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Police case summary re: Norm Ryan
Below you’ll find the Redding Police Department’s case summary regarding Norman Ryan, then Haven’s CEO/President, who awaits trial for charges pertaining to allegedly ripping off the animal shelter.
We’ve written about Ryan many times, including Something stinks at Haven Humane and Havan Humane Society: Hell in a handbasket- Part 2 and Norm Ryan and wife insist he’s innocent- Part 3.
We could have filtered the following case summary and extracted only the parts we deemed interesting. But we found the entire thing piece interesting reading, and thought you might, too.
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OK, here is my Nancy Drew Junior Sleuth’s question: If Yvonne Preston finds a lot of this stuff after Norm Ryan was forced to resign (”or be fired”), what was THE reason he was asked to resign in the first place? I mean this looks like a case you make after the fact - what was the case at the time?
Jamie - I’m more of a Hardy Boys guy, myself. So I asked myself what would Joe and Frank think? The Police Summary is meant to sound omni-present. Where exactly did they get their information? Case in point, the “Doggie Banks” contributions drops from $6000 to $3000 after Ryan starts counting the money. Three paragraphs later they say that an audit has yet to be completed! Who gave them these numbers? This doesn’t sound very thorough. Is the $6000 for fiscal year 2007, 2006, 2005…what? If I were going to make a case on this man, I’d want to know what the contributions were six months before he came versus six months after. To echo a question you asked in a previous blog, was he even charged with “Doggie Bank” theft? I don’t think so - so why bring it up, unless it is an attempt to condemn by inuendo what the facts won’t (can’t) prove. Point for Mr. Ryan, zip for Yvonne Preston.
Speaking of Ms. Preston, what kind of dysfunctional Board does Haven have? Does Dr. John know that he has to get Board approval for everyone he hires? It seems to be insinuated that Mr. Ryan is at fault for hiring a Veterinarian without a vote of the Board. What other organizations’ Board does that? Our City Council doesn’t do that - it hires a city manager and he hires and fires everyone else. If the Haven Board does have to approve all hirings, does that mean that they are the ones that voted to fire all those people over the last five months? Maybe Yvonne isn’t the she-witch from hell after all - maybe she was just carrying out orders from the Board.
I also agree with you, Jamie; What was the reason (at the time) for Norm Ryan’s forced resignation. Because if they didn’t have one they were probably under the gun to come up with one, before Mr. Ryan could come back and sue them for (slander? Wrongful termination? Whatever?).
Doni - I love your blog. You report, I decide. I always wanted to be a Hardy Boy and you have given me my chance.
How pathetic that Carley Silber is mentioned in this debacle. To associate her with the others mentioned in appalling. She was a long time, honest, dedicated, respected, knowledgeable employee who conducted herself in a most professional manner. I wonder if dragging her into this was in retaliation for her attempt to right some wrong doing? I wonder why she was “laid off?” She was voted “Employee of the Year 2004” by her peers and was in contention for the award for 2007. Unfortunately she was terminated before the award was presented.
I realize that there are actual human beings behind this story, but I still find it fascinating. Since this is a Friday before a three day weekend, I have a lot of down time, today. So I found something that was too good not to share. A blogger in a previous post about the Haven mess, Whateveryousay, made the point that the RPD and the DA don’t just make stuff up as they go. Oh really? In these official Police Summaries, that the courts rely on, they stated that the phony Southwest receipt had a confirmation number from a flight that Mr. Ryan had taken from Long Beach to Sacramento in February 2007. Drumroll, please. Southwest doesn’t fly from Long Beach to Sacramento (or vice versa) and hasn’t for at least five years (based on on-line data from Southwest, http://www.iflyswa.com). Come on, that was too easy. What other “facts” have been made up here?
In reference to M Grant and the accuracy of the police summary, I didn’t read that the confirmation number was for a Southwest flight, just that the source of the information was Southwest, and the flight was from Long Beach to Sacramento.
It might have been a JetBlue flight that Ryan took in February, but that’s just speculation.
Jim - I see your point, but why would Southwest Corporate Security have access to Jet Blue’s internal confirmation numbers? They, like everyone else, would have access to Jet Blue’s flight numbers. But then if that is the number RPD had, why did they list it in the report as a personal “confirmation number” and not “flight number” - the latter would be accessable to anyone who had a computer.
I still see the summary as flawed. Either the flight is wrong or representing a flight number as a “confirmation number” is wrong. My main point is that I’d hate to hang a man on the basis of these questionable “facts”. –Matt
Well, I don’t really know what to think. It sounds like a very tangled web, and the animals are the innocent ones. This has to be straightened out!
The letter was counterfeit. Somebody created the information on the letter, but it wasn’t the police or Southwest.
and thank you Doni for covering this!
McLisa - I didn’t claim the police or Southwest created a counterfeit letter. I do think that a critical reading of the police summaries demonstrates that it is not as one sided as it first appears. I also am glad that Doni is covering this as I would never get to pick apart evidence like this. Normally, some reporter from the RS would digest it first and then tell me what he thinks I should know. I love the internet, because I can do my own thinking. So I am exercising that right. I obviously don’t know Mr. Ryan like some bloggers do. I can only put things together as I have pieces available. Right now a lot about this case doesn’t fit. The more I look the more holes I see. If Mr. Ryan is innocent, it is frightening to think how easy it must be to charge and arrest any one of us if we step out of line.
By the way, is it legal to post the salaries of non-government employees? If I were the Vet or the Clinic Office Manager - I’d be looking to sue someone for breach of privacy. Would that be the police, the DA or the Haven Board? –Matt
Norm Ryan has wonderful and talented sons. It is hard for me to think that that is an accident and that he has no part in that. Because of this I have asked whether there might be another side to this story we haven’t seen. I have tried to read these documents but instead of making things clearer, I am more confused. Doni, can you list exactly what Norm Ryan was charged with?