Thread: Burbank Councilwoman arrested ties to Vineland Boys gang

BURBANK -- She was "the quintessential soccer mom," ferrying three sons to games while succeeding at the small-town politics of this Los Angeles suburb so well that even City Hall gadflies liked her...
(Vineland Boys, MS 13 rivals, illegal alien gangs, laws, crimes, corrupt politicians, campaigns, Americans)

July 17, 2005
By RYAN PEARSON
Associated Press Writer

Indeed, Stacey Murphy's people skills were put on full display two years ago when, as mayor, she organized a big thank-you luncheon for the police agencies that aided Burbank after a rookie officer was killed, allegedly by street gang members.

Then, this week, the 47-year-old city councilwoman was arrested as police linked her to the same violent gang. Also arrested was her boyfriend, who has allegedly confessed that he knowingly sold a gun to one gang member and that the couple bought cocaine from other gang members.

Police who raided Murphy's tidy one-story home found cocaine in a bedroom and, in the garage, three loaded guns and 900 bullets.

Neighbors and colleagues are reeling at the apparent dark side of the city's most popular politician, who won more votes than any other candidate in this year's election.

"I find myself thinking this has to be a nightmare, it can't possibly be true," said Mayor Jef Vander Borght, who has known Murphy for two decades and vacationed with her at Lake Tahoe and in Canada. "It's not good no matter what. It shakes peoples' confidence in the people you elect as leaders."

Murphy was released on $100,000 bail awaiting an August arraignment on expected drug possession and child endangerment charges. She would be forced out of office if convicted.

She refused to open the front door Friday afternoon at the light blue house with its carefully trimmed lawn and colorful flowers that she has called home since 1983. Instead, she referred questions to attorney Rick Santwier, saying, "As soon as he tells me I can talk, I'll talk."

Santwier did not return phone calls.

Meanwhile, Murphy's blue Prius hybrid car sat parked on a street lined with BMWs and Cadillac SUVs. The neighborhood is so quiet that Ernesto Cuevas, who lives down the street, said he often leaves his front door open at night for ventilation.

When detectives raided Murphy's home Wednesday, "of course the neighborhood was abuzz," said Kara Connor, 27, who works in NBC's publicity department.

"Kinda makes the neighborhood seem like 'Desperate Housewives,"' she said, referring to the crimes and domestic intrigue that occur on the hit ABC show, which is set in a similarly well manicured suburban landscape.

Murphy's political career began amid her own marital conflict.

Married to former City Councilman Timothy Murphy, she poured her energy into raising her sons Sean, Robert and Connor.

"She was the quintessential soccer mom," Vander Borght said. "The type of mom that's always taking kids here and there, that's always the team mom."

But she also had political ambitions, and soon after being elected to the City Council in 1997 she divorced her husband.

"Something else filled her life," said the mayor, an architect who described himself as a close friend of her former husband. "Politics probably gave her another outlet that made her decide to end her marriage."

Her two oldest boys are now in college. Murphy has primary custody of 12-year-old Connor.

An open and usually warm politician, Murphy worked to complete a major bicycle path on an old rail line, campaigned for the city's first lighted soccer field and helped complete a community theater. She also listened closely to problems residents presented at council meetings, Vander Borght said.

"Stacey's a populist type person, liked a lot by the people," he said. "She had this affable personality that the gadflies would like her even if she voted against them on an issue."

She was mayor in November 2003 when two reputed members of the Vineland Boys street gang killed Officer Matthew Pavelka during a traffic stop. A detective was badly wounded and one of the suspects was killed during the confrontation, which resulted in the first on-duty death of an officer in the Burbank Police Department's history.

Murphy gathered donations and helped organize a large buffet luncheon honoring the agents and officers who helped catch the other suspect, David Garcia. The wounded detective, Gregory Campbell, who had been briefly paralyzed, walked to his table.

"It was a monumental point in him recovering," police Sgt. Jay Jette recalled.

Jette finds it hard to believe now that the woman who helped plan the event where he enjoyed a salad could be connected to the gang members themselves.

"It's a very difficult thing for the Police Department to look at, and see what the possible implications are," he said.

An 18-month investigation of the Vineland Boys following Pavelka's killing eventually led to Murphy's arrest. Dozens of suspected gang members have also been indicted on federal and state charges in recent months.

Murphy's link to the gang came through Scott Schaffer, her boyfriend and one-time boss at a Los Angeles taxi company where she still works. Police said they traced an alleged gang member's .45-caliber Sig-Sauer semiautomatic handgun to him.

Schaffer, 51, told authorities he and Murphy had used cocaine they purchased at a North Hollywood bar from men both knew to be gang members, according to a Los Angeles police affidavit.

The mayor and neighbors still hold out the possibility that Murphy may have been unaware of Schaffer's activities and the drugs and guns in her home.

"I hope that maybe it's a misunderstanding or she got mixed up with the wrong people," said Connor, the neighbor who said she met Murphy at another councilman's Christmas parties.

She urged the councilwoman: "Tell us this was a mistake."

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