Westminster Councilman Tyler Diep “Unplugged”

Tyler Diep UnpluggedThe Orange County Register was first up with this story HERE.

TheLiberalOC has also obtained a copy of the recording of Westminster Councilman Tyler Diep’s attempts to intervene on behalf of the Citryst Restaurant on February 6, 2009 (actually the early morning of February 7th). In the recordings below first you will hear Councilman Diep calling the Watch Commander, and then once determining that his conversation was being recorded, asked the watch Commander to call him back on his cell phone. 

For a new Councilmember who supposedly didn’t know or understand procedure, he sure was determined to have a conversation off the record.

Then Diep shows up at the police station around 12:30 am and speaks with the Watch Commander, Lt. Davidson and one other officer. Seems at this point he forgot that such conversations are routinely recorded. Early on in their conversation Diep asks if they “got the memo?” When pressed on what memo, Diep quickly changed his story and claimed there was no memo. 

It appears to me that Councilman Diep believed that there was a “memo,” possibly an unwritten one, directing officers to stop doing business checks at Citryst. What I find odd is that the Register for some reason edited out the last part of the audio where Diep explains that he is upset that the Police were checking on Citryst Restaurant. Oh well, we have it here.

So here it is, Advertising Free, Tyler Diep Unplugged:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LluIA4haG4k&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

We still have more questions related to the Register story that we will get to soon. I am still waiting for a response to my information requests. One of the more interesting tidbits from the end of the Register report was this:

Councilman’s whereabouts “a mystery”

Citryst’s problems began to escalate in January after Westminster police arrested a suspected drunk driver who told them he had been drinking there. In March, police Chief Andrew Hall moved to revoke the restaurant’s permit, citing the January DUI and the Feb. 6 incident in which owner Amanda Nguyen prevented officers from entering the restaurant.

Schoonmaker said the restaurant shut its doors for five days in June as a penalty. The conditional use permit and police permit were never revoked, he said. Nguyen in April pleaded guilty to a charge of resisting, delaying or obstructing a police officer in connection with the incident at the restaurant.

Citryst’s name came up again after Quach’s recent DUI arrest. Police got a tip that the councilman was at Citryst the night of Aug. 1, right before the crash, Schoonmaker said.

Quach has denied being at the Citryst and says he left West Coast Seafood Buffet on Beach Boulevard before the accident. Police say Citryst’s connection to the DUI incident remains a mystery. West Coast is also being investigated by the ABC for possible violations.

Police got the surveillance video from Citryst for that night, Schoonmaker said. The restaurant’s conditional use permit requires it to submit the video on demand from the police chief.

Nguyen told police she had turned off the surveillance camera at 10:30 that night, although she was required to keep it on until midnight, Schoonmaker said.

“So, the answer is, we don’t know if (Quach) was or was not at Citryst that night,” he said. “We had to conclude that he was at West Coast Buffet based on another conflicting report that (Quach) was there until midnight.”

Nguyen said Quach was not at her restaurant the night of Aug. 1.

“I can tell you he was definitely not here,” she said. “Yes, he likes to come into our restaurant once in awhile. But that night, he was not here.”

Now why is it I find this hard to believe?