Arbitrator upholds termination of former Vallejo officer for Willie McCoy shooting

VALLEJO – A former Vallejo police officer who was fired in 2020 for endangering another officer during the 2019 shooting of Willie McCoy lost an appeal to try and win his job with the city back, according to documents released by the city on Monday.

Ryan McMahon was the only officer disciplined for the shooting of McCoy, who was found unresponsive behind the wheel of his car in a Taco Bell drive-thru on Feb. 9, 2019. Six officers fired 55 shots at McCoy, including McMahon, who arrived last and fired a single shot as he was running toward the shooting scene from behind Officer Bryan Glick, just before Glick stepped in front of his muzzle.

The May 13 decision by arbitrator Stephen Biersmith released by the city was heavily redacted as it referenced prior investigations into McMahon unrelated to the McCoy shooting. California law seals police personnel records with some exceptions, including investigations into police shootings.

Biersmith upheld the decision by then-police Chief Shawny Williams to terminate McMahon for violations of department policies, including its safety policy and unsafe weapons handling. 

“It was unclear why [McMahon] did not make the other officers aware of his location right away upon his arrival,” Biersmith wrote. “This was not an unimportant consideration in this was a recognized prerequisite before an officer in the rear fires his weapon.”

Williams’ disciplinary letter “pointed to a ‘pattern of poor decision-making and unsafe behavior,’” Biersmith wrote, and was correct in noting that one investigation “included a safety element where [McMahon’s] negligent actions represented a disregard for his own safety and that of his fellow officers.”

McMahon attempted to raise credibility concerns regarding Williams, but the arbitrator found that it was not relevant. “Absent concerns over safety or an illegal directive, every employee has the independent obligation to consistently perform to the standard expected of one in his classification,” Biersmith wrote. The results of the investigations “supported the city’s assertion he fell short in both areas and justified severe discipline.”

McMahon’s involvement in the shooting eventually led to the discovery of the department’s badge bending scandal, in which officers bent the tips of their badges to mark shootings. Former police Capt. John Whitney alleged in a lawsuit that when McMahon turned his badge in, department superiors noticed two bent tips, representing McCoy and the 2018 shooting of Ronell Foster. 

Whitney was later fired, which he alleged was partly because he sought accountability for officers who engaged in the practice, and received a $900,000 settlement from the city.

The city lost a string of arbitration decisions where officers won their jobs back after Williams attempted to terminate them, including Lt. Herman Robinson, union president Lt. Michael Nichelini, and Detective Jarrett Tonn, who shot and killed Sean Monterrosa in 2020. McMahon was the only officer represented by the Vallejo Police Officers Association who lost an arbitrator’s decision under Williams, who resigned in 2022.

While McMahon’s disciplinary history was redacted in the arbitrator’s decision, some aspects of it have been revealed in court records and leaked documents. 

McMahon first became a police officer when he was hired by the Sausalito Police Department in 2010. In 2012, he was investigated because of conduct unbecoming of an officer while off duty, according to court records. McMahon denied the allegations and the case was closed without disciplinary action the following year, court records show.

Then in 2015, court records show McMahon was investigated for an alleged policy violation for discourtesy to the public and conduct unbecoming of an officer. McMahon left the agency before the investigation was complete and was hired by the Central Marin Police Authority. However, Sausalito concluded the investigation and exonerated him the following year, according to court records. 

While working for Central Marin, McMahon was once again investigated for alleged misconduct, this time for alleged disrespectful and discriminatory treatment and unreasonable force. Specifically, court records say that he was accused of excessive force for using his baton on a person who was fleeing. McMahon was allegedly exonerated for that incident as well. 

McMahon was hired by the Vallejo Police Department in July 2017. Within a year of joining Vallejo, McMahon shot and killed Foster after he attempted to stop Foster for riding a bike without a headlight and chased him into a backyard. 

An internal investigation into the incident cleared McMahon of policy violations, but then-interim police Chief Joe Allio disagreed with the conclusions and ordered the shooting to be reevaluated for violations of the department’s pursuit and body camera policies. McMahon was fired before there was a final determination on whether his conduct in the shooting violated policy. 

Three months after he shot Foster, McMahon was the subject of a counseling memorandum regarding two May 2018 incidents, according to records reported by the Vallejo Sun. 

In one instance, McMahon was found to have used “a lack of good judgment” for leaving his post as a traffic control unit. McMahon had left his post to join in a vehicle pursuit on the other side of town, which caused the officer investigating the collision to “sprint to safety so as to avoid being hit” when McMahon sped into the investigation scene, according to the counseling memorandum.

The department flagged five more incidents that year, including three in August 2018. McMahon was placed on a 90-day performance improvement plan, according to the records.

In one incident, McMahon responded to a report of stolen property by conducting “an extensive interview of the suspects outside of [their] Miranda [rights] and while the suspects were detained in handcuffs,” according to the plan. McMahon conducted the interview in front of the victim and “the victim’s very young child while the suspects were seated in a [nearby restaurant] that was open to the public at the time of the incident.”

After he was fired by Vallejo, McMahon joined the Broadmoor Police Department, a small agency in San Mateo County. He left the following year after the Sun revealed the full extent of his disciplinary issues in Vallejo, according to a lawsuit he filed last year.

McMahon sued Vallejo seeking damages because confidential personnel information had been published by the Sun. He also sued Whitney, alleging that Whitney had disclosed details from his personnel record, which Whitney denied. 

The lawsuit stalled after McMahon’s attorney, Lenore Albert, successfully argued that Whitney’s attorney should be removed from the case because she had previously represented McMahon. Albert herself, who unsuccessfully sought a court order to prevent the Vallejo Sun from reporting on the case, was suspended from practicing law pending disbarment in March.