a break from his current job as a security guard at a casino.
Thanks to Hill, his wife’s brother, Kevin Harralson, broke into law enforcement in 2009 despite a record of violent domestic disputes — and six years later, Harralson was back in trouble after another domestic violence arrest. His case was revealed as part of a statewide coalition of news organizations’ extensive review of California’s criminal cops.
This news organizations found dozens of officers who were allowed to plead down felony charges after domestic disputes in order to keep their jobs. But Harralson stood as a rare example of how an abusive past and a history of red flags failed to prevent someone from becoming a cop in California in the first place.
Allegations of Harralson’s verbal and physical abuse date back to 1999. Court records list him as a suspect in child endangerment, battery and vandalism cases, though no criminal charges were filed in those incidents.
In February 2003, court records say, Harralson “grabbed and pushed” the mother of his children “against a wall, and then choked, and hit her.” After she struck him, he went outside, punched her windshield and threw her car keys. Harralson later drove to the police station to report the incident to his brother-in-law, Hill, and asked to file a report that she entered his home without permission.
Humboldt prosecutors saw it differently. They charged Harralson with battery, false imprisonment and misdemeanor violations, but he later pleaded guilty to one count of disturbing the peace. As part of his sentence, he was given three years of probation and required to attend a 52-week domestic violence class.
Harralson’s ex also alleged he once came to her work and punched her in the head, according to court documents. It was around this time Harralson entered the police academy at a local community college, telling the ex that his record was now “clean.”
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by The Mercury News and East Bay Times.
On paper, Harralson met certain state criteria for police candidates. He completed his probation, had graduated from the police academy, passed a psychological test (though he failed a first attempt), and could carry a gun. Hill hired him in June 2009.
California requires police agencies to consider an applicant’s character before hiring them. But no government code prevents a department from hiring a Kevin Harralson, as long as he wasn’t convicted of something that would bar him from carrying a gun.
Unlike most other states, California leaves hiring and firing decisions almost entirely up to local authorities, like Chief Hill.
In interviews with multiple police chiefs — including the current Rio Dell chief, Jeff Connor — they said they wouldn’t hire a cop with Harralson’s record.
Court records show Harralson’s abusive behavior continued while he was employed with the Rio Dell Police Department. In 2015, his girlfriend sent a Facebook message to her friend, a Fortuna police sergeant, asking about a hypothetical domestic violence situation.
Police opened an investigation and found Harralson had verbally abused his children, and physically abused the girlfriend. In one instance, he punched her in the same spot on her leg twice, saying he knew to hit her there because it wouldn’t leave a bruise, according to court records. In another instance, when she confronted him about a relationship with another woman, he became upset and told her to “take off her clothes.” When she refused, he pulled his service weapon from his police belt, pointed it at her and told her to “leave,” according to court records.
Harralson was arrested and charged with two misdemeanor counts of battery on a cohabitant and one misdemeanor of brandishing a firearm. He pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and was placed on three years probation. As a part of his plea deal, Harralson agreed not to appeal his September 2015 termination from Rio Dell police and could not apply for a police job during his probation period.
Harralson’s ex-wife and former girlfriend declined to be interviewed. He died of cancer at age 37 in 2017.
Hill, his brother-in-law, insisted that despite his problems, Harralson was a “decent” police officer, but realizes now it was a mistake to take a chance on him.
“I felt like I did the best I could,” Hill said. “Maybe I didn’t do Kevin any favors, maybe he didn’t do me any favors.”
This story is part of a collaboration of news organizations throughout California coordinated by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley and the Bay Area News Group. Reporters participated from more than 30 newsrooms, including MediaNews Group, McClatchy, USA Today Network, Voice of San Diego, and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. Click here to read more about the project. Email us at cacriminalcops@gmail.com.
