David Bejarano

Police Chief David Bejarano will be wearing a new badge by the end of the month when he starts his new job as head of the U.S. Marshals Service for San Diego and Imperial counties. Bejarano, 46, said Wednesday that the U.S. Senate had approved his nomination to the post by President Bush.

Police Chief David Bejarano will be wearing a new badge by the end of the month when he starts his new job as head of the U.S. Marshals Service for San Diego and Imperial counties. Bejarano, 46, said Wednesday that the U.S. Senate had approved his nomination to the post by President Bush.

David Bejarano, 42, a 20-year veteran of the San Diego Police Department, has been nominated to be the force's next chief, officials said Friday. He would become the first Latino to hold that position. Bejarano, a former Marine, was an assistant chief under Jerry Sanders, who retired April 16 after six years to become executive director of the local United Way chapter.

David Bejarano, 42, a 20-year veteran of the San Diego Police Department, has been nominated to be the force's next chief, officials said Friday. He would become the first Latino to hold that position. Bejarano, a former Marine, was an assistant chief under Jerry Sanders, who retired April 16 after six years to become executive director of the local United Way chapter.

While praising the overall conduct of police during the biotechnology industry convention, the American Civil Liberties Union criticized "political profiling" by some officers who cited protesters for infractions such as jaywalking. The ACLU also criticized the California Highway Patrol for sending officers to Sunday's downtown protest march "at high speed with sirens blaring and lights flashing" and then engaging in "militaristic vocal calls" meant to intimidate.

Police Chief David Bejarano has decided against having officers search the massive Otay Mesa landfill for clues in the April 25 disappearance of 2-year-old Jahi Turner. Bejarano said health officials warned that searchers would be vulnerable to disease from germs at the landfill. Also, he said there is no evidence that there are clues buried in the mounds of trash. In May, police and others searched the city landfill at Miramar without success.

With a preliminary hearing set for Monday, a judge issued a gag order Friday on attorneys, police and other officials involved in the case of David Westerfield, accused of kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam. The order by Superior Court Judge H. Ronald Domnitz prohibits defense and prosecution counsel and others from discussing the case. A gag order had been requested by Westerfield's attorney but opposed by San Diego County Dist. Atty. Paul Pfingst.

Police officials Friday released results of a yearlong study showing that African American and Latino drivers are stopped and their vehicles searched at a rate exceeding their proportion of the population. Chief David Bejarano said he does not believe his officers engage in racial profiling. Still, he said the department will enhance training in avoiding bias for both trainees and veteran officers.

In one of the state's first hate-crime convictions for attacks on women, an ex-convict Thursday was sentenced to six years in prison. "A woman should not walk in fear of unprovoked attacks," Superior Court Judge Judith Hayes told Billy Dean McCall, 29, in sentencing him for attacks on four women, including the daughter of Police Chief David Bejarano. McCall was also fined $1,200.

In appreciation for police keeping protesters under control during the biotechnology convention here, the group hosting the conference Tuesday donated $25,000 to a fund for the two children of a San Diego officer who was killed in a traffic accident while off duty Saturday. The donation, accepted by Police Chief David Bejarano, will go to the Mauzy Trust Fund, named for Officer Donna Mauzy, who died in a freeway collision with an alleged drunk driver.

A former San Diego police officer was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on charges of helping a marijuana-smuggling operation. Authorities say Anthony J. Rodriguez, 37, used police computers to gather information for drug traffickers and helped build compartments in a motor home to conceal bundles of marijuana. Along with his wife, Janet Michelle Rodriguez, 31, he was also indicted on charges of lying to a federal grand jury about the smuggling scheme. Ex-officer Sherry D.