Rene Botello This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. KOLO | Home

   www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 8/14/2003   Last Visited: 8/14/2003

   It was filed by Rene Botello, who now works as a police officer for the Washoe County School district.
   
   Bottello doesn't want to talk about it because he says his job could be in jeopardy.
   ...
   Botello, who was employed at the Sheriff's Office at the time was the investigator on the case, took the girls to a hospital in California and came up with evidence they had not been assaulted.
   
   That's where things went wrong between Botello and the D.A.'s office.
   
   Botello's attorney says he was a whistleblower who sounded the alarm about a problem with a case . . . only to have the District Attorney try to get him fired.

2. 2. Former detective says he was professionally punished

   www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/16/2003   Last Visited: 4/16/2003

   "Some of our concerns pre-dated anything said by Detective Botello concerning the CARES program."
   
   The suit asks the court to order the district attorney's office to reverse its policy of refusing to prosecute Botello's cases and seeks unspecified damages.
   
   In the lawsuit, Botello said he raised the concerns because he feared "that innocent people have been willfully wrongly prosecuted by the Washoe County District Attorney's Office for a minimum of the last two years."
   
   As a result of his challenge, Botello said in the suit, he was forced to resign from the sheriff's office and is unable to function as a detective in his new job with the Washoe County School Police.
   ...
   Botello said he joined the sheriff's office in 2000 after 10 years with the Los Angeles Police Department and was assigned as a detective with the crimes against juvenile unit. He investigated sex crimes involving children.
   
   About that same time, the district attorney's office formed CARES, a team of nurse practitioners and doctors who conduct forensic exams on children at the Northern Nevada Medical Center.
   
   The exams are used to arrest and prosecute child abuse and sexual assault cases, and to justify the removal of children from their homes in some cases, according to the suit.
   
   Botello said he became concerned about the program after two CARES nurses examined two 4-year-old girls and concluded that they were victims of sexual abuse, and then one of the nurses conducted another exam and came to a slightly different conclusion of one of the girl's physical condition.
   
   He notified his superiors and asked whether a physician reviewed the nurses' findings. He got no response, according to the suit.
   
   "My concerns about incompetence in the CARES program deepened when, in early June 2002, I learned that the twins' regular pediatrician had examined them at the mother's request and concluded that they had normal genitalia," Botello said in court papers.
   
   A medical review of the case by the Oakland Children's Hospital found similar results, he said. One staff member at the hospital said the nurses had made "a gross error," he said.
   
   The University of California-Davis Medical Center also found the children to be normal, he said.
   
   When Botello asked for an outside audit of the CARES program, he was told it would not happen, according to the suit.
   
   "I was ordered not to talk to my peers regarding my lack of confidence in the CARES program," he said in a statement filed with the lawsuit. "Later, in stronger terms, I was ordered to ‘keep my mouth shut' about the twins' case."
   
   Botello said he filed a complaint with the Nevada Attorney General's office asking for an investigation into the program "and possible cover-up" by the district attorney's office but was told one would not occur.
   
   In January, when he investigated a sexual abuse case for the school district, and officials informed the district attorney's office of the case, Botello said he was told by his supervisor that Helzer "would refuse to file the case if my name appeared on the police report."
   
   Soon after, Botello said, he left his detective position and became a patrol officer for the school district.
   
   > Find an RV > Place an Ad >

3. 3. The "Left Coast Road House" for the "West of the Rockies" Biker Community :: View topic - Judge dismisses lawsuit filed by former detective NV

   www.saharabiker.com/cgi-bin/ph - [Cached]

   Published on: 8/13/2003   Last Visited: 3/11/2004

   Botello said Gammick violated his First Amendment right to free speech.
   ...
   "This is not a personal vendetta against Officer Botello as alleged," Gammick said.
   ...
   The dispute started in December 2001 when Botello challenged the conclusions of two nurses in the CARES program. The nurses had examined two children who were believed to be victims of sexual abuse. The children were removed from their home after the nurses reported their findings.
   
   A subsequent examination by the children's pediatrician and a medical review by the Oakland Children's Hospital and the University of California-Davis Medical Center contradicted the nurse's conclusions.
   
   When Botello called for an audit of the CARES program to ensure the accuracy of its findings, he was ordered to refrain from doing so, he said in his lawsuit. He then left his detective position and became a patrol officer for the school district. But he was later told by a supervisor that the district attorney's office informed the district that it would not take any of Botello's cases, the lawsuit said. This action greatly affects his ability to do his job, he said in the lawsuit.
   ...
   To be sure, the nurse examined one of the girls three times and told Botello that her condition was consistent with sexual abuse.
   
   She said she was ready to testify to her findings, Keyser-Cooper said.
   
   "That's a huge error," she said. "That is very, very disturbing."
   
   "Botello's concern is that there might be other cases that the nurse testified in where her findings were wrong," Keyser-Cooper said.