OAKLAND — Kaiser Permanente disbanded an eight-person security team working from Oakland to Los Angeles amid allegations that its leader obtained information from a confidential law enforcement database, according to recently obtained internal police records and a whistleblower.
The scandal’s statewide reach vastly expands the known number of Kaiser security personnel — which now includes a former Oakland Police Department assistant chief — whose employment ended after the allegations arose. Only a couple of them were directly accused of using data from the law enforcement-only tool, which contains residents’ criminal history and driving records, and links to national law enforcement data systems.
It all erupted after a Kaiser security official-turned-whistleblower reported in fall 2024 that the head of the health care giant’s security team presented information that could only have come from the California Law Enforcement Telecom System, according to a copy of an OPD investigation report obtained by this news organization.
“The complainant believes this has been going on for a while because this seemed like something ‘they’re comfortable doing,’ ” the investigative report said.
Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson’s office has since declined to file criminal charges against Khyber Mangal, a decade-plus veteran of the Oakland Police Department, in connection with the scandal. “There was insufficient evidence to corroborate that a crime had been committed,” said Assistant District Attorney Casey Bates, who leads the DA’s Public Integrity Division.
Under state law, it is illegal to use the database, known by the acronym CLETS, for purposes not related to law enforcement.
Earlier this year, the investigation centered on whether Mangal improperly accessed the criminal database and knew the information would end up with a private Kaiser security team working for Craig Chew, the Oakland-based health care giant’s national director of corporate security.
The allegations prompted Kaiser to fire Chew, a former chief of inspectors for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office who spent more than two decades with the agency.
It is now clear his dismissal was part of a broader shakeup at Kaiser that saw the departures of at least eight employees, five of whom — including Chew — worked in Northern California, the whistleblower, Rhonda Injejikian, confirmed to this news outlet.
They include Omega Crum, a former OPD officer who appeared to split time between Kaiser and the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, where he worked as an inspector. He resigned from the SFDA’s office on March 4.
Three other former OPD officers had worked in the Northern California security unit: Trevelyon “Tony” Jones, a senior manager of security investigations; Nancy Cerecedes, security consultant; and Jason S. Sena, security consultant, said Injejikian, who was notified of the departures while working for Kaiser. No records suggest Jones, Cerecedes or Sena improperly accessed or obtained CLETS information.
Injejikian, a retired Redwood City police lieutenant, declined to comment further for this story.
In addition, Kaiser fired three people from the security unit based in Southern California: George Mueller Jr., the senior manager of security and investigations, and two security consultants, former Anaheim police Officer John Duran and former San Diego District Attorney’s Office investigator Melvin Sosa.
An attorney for Chew, as well as those former Southern California employees, said she is preparing to file a defamation lawsuit against Kaiser “because of the statements that were made in the context of the termination.”
“None of these men conducted illegal searches using CLETS — absolutely did not happen,” said the Pasadena-based attorney, Melanie Savarese. The potential lawsuit is owed to the fact that returning to law enforcement can be more difficult with “a termination on their record that is completely unjustified, in my opinion,” she said.
“They need to right a wrong,” Savarese added.
Attempts by this news organization to speak with the rest of the former Northern California security team members were unsuccessful.
In a statement, Kaiser Permanente said its “ongoing commitment to security has not changed,” adding that it “takes matters of security and inappropriate behavior among our staff seriously” by investigating claims of wrongdoing and notifying law enforcement when necessary. “We are committed to fully complying with all applicable laws and regulations and demonstrating high ethical standards in everything we do,” the statement added.
Bates, the spokesman for Alameda County’s district attorney, added that his office considered filing charges against Crum but ultimately opted against it. Mangal and Crum were the only two people known to be actively working for law enforcement at the time of the alleged wrongful searches.
The lack of criminal charges is “not surprising,” given that it can be “very difficult for prosecutors to bring cases against this; that’s why you often see these ending in reprimands, termination of jobs, retrainings, things like that,” said Dave Maass, director of investigations at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The nonprofit digital rights group has spearheaded several investigations in the past into alleged illicit access to the CLETS database.
Still, Maass said that maintaining the integrity of the CLETS database is vitally important. “Once you start ignoring the rules that are in place, once you start ignoring due process, once you start ignoring protections, then everything starts falling apart,” he added.
The scandal’s origins date to fall 2024, when physicians raised concerns about a man making menacing and veiled threats to staffers by suggesting “you’re all going down for what you’ve done to me,” according to the OPD report.
At a meeting on Oct. 22, 2024, Chew aired the results of a background check on that person — including how the man owned a Bushmaster M4 assault rifle and had been arrested more than 20 years earlier in a Redwood City firearms case. As a result, Chew recommended seeking a gun violence restraining order.
The results of that background check troubled Injejikian, because none of that data was available on public databases normally used by Kaiser, records show. She emailed Oakland police with her concerns on Nov. 13, sparking a criminal inquiry four days later into the matter, according to OPD’s report.
Among Injejikian’s concerns were the fact that doctors were seeking temporary restraining orders “based on the information that was illegally given to them,” and in this case, after a person “had the firearms for a very long time and never made any threats to use them,” the report said.
Mangal appeared to run CLETS searches on at least nine people who had been the focus of Kaiser’s security squad, the Oakland police inquiry found. An OPD investigator could not find a reason why two of those people were searched, the report said.
In one instance, a Kaiser patient was accused of threatening to “put a gun in the mouth of the pharmacy clerk and pull the trigger,” the OPD report said.
In another case, a person said he “hoped that the police were called so that he can slit everyone’s throats in the Psychiatry Department,” according to court documents.
Mangal also appeared to help investigate a 10th person, who was suspected of peddling fraudulent disability vehicle placard applications in the Los Angeles area, which were allegedly stamped with the forged signature of a Kaiser physician, according to the OPD report.
Oakland police also opened an internal affairs inquiry into Mangal, who is on non-administrative leave. Michael Rains, an attorney whose firm represents Mangal, declined to comment, given that the administrative investigation remains ongoing.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.