Ron Corbin- Guest Blog

Ron Corbin

Today I am excited to welcome Ron Corbin, who explains his road to becoming a writer.

Path to Publication
by Ron Corbin  

Army helicopter pilot, Vietnam vet, police officer and helicopter pilot/instructor, school teacher and principal, counter-terrorism trainer for nuclear facilities, security consultant and lecturer, security director, guard service manager, crime prevention specialist, editor of a police training magazine, police academy training manager…these are the “hats” I have worn for the past five decades. On “face value,” it would appear that I can’t hold a job…right? But actually, events of my life have opened many doors of opportunity for new adventures. 

Interspersed with all these careers, I started college after completing my military career in 1969 as a 23-year-old. Being on a college campus as a Vietnam War “baby-killer” in the early 70s was not a good place to be. I worked my way through college without any student loans for the next eighteen years. In other words, I went to college for a long time, not a good time … no frat parties and such … and my wife saw to that.

As varied as my job professions have been, so are my degrees. I have an AA in Physical Education, a BA in Child Development, an MS in Elementary Education, and a PhD in Security Administration. I think that all I am really qualified to do is to teach counter-terrorism to those little “terrorists” running around pre- and elementary school.

I retired three years ago for the third time in my life, only this time it is for good. I was a sworn officer for LAPD, a federal security contractor, an honorary captain for New Orleans PD, and a civilian employee for Las Vegas Metropolitan PD. Although I hope that I never need them, maybe my ID cards from these agencies…these “get-out-of-jail-free” cards… might come in handy someday.

After working forty-seven years, my immediate goal upon retiring was to not drive my wife crazy and to keep from getting a divorce. Which this almost happened when I started reorganizing the freezer contents by meat type, arranging the dishware in the cabinets by color, and telling her how to do things more efficiently around the house. I couldn’t believe how she had done this without my help and advice for forty-five years.

Being home 24/7, I was having adjustment issues to my new world of not having deadlines and projects to meet on a daily basis. I was waking up early each morning, realizing that the alarm was not set, and that I could actually sleep-in. I was becoming a couch-potato, getting hooked on TV shows like “Army Wives” and “Dance Moms.” So, it was my wife, Kathy, who encouraged me to do something productive and to write a book. I think that she believed this would probably just get me “out of her hair” for a few months; it took only three before I finished.

SENSATIONAL: “WOW” - 

Experiences of a Los Angeles 

Police Officer protecting 

and serving the various 

communities within the 

Los Angeles Metropolitan area.

Although I have written short stories for several anthologies and have been a columnist for a magazine, I didn’t consider myself a good writer. Not wanting to be an embarrassing failure to family and friends, I thought that I would simply document some thoughts on paper. If nothing else, I’d staple at the top left corner and leave some readings for my children and grand-children. But through a mutual acquaintance and a social event, fortunately I was introduced to Billie Johnson, Publisher for Oak Tree Press. After sharing some casual conversation, she asked me to send her the manuscript that I had written. And now, thanks to her, I have my first book released…Beyond Recognition.

In my military flying career, I had experienced a complete engine failure (at night), an in-flight cockpit fire, loss of tail rotor control, and a couple bullet holes. In June 1976, I was instructing an LAPD pilot trainee when we experienced a loss of power while landing to the top of a mountain pad. Coming just four-inches short from making the pad, my trainee and I impacted and rolled down the mountain 167 feet, exploding in a ball of fire. Tragically he was killed, but I was more fortunate and walked away with nearly 70% second and third degree burns. 

Beyond Recognition is a memoir and expose` of my accident. It begins with a few police street stories that I encountered working as a patrol officer in LA. As a survivor of Hamburger Hill, I also incorporate a few combat incidents from my two tours flying combat missions in Vietnam. But overall, the book is a non-fiction account of the jealousies and animosities I encountered as a military-trained pilot in a civilian organization. It tells of my experience in the burn ward, a few of my rehab issues and my wife’s emotional ordeal, but mostly it’s a legacy of the misled post-accident investigation and false accusations by the chief pilot. It is also a story of sadness and survivor’s guilt.

However, now that my ego has been fed with that successful publication, I am concurrently working on two manuscripts. One is a short book for adolescents. It’s about growing up in a small, farming community in southeastern Kansas during the 40s and 50s. It will be titled, Why All the Elm Trees Died. If you like Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer tales, then I think you will like this.

The other is a historical fiction account titled, Bullet Points. This is a murder mystery about a retired and widowed Los Angeles Police Officer, Russ Corbett, who moves back to his small home town in southeastern Kansas. He quickly finds himself involved in chasing a serial killer who is murdering some of Russ’ school classmates. The method used is a gunshot to the head, but no bullets are ever found in the victim.

My retirement is spent enjoying my family; wife, children and six grandkids. Personal pleasure comes from being a USO volunteer at the Las Vegas McCarran Airport, assisting troops and welcoming our heroes when they return from combat duty overseas. I like cruising, and occasionally am a guest lecturer on cruise ships in the subject matter of Personal Safety and Security.

Ron Corbin, PhD

http://www.rcorbinsecurityauthor.com/

DoctorCorbin@rcorbinsecurityauthor@yahoo.com 

Member of the Public Safety Writers Association (Winner of 2 Awards)

Member of the Wednesday Warrior Writers

Author of: “Beyond Recognition” - First Place Award Winner

Contributing Author of:

“We Gotta Get Out of This Place” (Anthology of Vietnam helicopter pilot stories)

“Felons, Flames and Ambulance Rides” (Anthology of police stories)

“I Pledge Allegiance....” (Anthology of patriot and hero stories)

“True Blue--Police Stories by Those Who Lived Them” (Anthology of police stories)

“True Blue--To Protect and Serve” (Anthology of police stories)

BEYOND RECOGNITION SYNOPSIS 

Compared to other pilots in LAPD’s Air Support Division who had received their flight training from civilian instructors, Ron’s’ military training and Vietnam flying experience as a combat helicopter pilot goes beyond recognition. He immediately becomes the target of jealousy by the unit’s chief pilot, whose animosity leads him to do everything he can to undermine Ron’s skills.

After an aircraft accident that claims the life of Ron’s police pilot trainee, and one which puts Ron in the hospital with 70% burns, the Chief of Police assembles a Board of Inquiry into the cause of the accident. The chief pilot sees his opportunity to seek jealous revenge by feeding misleading and false statements to the investigators about Ron. The board’s investigation eventually turns into an exercise of “finger-pointing.”  But that quickly backfires as Ron exposes a department “cover-up” that has city attorneys scrambling to make a settlement with Ron and his trainee’s widow.

Available from Amazon.com and direct from Publisher.

Publisher: Oak Tree Press (2013)

ISBN 978-1-61009-070-4 ~~

Trade Paperback

CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR BEYOND RECOGNITION:

Ron goes into great detail expressing his thought process, emotions, techniques used to evaluate and diagnose the various situations confronting him. Eventually, Ron was assigned to the Air Support Division as a helicopter pilot and later became an instructor. During a training session, Ron’s helicopter crashed killing his student pilot. Ron survived with 2^nd and 3^rd degree burns over 70% of his body. It is hard to imagine the mental stress, pain and suffering he felt during his recovery in the burn center. Ron expresses his feelings on the emotional impact of the tragic accident, the findings of the Board of Inquiry, and the “CMA” attitude that various individuals had on him and his family.

“A MUST READ BOOK”

Albert Ellis, FBI Special Agent - Retired 

"BEYOND RECOGNITION is a must read. 

If Michael Connelly or W. E. B. Griffin wrote non-fiction, you would think this is one of their books; however, it is Ron’s. I know, I have read this book once and can’t wait to read it again.  You will not put it down until you have worked your way to the last page, and then still want to know more."

Keith Bettinger, author of Fighting Crime With “Some” Day and Lenny, and End of Watch.

  

Jambalaya Justice

Information on Jambalaya Justice, which is at the publishers now, due for a summer release:

The murder of a hooker in a New Orleans crackhouse is destined to become another unsolved homicide until prosecutor Ryan Murphy takes an interest in the case. Ryan has a connection to the victim and won’t back down until the murder is solved, even if it means she has to go undercover as a hooker herself and keep her fingers crossed that her detective boyfriend, Shep, won’t find out. She’s also juggling her Strike Force cases, including the prosecution of a mobster murderer, a nasty domestic violence, and the armed robbery of Big Who’s strip club. Not to mention a home invader she prosecuted is off of probation and might be following her. Being an outspoken pit bull of a prosecutor makes life dangerous enough for Ryan; trying to find a killer and hiding it from the one person who can protect her may end up being deadly.

Shep is on a secret quest of his own, investigating the identity theft of Ryan’s former best friend, Edie, who is presumed dead. As he delves further into the case, he begins to question whether Edie may still be alive and out to harm Ryan. Ordered by his captain, Ryan's father, to keep the investigation quiet, Shep not only has to lie to Ryan, but find a way to protect her from harm she doesn’t know exists. He'll also have to figure out what to do if Ryan ends up discovering the truth, because secrets have a way of getting out.

Set against the backdrop of pre-Katrina New Orleans, Jambalaya Justice is the second in the Crescent City Mystery Series, which eventually follows Ryan through Hurricane Katrina and into the strange new world of post-Katrina New Orleans.

The third in the series, Chocolate City Justice, is in progress.

Jambalaya Justice

Just as I am finished editing Jambalaya Justice, the second in the Crescent City Mystery Series and follow up to Gumbo Justice, I saw on the news that one of the New Orleans police officers originally convicted in relation to a police-Katrina murder has had his conviction overturned and has been granted a new trial. The feds are reviewing the federal judge's decision to determine if they will re-try him or not.

I have blogged about this particular murder before. There were five officers, some rank, allegedly involved. During the aftermath of Katrina, when the police had set up makeshift district offices, a rookie sharpshooter was accused of shooting a civilian who was attempting to approach the office. Two other officers were accused of taking his body from his brother and another individual who were attempting to save him, and burning it. Another officer was accused of writing and filing a false police report and then lying to federal agents about it, and finally, a rank was accused off intentionally not tying the three separate incidents together and realizing it was a scheme to cover a murder. The sharpshooter was convicted, as was one of the officers who burned the body. The officer accused of the cover up for filing a false report was the third convicted, and the one whose conviction has now been overturned.

The last guy happens to be a friend of mine. His wife and I were assistant district attorneys together in the late 1990's. He was a police officer even then, which is how they met, and he actually arrested my brother-in-law once for possession of marijuana. Travis, the officer, always seemed to me to be a straight shooter who played by the rules. He certainly didn't offer any leeway for my brother-in-law after finding out who he was.

When Travis was convicted, I was upset. I could only imagine what his wife was going through, and while I could picture Travis following an order someone gave him, I couldn't imagine him intentionally doing something on his own like hiding the truth about a murder. But I wasn't there, and Katrina was an unprecedented event and I can't swear as to how anybody will act under those type of conditions.

When he was first convicted, I had to believe everything would work out. I am an appellate public defender now, an officer of the court, and probably lean a little hard on making sure individuals' rights are not violated. It's been my job for the past 11 years, so it's ingrained in me at this point.

In Travis' case, he has maintained from the beginning that he assisted a ranking female officer with the writing of the report, and the factual basis was not his own, but hers. She testified for the prosecution, changing her testimony more than once. She was caught in several lies, and given complete immunity as far as the murder. Immediately after her testimony, she took early retirement from the NOPD, for which she was still employed. One of the biggest issues was the original report that she wrote. She claimed the original report was altered by Travis, but for some reason she had not kept a copy of that original report. Soon after the trial, one of the acquitted officers submitted what he said was the original police report written by the female rank, which shows the report eventually submitted was not altered by Travis. The prosecution tried to argue the report was a fake, but offered no proof to that. The judge found that if the original police report had been provided to the jury, the jury would have acquitted Travis, which is the standard for newly discovered evidence. While the rank who eventually provided the report may have been holding out on providing the report, perhaps fearful he would be convicted and would need the report to get a new trial himself, his failure to provide the report, for whatever reason, was not the fault of Travis. Obviously, if Travis would have had access to the smoking gun that would have exonerated him, he would have used it at trial.

It so happens my mystery series revolves around a prosecutor and the dysfunction of the New Orleans criminal justice system, that somehow usually ends up rendering justice if not necessarily fairness or what is right. Obviously, the two concepts are not the same. Justice requires a trial without legal errors, not one that ultimately results in the guilty getting convicted and the innocent going free, although those should be desired results. The belief that only those, and all of those, who deserve punishment are punished, is childish. The law doesn't require perfection. It only requires that nobody cheats or makes a mistake during the process.

So seeing that two of the individuals involved were convicted and their convictions upheld, two others were acquitted by the jury, and one was convicted and his conviction set aside, all I can think is that the premise and theme behind my Crescent City Mystery Series is correct, that things maybe eventually do work out the way they are supposed to, even if sometimes they need a little help.

Last Hurricane Katrina Case

Having written about Hurricane Katrina in the past, I felt a need to take a break from working on Jambalaya Justice to write about the verdicts of the last prosecution for crimes committed by police officers during Katrina. The trial wrapped up a few weeks ago in Eastern District Court in New Orleans, and I have been putting off writing about it because things did not end up favorably for a friend who was charged in the case, and it has been difficult for me to assimilate.

Initially, the D.A. refused to prosecute the various cases in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, because the grand jury in New Orleans refused to indict the officers involved in the most serious case, the Danziger Bridge shootings. Thus, the U.S. Attorney, Jim Letten, charged the officers in federal court, the Eastern District Court in New Orleans, with what are civil rights violations, but the convictions have the same type of sentencing ranges as criminal charges. The feds prosecuted NOPD officers not only for the famous Danziger shooting, where all of the defendants eventually pled guilty, but also for several other crimes during Katrina.

The last case, which I believe is the only one that actually went to trial, involved the shooting death of Henry Glover. Glover was out with his brother after Katrina, apparently looking for supplies. He was shot by NOPD Officer Warren, who was keeping guard from a makeshift temporary police station at a school. (Warren was found guilty of manslaughter as opposed to murder.)

A few minutes later, Glover's brother and another man drove a bleeding Glover to another makeshift station and were met by Officer McRae, who felt for a pulse, realized Glover was dead, and ordered his brother and the good Samaritan to leave.

The good Samaritan testified that he and Glover's brother were beaten by Officer McRae and Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann, but apparently the jurors weren't convinced because they found both men not guilty on those particular charges. Glover's brother, for reasons unknown, did not testify at all at trial.

McRae directed another officer, who didn't know Glover's body was inside the car, to drive it to the levee behind the station. McRae then set the car on fire with a flare gun. He testified Scheuermann did not know what he was going to do, but Scheuermann, who was the ranking officer, watched and did nothing to stop him after he did it. McRae was found guilty of 2 civil rights violations, one of those for burning Glover's body. Scheuermann was found not guilty on all counts.

Weeks later, Lt. Travis McCabe participated in the writing of a police report that cleared the other officers of wrongdoing. Another officer in charge of writing the report testified against McCabe, stating that the parts of the report clearing the officers was not her work. She also admitted she lied to a grand jury about the events and could not produce a copy of what she claims was her original report. She took early retirement immediately after testifying, and was not charged with anything in exchange for her testimony. McCabe was found guilty of lying to a grand jury and falsifying a police report.

Finally, Lt. Italiano was charged with obstruction for the subsequent cover up, the government's theory being that he did not adequately investigate the link between the shooting of an unknown man and the burning of Glover's body. He was also found not guilty.

It's a set of complicated circumstances, and the defense for Warren and McRae relied heavily upon the Katrina factor as justification for their actions. Warren testified he was in fear of his life and afterward did not know that he had hit anyone, and the NOPD had been advised to, "shoot the looters." Indeed, our own governor went on television and advised somewhat the same thing. McRae testified as to the death and devastation he had already seen, including seeing dead babies and people floating along the streets, and said he couldn't stand the thought of a body rotting that close to where they were located. It was noted by the prosecution that he did not burn any of the other dead bodies he saw.

McCabe testified that the officer in charge of writing the report asked him to help, and he assisted her, and that was the end of it. He still maintains what he told to the grand jury. The officer who testified against him contradicted herself more than once during trial, but a jury finds what a jury finds. McCabe has asked for a new trial, which will be heard February 24, but new trials are rare and the motion is more procedural than anything.

I know both Dwayne Scheuermann and Travis McCabe. I worked with both of them when I was a prosecutor at the D.A.'s Office, and Travis married a fellow prosecutor I was pretty good friends with, who also, coincidentally, went to school with my husband. Travis also arrested my brother in law once during my tenure as a prosecutor for possession of marijuana, and my experience with Travis and his wife, Juliet, is that they are both rule followers to an extreme.

Granted, people never fail to surprise me, and who knows what one might be capable of given an extreme situation, but of all the police officers I know, and I know many, I am the most surprised that Travis would do something like this. I still have my doubts, but the jury has spoken, and that's what our justice system is about.

Which brings me to the Glover family. I am sorry for their loss, and I know how I would feel if something like that happened to someone in my family. The difference is that something like that wouldn't happen to my family, at least not during a hurricane, because I insisted my entire family evacuate. My husband had planned to stay behind, and I specifically told him that if it got as bad as what the forecasters predicted, it could be weeks before supplies were available, and if he stayed behind and had to loot for supplies at the end of a few days, and the police ended up shooting or arresting him, he had only himself to blame. I made my mother evacuate with me as well. If we could not have afforded a hotel, or if we couldn't have found a hotel, as that was a huge problem, I had decided we would either stay at a shelter or, if worse came to worse, we would just drive to the Alabama or Texas Welcome Center and hang out, with my kids, my mom, and my husband, until we figured something out.

My theory, right or wrong, has always been that people who evacuate don't end up getting shot by New Orleans police. Period. Argue morality or ethics or law all you want, or the fact that police shootings shouldn't be a factor in your decision to evacuate or not, but at the end of the day, the evacuees won't have an NOPD bullet in them.

People have their own reasons for staying put, I guess, the least of all being that most people thought we were going to dodge this one, so I really can't fault the Glovers for doing what a hundred thousand other people did. The thing that truly bothers me about the Glovers, however, is that they are bitter against the entire criminal justice system, insisting that all five of the officers should have been convicted and should do life in prison, missing the one point that I can accept. In America, the jury gets to decide who did it and who didn't do it. Joe Public is in no position to say someone is guilty of a crime after a jury has made a decision to acquit. Can juries be wrong? Of course they can. The theory is it is better for a hundred guilty men to go free than one innocent man be punished, but if nothing else the use of DNA has shown that innocent people go to jail all the time. (Louisiana, New Orleans in particular, has had to release people from death row after DNA evidence proved they were innocent of the murder and/or rapes they were convicted of, Louisiana having the death penalty for certain types of rapes.)

But still, while I grieve for Travis and Juliet that Travis got convicted of something I refuse to believe he did, and he not only will lose his job but end up with a possible 25 years in federal prison, in the end, once the jury convicts, a person is guilty. People can't rely on the criminal justice system only when it turns out the way they wanted it to.

It's an imperfect system, but it's the best one available, and people who truly don't like it can always move along to one of those countries that doesn't have a jury system. I say good luck with that one.

While the rest of the country is probably thinking that New Orleans should be getting over Katrina by now, more than five years after the storm, there are still many more steps to be taken to complete the recovery process.

Perhaps finishing off the last of the "police Katrina" cases is one more step in that direction. It's difficult to move forward while still looking back, and if the juries on the various cases didn't return the verdicts I wanted them to, at least I can say the verdicts brought this city a sense of closure.

We have so much going on in New Orleans right now I am trying to figure out what to write about.

First and foremost, we have just started hurricane season June 1, and already they are watching something that has a 60 percent chance of becoming a storm in the next 2 days. This doesn't worry me so much in and of itself, because historically there is little chance of a big one hitting us this early in the season. The gulf isn't warm enough and the conditions would never be appropriate.

It does cause me pause, however, because early storms could mean a bad season, which has already been predicted. It also causes me concern because we're not sure of what effect even a small storm could have on the oil situation. How much destruction will oil being pushed into other waterways or entering the tidal surge have on our coast, our farming, our houses?

Second, five police officers, three current and two former, have just been indicted in a Katrina case where the police are accused of gunning down a man, then putting his body in a car and setting it on fire.

The story is bad; what is worse is that I know two of the current officers, and consider one a friend. In fact, he is married to a former co-worker of mine. They met at the D.A.'s Office, while she and I were both assistant district attorneys and he was an officer. He and the other officer I know are both lieutenants, and I find it extremely difficult to believe my friend would violate the law.

Not just because he's my friend and I support him, but because he is a square, a rule follower, a by the book player. He arrested my brother in law years ago for being in possession of marijuana, and I knew better than to even ask him for any kind of a break on my B-I-L's behalf, because this guy is an i-dotter and t-crosser.

I feel more bad for his wife, my co-worker and friend. She actually went to middle school with my husband, years before I knew either one of them, just to show you how small a city of a half a million people can actually be.

So I'm torn between wanting to see justice served if somehow this friend did do something he wasn't supposed to, and not believing he did it, or if he did have some part in it, there had to be a good reason.

Then the writer in me keeps thinking this needs to be made into a book or a movie, or at least included in one of my Crescent City Mystery Series novels. I am working on Jambalaya and it is all laid out so this particular scenario wouldn't fit in, but the third novel takes place during Katrina, and something of this nature was going to be included, so I could just add this in.

Then again, the entire story would make a compelling movie. I can picture it starting with the trial, and hearing each individual person's testimony, and then flashing back to what actually happened until you get the true story. Except right now I don't know the whole story. I may at some point in the future, when the legal issues have been resolved, visit my friend and see if he is interested in opening up and telling me his version of events.

Finally, I am looking forward to the PSWA writer's conference in Vegas this month, seeing familiar faces and making new friends.