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In May of 2009 Shandra Rodems and her husband argued outside a Fresno bank. Shandra keyed her husband's truck door. She and her husband were separated at the time but the truck was registered in both her and her husband's name.
Shandra Rodems works for the Fresno Fire Department and her husband, Kennan, is a Fresno police officer.
The DA charged Shandra with felony vandalism in with the incident. But, in July of 09 the Judge dropped the charges to a misdemeanor. She had offered to pay for the damages and wrote her husband a 1000.00 dollar check but the prosecution refused to allow her to pay the vandalism damages.
The felony charges, according to Shandra, stemmed from payback with her rating to internal affairs on her supervisors about harassment in 06 while she worked for the police crime scene team.
From what I gather from Lopez's articles on this case, Shandra's attorney had filed a motion claiming selective prosecution. He wanted proof from over 300 previous cases that they pursued those cases as diligently with felony charges as Shandra's case.
The Judge ruled that the Fresno PD and Fresno County DA's office must turn over any evidence that supports her claim. The prosecution didn't do that. They claimed it would be too costly and time consuming. The Judge set a Feb 4th date to see if the DA's office had complied.
Now, the DA's Office has dropped the charges against Shandra. But, what I am wondering is, will the DA still have to turn over all those investigative documents on the previous cases since Shandra's civil case against them will continue?
One other note of interest in this whole sham of charges is that in July of 09 they made and submitted an investigation to DA's office that Kennan Rodems harassed Shandra on the phone and banged on her window. Allegedly that was being investigated also. The Deputy Chief said: "When we submit a case for prosecution, we believe there is probable cause that a crime was committed."
Why hasn't the harassment been publicized like the felony (later dropped to misdemeanor charges) were? I've read nothing about whether they had put on Kennan paid or unpaid leave during the investigation of the accusations.
Even the previous DA stated the keyed vehicle incident lacked domestic violence -- but does the harassing calls Kennan made to her?
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/crime/story/1797825.html?storylink=mirelated
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1799423.html?storylink=mirelated
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/crime/story/1752409.html?storylink=mirelated
