Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information about who conducted the audit.
The Santa Paula Police Department’s investigations unit failed to meet professional standards, including “significant” violations of supervisory standards, management accountability and basic investigative requirements, according to an audit released to the public on Jan. 21.
“I’m here to acknowledge failures and outline corrective actions that are underway,” said Santa Paula Police Chief Don Aguilar to the Santa Paula City Council on the same date. “This is not the current operation, but it is those of past and prior leadership of the chiefs here at the Santa Paula Police Department. We own, and I own, the need for the audit.”
The audit was initiated by Aguilar because he wanted to get an independent perspective on recommendations to correct the problems that occurred between 2017 and 2023, he said. Aguilar and the police department had been meeting and working with the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office over the investigation unit’s open cases.
The audit, which focused on the operations of the police department’s investigations unit, was conducted by Mark J. Wittenberg Training Inc.
While the police department started working with the DA’s Office on these cases in October 2024, the audit began in March 2025, Aguilar said.
“The audit recommendations and the ongoing willingness of the police department to implement them will help to strengthen public safety and improve investigative practice,” said Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko in a statement.
Aguilar was named interim chief in October 2022 and took the job permanently in January 2024.
The audit examined training, supervision, staffing and case management, Aguilar said during the meeting.
In one example of the audit, detectives failed to respond to multiple requests to write a supplemental search warrant on a gang suspect’s cell phone that resulted in the DA filing a circumstantial case with the understanding that a detective would pursue a search warrant to place the suspect near the scene. It has yet to occur, despite repeated requests over several months, according to the audit.
The findings found “systemic and unacceptable” failures as well as a lack of leadership during that period of time, Aguilar said.
“I’m here to own the mistakes and concerns of the department,” he said. “The investigations did not meet professional standards.”
The discovery of the pattern began in September 2024, according to the audit, when the county district attorney’s sexual assault kit team investigated the DNA from a sexual assault kit that had been tested from a 2017 Santa Paula Police Department rape case.
A district attorney investigator requested reports from the police department about the case and received a preliminary investigation report, in which a patrol officer indicated that detectives would follow up with the victim, according to the audit.
When the district attorney investigator met with the police department’s detective sergeant, it was discovered that no detective had written a report and the case was still open, according to the police department’s case information.
The District Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigations then requested to check out the police department’s sexual assault cases from 2023, going back 10 years, that were marked as open, according to the audit.
The audit received 55 cases as part of this request, dating back to 2017, in a six-year sampling. Additional audits were recommended for cases other than those marked open from 2017 to 2023 and sexual assault cases before 2017.
The DA’s Office then examined the sexual assault cases marked open in the department’s computerized system for the period of 2017 through 2023. The DA’s Office found these cases either incompletely investigated or not investigated at all, according to the audit.
In an Oct. 31, 2024 memo from Aguilar to Chief Deputy Miles Weiss and Chief Scott Whitney ofthe DA’s Bureau of Investigations, the police chief noted that action had already been taken byhis department, according to the audit.
In 2020, the Santa Paula Police Department launched an investigation after receiving a complaint about a school counselor ultimately charged with molesting 12 students in Santa Paula. It’s unclear what happened with the police department’s response both before and since 2020, but in October 2024, the District Attorney’s office took over the probe after meeting with Santa Paula police and later arrested the man.
“I want to thank you for your candor and your willingness, as you say, to ‘own it,’ because you are the chief and the department is run under you, and the fact that you took it upon yourself to investigate it before you were mandated,” said Mayor Carlos Juarez after a presentation from Aguilar.
Recommendations included advertising and hiring personnel with specific expertise to help the police department investigate crimes and the department has hired 11 lateral entry police department officers since December 2023, and four of them have investigative experience, Aguilar said.
No one from the public spoke on the item.
Wes Woods II covers West County for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at wesley.woodsii@vcstar.com, 805-437-0262 or @JournoWes.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Santa Paula police audit shows investigations stall, major flaws
Reporting by Wes Woods II, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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