On October 17, Porterville Assistant Police Chief Dominic Barteau sent out a department wide memo saying, “Chief Castellow will be on medical leave for an undetermined period of time. To ensure continuity of operations I will be assuming the responsibilities of Chief of Police until his return.”
On November 4, Captain Joshua Maniss sent out another department memo saying, “Assistant Chief Barteau, who was acting in the capacity of Chief of Police, will be on medical leave for an undetermined amount of time. To ensure continuity of operations I will be assuming the responsibilities of Chief of Police until his return.”
Later that day, newly acting Police Chief Maniss, sent out a memo, “As many of you have heard, the rumor was that the city will be appointing an acting Chief of Police for the Police Department. I have spoken with the city manager and I am here to confirm this information is factual, which will be effective this month the 16 of November.”
Maniss continued, “The new acting Chief of Police will be Bobby [Rader], who currently serves as a captain with the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office.”
Both sources speculated that a September 19 Valley Voice article detailing sexual harassment, retaliation, and racial discrimination, contributed to Barteau and Castellow’s decision to take leave.
One source, who referred to themselves as Sandy, said that Barteau and Castellow are at-will employees, and a source close to the city administration allegedly said there won’t be a job waiting for either of them when they are ready to come back.
According to Sandy, both men will most likely have to medically retire.
The other former officer, who refers to themselves as Rowan, said they were doubtful about whether Castellow’s or Barteau’s medical conditions were legitimate.
“The administration will probably let Jake retire because they don’t want more controversy with all the other stuff going on in the city.”
Rowen added that Lieutenant Mark Acevedo was promoted to Captain within the last few months, but when Barteau and Castellow got wind of changes happening inside the city, Acevedo was demoted back to Lieutenant. Captains are also at-will employees that can be let go for any reason.
Acevedo was part of the “Old Boys” club described in the September 19 Valley Voice article.
Sandy said, “I was blown away when I heard they were taking stress leave. It’s laughable because when anyone else wanted to take medical or stress leave, Barteau and Castellow made their lives miserable.”
Rowen agreed, “be very careful if you want to take sick time because Jake and Dominic will make your life a living hell.”
At one point, Castellow and Barteau allegedly didn’t approve of who Rowen was dating and “launched an investigation into his misuse of sick time,” even though Rowen was under a doctor’s care.
Sandy said, “They made it impossible to leave, then impossible to come back to work if that makes any sense.”
Sandy claimed that even when a fellow police officer was injured in a car crash, Barteau and Castellow made it almost impossible for that officer to go on medical leave. Then, when the injured officer came back, they allegedly had a full work load “and from then on that officer’s had a target on their back.”
Barteau and Castellow’s tactic after an officer managed to go on medical leave was then to hype up a policy violation and get that officer fired, Sandy claimed.
“That’s why it’s so mind blowing that now both of them are on stress leave,” said Sandy.
Rowen said “I know by personal experience that they were doing the same policy violations that they disciplined or fired other officers for.”
Rowen said that he believed Barteau and Castellow would put officers under surveillance when they were on medical leave.
“This happened to numerous officers. They are notorious. Barteau and Castellow will go after you,” said Rowen.