Okay, folks. This case has been knawing at me since I originally saw it on NBC as a kid. For those who need their memory refreshed:

Doyle Wheeler was a LT w/ the San Diego PD. He was involved with the James Huberty, McDs tragedy in 1984. About a year later, he took a medical discharge from the dept d/t mental anguish over the McD events. A year later, he was called to testify about a fellow officer, Donovan Jacobs, who was known for his racist views. The defendent on trial (black defendent shot Jacobs and fellow officer in self defense) was acquitted, and Wheeler and his family moved to Washington State. In 1988, while home alone, 4 men allegedly came into his house, tied him up, forced him to write a suicide note stating his testimony against Jacobs was all lies, they taken to the basement, and shot in the head. Doyle Wheeler survived and called the police. There is speculation that Donovan Jacobs was involved, or that Doyle, having mental issues, could have staged this incident himself for attention. He refused a polygraph bc the other suspects were not asked to take one. Two witnesses gave statements that lean towards backing up Doyle's story.

After seeing the case on NBC, Lifetime, and on crystaldawn's UM Favorites DVD, my gut tells me the following:

Doyle Wheeler is telling the truth. Donovan Jacobs, possibly POed over Wheeler making his story at Penn's trial out to be a lie, or other reasons, set this whole thing up. Let's look at the evidence:

1. An unknown car was spotted at Doyle's house that morning by a neighbor.
2. Another resident spotted that same car in a different location with 4 men, including the one similar to Doyle's description, standing near it. 24 hours later, Doyle's grocery getter was found in that EXACT SAME SPOT!

3. Doyle states that he thought recognized one of the assailants as a drug informant for the SDPD.

4. A call from Doyle's house was to the SDPD, where the assailant asked for "Street Narcotics". Jacobs stated that it would have been stupid for him to have someone call him bc the calls are all taped. However, it has never been stated what was on the phone call or how long the call lasted. One calling to state the job was done or what to do next does not take long if planned properly.

5. Jacobs for one came off as an arrogant jackass in his interview with UM. He did NOT look at the interviewer in the eye, nor the camera, plus has his eyes and his head turned to the right slightly. Psychology states that this can be a sign of lying since the right brain is the creative side. He never gave compelling evidence about why Doyle Wheeler would pull a stunt besides to get attention for himself. Sorry, but I got the impression that Doyle did NOT want attention, hence the move to a small community in Washington State. I think if he was an attention hound, he would have stayed in SD and milked his history for all its worth.

6. Doyle Wheeler was hog-tied and was bleeding from a head wound along with a badge pinned to his chest. Okay, one could state that Doyle did shoot himself in the temple and pinned a badge to his chest, then tied himself up. How can one hog-tie themselves? Wouldn't there have been blood on the ropes and/or his hands if he orchestrated this himself? Did they test his shirt and hands for gunpowder residue?

7. Why would Doyle Wheeler want to talk about his case on UM? It's a big risk for one who lied about an incident such as this on national TV. If he concocted this story, why would he risk being exposed as a laughingstock on national television? People would notice the holes in the story and his demeanor if he was full of crap.

I don't think the cops are taking this case seriously. They asked Doyle to take a polygraph, but why not the others? I don't blame Doyle for declining. They have a 30% chance of giving a false positive, plus it shows that the cops are possibly covering the butt or butts of one of their own. The police dept should have referred this to a large dept in the beginning. They did not seem equipped to handle a case such as this.

I would love to see fellow UM posters on this board post what they think.

I don't know if Jacobs was behind it or not ,but I've always believed the defendant in the Jacobs case was innoncent and SDPD had a serious black eye because of that case.
As to

5. If we aren't going to base credibility on polygraphs or lack there of, why would we base it on facial ticks or lack of eye contact?

6. Two words: Cyndi James

7. Two more words.. no maybe 4 The Wackers or more appropriately
Fictitious Disorders (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=1822976&itool=pubmed_Abstract)


Why would the Washington Police cover up for SDPD? Is this the Thin Blue Line Sticking together?

Otherwise I do agree with you...

I have never seen the Doyle Wheeler case and want to really bad. Is it on one of crystaldawn's cd's? I really need to order the first one. I have seen the Cindy James case and that one is just bizarre. I have a very hard time believing she tied herself up the way she was tied. As for the Wackers, I still dont think they faked this but that is just me.

Yep it is on one of Crystaldawn's cds. Very interesting case.

UM, I have to agree that it may not be Jacobs. I do agree though that Doyle Wheeler is either a victim or is giving an Oscar-winning performance. I just don't feel that he did it. It's pretty elaborate for just a little attention, especially if you consider what the publicity will do for the family. As for the SDPD & WA police, I think it is just a case of the blue wall. One fellow cop(s) help another. Not always a bad thing. I am not saying this is the case. It's the furthest extreme. Most likely, the small town PD is inexperienced in this type of crime and got in over their heads. Possibly linking it to Doyle is an easy way out.

I'd say I'm 85% with Doyle on this one... But it's a tough one to figure out.

Personally I think Doyle Wheeler is telling the truth. I am not sure if Donovan Jacobs was behind it but it was quite obvious the guy is an arrogant jerk who strongly dislikes Doyle Wheeler. I agree with a poster above that either Wheeler is telling the truth or is giving a performance that could win him an academy award. I have the opinion Wheeler did not stage this incident for several reasons. I agree he didnt want the attention and wouldnt have gone public with this story except he wants the people who did it caught. Wheeler left San Diego because he wanted to get away from all the attention it appears hence moving to a quiet town in Eastern Washington State. I also dont think it would be possible for a person to hogtie themselves. I think the sheriff's department really botched the investigation into this because they were too busy thinking Doyle Wheeler staged the incident. They kind of contradicted themselves because they claimed they didnt think Doyle Wheeler stage it yet asked him to take a lie detector test. I dont think Wheeler staged it. I dont know if Jacobs is just a cocky, arrogant jerk or if he actually knows more than he is telling.

This case sounds very interesting and I can't believe that I haven't heard of it until now. I guess I need to get all of the UM volumes of DVDs that crystaldawn has.

i had no Idea about this! I Know Doyle Wheeler, I know him from When he was a beat cop in San diego. I worked in a shopping center and he came in often I knew him well. Thats something else, I'm glad I stopped and read this. cmonforme

I haven't seen this case, so I can't comment too thoroughly, but the first reaction I had when reading the summation was: if someone is pointing a gun at you and asking you to write a "suicide" note, why would you do it? The person obviously intends to shoot you, and you're only helping him by cooperating. Make him kill you without a note.

I remember Doyal back in his early days of street patrol in san diego- He seemed to have his @#$% together.

I haven't seen this case, so I can't comment too thoroughly, but the first reaction I had when reading the summation was: if someone is pointing a gun at you and asking you to write a "suicide" note, why would you do it? The person obviously intends to shoot you, and you're only helping him by cooperating. Make him kill you without a note.

I disagree. It has the potential to be beneficial to the intended victims because it gives them more time. Anything can happen in the span of a few minutes, or even seconds. Perhaps while they're writing the suicide note, the police are a few seconds away from coming in and arresting the criminals. If I were caught in this scenario, I would stall as much as possible. Then wait for an oppurtune moment to jab my thumb into his eye. It's like Jesse Ventura always said: "a thumb to the eye will stop anybody, I don't care how big they are."

If you go back and watch the segment, he wasn't going to write the note. He only did because they threatened to kill his children who were about to come home any minute. I agree that I wouldn't write the note otherwise, but understand why he did it.

The nagging things about this case to me is if they wanted Doyle Wheeler's death to look like a suicide, then why did they remove the gun, not untie Doyle, nor did they check to see if he were dead before they left (all of which would have pointed towards murder and not suicide if he was dead and the investigators checked out the scene)? You think if some guys were sent all the way up in Washington from way down in San Diego, they would make sure the job was finished. And if the 4 guys were seen in that parking lot, why would they all drive 2 or 3 days to get all the way up to Washington state just to terrorize this guy (since they obviously didn't do what it took to kill him and make sure he was dead)? If what Doyle was saying was true, then this was total amateur hour.

I remember the scenario as being that they were supposed to make it look like a suicide, then when Doyle wouldnt cooperate they phoned the SDPD and it was decided that they would make it look like a "Dope Rip" (Doyle Wheeler's words).
They definitely came there to murder him and only left because they thought that they had.
Also, the bad guys didn't necessarily have to be out-of-state talent. I know that one of the DW id'd one of his attackers as being an informant for the SDPD Narcotics division, but that informant could easily have relocated himself to Eastern Washington and/or just recruited old convict buddies from around there. The informant may have driven the 12-13 hours and then met with the other guys at that rest stop/parking lot and gone over the plan. Its interesting to note that Eastern Washington is like Mecca for white supremacists, Nazi Low-Riders, and Aryan Brotherhood guys. IT'd be nothing at all to find some folks of that background out there. Not only would they ideallogically tie in to Donovan Jacobs, and love to carry the "get out of jail free" juice that doing a hit for him would give them, but they'd line up in single file to be able to knock off an ex-cop.
I'm just saying all this because if you believe the story, and I'm not sure I do, it does conceiveably, in the abstract, appear plausible.

The only thing that really bugs me about Doyle's scenario is the phone call. Surely the assailants, if they existed, would have known that any calls from the residence at the time of the incident would have been traced.

Also excuse my ignorance, but what is a "dope rip"? A drug buy gone horribly wrong?

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about them wanting to change it to look like a drug rip-off. I just re-watched the segment and also forgot about the car being stolen and found where those 4 guys were seen. I wonder why they had to steal the car. Maybe the 4th guy used the blue Celica to drive and drop off the 3 that perpetrated the crime, so that car wouldn't be seen in the front of Wheeler's house (even though it was seen by the neighbor earlier). Then the 3 needed a vehicle to flee in and meet back up with the 4th man.

I'm leaning towards Doyle being the victim because why would he go through such trouble to engineer this whole incident? Plus, wouldn't someone have seen him drop his car off or at least notice him walk home after dropping it off? Instead, witnesses noticed those 4 men in the same place that the car was dumped and noticed the blue Celica at Doyle's and at the spot with the 4 men.

I think Doyle said "dope rift" not "dope rip". I am assuming when he said "dope rift" he meant the intruders wanted to make it look like a drug deal gone bad. There are more questions than answers in this case. However Donovan Jacobs stinks to high heaven. Taking cheap shots at Wheeler. Jacobs was obviously none too happy that Wheeler helped Sigon Penn get acquitted of murder and attempted murder charges. Jacobs certainly had a motive to do in Doyle Wheeler.

The only other alternative really would be that Wheeler set this whole thing up to look like Donovan Jacobs did this to him so that he could end Jacobs career and get Jacobs in trouble. While possible it seems far-fetched. I mean, Doyle Wheeler could be lying but I dont think he is. Basically either Doyle Wheeler is telling the truth and is a victim or he gave an academy award winning performance.

I just re-watched this case on crystaldawn's volume 2, and I have to say I agree with synthisislab's original analysis. Doyle Wheeler's story just doesn't make sense. He begins by suggesting these people came to his house to stage his suicide. And yet, in attempting to obtain a "suicide" note, they drag Wheeler into a room using a rope around his neck, and beat him, kick him, and burn him with cigarettes. All of these actions are going to leave obvious signs that Wheeler was not alone --- and this is to say nothing of his contention that while two assailants are beating and kicking and otherwise coercing him into writing a note, he hears a third person ransacking his and his wife's bedroom. I refuse to believe anyone could be as stupid as these killers appear to be. In the end, they obtain a note which, from what Wheeler describes, does not specifically indicate he will kill himself. Rather, it states that he was lying in court when he testified that his former fellow officer Jacobs was a racist (and ends with the declaration that "I [Wheeler] make this statement of my own free will" - an incredibly silly thing to make someone write if you are forcing them to write a note). This note, of course, is totally useless to them. The man who was acquitted because of Wheeler's testimony could not be re-tried if someone found a videotape of him doing whatever it was he was accused of doing; double jeopardy prevents it.

So, after obtaining this completely useless piece of paper, they drag him back downstairs --- a process sure to make more marks --- tie him up, and THEN AND ONLY THEN does Wheeler claim they called their "boss" --- at the San Diego Police Department no less --- to ask for instructions. In other words, they evidently give up on the suicide scenario before receiving further instructions. From the segment, it is unlcear exactly how much of a conversation was recorded that day. In any event, after pinning his badge to his chest, one of the alleged assailants declares that they are going to "make it look like a dope riff." He doesn't exactly explain what that means, but after all this elaborate (but wildly incompetent) attempt to stage a suicide scene, these people evidently switch gears to thinking about staging some kind of a drug deal gone wrong --- only absolutely nothing is done to make it appear as if drugs were involved. No drugs are planted at the scene. No cash either. Just this guy left tied up, shot once in the head, tied up. Of course, he wasn't REALLY even shot in the head - they didn't bother to check, and the bullet only grazed him.

Then, in the most bizarre part of all, these people take his car away from the scene, only to leave it a few miles away. Clearly, they didn't arrive in his car. Why was this necessary?

I'm not sure how to respond to the "eyewitnesses," one of whomsaw an out-of-place blue Toyota near Wheeler's house, and another who says he saw the same car some distance away, parked alongside another vehicle, where he also saw a group of men talking. Later, this spot is where Doyle Wheeler's car is found. My best guess is something like this: the people seen with the blue car were known to Wheeler, friends of his. He arranged a scenario whereby he would agree to meet them to go somewhere --- fishing, hunting, who knows. He further arranged to meet them at the rest stop. Later, when they returned, he convinced people somehow NOT to drop him off at his car (perhaps he was ablke to fake that the battery was dead or that it didn't work somehow, or perhaps he just got the guys in the blue car to give him a ride hom directly and told them that he and his wife would pick up his car later), but drop him off at his home instead. He then staged this elaborate incident, but just by virtue of his car not being there he was able to claim that he was not responsible, and the proof was that his car was missing.

I know someone supposedly saw his car pulling quickly out of his driveway just about the time this incident happened, but my guess is whoever that witness was got the time wrong. Either that, or perhaps Wheeler convinced friends to help him stage the incident. In any event, Wheeler's account is riddled with troubling inconsistencies, and it's tough for me to believe he wasn't involved.

In my opinion, Wheeler is the victim. I see the points you are trying to make Mozart and I agree with them to the point. However I believe that Wheeler's attackers did this on purpose to discredit him. How would Wheeler get himself tied up in that way, shoot himself to where the bullet grazed his skin and how did his car get to where it was? Everyone seems to agree it was not Wheeler that moved it.

The eyewitness getting the time wrong? Hmm, I am not so sure. While possible, I am sure it wasnt everyday in that neighborhood, Doyle Wheeler's car would be seen with an unidentified man driving the car speeding away from Wheeler's house. Why would his neighbor and another guy that he knew lie for him? While they knew Wheeler they were not close friends of his.

Wheeler does not benefit from this at all. In fact the only person that benefits from this at all is Donovan Jacobs. Jacobs had the thugs he sent to kill Wheeler call him at the office. So then Jacobs can say, "well if I was behind it I sure as heck wouldnt have them call me at my office". Now, Doyle Wheeler did refuse a polygraph which is interesting and adds another layer of uncertainty to this. However Donovan Jacobs too refused a polygraph.

While it is true that Sigon Penn in any event couldnt be re-tried because he was acquitted, Jacobs was angry that Wheeler's testimony was basically what got Penn acquitted and Jacobs was angry that he was seen as the aggressor and that Penn was seen as the victim when Jacobs felt it should be the opposite way around.

So if you discredit Doyle Wheeler thus discrediting Sigon Penn, to Jacobs this would satisfy his massive ego. However this is just an opinion. Honestly, I think everyone, regardless of their opinion of whether Doyle Wheeler was a victim or whether he staged this whole thing, I think we all can agree Donovan Jacobs stinks to high heaven!

Are both people still alive i wonder?

Yes I'm alive and while I can't be positive who did this to me I know it was not staged. It ruined my life and continued to keep me from getting any decent work for years. All I did was stand up and tell the truth for that I paid an extreamly high price as did my family. Many interesting things were never reported like the informant that came forward and said he received $2700.00 and two Kelo's of coke to arrange the hit on me. SDPD investigated and $2700.00 was missing from Jacob's room-mates narcotic buy fund so he was fired.
However they maintained it was just a coincedence that the money matched.
I did what I had to do when I testified in the Penn case, I had never lied on the stand and unlike Mark Furman I was not about to start. Sadly it was all for not as Penn committed suicide so everything we went through was for nothing. I told the truth was proven to have told the truth and nobody cared. People wonder why there is a code of silence among cops? Here is your perfect example, you speak up you get screwed to the max and people spectulate for years did he do it to make Jacobs look bad. Sure it makes all kinds of sense that I'd allow someone to hog tie me put a gun to my head and then pull the trigger to make Jacobs look bad. Sorry but I don't have to do anything to make him look bad. Oh well, I did survive now I ride my motorcycle a lot. I'm trying to work on the homeless veteran issue and I make sure I don't witness anything. Telling the truth is no longer a virtue in this country it is a very painful handicap. I have no trouble looking in the mirror every morning and know that my honor is intact. I wonder if Jacobs and his buddy Sema can do the same thing?
I can't help but laugh at the irony of it. I tell the truth and it was very obvious to most people that I was telling the truth in the Penn case and my life is destroyed for it. I couldn't find anyone willing to give me a decent job.

Mark Furman gets up on the stand lies his butt off gets caught and ends up making millions from books and is an advisor to CNN and everybody else on the planet.
I can't help but think maybe we send out the wrong message to people once in a while. But then I'm an old fool that believed that men were supposed to be honorable and they were judged by actions and deeds. Now we live in a world where you are rewarded for being a liar and a cheat. I guess I'll never fit in and with that you may all spectulate on my guilt or innocence until your heart is content. I'm pretty much at a point in my life where what other people think of me is meaningless. I'm just and old sick fool that looks back and wonders what might have been if I had just been willing to lie on the witness stand. I wish all of you a good life. Doyle Wheeler

Yes I'm alive and while I can't be positive who did this to me I know it was not staged. It ruined my life and continued to keep me from getting any decent work for years. All I did was stand up and tell the truth for that I paid an extreamly high price as did my family. Many interesting things were never reported like the informant that came forward and said he received $2700.00 and two Kelo's of coke to arrange the hit on me. SDPD investigated and $2700.00 was missing from Jacob's room-mates narcotic buy fund so he was fired.
However they maintained it was just a coincedence that the money matched.
I did what I had to do when I testified in the Penn case, sadly it was all for not as Penn committed suicide so everything we went through was for nothing. I told the truth was proven to have told the truth and nobody cared. People wonder why there is a code of silence among cops? Here is your perfect example, you speak up you get screwed to the max and people spectulate for years did he do it to make Jacobs look bad. Sure it makes all kinds of sense that I'd allow someone to hog tie me put a gun to my head and then pull the trigger to make Jacobs look bad. Sorry but I don't have to do anything to make him look bad. Oh well, I did survive now I ride my motorcycle a lot. I'm trying to work on the homeless veteran issue and I make sure I don't witness anything. Telling the truth is no longer a virtue in this country it is a very painful handicap. I have no trouble looking in the mirror every morning and know that my honor is intact. I wonder if Jacobs and his buddy Sema can do the same thing?

Wow, thanks for posting Mr. Wheeler! I had no doubts after watching the UM segment as to your story being accurate. I had also heard that Jacobs wanted to sue UM after the segment aired as he didn't like how he was portrayed. Do you anything more about that or whatever became of the lawsuit?

Glad to hear you're doing well..:)

Thanks also for posting Mr. Wheeler. I am sorry about Penn's suicide as well as what happened and continues to happen with you. It seems you have taken the highroad and I cannot begin to tell you how much I admire you for that. I never had a doubt in my mind that you were the victim in this.

You are also right and I'm sad to tay this, that telling the truth seems to be the unpopular thing. It is really remarkable to me what happened to you and how you were treated like a piece of trash, yet Mark Fuhrman lies his tail off, then pleads no contest to perjury and is by the way a convicted felon because of this, yet people love the guy, gobble up what he says.

I read a book of his recently and it is so self-serving how he tries to make himself the victim of his own lies! He claims he never lied and that he only pled no contest because he couldnt get a good defense together. He's full of crap but sadly CNN and Fox News and many other media outlets continue to give this guy a forum to spew his crap in books, television and radio. I do believe Furman was fired from his radio show in Spokane late last year so that is something anyway.

Anyway, I wish you the best Mr. Wheeler and I'm glad to hear you are doing as well as you can and that you are continuing to help others. Also to the board, sorry about the rant on Furman but it was something that needed to be said. We have real law enforcement heroes out here like Mr. Wheeler and they are overlooked because of phonies like Mark Furman.

I also had zero doubts he was telling the truth- the latest compilation with the cops who were corrupt to the hilt, even managing to stage a drug bust in public without the police department knowing about it, & they would have likely got away with it if not for some of the suspects drowning, shows how easy it is for these people to carry on using their badge to commit crime.

I hate the cop code of sticking together no matter what they have done, & the good cops end up being treated like a traitor just for doing the right thing.

I always believed Doyle Wheeler. The main reason is because the forced suicide note did not contain any mention of Doyle's love for his wife and children. Of course, if that were a real suicide note, it would contain it. The fact that the note contains nothing but mentioning of the San Diego Police and related stuff, makes me believe it was forced.

Wow, I didn't realize Doyle posted here before. I know I said at first I thought a lot of the details of this incident didn't make any sense, but I tend to believe Doyle because he seemed to want the truth to be known during that trial and now he's still pressing on for the truth while Jacobs seems as corrupt as could be. Jacobs apparently sent some amateurs to do this job. Lucky for Doyle, or he wouldn't have made it out alive. Well I'm glad that there are good guys out there like Doyle that will expose these corrupt bullies with badges and basically risk their lives and careers to protect the citizens from them. I wish there were more like him that aren't just there to protect the system at any cost. I loathe corrupt cops more than criminals, because you at least know which side the criminals are on.

I believe Doyle. Doesn't sound like he is lying at all and I can usually see those things (like Paul Pollis!)

Real quick note here....

There's some confusion in the earlier posts about the term "dope rip" "dope rift" or what exactly was said.

I googled "dope rip" and came up with a Topix site that said the following, however the article it linked to is no longer available, so just the intro blurb is the only clue to what that phrase means.

>>>>Dec 24, 2008

Authorities: Group of 'dope rip' killers strike in McFarland
Victor Martinez Beltran told his girlfriend he had to run an 'errand' and then would meet her in Bakersfield.

Read full story from Bakersfield Californian<<<<

http://www.topix.com/city/mcfarland-ca/2008/12/authorities-group-of-dope-rip-killers-strike-in-mcfarland

This case is another reason why I just wish the UM people would just go ahead and release all the seasons, with proper updates (even if it's just in written format) so these stories will eventually find true justice.

With the advent of instant mass communication, around the world, via computer, we are now able to speak with Mr. Wheeler and gain much more insight as to what happened.

This access to those directly involved increases the chances of getting the right info out to the public and solving cases. Who cares about tv ratings, just package up a full set of UM dvds, ALL THE EPISODES, and I will buy it. (I bet a whole bunch of other folks will too.) If UM wants to bastardize their program on spike, go ahead, but give us the real thing on dvd, so we can see the original programming, as it was intended to be viewed.

UM can then capitalize on the fact that we have all this internet access then milk it for all it's worth. They'd make a ton of money if they'd do that, but it doesn't seem like they understand how to use the tools of the 21st century.

Regarding Mr. Wheeler, I wish he'd come back and visit us to see that many here support him. Unfortunately, he's right when it comes to society villifying those who speak the truth. But he does have his honor, people respect him for that, and since he has not compromized himself, he has not lost his good name. Once lost, no one can replace that most valued possession. IMO, from what I've read here, he has done the right thing.

Proverbs 22:1 - A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.

Now, about that grazing gunshot wound that to the head suffered by Mr. Wheeler. People tend to dismiss this as a diversionary wound, similar to someone shooting themselves in a non-lethal area such as a fleshy part of the arm, to make it look like they were victimized.

IMO, a cop, familiar with shooting a gun by frequently practicing, is not going to choose the head for a 'grazing' wound. There's just way too much that can go wrong. With the way the person must hold the gun, combined with the force of the shot and recoil of the gun, is just too unpredictable. You can never guarantee that you will only inflict a minor flesh wound. That kind of shot could easily be fatal or cause life long debilitations.

I have a really hard time believing that someone familiar with guns would opt to shoot himself in the head as a cover story, while trying to convince authorities that intruders did it in an attempt to murder him. That alone, casts doubt on the "he did it to himself" theory for me.

This is an incredibly bizarre story. To me, the evidence about the incident is inconclusive--Doyle could be the victim or he could have set it all up. And normally, with these bizarre cases, I lean toward believing the person did it to him or herself. But, I can't help but lean towrds the side that says Doyle was the victim in this, and that is because, as a police officer, he had absolutely NO motive to have lied about Jacobs in that trial. He had about a million reasons to lie to protect Jacobs, and only one reason to tell the truth--because it was the right and honorable thing to do.

Mark Fuhrman is like Oliver North--the only reason he is famous is because he perjured himself, and yet, the fame he earned through that wrongdoing has brought him millions of dollars. What a great value system we have in this country. (As an aside, I would point out that anyone who is outraged at the fact that O.J. got away with murder should direct at least some of their outrage at Mark Fuhrman. If he had just told the truth from the beginning, the outcome of that trial may have been very different.)

But, I can't help but lean towrds the side that says Doyle was the victim in this, and that is because, as a police officer, he had absolutely NO motive to have lied about Jacobs in that trial. He had about a million reasons to lie to protect Jacobs, and only one reason to tell the truth--because it was the right and honorable thing to do.

Agreed. After such a traumatic event as the "McDonald's Massacre", I find it hard to believe that Doyle would put himself in another difficult, all-consuming position in his career unless he was just doing what so many people "sidestep" out of "convenience": telling the truth. I've had the pleasure of corresponding with Doyle in the past, and I fully, completely, and totally believe with all of my being his story is nothing but the absolute truth.

Mark Fuhrman is like Oliver North--the only reason he is famous is because he perjured himself, and yet, the fame he earned through that wrongdoing has brought him millions of dollars. What a great value system we have in this country. (As an aside, I would point out that anyone who is outraged at the fact that O.J. got away with murder should direct at least some of their outrage at Mark Fuhrman. If he had just told the truth from the beginning, the outcome of that trial may have been very different.)

Absolutely. Totally agreed.

Hey Yuppie I agree, I believe Doyle Wheeler's account after reviewing the facts revealed in the UM segment. I mean for Doyle Wheeler to do what he did, even though he had retired several months before the Penn trial was still basically considered an act of treason for him to testify against a fellow law enforcement officer that was NOT on trial. I mean for Wheeler to impeach the testimony of another witness that happened to be a fellow law enforcement officer is practically unheard of. I imagine Doyle Wheeler moved to Washington State partially to start a new life but I also imagine he was basically exiled amongst the law enforcement community in San Diego.

I also agree Yuppie in what you said about that steaming pile of trash Mark Fuhrman. I mean the guy to be honest is a sleaze to say the least. He of course now claims he was 'framed' and that he was the victim and that he pled 'no contest' to a felony count of perjury because he felt everyone was against him. A lot of people do not realize that Fuhrman is a convicted felon. Yet he has made millions off of being a liar and a known perjurer and basically contributing greatly to O.J. Simpson's acquittal on murder charges. I mean how can you convict a guy when the lead detective lies under oath? I believe where Fuhrman lied was when he was asked if he had ever used the n word on the job to which he said no and it was found that there was a tape from the mid 80's that had him saying it more than once. It is just odd to me how Fuhrman makes millions off of being a liar yet gets tons of favorable media attention. It is just mind boggling. The guy should be flipping burgers and living off of his tiny LAPD pension rather than making millions off of selling books and working as a consultant for various media.

If anyone deserves to be living the high life it is Doyle Wheeler but I have come to find out there really is not any justice. Wheeler lives a middle class life all because he was honest and did the right thing, Mark Fuhrman lies under oath, contributing to a double murderer to walk free and he makes millions and is constantly in the spot light. Of course the difference is Doyle Wheeler actually cares about other people whereas Mark Fuhrman's narcissism shows constantly.

Also, on Oliver North, yes he is another one that has made millions of being a 'legitimate' con man basically. He was originally charged with 16 federal felonies and at trial he was convicted of three federal felonies and he was acquitted of the rest. He was given a three year suspended prison sentence, however North appealed his conviction and two years later his convictions were reversed and the charges were dropped in 1991 and he was never retried. He then ran for U.S. Senate in 1994 and was actually on his way to winning a senate seat until Senator John Warner a fellow republican, bravely refused to endorse North and instead endorsed an independent candidate that got 15 percent of the vote and kept North from winning and led to the incumbent Democrat Senator Chuck Robb winning re-election when the dems lost at leats 7 other senate seats they kept Virginia. North is another one that has made millions off of his books and television all because he lied under oath and obstructed justice. I like North better than Fuhrman but that is not saying much.

I'm with Doyle on this one. The body language of Jacobs stinks to high heavens. Yeah I know that is purely circumstantial but it is a knock.

Also I agree with other posters. Doyle left the state and didnt appear to want the attention anymore. No one else other than Jacobs seems to have a bad thing to say about Doyle. You'd think someone would come out and say that they believe Doyle is capable of staging an attempted murder but they arent.

Plus I have never met a person that knew how to hogtie himself. Also it looks like Doyle's ear was partially shot, since at least in the segment I saw blood. Care to find the magician that can do that while hogtied?

At best, Doyle had an accomplice helping him. I don't know anyone who would go to great lengths to help orchestrate this. So yeah I think the guy is innocent and is a victim. Plus how many of us have had a gun jammed into our face and forced to write a suicide note. In that frame of mind you might have hope that you can get out alive. I just might drink bleach if I have a gun jammed at my side just to ensure I stay alive.

Also let's go back and throw a name out like Frank Serpico. We all know about him by now. A model cop, told the truth, busted a lot of crooked cops. There are tons of cops just like him and the same thing happens everywhere. The code of silence. You want to let a fellow cop off from a speeding ticket that's fine, but murder? Drugs? No way, that crosses the line and spits on it. People like Doyle have been tortured, assaulted and even killed before. Maybe sloppy work by the hitmen, but not every criminal is as precise as Hannibal Lector

I just watched this case. Very interesting, one I was definitely hoping for an update for.

I originally sided with Doyle Wheeler, but after reading some of his his blog (http://doylewheeler.newsvine.com/), he comes across as kind of "out there".

How is Doyle Wheeler out there? I cant say as I agree with his opinions in that area that his blog seems concentrated in but he has a right to his opinions and he is hardly the only person that has those views so if he is 'out there' than tens of millions of other people are too. Just because I disagree with the guys politics does not make me not believe his story about men storming into his house and trying to kill him.

How is Doyle Wheeler out there? I cant say as I agree with his opinions in that area that his blog seems concentrated in but he has a right to his opinions and he is hardly the only person that has those views so if he is 'out there' than tens of millions of other people are too. Just because I disagree with the guys politics does not make me not believe his story about men storming into his house and trying to kill him.

Right on, Kadrmas!

Are we sure that's him?

One ironic thing about this whole story is what's become of Donovan Jacobs, the alleged "bad cop." After leaving the force on disability, Mr. Jacobs went to law school, started a successful legal practice in S. Cal (representing police officers), and is a successful author, teacher, and corporate board member, according to his profile at forbes.com.

So, if Doyle Wheeler is right, crime does pay.

Personally, I don't know who to believe. Although I don't have much faith in polygraphs, I do question why a victim wouldn't take one. I also find the idea of jerking your head to avoid the gunshot to be odd, although not implausible.

Moreover, while I'd concede that Jacobs no doubt despited Wheeler, especially given the life he's built for himself, it would seem a very risky move to hire some skinheads or other low-life types to commit murder for you... even if you had the protection of the blue line in the SDPD, going into another jurisdiction you lose that, and your hired thugs would almost certainly turn on you in a heart-beat if they got busted. Just doesn't seem worth it to me, since Wheeler was out of the picture and Jacobs had essentially "won."

Are we sure that's him?

It's absolutely him, if you read the "about doyle wheeler" section, he references the major events.

On one side of the coin you have the very unlilkely scenario of someone writing a "fake" suicide note saying "I lied about Jacobs and the SDPD...etc." instead of saying how he couldn't take life anymore, love for his wife and kids, and anything else that is generally found on your typical suicide note. What motive would Wheeler have? To stage this whole event, (drive his car to a remote location seems kind of odd, if his car was still at his house that wouldn't implicate him any more or any less than if it where elsewhere) bind himself, shoot himself, and inflict pain upon himself....what would the motive be? The case he testified against Jacobs was already closed and he moved far away...so why would he even worry about drudging up the past? For what?

Yet on the other side of the coin who would hire lowlifes/informants to carry out such a crime? It's a pretty ballsy thing to do considering that if one of the assailaints were ever caught they would sell that person out quicker than a hiccup. And the same motive about drudging up the past applies here as well. Why would Jacobs have motive to go after a guy who testified that he was a racist for a murder trial? Wheeler was long gone and Jacobs (I'm assuming) was still on the force, it's not like Jacobs was waiting to be reinstated on the force. I'm still almost 100% convinced that Doyle Wheeler was telling the truth, I'm just not sure if Donovan Jacobs was involved or not.

seemed to me that he was telling the truth. Thats the feeling I got from watching the segment.

Just watched the segment today and did a bit of digging myself on the original incident with Sagon Penn. Found this

geneticdisorder.net/13.OnlineUpdates/SagonPenn/sagonpenn.htm

add www on the begining

Not at all a flatering picture of mr. Jacobs..

Quote:
"What's up, blood?" Jacobs said before asking Penn for his
license. Penn handed him his entire wallet. Jacobs then
demanded he take his license out of the wallet. Penn handed
it back, asking what the problem was. A struggle ensued with
Jacob grabbing Penn, who tried to back away, and the two
began to struggle. Jacobs began hitting Penn with his baton,
but Penn was able to block most of the blows with his arms.
Riggs joined in the struggle, hitting and kicking Penn while
trying to keep the crowd from closing in. Jacobs ended up on
Penn's chest, hitting him with closed fists while Riggs kicked
and hit him with his baton. ....

Evidence about Jacobs' attitude toward minorities was withheld until it
was too late to present it to the jury, which included a transcript
from his 1979 police academy training, documenting a counseling
session after a class titled "Protecting Rights and Dignity," where
it was reported that Jacobs felt it okay to use "professional
profanity" and derogatory slurs toward minorities...

Michael Riggs, brother of slain officer Tom Riggs, spoke out, blaming
his brother's death of Jacobs. The Riggs family supported Penn's
prosecution in both trials, but Michael was angry that, in his opinion,
Jacobs created the situation where his brother was killed and then
used him as a scapegoat since Jacob first claimed Riggs started the
fight when the opposite was true.

Jacobs also suing UM (or attempting to, never heard the outcome) because of his portrayal also stank to high heaven. It's not like they dubbed his interview or anything or did anything to MAKE him look guilty; he accomplished that well enough on his own, along with the evidence at hand. I believe Doyle, absolutely. Even if Jacobs didn't have any involvement, he is still seemed very cold and ready to jump to Doyle lying without offering any sort of evidence besides "Uh...if you know Doyle..." Yeah, I don't believe Jacobs for a second.

Jacobs also suing UM (or attempting to, never heard the outcome) because of his portrayal also stank to high heaven. It's not like they dubbed his interview or anything or did anything to MAKE him look guilty; he accomplished that well enough on his own, along with the evidence at hand. I believe Doyle, absolutely. Even if Jacobs didn't have any involvement, he is still seemed very cold and ready to jump to Doyle lying without offering any sort of evidence besides "Uh...if you know Doyle..." Yeah, I don't believe Jacobs for a second.

I agree 100%. Even if Jacobs wasn't guilty, he came off as a serious jacka**. :mad:

Here's an article written about the officer who was killed by Sagon Penn, and goes into a little bit more detail on what happened that day. Seems to me like this Penn guy got away with cold blooded murder.

http://www.sdpolicemuseum.com/Thomas-Riggs.html

Well you could call that article another version of events, because the link I gave on my previous post paints quite a different picture... guess the truth is somewhere in between...

Here's an article written about the officer who was killed by Sagon Penn, and goes into a little bit more detail on what happened that day. Seems to me like this Penn guy got away with cold blooded murder.

http://www.sdpolicemuseum.com/Thomas-Riggs.html

Well, keep in mind that this was written for the San Diego Police Museum, so I'm sure they will want to present their officers in the best light possible. I mean, for all I know, this account could be true, but if this incident happened because Donovan Jacobs acted like a hotheaded racist bully (as other accounts have claimed), I'm sure this museum isn't going to put it on their website.

Of course, even if he was 100 % right, I can totally see why Doyle Wheeler would be ostracized by the San Diego P.D. for playing a part in getting this guy acquited. I also never knew that Jacobs was paralyzed in one arm. I was never sure why Jacobs would feel compelled to order a hit on Wheeler years after the fact after he had already moved away from San Diego, but I guess a serious career-ending injury like that might be enough motivation for him to want revenge.

Of course, even if he was 100 % right, I can totally see why Doyle Wheeler would be ostracized by the San Diego P.D. for playing a part in getting this guy acquited. I also never knew that Jacobs was paralyzed in one arm. I was never sure why Jacobs would feel compelled to order a hit on Wheeler years after the fact after he had already moved away from San Diego, but I guess a serious career-ending injury like that might be enough motivation for him to want revenge.

I don't know, I'm still not sold that Jacobs was involved in this "hit". He brought up a pretty solid point in his UM interview about how stupid it would have been for him to have his "associates" call him at the police station knowing full well that every call got routinely recorded. Not to mention the investigator from the California district attorney's office stated they found no evidence tying Jacobs to the crime. Which seems like it should have been easy enough to do, since Doyle said that he recognized one of the attackers as an informant for the SDPD. I wonder if it's possible that someone else in the SDPD was bitter about the Sagon Penn case in general, who wanted to get revenge on BOTH Wheeler and Jacobs. Wheeler for "breaking the code" amongst police officers and Jacobs because they probably held him responsible for the death of Officer Riggs. As it stands right now, I think this is the most likely scenario. Everything the attackers did points to someone trying to set Jacobs up, IMHO. Why would Jacobs be so reckless to have Wheeler write a "suicide note" naming himself (Jacobs) several times? And then he has one of the intruders call him, at the police station, requesting his name, all the while the call was being recorded. And I think Jacobs would have came up with something better than a "dope rip", since in all likelihood Doyle Wheeler was not involved in drugs in any capacity. Had Jacobs wanted Wheeler dead, he simply could have gotten the attackers to force Wheeler to write a routine suicide note, and then shoot him once in the head. No need for all the physicalities, tying him up, etc. The sloppiness of everything also makes me think this was a set up.

I don't know, I'm still not sold that Jacobs was involved in this "hit". He brought up a pretty solid point in his UM interview about how stupid it would have been for him to have his "associates" call him at the police station knowing full well that every call got routinely recorded. Not to mention the investigator from the California district attorney's office stated they found no evidence tying Jacobs to the crime. Which seems like it should have been easy enough to do, since Doyle said that he recognized one of the attackers as an informant for the SDPD. I wonder if it's possible that someone else in the SDPD was bitter about the Sagon Penn case in general, who wanted to get revenge on BOTH Wheeler and Jacobs. Wheeler for "breaking the code" amongst police officers and Jacobs because they probably held him responsible for the death of Officer Riggs. As it stands right now, I think this is the most likely scenario. Everything the attackers did points to someone trying to set Jacobs up, IMHO. Why would Jacobs be so reckless to have Wheeler write a "suicide note" naming himself (Jacobs) several times? And then he has one of the intruders call him, at the police station, requesting his name, all the while the call was being recorded. And I think Jacobs would have came up with something better than a "dope rip", since in all likelihood Doyle Wheeler was not involved in drugs in any capacity. Had Jacobs wanted Wheeler dead, he simply could have gotten the attackers to force Wheeler to write a routine suicide note, and then shoot him once in the head. No need for all the physicalities, tying him up, etc. The sloppiness of everything also makes me think this was a set up.

You know, come to think of it, since Jacobs' arm injury forced him to retire from the force, why would those thugs be calling for him at the San Diego P.D. anyway? He went on to have a career as a lawyer and it's reasonable to assume that he wouldn't have even been working at the police station at that point, so yeah, that action does kinda reek of a deliberate set-up to implicate Jacobs.

I know that Thomas Riggs' brother wasn't happy that Sagon Penn got acquited, but he was just as angry with Jacobs for escalating the situation which Riggs to begin with. Not saying he had anything to do with this, but he is an example who might be motivated to get revenge on Jacobs and Wheeler at the same time.

You know, come to think of it, since Jacobs' arm injury forced him to retire from the force, why would those thugs be calling for him at the San Diego P.D. anyway? He went on to have a career as a lawyer and it's reasonable to assume that he wouldn't have even been working at the police station at that point, so yeah, that action does kinda reek of a deliberate set-up to implicate Jacobs.

I know that Thomas Riggs' brother wasn't happy that Sagon Penn got acquited, but he was just as angry with Jacobs for escalating the situation which Riggs to begin with. Not saying he had anything to do with this, but he is an example who might be motivated to get revenge on Jacobs and Wheeler at the same time.

I think Jacobs was still an officer on desk duty at the time of Doyle's attack. There could have been several people on the force upset with both Jacobs and Wheeler. Jacobs could have upset someone who held him accountable for Riggs's death, or someone could have been out to seek revenge for the tarnish he put on the SDPD's reputation, since he was an alleged "racist". And Wheeler could have been targeted because he helped a "cop killer" go free. I'm guessing the bad blood between Wheeler and Jacobs prevented them from seeing that they may have both been the targets in this whole scheme.

A couple things that bothered me about Donovan Jacob's interview was that he attempted to cast Doyle Wheeler in the role of an attention hound by referencing his suicide attempt, which seemed pretty cold, considering that the depression was brought on by DW working the McDonald's massacre scene.

He also said that Wheeler's testimony in court was another attention grabbing move. IIRC, Doyle Wheeler didn't run to the prosecutors and beg to blab on the stand. He was subpoena'd out of retirement, and really had no choice but to cooperate and testify.

A couple things that bothered me about Donovan Jacob's interview was that he attempted to cast Doyle Wheeler in the role of an attention hound by referencing his suicide attempt, which seemed pretty cold, considering that the depression was brought on by DW working the McDonald's massacre scene.

He also said that Wheeler's testimony in court was another attention grabbing move. IIRC, Doyle Wheeler didn't run to the prosecutors and beg to blab on the stand. He was subpoena'd out of retirement, and really had no choice but to cooperate and testify.

I think Jacobs was obviously bitter about Wheeler's testimony at the Sagon Penn trial. And Wheeler was publically naming Jacobs as the one who orgainzed the "hit" on him certainly didn't help matters much.

As for Sagon Penn, after he shot Officer Riggs three times he felt it necessary to run him over with his patrol car. How that guy got off is beyond anything comprehensible to me.

Jacobs could have upset someone who held him accountable for Riggs's death, or someone could have been out to seek revenge for the tarnish he put on the SDPD's reputation, since he was an alleged "racist". And Wheeler could have been targeted because he helped a "cop killer" go free. I'm guessing the bad blood between Wheeler and Jacobs prevented them from seeing that they may have both been the targets in this whole scheme.

I agree. I think you hit the nail on the head.

I just watched this segment again and here are my thoughts on the case

1. Danny Wheeler is telling the truth. I dont think he knows who did it but could of actually recognized one of the men as an assailant

2. What would the neighbors and town folk have to gain by lying and saying that they saw these people hanging around

3. How do people know that Jacobs wasnt behind it....noone ever said that the plan was the hitmen call him when they are done. I think Doyle wasnt cooperating and they were dumb and scared and nervous like most informants are and panicked and called the police station to ask Jacobs what they should do since it was supposed to be a "suicide".

4. I think its pretty impossible for one to hogtie themselves,


I for one think if I was in Wheelers position I wouldnt of taken the polygraph either especially if they werent making anyone else take them. I think its just one police force watching out for another. Im not sure on whether or not I think Jacobs actually had anything to do with the hit.....but all signs do point to him

Im not sure on whether or not I think Jacobs actually had anything to do with the hit.....but all signs do point to him

This is precisely why I think Jacobs was also a target in this "hit". I think he was being setup to look like the mastermind behind everything so the assailants could take out Doyle and then Jacobs would become the fall guy.

I think Jacobs was still an officer on desk duty at the time of Doyle's attack. There could have been several people on the force upset with both Jacobs and Wheeler. Jacobs could have upset someone who held him accountable for Riggs's death, or someone could have been out to seek revenge for the tarnish he put on the SDPD's reputation, since he was an alleged "racist". And Wheeler could have been targeted because he helped a "cop killer" go free. I'm guessing the bad blood between Wheeler and Jacobs prevented them from seeing that they may have both been the targets in this whole scheme.


Great theory. Never thought about it that way, but makes sense. Sounds like it's out of a movie, but that could be possible.

This case is in my Top 10, maybe even Top 5, of favorite cases in UM history. Got a kick reading in this thread that Doyle Wheeler posted in it.

From San Diego:

Jacobs is scum and is more than likely to have attempted to commit and/or conspired to commit the murder of DW. He actually held a party celebrating the attempted murder...even passed out t-shirts which read "Doyle Wheeler Hit Team" in commemoration of the crime. You cannot make this kind of stuff up:

(((Not able to post the link here b/c this is my first post)))

Can you say smokin' gun?

In the case of Sagon Penn, according to most eye and ear witnesses who testified at trial, Jacobs pulled over Sagon Penn under the FALSE pretense of an illegal u-turn. All eyewitnesses testified there was no illegal u-turn. Jacobs, who had been accused of arbitrarily documenting black males as 'gang members', addressed Penn as if he was a gang member:

"What's up, blood?" in a gruff 'street' voice.

Penn responded, "What's the problem, officer?"

"You claim cuz or blood?"

"What are you talking about, sir? If I claim anything, I claim myself."

Jacobs asks for his license and Sagon extends his wallet it to him:

"I don't want your wallet! I want your license!"

"Go ahead, sir. Look at the whole thing. I've got nothing to hide."

"Look, BOY! I'm going to tell you one more time or you're going to get hurt."

Sagon, angered by the racist remark, attempts to return to his vehicle. Jacobs then grabbed Penn's arm and struck him in the face.

As he started to rain blows Sagon who was a trained martial artist, told Jacobs to stop hitting him, that he could do serious damage to him if he wanted to. (Sagon was in fact, as court testimony would later show, deftly blocking most of Jacobs blows.) This enraged Jacobs who began shouting, "You think you're bad, ******?" according to numerous witnesses.

According to one witness, at one point Sagon stopped blocking punches put his hands up and said "You got me" but Jacobs then puts AWAY his handcuffs and starts wailing away with both hands. Throughout the beating Jacobs was heard to yell, "I'm going to beat your black
ass" and "black SOB".

Jacobs was sitting full mount on Sagon's chest punching him in the face when Sagon pulled Jacobs gun from his holster and shot him in the neck. He next turned the gun to Riggs who was standing over Sagon drawing his own weapon when Sagon shot him three times. Sagon then stood, fired two more shots into Riggs' cruiser at an unidentified person who later turned out to be a police wannabe/ride along.

Sagon, then jumped in Jacobs cruiser (because his truck was pinned in the driveway by a police cruiser) and on his exit, ran over Jacobs.

That all came from court testimony.

In court, Jacobs blamed the entire thing on Riggs saying it was Riggs who accosted Penn and he was only backup. He did not have an answer for why his account conflicted with every other witness who testified, including, the civilian ride along. Riggs' family, in particular his brother, is furious with Jacobs for his malicious lies against his brother.

As a lawyer he specializes in helping police get away with their crimes. One case he worked involves a female officer who physically assaulted a subordinate female officer in front of scores of teens at a youth camp. The officer became enraged and attacked the other officer when she sat on a wet sponge set up as a prank.


From San Diego

According to most accounts, Jacobs was the one who was hurling the racial slurs and wrestling/beating Sagon Penn. If Penn were truely innocent and in fear for his life, why feel the need to shoot Officer Riggs three times and then attempt to run him and Jacobs over?! Not to mention that after shooting both officers, he runs up to the patrol car and shot and wounded the civilian ride-along sitting in the front seat, who obviously posed no immediate threat.

According to court testimony, both officers were striking Penn. Riggs reportedly used his baton on him.

He shot Riggs b/c after shooting Jacobs, Riggs was drawing down on him.

Court testimony showed that Penn did not attempt to run over Riggs. It was also shown that Jacobs was hit incidentally as Penn was fleeing; there was no intent to kill Jacobs with the car.

In the case of the civilian ride along, it was shown that Penn had no knowledge of who the person was riding in the cruiser. His lawyer said Penn thought she was another cop. He also said because of the setting sun, Penn could not see clearly into the car.

According to court testimony, both officers were striking Penn. Riggs reportedly used his baton on him.

There was alsot testimony that Penn was resisting arrest and using Karate on the officers.

He shot Riggs b/c after shooting Jacobs, Riggs was drawing down on him.

Riggs was doing his job. This was supposed to be a routine traffic stop, which turned into a guy grabbing Jacobs's gun and shooting him. It was Riggs's job to return fire.

Court testimony showed that Penn did not attempt to run over Riggs. It was also shown that Jacobs was hit incidentally as Penn was fleeing; there was no intent to kill Jacobs with the car.

You're right, I was mistaken. He hit Jacobs, not Riggs.

n the case of the civilian ride along, it was shown that Penn had no knowledge of who the person was riding in the cruiser. His lawyer said Penn thought she was another cop. He also said because of the setting sun, Penn could not see clearly into the car.

The woman was simply sitting in the car, making no attempt to get out of the car or to confront Penn, and he still fired three times at her. Even if he thought she was a cop, it would make absolutely zero sense to shoot at someone who was sitting in a car the entire time of the incident.

It was shown in court by expert testimony that Sagon only used defensive tactics to lessen the blows he was receiving. His martial arts instructor testified that Sagon could have easily killed Riggs and Jacobs with his bare hands in seconds if he wanted to do any damage to them.

It wasn't a routine traffic stop b/c as was shown in court, Jacobs racially profiled Penn and lied about him making an illegal u-turn.



Riggs was doing his job. It was Riggs's job to return fire.


And Sagon did his job. It was his job to preserve his own life in the face racist violence from state officials.

It wasn't a routine traffic stop b/c as was shown in court, Jacobs racially profiled Penn and lied about him making an illegal u-turn.

I don't know how it can be proven in court that they lied about him making an illegal u-turn, but regardless it was dispatched as a routine traffic stop. Jacobs asked Penn to remove his license from his wallet, then Penn began walking away. Jacobs grabbed his shoulder, and then that's when the struggle began.

And Sagon did his job. It was his job to preserve his own life in the face racist violence from state officials.

You're right. Everytime someone gets pulled over, everyone should get out of their vehicle, fight with the officer who pulled them over, grab his gun shoot him, shoot their partner (if they have one), then shoot anyone else sitting in the car who could be a possible witness to everything that just happened. :rolleyes: Was Jacobs a racist? Most likely. And if he did profile Penn that day, he should have gotten reprimanded for his actions (including his previous incidents). But by all accounts, Penn was a law-abiding citizen, who at worst just made an illegal u-turn. All he had to do was give Jacobs his license and none of this would have happened. Racist or not, it does not give anyone the right to shoot three people and kill one of them.

You're right. Everytime someone gets pulled over, everyone should get out of their vehicle, fight with the officer who pulled them over, grab his gun shoot him, shoot their partner (if they have one), then shoot anyone else sitting in the car who could be a possible witness to everything that just happened. :rolleyes: Was Jacobs a racist? Most likely. And if he did profile Penn that day, he should have gotten reprimanded for his actions (including his previous incidents). But by all accounts, Penn was a law-abiding citizen, who at worst just made an illegal u-turn. All he had to do was give Jacobs his license and none of this would have happened. Racist or not, it does not give anyone the right to shoot three people and kill one of them.

I agree. Sagon Penn also had a history of assault--I clearly remember reading he'd thrown a brick into his girlfriend's car once, and he got into another struggle with the SDPD sometime in the late '90s.

I don't like to indiscriminately throw out names, but Donovan Jacobs was and still is a turd. I don't at all doubt he probably harassed Mr. Penn and that he played a large role in exacerbating the situation. While that should've definitely been taken into grave consideration, Sagon Penn should've served a sentence of some kind. He shouldn't have been acquitted, IMO.

I don't like to indiscriminately throw out names, but Donovan Jacobs was and still is a turd.

That made me :lol:

I don't know how it can be proven in court that they lied about him making an illegal u-turn...

Jacobs, in his arrogance offered up a story that was easily proven to be false. He claimed Penn completed an u-turn in one motion, but it was shown in court the turning radius of the truck and the width of the street would've required him to make a three point turn. Plus eyewitnesses testified Penn did not make a u-turn.

Jacobs asked Penn to remove his license from his wallet, then Penn began walking away. Jacobs grabbed his shoulder, and then that's when the struggle began.

According court testimony, Jacobs told Riggs over the air he was pulling over a group of "crips"...none of the occupants of Penn's vehicle were gang members. Then he disrespects and mocks Penn repeatedly,uses a racial slur (boy) and threatens bodily harm before Penn turns to walk back to his truck. Jacobs then grabs his shoulder and strikes him in the face. He continues punching while calling Penn a n***** & black SOB and Penn begins to block his strikes...


The idea that Penn shot Pena-Ruiz because she was "a witness" was easily debunked in court...by Pena-Ruiz's own mouth. She told a friend in the days after the event that she didn't remember ANYTHING; it all happened so fast. Too bad for Pena-Ruiz her "friend" recorded the conversation.

Was Jacobs a racist? Most likely. And if he did profile Penn that day, he should have gotten reprimanded for his actions (including his previous incidents).

It is not okay to be a racist cop. Jacobs should have never been allowed on the force because he is a racist. If you are racist, you should not have ANY authority over ANYONE. You shouldn't be reprimanded for being a racist. You should be fired.

But by all accounts, Penn was a law-abiding citizen who at worst just made an illegal u-turn.

There was no u-turn. A racist cop with ties to white supremacist groups, who broke the law by taking pictures of and arbitrarily documenting 100's of black and Latino men as 'gang members' (which is a violation of their rights) lied on the stand. Not even the judge believed Jacobs' lies.

Racist or not, it does not give anyone the right to shoot three people and kill one of them.

It was Jacobs' racism that caused everything. If he wasn't a corrupt lying racist cop no one would have died or been shot or been anything. He should have obeyed the law he was sworn to uphold and none of this would have happened.

Jacobs, in his arrogance offered up a story that was easily proven to be false. He claimed Penn completed an u-turn in one motion, but it was shown in court the turning radius of the truck and the width of the street would've required him to make a three point turn. Plus eyewitnesses testified Penn did not make a u-turn.

Is there a transcript of the trial online? I'm reading three different reasons as to why Jacobs pulled Penn over. One website says it was the illegal u-turn, another says he suspected they were gang members in the vehicle, and another site says he pulled Penn over because he and his vehicle and occupants matched the description of people involved in a shooting earlier. Whatever the case was, even if it was just "driving while black", Penn could have simply complied and been on his way.

According court testimony, Jacobs told Riggs over the air he was pulling over a group of "crips"...none of the occupants of Penn's vehicle were gang members. Then he disrespects and mocks Penn repeatedly,uses a racial slur (boy) and threatens bodily harm before Penn turns to walk back to his truck. Jacobs then grabs his shoulder and strikes him in the face. He continues punching while calling Penn a n***** & black SOB and Penn begins to block his strikes...

Yet Penn's own defense attorney (in an opening statement), had this to say about Riggs (the man who was murdered), "I think the weight of the evidence is going to be that Riggs is approaching in a low-key, polite, unaggressive way . . . ". So why not comply with Riggs and ignore Jacobs?


The idea that Penn shot Pena-Ruiz because she was "a witness" was easily debunked in court...by Pena-Ruiz's own mouth. She told a friend in the days after the event that she didn't remember ANYTHING; it all happened so fast. Too bad for Pena-Ruiz her "friend" recorded the conversation.

It doesn't matter if she said she didn't remember anything. Penn admitted to shooting a person sitting in a vehicle who posed no threat to him whatsoever, and who never even left the vehicle. It doesn't matter if he said "you're a witness" to her or not. He still shot her. Although during his trial, one of the occupants in his vehicle claimed to have heard him make that remark before he shot the civillian ride along.

It is not okay to be a racist cop. Jacobs should have never been allowed on the force because he is a racist. If you are racist, you should not have ANY authority over ANYONE. You shouldn't be reprimanded for being a racist. You should be fired.

This is what I meant by being reprimanded. Terminated.

There was no u-turn. A racist cop with ties to white supremacist groups, who broke the law by taking pictures of and arbitrarily documenting 100's of black and Latino men as 'gang members' (which is a violation of their rights) lied on the stand. Not even the judge believed Jacobs' lies.

Never heard about the ties to white supremacist groups, but as I've said before, Jacobs most likely was a scumbag on the force. But by all accounts Riggs was a by the book officer, and he was the one who was murdered.

Is there a transcript of the trial online?

Not certain but doubtful.


I'm reading three different reasons as to why Jacobs pulled Penn over.

Which makes sense since Jacobs used all three as excuses for pulling over Penn. AGAIN, there was no u-turn, no occupant in the truck was a gang member nor did any of them wear gang attire. The third claim was simply preposterous. If he believed a bunch of people in a car were suspected of a shooting, he would not have approached their vehicle casually and say "What's up, blood?" He would have approached with gun drawn. Another fabrication of Jacobs.

Yet Penn's own defense attorney (in an opening statement), had this to say about Riggs (the man who was murdered), "I think the weight of the evidence is going to be that Riggs is approaching in a low-key, polite, unaggressive way . . . ". So why not comply with Riggs and ignore Jacobs?

Simply the sequence of events as laid out during trial shows that Jacobs initiated everything. Riggs was only there as a back up.

It doesn't matter if she said she didn't remember anything.

It matters because she lied on the stand and said that she DID remember everything and that she remembered Penn saying "you're a witness". There was ONE other prosecution witness who said Penn something to Pena-Ruiz but the majority of witnesses testified Penn said nothing to Pena-Ruiz.

Penn admitted to shooting a person sitting in a vehicle who posed no threat to him whatsoever, and who never even left the vehicle.

Penn did not testify at the trial. Nonetheless the defense proffered that Penn did not know who Pena-Ruiz nor whether or not she opposed a threat to him. It was reasonable to assume that another person riding in the front seat of a police cruiser would be another cop. Additionally, he could not see clearly into the car to see what the position or posture of the person was, whether or not they were aiming their own weapon at him. Apparently the jury believed him.

Never heard about the ties to white supremacist groups,

Not surprising.

but as I've said before, Jacobs most likely was a scumbag on the force. But by all accounts Riggs was a by the book officer, and he was the one who was murdered.

Riggs was killed b/c a racist cop violated the rights of Sagon Penn and tried to murder him. Riggs died b/c of the illegal actions of Jacobs.

Riggs was killed b/c a racist cop violated the rights of Sagon Penn and tried to murder him. Riggs died b/c of the illegal actions of Jacobs.

Bull. Riggs was killed because Sagon Penn pointed a weapon at him and fired.

Bull. Riggs was killed because Sagon Penn pointed a weapon at him and fired.

There is no question Penn fired the three shots that ended Riggs life. It was Jacobs actions that caused the fatal shots to be fired. If Jacobs hadn't broken the law, none of this would've happened.

There is no question Penn fired the three shots that ended Riggs life. It was Jacobs actions that caused the fatal shots to be fired. If Jacobs hadn't broken the law, none of this would've happened.

No. What caused those shots to be fired was Penn's finger pulling back the trigger three times after he made a decision to turn that firearm on Officer Riggs, who by all accounts did not harass nor abuse Penn, nor exacerbate the abuses committed by Jacobs. Sagon Penn murdered an innocent man that posed no extreme threat to him, and shot an unarmed civilian sitting in a car. It doesn't matter how abusive or wrong Jacobs was, or how angry or intimidated Penn was--the only person truly responsible for Riggs' death was Sagon Penn.

I'm personally acquainted with enduring verbal harassment and threatening gestures while carrying not one, but two loaded firearms. I never so much as even thought about pointing one of them at ANY of those individuals, let alone at any unaggressive person in their company. If I had done do and pulled the trigger, a defense of "Well, the deceased's friend was calling me bad names in a funny language and spitting at me, and that's the reason he's dead" wouldn't fly in a court-martial. 'The devil made me do it' is a BS excuse.

'The devil made me do it' is a BS excuse.

But "he was a racist cop so that's why I shot him and two other people" seems to be completely rational. :rolleyes:

But "he was a racist cop so that's why I shot him and two other people" seems to be completely rational. :rolleyes:

Yeah, it's as rational as "let's pump the majority of EVERY round in Jacobs' weapon into the two people who aren't even aggressors." :rolleyes:

Sagon Penn was a loose cannon with a history of aggression, violence, and run-ins with police before any of this even transpired. I don't see the logic in Donovan Jacobs' racism and misuse of authority being the sole factor in this incident at all.

No. What caused those shots to be fired was Penn's finger pulling back the trigger three times after he made a decision to turn that firearm on Officer Riggs.

I repeat: There is no question Penn fired the three shots that ended Riggs life. It was Jacobs actions that caused the fatal shots to be fired. That is what the evidence showed. If Jacobs hadn't broken the law, none of this would've happened.



who by all accounts did not harass nor abuse Penn, nor exacerbate the abuses committed by Jacobs.

Another lie. Eyewitnesses testified Riggs beat Penn with his baton and kicked him in the head while Jacobs was on top of him.

Sagon Penn murdered an innocent man that posed no extreme threat to him, and shot an unarmed civilian sitting in a car.

Riggs was killed because Penn was defending his own life. That is what the testimony proved.

It doesn't matter how abusive or wrong Jacobs was, or how angry or intimidated Penn was--the only person truly responsible for Riggs' death was Sagon Penn.

That's where you and the LAW disagree. Police officers do NOT have carte blanche to do what ever they want to do. They can't pull people over because they're black. They cannot label them gang members with out due process. THESE ARE ALL VIOLATIONS OF THE LAW. They do NOT have the right to be abusive and racist. That is why Penn was acquitted.

I'm personally acquainted with enduring verbal harassment and threatening gestures while carrying not one, but two loaded firearms. I never so much as even thought about pointing one of them at ANY of those individuals, let alone at any unaggressive person in their company. If I had done do and pulled the trigger, a defense of "Well, the deceased's friend was calling me bad names in a funny language and spitting at me, and that's the reason he's dead" wouldn't fly in a court-martial. 'The devil made me do it' is a BS excuse.

Apples and oranges. The use of racist slurs and physical attack against Penn from a person of supposed authority is only a few of the differences between your admittedly non-physical confrontation and Penn's experience.

Jacobs came off as pure scum in the segment, with his purely arrogant demeanor and claims that Doyle would go do that to himself. ''If you know Doyle...'' then basically saying he would shoot himself for the attention. I fully believe Doyle Wheeler, but I am inclined to agree that Jacobs was not involved. He seems like the perfect suspect, but it seems that someone was absolutely trying to pin the deed on him, particularly with the phone call to LE requesting him that was made from Doyle's home. If Jacobs had really been involved, I believe there never would have been any such call.

Cars, you presented an excellent theory. Someone pissed about the outcome of the case would have a reason to target both Doyle and Jacobs. Jacobs' racism and provoking of the incident, on top of Doyle's testifying for the defense would have people pretty upset at both men. And since Jacobs clearly wouldn't like Doyle's claims against him and there was ''bad blood'' so to speak between the men, attacking one and framing the other might seem the perfect revenge.

Sagon Penn was a loose cannon with a history of aggression, violence, and run-ins with police before any of this even transpired. I don't see the logic in Donovan Jacobs' racism and misuse of authority being the sole factor in this incident at all.

An out and out fabrication. Sagon Penn didn't even have a parking ticket before Jacobs tried to kill him.

Sagon Penn did not have the right to fire that weapon at anyone. Period. It's your prerogative to feel otherwise. But I'm not about to call for Donovan Jacobs' head while blatantly ignoring the fact that Sagon Penn systematically emptied a revolver into three people like it's perfectly acceptable, lawful behavior--because it absolutely was not.

Sagon Penn did not have the right to fire that weapon at anyone. Period. It's your prerogative to feel otherwise. But I'm not about to call for Donovan Jacobs' head while blatantly ignoring the fact that Sagon Penn systematically emptied a revolver into three people like it's perfectly acceptable, lawful behavior--because it absolutely was not.

A lot of Jacobs' character has been called into question, but isn't he a successful lawyer these days? http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201202241630/b According to that article, he's still very much active in California.

Sagon Penn did not have the right to fire that weapon at anyone. Period.

Not according to the law. He had every right to defend himself.

It's your prerogative to feel otherwise.


It is not my 'feeling' that the laws allows for people to defend themselves from attack even when that attack comes from positions of authority. That's what the trial showed.

It is not my 'feeling' that Sagon was acquitted twice according to the laws of the state of California.

But I'm not about to call for Donovan Jacobs' head

No one asked you to.

while blatantly ignoring the fact that Sagon Penn systematically emptied a revolver into three people like it's perfectly acceptable, lawful behavior--because it absolutely was not.

What you do blatantly ignore is the facts and instead of facts you use hyperbole to explain away the actions of a fervent racist.

You blatantly ignore the fact that Jacobs broke the law when he pulled Sagon over for no reason and attacked him because he is black.

You blatantly ignore that Sagon Penn was acquitted not once but twice according the law.

You blatantly ignore the fact that the judge and 2 juries agree that Jacobs is a racist liar and responsible for the entire fiasco.

You blatantly ignore the fact the judge recommended the grand jury bring charge against Jacobs and other members of the SDPD for lying on the stand and witness tampering (for coaching Pena-Ruiz) but ironically it was Penn who saved them. Penn said he would not cooperate with the trial b/c after enduring two trials and constant harassment by the police, he wanted nothing to do with another trial or the the police. The grand jury decided not to press charges saying they had no case without Penn.

What you do blatantly ignore is the facts and instead of facts you use hyperbole to explain away the actions of a fervent racist.

You blatantly ignore the fact that Jacobs broke the law when he pulled Sagon over for no reason and attacked him because he is black.

You blatantly ignore that Sagon Penn was acquitted not once but twice according the law.

You blatantly ignore the fact that the judge and 2 juries agree that Jacobs is a racist liar and responsible for the entire fiasco.

You blatantly ignore the fact the judge recommended the grand jury bring charge against Jacobs and other members of the SDPD for lying on the stand and witness tampering (for coaching Pena-Ruiz) but ironically it was Penn who saved them. Penn said he would not cooperate with the trial b/c after enduring two trials and constant harassment by the police, he wanted nothing to do with another trial or the the police. The grand jury decided not to press charges saying they had no case without Penn.

You honestly believe Penn had every right to shoot three people, killing one in the process? Rodney King was unfairly attacked and beat by police, yet he did not make any attempt to fight back. You honestly believe Jacobs was going to kill Penn that day if he did not grab his gun and shoot him first? With multiple witnesses around, I find it hard to believe that Jacobs would have just started to beat Penn without Penn resisting in some way.

Caalri, I have no idea what prompted you to come out of nowhere to personally crusade for a man (already long ago acquitted of murder, however right or wrong that decision was) who's been deceased for eleven years. I'm not emotionally invested here, nor do I have the time nor will to engage in a circular debate about something that isn't even the topic of this thread to begin with. You know what I think about it. I know what you think because you've told us seven times. It's not going to change anything.

Back to the topic at hand, it's been a year or so since I've seen the segment, but IIRC, the thugs who roughed up Doyle placed a call to the police station asking for Jacobs before they shot at Doyle's head. According to this article: http://articles.latimes.com/1988-07-21/local/me-9029_1_san-diego-police the man who called the police station (from Wheeler's home) hung up shortly after saying, "May I speak to Donovan Jacobs?"

That article also hints as Wheeler staging the thing to set up Jacobs, but I disagree. I think by going after Wheeler, getting him to write the note about Jacobs, and then the call which ended after saying Donovan Jacobs' name all point to a set up of both men. The intention of the attack was to murder Wheeler, IMO. Both men forced Wheeler to write a note stating he lied about Donovan Jacobs. One man called for the station and asked for Jacobs by name on a recorded call. Had they succeeded, everything would have pointed back to Jacobs. It's almost like Jacobs was advertising the fact that he was behind it. Which is why I think he was supposed to be set up as well.

You honestly believe Penn had every right to shoot three people, killing one in the process?

Yes and so did the courts.

Rodney King was unfairly attacked and beat by police, yet he did not make any attempt to fight back.

So? That doesn't mean Penn can't fight off his own attackers.

You honestly believe Jacobs was going to kill Penn that day if he did not grab his gun and shoot him first?

Yes. And so did the court and jury.

With multiple witnesses around, I find it hard to believe that Jacobs would have just started to beat Penn without Penn resisting in some way.

Hard as it may be for you to believe, the trial proved it as fact.

Caalri, I have no idea what prompted you to come out of nowhere to personally crusade for a man (already long ago acquitted of murder, however right or wrong that decision was) who's been deceased for eleven years. I'm not emotionally invested here, nor do I have the time nor will to engage in a circular debate about something that isn't even the topic of this thread to begin with. You know what I think about it. I know what you think because you've told us seven times. It's not going to change anything.

Actually you don't know what I think because I didn't tell you what I think. I only told you what the facts presented in a court of law showed. The fact that Penn is innocent is not my personal opinion. This is a documented fact.

For me, this is not a debate. The facts are pretty much indisputable.

Back to the topic at hand, it's been a year or so since I've seen the segment, but IIRC, the thugs who roughed up Doyle placed a call to the police station asking for Jacobs before they shot at Doyle's head. According to this article: http://articles.latimes.com/1988-07-21/local/me-9029_1_san-diego-police the man who called the police station (from Wheeler's home) hung up shortly after saying, "May I speak to Donovan Jacobs?"

That article also hints as Wheeler staging the thing to set up Jacobs, but I disagree. I think by going after Wheeler, getting him to write the note about Jacobs, and then the call which ended after saying Donovan Jacobs' name all point to a set up of both men. The intention of the attack was to murder Wheeler, IMO. Both men forced Wheeler to write a note stating he lied about Donovan Jacobs. One man called for the station and asked for Jacobs by name on a recorded call. Had they succeeded, everything would have pointed back to Jacobs. It's almost like Jacobs was advertising the fact that he was behind it. Which is why I think he was supposed to be set up as well.

I could actually see the SDPD looking at both men as PR liabilities. We know Doyle couldn't at all help what happened during the McDonald's massacre, but I'm certain there was probably a lot of hand-wringing within the SDPD brass. Then there was Jacobs a year later.

What do you think about the possibility of someone setting JACOBS up by getting at Doyle?

What do you think about the possibility of someone setting JACOBS up by getting at Doyle?

I think it's entirely possible that the intention was to murder Doyle Wheeler and make it look like Donovan Jacobs was the one who organized everything. I believe it may have stemmed from the Penn trial, since Wheeler testified against Jacobs and may have broke some sort of "code" amongst officers, and some may have held Jacobs responsible for Thomas Riggs' death. Naturally, since there was bad blood between Jacobs and Wheeler, both men would have implicated each other. I think whoever set this up knew that Jacobs and Wheeler would finger point at each other and deflect suspicion from them.

I think it's entirely possible that the intention was to murder Doyle Wheeler and make it look like Donovan Jacobs was the one who organized everything. I believe it may have stemmed from the Penn trial, since Wheeler testified against Jacobs and may have broke some sort of "code" amongst officers, and some may have held Jacobs responsible for Thomas Riggs' death. Naturally, since there was bad blood between Jacobs and Wheeler, both men would have implicated each other. I think whoever set this up knew that Jacobs and Wheeler would finger point at each other and deflect suspicion from them.

Poor Doyle is set up to be murdered for committing the ultimate transgression of "telling on" a fellow officer--that I can easily accept. But I guess I have a little bit of a harder time finding a clear reason why someone would want Jacobs done in aside from the incident with Thomas Riggs. I suppose it makes sense enough on the surface. But I guess I get a bit of a hang-up in envisioning how a person who would be angry about Doyle Wheeler's testimony would ALSO hold that Donovan Jacobs' racism and escalation of the situation was the primary factor in Riggs' death. I have this feeling that there's some undisclosed beef with Jacobs somewhere else.

Poor Doyle is set up to be murdered for committing the ultimate transgression of "telling on" a fellow officer--that I can easily accept. But I guess I have a little bit of a harder time finding a clear reason why someone would want Jacobs done in aside from the incident with Thomas Riggs. I suppose it makes sense enough on the surface. But I guess I get a bit of a hang-up in envisioning how a person who would be angry about Doyle Wheeler's testimony would ALSO hold that Donovan Jacobs' racism and escalation of the situation was the primary factor in Riggs' death. I have this feeling that there's some undisclosed beef with Jacobs somewhere else.

In this article, it's mentioned that Thomas Riggs' brother blamed Donovan Jacobs for what happened and also considered him a bigot. Obviously, he wasn't too happy that Sagon Penn got acquitted, but was also equally angry at Jacobs for escalating the situation that got his brother killed.
http://articles.latimes.com/1987-09-02/local/me-3450_1_police-department

I have no idea what his feelings on Wheeler were, but it's possible he could have been unhappy that Wheeler's testimony against Jacobs helped get Penn acquitted. Now, I'm certainly not going to throw any accusations in Mr. Riggs' direction, but I use this is a hypothetical example of why someone would conceivably want to harm both Wheeler and Jacobs at the same time. I don't find it hard to believe that someone could hold Jacobs responsible for being responsible while still being angry at Wheeler for speaking out and helping get the killer acquitted.

There was another LA Times article I came across (by doing a google search of "Donovan Jacobs Doyle Wheeler"), that said that when Wheeler retired, several police officers celebrated. Guess the guy wasn't well-liked by his fellow officers. I could definitely see someone who just didn't like Wheeler for whatever reason, knew Wheeler had bad blood with Jacobs, who wanted to get at Jacobs by killing two birds with one stone so to speak. I think whoever set the whole thing up was ultimately trying to get at Jacobs. Wheeler was kind of a secondary motivation, IMO.

I suppose it really doesn't seem like either of the two were particularly popular in the department, but for completely different reasons. Thanks for posting that link to the article, RobinW--it's enlightening that Thomas Riggs reportedly wasn't exactly thrilled to be working with Donovan Jacobs.

I knew about the Doyle Wheeler "hit team" tee shirts, but I wasn't aware that these were actually intended to be sold during a police party. I thought it was just a thing amongst Jacobs' posse. (Like hell that captain had no idea what was going on, by the way.) That only serves to further reinforce my ideas about the SDPD. It seems like it was an extremely hostile place to work, at least at that time.

I've never once questioned Doyle Wheeler's story. Wasn't there another witness that corroborated seeing the two suspects in some kind of gravel turn around or parking area just before the attack? It's been a long time since I've seen the segment.

I've never doubted Doyle's story. It's very unlikely that he could have hogtied himself and, yes, there were witnesses to corroborate his story. However, it always struck me that these hitmen just seemed a little TOO incompetent. In addition to calling the San Diego PD and asking for Donovan Jacobs by name, they somehow managed to screw up shooting a hogtied man in the back of the head at point blank range and left the scene without even making sure he was dead.

However, this would make more sense if this was all an elaborate set-up to frame Jacobs. I'm even considering the possibility that whoever was responsible may not have even had anything against Wheeler and just wanted to use him as a pawn. They conveniently "miss" shooting him in the head, so that he'd be left alive to point the finger at Jacobs.

However, this would make more sense if this was all an elaborate set-up to frame Jacobs. I'm even considering the possibility that whoever was responsible may not have even had anything against Wheeler and just wanted to use him as a pawn. They conveniently "miss" shooting him in the head, so that he'd be left alive to point the finger at Jacobs.

This is exactly what I was recently thinking. Wheeler may have just been a pawn in an elaborate scheme to really get at Jacobs. Maybe someone was bitter that he was still on the force? I personally think it was someone who held him responsible for Riggs' death.

I just watched the segment and was compelled to read through the entire thread.

Wow, I'll admit I never thought about the possibility that someone may have set up the attack on Wheeler just to get back at Jacobs, but it wouldn't surprise me. No matter what his involvement is or isn't, though, Jacobs is definitely a scumbag and came off as really smug and unprofessional during the UM interview. It was obvious he strongly disliked Doyle on a personal level.

P.S. Just wondered, has anyone had any contact with Doyle since he posted here in 2008? I hope he realizes how many of us support and believe him. He had the courage to do what many in his shoes couldn't or wouldn't, simply because it was the right thing to do. He seemed like an excellent, upstanding cop, which makes the events that happened to him following the 1984 McDonald's incident even more tragic. I certainly hope he's doing better today and I wish him well.

What always really burned me about Donovan Jacobs is that, being a police officer involved in an incident in which his partner was killed during a shooting, he waves off Doyle's suicide attempt as nothing more than trying to "get attention" like "the bad kid in school". Doyle witnessed the aftermath of a massacre of an entire restaurant full of people. His order to neutralize the threat was not carried out, and I know he felt personal responsibility for that for a long time. He wasn't trying for attention. He was in deep, deep pain and anguish. One would think Jacobs could give the man at least that. But no, ever the lawyer, he'll take what he can get in terms of character assassination. I've always had zero respect for that.

What always really burned me about Donovan Jacobs is that, being a police officer involved in an incident in which his partner was killed during a shooting, he waves off Doyle's suicide attempt as nothing more than trying to "get attention" like "the bad kid in school". Doyle witnessed the aftermath of a massacre of an entire restaurant full of people. His order to neutralize the threat was not carried out, and I know he felt personal responsibility for that for a long time. He wasn't trying for attention. He was in deep, deep pain and anguish. One would think Jacobs could give the man at least that. But no, ever the lawyer, he'll take what he can get in terms of character assassination. I've always had zero respect for that.

Exactly. The McDonald's massacre was one of two things that was the root of all this trouble in the first place. Doyle appeared to be a great, compassionate and upstanding police officer (qualities all cops should have), one who obviously felt horrible about the fact that four more people got shot and killed under his watch. Even if he obviously wasn't the one responsible for it, and gave the order to fire... it's still a natural human reaction to wonder "Could I have done more?" That's the clear difference between him and someone like Jacobs.

I just also read everything about Sagon Penn. While I was more on his side watching the UM segment, it appears that guy was no picnic himself, and should've been at least sentenced for something. He was clearly something of a thug, and went way overboard in shooting and killing Jacobs' partner (as well as injuring an innocent police ride-along), although nothing excuses Jacobs' racist, violent, and unprofessional attitude either. Which is the basis that Doyle was exposing him.

Whether someone close to the slain officer set up Doyle (angry that he helped let a cop killer go free) to frame Jacobs (mad that his racist attitude might've at least helped precipitated all this in the first place) is hard to say. I'm 50/50 on it, but it's at least a possibility. I still think that Jacobs himself was likely behind the attack on Wheeler. He's really the only one who would have an obvious grudge against him. Especially since he was no longer on the SDPD and moved far out of the area.

I still think that Jacobs himself was likely behind the attack on Wheeler. He's really the only one who would have an obvious grudge against him. Especially since he was no longer on the SDPD and moved far out of the area.

This is the biggest reason I don't think Jacobs was involved. Wheeler was long gone and moved to a different town. Jacobs was still on the force at the time of the attack, so what was there to accomplish by murdering Wheeler? He was already out of the area and retired so he couldn't make any more waves for Jacobs. Tack on the fact that these thugs called the police station and asked for Jacobs by name (Jacobs, being a cop would know that the phone calls are recorded) just strengthens by belief that someone was trying to frame Jacobs.

This is the biggest reason I don't think Jacobs was involved. Wheeler was long gone and moved to a different town. Jacobs was still on the force at the time of the attack, so what was there to accomplish by murdering Wheeler? He was already out of the area and retired so he couldn't make any more waves for Jacobs. Tack on the fact that these thugs called the police station and asked for Jacobs by name (Jacobs, being a cop would know that the phone calls are recorded) just strengthens by belief that someone was trying to frame Jacobs.

Yeah, I gotta lean towards this as well. Was the slain officer (Jacobs' partner)'s brother ever investigated? Or any of his other family? They would be the only obvious ones with a motive to try and kill Doyle and frame Jacobs.

P.S. Just wondered, has anyone had any contact with Doyle since he posted here in 2008? I hope he realizes how many of us support and believe him. He had the courage to do what many in his shoes couldn't or wouldn't, simply because it was the right thing to do. He seemed like an excellent, upstanding cop, which makes the events that happened to him following the 1984 McDonald's incident even more tragic. I certainly hope he's doing better today and I wish him well.

This (https://www.blogger.com/profile/04658339915835513641) has got to be the same guy, right? If you figure he's gotta be 62 / 63 (assuming that's a recent picture), I'd say he definitely looks younger than I would have expected (considering all he's been through in his life). Good on him.

This (https://www.blogger.com/profile/04658339915835513641) has got to be the same guy, right? If you figure he's gotta be 62 / 63 (assuming that's a recent picture), I'd say he definitely looks younger than I would have expected (considering all he's been through in his life). Good on him.

Yep, that's Doyle.

How is Doyle Wheeler out there? I cant say as I agree with his opinions in that area that his blog seems concentrated in but he has a right to his opinions and he is hardly the only person that has those views so if he is 'out there' than tens of millions of other people are too. Just because I disagree with the guys politics does not make me not believe his story about men storming into his house and trying to kill him.
Word... Why do we let politics cloud our judgment on things to the point where we lose our humanity side.


Anyway sorry to bump that old post but I've watched this one a few times and never posted. Didn't realize mr wheeler posted on here. I believe his account and don't understand why Jacobs is such a jerk if he is indeed innocent.

Word... Why do we let politics cloud our judgment on things to the point where we lose our humanity side.


Anyway sorry to bump that old post but I've watched this one a few times and never posted. Didn't realize mr wheeler posted on here. I believe his account and don't understand why Jacobs is such a jerk if he is indeed innocent.

Jacobs rubbed a lot of people the wrong way during his UM interview. But I honestly think he thought Doyle was making it all up in an attempt to frame him which is why he came across as such a jerk.

Jacobs rubbed a lot of people the wrong way during his UM interview. But I honestly think he thought Doyle was making it all up in an attempt to frame him which is why he came across as such a jerk.

I think this is the closest thing to understanding I think I've ever seen for Donovan Jacobs on this board (not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, even though I've never been impressed by the man's interview). Do you think the entire thing was a misunderstanding between Jacobs and Wheeler? That is, Jacobs thought Doyle was making it up while Doyle seemed to think Jacobs was the one ultimately responsible for the home invasion in Spokane--and neither of the two were necessarily correct in their assumptions?

That is, Jacobs thought Doyle was making it up while Doyle seemed to think Jacobs was the one ultimately responsible for the home invasion in Spokane--and neither of the two were necessarily correct in their assumptions?

Yes I think that is exactly what happened. Neither were involved, but both thought the other was responsible.

I'm surprised that I never commented on this case. I believe Doyle Wheeler is telling the truth about the break in and someone trying to kill him to make it look like a suicide.

Here is my question: what was Doyle Wheeler's motive to go out of his way and testify that Donovan Jacobs was a racist? Don't get me wrong, Jacobs seems like a Richard, but at the same time, another man was on trial. A man who killed a fellow police officer, wounded another and shot a civilian who was doing a routine ride along. Seems to me that whatever beef he and Jacobs had should have been put on hold until after this idiot (Penn) was convicted.

I hope I don't ruffle too many feathers with this statement, but it seems like Wheeler's testimony helped a clearly guilty man go free.

Here is my question: what was Doyle Wheeler's motive to go out of his way and testify that Donovan Jacobs was a racist? Don't get me wrong, Jacobs seems like a Richard, but at the same time, another man was on trial. A man who killed a fellow police officer, wounded another and shot a civilian who was doing a routine ride along. Seems to me that whatever beef he and Jacobs had should have been put on hold until after this idiot (Penn) was convicted.

I hope I don't ruffle too many feathers with this statement, but it seems like Wheeler's testimony helped a clearly guilty man go free.

It's a valid point. It would be one thing if Doyle was trying to get a racist cop off the streets and prevent him from harming anyone else, but the shooting left Jacobs paralyzed in one of his arms and on permanent disability, so his police career was over anyway.

On the other hand, I think it may be a simple case of Doyle being subpoenaed to testify and flat-out being asked on the witness stand by Penn's lawyer if he thought Jacobs was racist. Doyle strikes me as someone who would never lie under oath, even if it kept a murderer from going free.

On the other hand, I think it may be a simple case of Doyle being subpoenaed to testify and flat-out being asked on the witness stand by Penn's lawyer if he thought Jacobs was racist. Doyle strikes me as someone who would never lie under oath, even if it kept a murderer from going free.

This is exactly what I think happened.

On the other hand, I think it may be a simple case of Doyle being subpoenaed to testify and flat-out being asked on the witness stand by Penn's lawyer if he thought Jacobs was racist. Doyle strikes me as someone who would never lie under oath, even if it kept a murderer from going free.

Correct, however, you have to have a reason to subpoena someone. You wouldn't just want to call anyone up there. My guess is there was a long standing (well known within the SDPD ranks) feud between Wheeler and Jacobs and the defense attorneys spoke with Wheeler about testifying.

I guess what I'm getting at is, there is a clear illustration here that these two men do not like each other. There is no way the defense attorney would have known this unless he was told. Wheeler should not have allowed their personal feud to get in the way of a cop killers trial.

Correct, however, you have to have a reason to subpoena someone. You wouldn't just want to call anyone up there. My guess is there was a long standing (well known within the SDPD ranks) feud between Wheeler and Jacobs and the defense attorneys spoke with Wheeler about testifying.

I guess what I'm getting at is, there is a clear illustration here that these two men do not like each other. There is no way the defense attorney would have known this unless he was told. Wheeler should not have allowed their personal feud to get in the way of a cop killers trial.

I get the feeling that Doyle didn't have many friends within the police department, because an article says that a lot of his fellow officers partied after he retired from the force.

I agree that Wheeler appears to have used his feud with Jacobs to cloud his judgment in the trial of Sagon Penn. His testimony essentially helped let a cold blooded killer go free.

I believe Doyle Wheeler is telling the truth and I know he has not posted here since 2008 and wish him well if he is reading this.

The segment said he turned his head slightly just before the shot was fired, I wonder if that was police training or just last second instinct. That small move saved his life.

The theory that a third party, possibly connected to Riggs, set up Jacobs is interesting. It relies on the belief that the recorded phone call asking for Jacobs was intentional. But I tend to believe it was just another screw up by the amateur, bumbling idiots doing the hit.

Wheeler tipped the cops to the phone call. If Wheeler had not survived would the police have thought to check the phone records? I know it's common today, but do you think it was standard procedure back in 1988?

If the initial plan was to stage a suicide then the hit men botched it when they ransacked the bedroom and left bruises and burns on Wheeler. So they realize this and switch to the "dope rift." Having no brains (or thinking no one will check), they call Jacobs asking for permission/direction. And if it was a setup to discredit Jacobs wouldn't the men have allowed Wheeler to listen in instead of turning on the TV?

Wow. How have I missed this one?

I don't know what to think. Jacobs is clearly not a good guy. The fact that he became a lawyer later literally means nothing to me. Some of the shadiest people I know are lawyers. Just saying.

I don't see what Doyle would have gained by staging the whole situation himself. I agree that whoever tried to kill him was certainly inept, but the discussion about the content of the suicide note are very telling and, in my opinion, support the theory of a "staged" suicide.

On the other hand, i also don't see what Jacobs would have gained from it, other than revenge. People have been killed for less, so I'm not willing to dismiss the theory entirely.

I do take the most interest in the 3rd party theory-- I wonder if that was ever checked into. I'm sure there were people out there who were angry at BOTH Wheeler and Jacobs. Killing one to set up the other is downright brilliant, if you ask me...

I've long maintained that Wheeler was not the specific intended target, but in the "big picture", the target was Jacobs. There's no way Wheeler was making anything up, because witnesses described seeing men who fit his description in a parking lot before (or after, can't recall) the assault on Wheeler. But, by writing out a lengthy suicide note which repeatedly referenced Jacobs, and by calling the police station asking for Jacobs by name and then hanging up immediately after, suggests to me that someone intended to frame Jacobs for the "hit".

I think whoever orchestrated this knew about the bad blood between the two, and knew that in all likelihood, the "hit" would be tied back to Jacobs. This exchange about the phone call makes it seem likely that this was an elaborate plan to set up Jacobs:

"The person asked for the Narcotics Street Team," Enerson said in describing the phone call. "The operator asked if this is a long-distance call, and the person said yes it is.

"They then transferred it to the Narcotics Street Team. They kept ahold of the line and kept on recording. That's automatic.

"Then, you hear the gal on the other end, Sheila, a secretary. The caller said, 'May I speak to Donovan Jacobs?'

"She said, 'Just a moment,' and then he hung up. Click."

I do take the most interest in the 3rd party theory-- I wonder if that was ever checked into. I'm sure there were people out there who were angry at BOTH Wheeler and Jacobs. Killing one to set up the other is downright brilliant, if you ask me...

Awhile back, I read some original articles about Sagon Penn's trial for the murder of Thomas Riggs and always found the comments from Riggs' family compelling. Even though they weren't happy that Penn was acquitted, they did not hesitate to deflect a lot of the blame for Riggs' death onto Jacobs. Apparently, Jacobs initially claimed that Riggs was the one who started the altercation which led to the shooting, but all the other eyewitnesses testified that Jacobs was the prime instigator. It was also established that Jacobs really didn't have probable cause to pull Penn over in the first place and that he flat-out lied about Penn doing an illegal U-turn.

Of course, there's no evidence that anyone from Riggs' family was involved in the attack on Wheeler, so I don't want to pin any blame on them, but it's so plausible to me that someone could have had a vendetta against Jacobs and used Wheeler as a pawn to set him up. It's possible that whoever was responsible had no intention of killing Wheeler, which is why the hitmen conveniently "missed" a point-blank gunshot to the back of the head.

What was weird to me was (and I haven't seen anyone address this yet) that the note wasn't left at the scene, and that Doyle Wheeler's hands were tied behind his back. You'd think someone trying to make a murder look like a suicide would go a bit further conceal the crime scene, leaving the note at the crime scene and the murder weapon near the body, AND wouldn't have left him with his hands tied behind his back.

I'm not calling him a liar. But it doesn't fit the profile of a staged homicide. The police should have attempted to locate the gun that was used and collect shell casings. They could have matched shell casings to a gun and rule Doyle Wheeler out as a suspect long time ago if they had, or could have proved he was lying if the gun belonged to him. Either way.

What was weird to me was (and I haven't seen anyone address this yet) that the note wasn't left at the scene, and that Doyle Wheeler's hands were tied behind his back. You'd think someone trying to make a murder look like a suicide would go a bit further conceal the crime scene, leaving the note at the crime scene and the murder weapon near the body, AND wouldn't have left him with his hands tied behind his back.

I'm not calling him a liar. But it doesn't fit the profile of a staged homicide. The police should have attempted to locate the gun that was used and collect shell casings. They could have matched shell casings to a gun and rule Doyle Wheeler out as a suspect long time ago if they had, or could have proved he was lying if the gun belonged to him. Either way.

Some of the articles about this mention that the investigating police were suspicious of Doyle's story and considered him a suspect.

But the sloppiness of everything suggests to me that whoever did this was intentionally trying to frame Jacobs.

Does anyone know if Doyle Wheeler is on Facebook or Twitter? Or any updates in general`?

Does anyone know if Doyle Wheeler is on Facebook or Twitter? Or any updates in general`?
No updates from me that I know of. but he has come on this thread in the past I believe to reinforce his story.

Does anyone know if Doyle Wheeler is on Facebook or Twitter? Or any updates in general`?

Do you friend request everyone associated with a UM episode on Facebook?

Of course not!! I just like to be nosy. Alot of people on here have 'researched' people on UM.

Yeah i read his post, looks like he only posted once though...

I don't understand how people would think Doyle made this up. The UM segment drops several hints throughout the segment that some within the investigation believed it to be true, especially when they wanted Doyle to take a polygraph. But Doyle's neighbor saw Doyle's car speeding away from his house "minutes" before the ambulance arrived to check on Doyle. I don't see how it would be remotely possible for Doyle to drive the car 12 miles, and then make it back to his house in time to beat the paramedics.

The only possible scenario involved would be if the assailants were actually accomplices of Doyle's. That too, makes no sense. What would these "accomplices" gain? Why would he need them at all if he wanted to stage a home invasion specifically to set up Donovan Jacobs? It baffles my mind as to why they seemed quick to doubt Doyle's story when there were witnesses and evidence which backed up his claims.

I just never believed that Doyle would have been capable of firing a bullet alongside his own head which punctured his ear before hogtying himself. The only way that would work at all is if Doyle hired accomplices to do all this for him, but would YOU trust someone to tie you up and then fire a non-lethal shot which grazed your head and injured your ear?!

Incidentally, here's an article which says that Donovan Jacobs helped print up 75 T-shirts which read "Doyle Wheeler Hit Team" and had a picture of an ear on them. He then sold the shirts at a San Diego P.D. party for $8 a pop:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19890607&id=rFpWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0O8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5555,1397584&hl=en

Regardless of whether Jacobs was actually involved in the attack on Wheeler, there really is zero doubt that he's an awful human being!

I have zero doubt that the blue line knows exactly what happened to Doyle and why, but because of that blue line it won't be solved

Regardless of whether Jacobs was actually involved in the attack on Wheeler, there really is zero doubt that he's an awful human being!

In defense of Jacobs, if he honestly believed that Wheeler was doing this or made the story up to frame him, I could see his selling of the t-shirts as a way to show Wheeler that it doesn't bother him that he thinks he did it, in a satirical type of thing. I know it sounds weird, but I think I have a similar sense of humor to where I could see myself taking something ridiculous (assuming Jacobs wasn't involved) that had nothing to do with me, and poking fun at it.

I don't understand how people would think Doyle made this up. The UM segment drops several hints throughout the segment that some within the investigation believed it to be true, especially when they wanted Doyle to take a polygraph. But Doyle's neighbor saw Doyle's car speeding away from his house "minutes" before the ambulance arrived to check on Doyle. I don't see how it would be remotely possible for Doyle to drive the car 12 miles, and then make it back to his house in time to beat the paramedics.

The only possible scenario involved would be if the assailants were actually accomplices of Doyle's. That too, makes no sense. What would these "accomplices" gain? Why would he need them at all if he wanted to stage a home invasion specifically to set up Donovan Jacobs? It baffles my mind as to why they seemed quick to doubt Doyle's story when there were witnesses and evidence which backed up his claims.

I agree. He had way too much detail in his story and his story has always stayed consistent. When you're telling the truth, you don't have to have a good memory. Also, if you believe Doyle's story (as I do), then the only person who had a grudge against him (that we are aware of) is Donovan Jacobs. He had to be involved in some sort of way.

I don't understand how people would think Doyle made this up.

I saw this segment when I was nine, and I can honestly say that my opinion on what happened has not changed, although my understanding of what I think happened and why has matured as I have over the years. I definitely do not believe that Doyle made this up, but rather I believe that members of the SDPD were responsible in an unsanctioned capacity.

With regard to your initial statement of how you don't understand how people would think Doyle made this up, I think there are a few reasons that people could believe that (even though I do not).

The first one is acknowledged by Doyle himself during his interview, where he states that he would not submit to a polygraph unless "others" were also polygraphed. The insinuation that I take from this is that Doyle thinks several police officers, not just Donovan Jacobs were involved. In a metaphorical sense, Donovan is a conveniently and sufficiently ugly face for the UM segment producers to put on the conspiracy that Doyle points to. I might very well have taken the exact same stance that Doyle did - refusing the polygraph given the circumstances, but nevertheless, whenever you take that stance, a lot of people are going to say "...is he lying? What is he hiding?" :cool: I apologize a little bit for the "Wheeler pun" but its appropriate, quite frankly.

The second reason is that, to a certain demographic, Doyle can be viewed as a weak, unlikable, and untrustworthy person. Again, I don't feel this way but I count myself in this demographic and think that I understand a lot of the feelings involved. Three things occur to me:
- The outcome of the original fast food shooting incident that the UM segment makes note of would, justly or not, have either generated feelings or fed existing feelings in some that Doyle was not a competent officer.
- Further, there's the "...if you know Doyle at all..." comment by Donovan that paints him as a pity or attention seeker. I don't think that this assessment of Doyle is unique to Donovan, and ironically I think it swayed some viewers that don't know Doyle at all, thus were unable to form their own opinions of the man.
-Finally, as bugnpinky stated, Doyle admits to having broken the "blue line" by his testimony against Jacobs, which obviously further alienated him from many members of the SDPD. The interesting article that RobinW found further supports this. We're talking about a few dozen officers at a minimum that had ill will against Doyle, otherwise they wouldn't have gone to an unofficial party celebrating his departure from the SDPD. I can't completely chalk that up to poor taste. It has to go deeper for more than a few.

The "certain demographic" that I refer to above would include viewers that are members of law enforcement, military, fire & rescue workers, etc. These people absolutely rely on each other and go through comparatively intense circumstances on a much more frequent basis than the average person. This gives rise to intense loyalty to one another, and the reciprocal intense dislike of those deemed to have violated said loyalty. Also, individuals that don't "fall in line" or "measure up" to official standards or the sometimes widely different unofficial standards are ostracized, criticized, harassed, and worse.

My point in saying all of this is again, not to disagree with you, but to try to answer your question as to who could question Doyle's account of what happened and why they might do so. I also think it's worth pointing out that this not only applies to viewers and us board members with our theories on the case, but also the very investigators from Washington themselves. It's not fair, but in my mind, it is understandable.

At the end of the day, none of this explanation justifies what I believe did happen to Doyle, both prior to and including the attack in question. It's hard to fully explain and perhaps on the other side, to understand the subculture that I am trying to describe unless you've been a part of it. I know there are at least a few other board members that do. Maybe we should get together and teach a Psychology course on the subject at a prestigious university. :D I think we could definitely fill a semester's worth of material.

Excellent post Hops3098!!!! Very well thought out and very much think this is what is going on.

With regard to your initial statement of how you don't understand how people would think Doyle made this up, I think there are a few reasons that people could believe that (even though I do not).

Thanks for the great reply.

I was simply saying that I find it hard to imagine that the investigators in Washington would even think to question Wheeler's story, considering he had 2 witnesses who saw these men and/or Wheeler's car. His neighbor saw someone driving Wheeler's car away from the scene just before the paramedics arrived. The car was found 12 miles away. There's no way Wheeler could have done that by himself. Just based off of that fact alone, there's no way he could have made this up, unless he had help from others. Which is ridiculous.

I just also read everything about Sagon Penn. While I was more on his side watching the UM segment, it appears that guy was no picnic himself, and should've been at least sentenced for something. He was clearly something of a thug, and went way overboard in shooting and killing Jacobs' partner (as well as injuring an innocent police ride-along),


If you read anything about Sagon Penn that paints him as a 'thug" then I would assume it comes from the police or those who are unfamiliar with the case or Penn himself.

One of the main reasons Penn was acquitted twice is precisely because he WASN'T a thug, criminal or a gang member. His family owned a business in the community and they were well known and well respected. Penn himself was known to be a well behaved person who most described as shy, who never even had a parking ticket before that day in '85.

After two trials and constant harrassment by the police (the day before he died the police raided his apartment, put a gun to his head, and then proclaimed "oops, wrong address" and then left) he began to unravel and act irrationally as most people would if they went through what he went through. It is clear to anyone with a mustard-seed worth of brain matter that his behavior and trouble with the law afterwards had everything to do with the trauma he went through; the shooting itself, the two trials, the constant harrassment by law enforcement, and the targeting and harrassment of his family and supporters.

This is the biggest reason I don't think Jacobs was involved. Wheeler was long gone and moved to a different town. Jacobs was still on the force at the time of the attack, so what was there to accomplish by murdering Wheeler? He was already out of the area and retired so he couldn't make any more waves for Jacobs. Tack on the fact that these thugs called the police station and asked for Jacobs by name (Jacobs, being a cop would know that the phone calls are recorded) just strengthens by belief that someone was trying to frame Jacobs.


For me, its the biggest reason why he IS guilty of trying to murder DW. His motivation for the attack is simple: He was exposed as a liar and a racist,period. For people like that, you can't use reason or logic when trying to explain their actions because liars and racists are unreasonable and illogical except to know that they HATE being exposed.

I hope I don't ruffle too many feathers with this statement, but it seems like Wheeler's testimony helped a clearly guilty man go free.

Penn was only guilty of defending himself from a racist, vicious attack by a state official who sworn to uphold the law. The defense proved that and the law allowed it.

DW's testimony, while certainly appreciated, wasn't what ultimately got Penn acquitted. It was the mountain of evidence including dozens of witnesses who saw the whole thing, plus Jacobs own lies that got Penn off. Had there been no eye witnesses, Penn would have surely been convicted even with DW's testimony.

There was even another officer, a black man, who refused to testify in the first trial out of a well founded fear of being retaliated aginst by his own fellow officers.

He was forced to testify in the 2nd trial and he recounted how he and Jacobs almost came to blows because he objected to the way Jacobs handled a black suspect. In the heat of the argument Jacobs called him a niqqer.

His fear of retaliation came true when he was later beaten by fellow cops for a minor traffic violation while off duty.

On the other hand, I think it may be a simple case of Doyle being subpoenaed to testify and flat-out being asked on the witness stand by Penn's lawyer if he thought Jacobs was racist. Doyle strikes me as someone who would never lie under oath, even if it kept a murderer from going free.

You hit the nail right on the head; that's exactly how it happened. No cop wants to testify against another cop, period. The "Blue Wall of Silence" is enforced by the threat of extreme violence and/or death.

I watched this one again yesterday.

I still don't understand why this would've gone down two years after the Penn trial, and after Doyle had retired from the SDPD and moved two states away. Why at that point? I suppose the reasons could be manifold, but I guess I just don't immediately see why someone would wait that long to execute such a plan.

I also tried to get behind the eyes of someone skeptical of Wheeler's story, and I just couldn't get past the notion that Wheeler would write that kind of note if he was setting up this up himself. It just seems like such an unnecessary part of the narrative that would do more to detract from his claims than support them. Why not just leave that out altogether? I then considered a situation in which Wheeler actually did plan to commit suicide, and somehow didn't succeed or chose, for whatever reason, not to go through with it, and subsequently began to stage the scene as an "attempted hit". But that seems, for lack of a better term, rather farfetched.

The more I consider it, the more likely it seems that Donovan Jacobs was the ultimate target, with Doyle being incidental--although a vital component--to the conspiracy against Jacobs. I think the phone call to the SDPD (in which Donovan Jacobs was asked for specifically, and then immediately terminated by the caller), and the fact that Doyle had one of his old SD police badges affixed to him and was forced to write the note that he did carrying that specific content supports this idea. It just smells like a lot of special effort to link the SDPD and Donovan Jacobs to the event. And I just have a hard time believing two men who had been police officers for well over a decade each would make an effort to establish those links themselves in an attempt to defame the other. They both would've known better, and would've done better, IMO.

I watched this one again yesterday.

I still don't understand why this would've gone down two years after the Penn trial, and after Doyle had retired from the SDPD and moved two states away. Why at that point? I suppose the reasons could be manifold, but I guess I just don't immediately see why someone would wait that long to execute such a plan.

I also tried to get behind the eyes of someone skeptical of Wheeler's story, and I just couldn't get past the notion that Wheeler would write that kind of note if he was setting up this up himself. It just seems like such an unnecessary part of the narrative that would do more to detract from his claims than support them. Why not just leave that out altogether? I then considered a situation in which Wheeler actually did plan to commit suicide, and somehow didn't succeed or chose, for whatever reason, not to go through with it, and subsequently began to stage the scene as an "attempted hit". But that seems, for lack of a better term, rather farfetched.

The more I consider it, the more likely it seems that Donovan Jacobs was the ultimate target, with Doyle being incidental--although a vital component--to the conspiracy against Jacobs. I think the phone call to the SDPD (in which Donovan Jacobs was asked for specifically, and then immediately terminated by the caller), and the fact that Doyle had one of his old SD police badges affixed to him and was forced to write the note that he did carrying that specific content supports this idea. It just smells like a lot of special effort to link the SDPD and Donovan Jacobs to the event. And I just have a hard time believing two men who had been police officers for well over a decade each would make an effort to establish those links themselves in an attempt to defame the other. They both would've known better, and would've done better, IMO.

I've seen a variation of this theory posted here in the past. It is impressive because it ties up a lot of the loose ends in this case and explains things that seemingly do not make a whole lot of sense such as the point you raised about the timing of the attack so long after the Penn trial, the strange phone call to Jacobs which had seemingly no purpose, and so on.

The biggest problem I have with the theory is that, in order for it to be true, we have to assume the existence of an unknown third variable - an individual who was trying to set up Jacobs, at a minimum, and who also presumably had some beef with Wheeler to involve him in this plot. While the existence of such a person is certainly not impossible, I am not aware of any viable suspects being named nor have the authorities mentioned anything like this, at least in the information about the case that has been released.

The biggest problem I have with the theory is that, in order for it to be true, we have to assume the existence of an unknown third variable - an individual who was trying to set up Jacobs, at a minimum, and who also presumably had some beef with Wheeler to involve him in this plot. While the existence of such a person is certainly not impossible, I am not aware of any viable suspects being named nor have the authorities mentioned anything like this, at least in the information about the case that has been released.

If there was one potential suspect who might have a motive to do something like this, it would be Thomas Riggs' brother, Michael Riggs. After Penn's acquittal, he was very outspoken against Jacobs in this article (http://articles.latimes.com/1987-09-02/local/me-3450_1_police-department/) and said he was responsible for his brother's death...

At the same time that Jacobs' conduct has come under official scrutiny, his actions during the altercation with Penn have been criticized for the first time by a member of slain Agent Thomas Riggs' family. Michael Riggs, the younger brother of Thomas Riggs, said in a recent interview that he believes that Jacobs is a bigot whose actions caused Penn to fatally shoot his brother and seriously wound civilian ride-along Sarah Pina-Ruiz.

"My personal opinion is (Jacobs) killed him, not Penn," Riggs said. "I would like to see him drummed off the face of the department."

Michael was also none-too-pleased that Jacobs openly blamed his brother and attempted to make him a scapegoat for the incident...

Riggs said he began to suspect that Jacobs may not have conducted himself appropriately when the officer criticized Tom Riggs from his hospital bed for initiating the encounter with Penn. All of the eyewitnesses who testified at the trial contradicted Jacobs' account. They said that Jacobs was the one who approached Penn in a rude manner and began fighting with him.

"The first thing he did was blame my brother," Riggs said. "It was the first thing that came out of his mouth. But they couldn't get any of the witnesses to back that up."

I don't know enough about Michael Riggs' background to speculate if he's capable of something like this, but if he had a grudge against Wheeler for his testimony helping get Penn acquitted, then perhaps framing Jacobs for Wheeler's murder was his idea of an elaborate revenge scheme. But then, it does seem awfully strange to do this two years after the trial concluded and Wheeler has moved to another state. Perhaps the fact that Jacobs was still working with the San Diego P.D. and wasn't facing any consequences for his actions just set him off.

If there was one potential suspect who might have a motive to do something like this, it would be Thomas Riggs' brother, Michael Riggs. After Penn's acquittal, he was very outspoken against Jacobs in this article (http://articles.latimes.com/1987-09-02/local/me-3450_1_police-department/) and said he was responsible for his brother's death...

If Wheeler wasn't involved, I'd agree that he's a likely suspect. But I think it's more likely that it would have been someone from within the department who would have held a grudge against both Wheeler and Jacobs. The fact that they knew the number to the main switchboard in the communications unit helps bolster that theory. They also knew which specific unit (Narcotics unit) to ask for, where Jacobs was working desk duty at the time.

I do find it interesting that not only did the San Diego PD think Wheeler, but the local PD in Washington also suspected him. If it wasn't a 3rd party set up to get back at both men, I'd have to say that Wheeler staging everything would be the next likely scenario.

If Wheeler wasn't involved, I'd agree that he's a likely suspect. But I think it's more likely that it would have been someone from within the department who would have held a grudge against both Wheeler and Jacobs. The fact that they knew the number to the main switchboard in the communications unit helps bolster that theory. They also knew which specific unit (Narcotics unit) to ask for, where Jacobs was working desk duty at the time.

I do find it interesting that not only did the San Diego PD think Wheeler, but the local PD in Washington also suspected him. If it wasn't a 3rd party set up to get back at both men, I'd have to say that Wheeler staging everything would be the next likely scenario.


Wheeler being flaky and not exactly toeing the 'thin blue line' would definitely create some animosity between him and the rest of the PD. Causing Sagon Penn to be released certainly didn't help things either. I don't think Jacobs tried to have him killed though - if he's smart, he would know that would make him the most likely suspect.

You put that together with the timing and other things already mentioned (Doyle couldn't have untied himself and managed to drive his car away before rushing back to beat the ambulance) and yeah, it's obvious someone set it all up and because of the controversy, figured Doyle would be an easy mark.

One theory I've had is that it wasn't Riggs' brother or some other 3rd party, but a completely separate cadre of cops angry at Wheeler. They know Wheeler's got controversy surrounding him and they know Jacobs isn't a popular guy either. Knowing this, they attack Wheeler and frame Jacobs with the knowledge that even if Jacobs is cleared of involvement, there are enough people on both sides that would gladly step in and like to see one or both of them gone.

I don't see Wheeler as staging the scene being a likely scenario at all solely because of the way he was tied. Even if you throw out his neighbor's testimony about seeing Wheeler's car peel out of the neighborhood, you still have the fact that the EMS team can confirm whether he was found tied in such a fashion. As we've heard nothing to the contrary nor know of any individual that would've helped Doyle stage the event, I think one can pretty well throw that out.

I don't see Wheeler as staging the scene being a likely scenario at all solely because of the way he was tied. Even if you throw out his neighbor's testimony about seeing Wheeler's car peel out of the neighborhood, you still have the fact that the EMS team can confirm whether he was found tied in such a fashion. As we've heard nothing to the contrary nor know of any individual that would've helped Doyle stage the event, I think one can pretty well throw that out.

I don't think he staged it either, but if it were somehow ruled out that an unrelated (to both Wheeler and Jacobs) 3rd party was responsible, I think him staging everything would be more likely than Jacobs being the mastermind in a murder attempt. I guess the police found his story suspicious because of the suicide note and the way he claims that he moved his head at the last second, which saved his life. But all of their suspicions could be due to the simple fact that no one ever bothered to theorize that someone other than Wheeler had a vendetta against Jacobs.

I don't think he staged it either, but if it were somehow ruled out that an unrelated (to both Wheeler and Jacobs) 3rd party was responsible, I think him staging everything would be more likely than Jacobs being the mastermind in a murder attempt. I guess the police found his story suspicious because of the suicide note and the way he claims that he moved his head at the last second, which saved his life. But all of their suspicions could be due to the simple fact that no one ever bothered to theorize that someone other than Wheeler had a vendetta against Jacobs.

Are we sure those are the reasons the PD in Washington suspected him or are you just theorizing?

Not trying to nitpick, just curious.

I'd really like to know why the police didn't believe him. I feel like there is a huge piece missing here.

Are we sure those are the reasons the PD in Washington suspected him or are you just theorizing?

Not trying to nitpick, just curious.

I'd really like to know why the police didn't believe him. I feel like there is a huge piece missing here.

The bit about his wounds is hinted at here (http://articles.latimes.com/1988-07-21/local/me-9029_1_san-diego-police/2). Page 1 of that article seems to suggest that the phone call was the other point of contention which made them suspect his story.

Great episode. Never saw this on lifetime

Thinking a lot about the Doyle Wheeler case lately and found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWCf0abM-oA

This is a short, pro-Penn documentary (on a self-described 'copwatch' YT channel) I found concerning the incident that I thought would be of interest primarily because there's some footage of the trial and Donovan Jacobs' and Sarah Pina-Ruiz's testimony, as well as some police press conferences, Thomas Riggs' memorial ceremony, and some interviews with a few of the eyewitnesses. Apparently quite a few people saw the altercation and actual shooting. Wheeler isn't featured nor mentioned at all, although I suspect the film was probably produced before his attack in April 1988.

Wheeler being flaky and not exactly toeing the 'thin blue line' would definitely create some animosity between him and the rest of the PD. Causing Sagon Penn to be released certainly didn't help things either. I don't think Jacobs tried to have him killed though - if he's smart, he would know that would make him the most likely suspect.

You put that together with the timing and other things already mentioned (Doyle couldn't have untied himself and managed to drive his car away before rushing back to beat the ambulance) and yeah, it's obvious someone set it all up and because of the controversy, figured Doyle would be an easy mark.

One theory I've had is that it wasn't Riggs' brother or some other 3rd party, but a completely separate cadre of cops angry at Wheeler. They know Wheeler's got controversy surrounding him and they know Jacobs isn't a popular guy either. Knowing this, they attack Wheeler and frame Jacobs with the knowledge that even if Jacobs is cleared of involvement, there are enough people on both sides that would gladly step in and like to see one or both of them gone.

I think that's a strong possibility of a group of officers teed off at both of Wheeler and Jacobs. It is well known that internal investigations begin whenever there are accusations of police misconduct. The indirect actions of both of them may have infringed on a possible drug-ring or theft that dirty cops were involved. This is speculation, but a group of officers rejoicing that "goodie two shoes" Wheeler retired suggests that he was a thorn to the SDPD. And maybe Jacobs wasn't well liked either.

I'm not a LEO, but in my field, there are jackasses who are walking liabilities. They walk around as hot-heads and never know when to shut up. Privately, a bunch of us want the bozos to go away.

I've never doubted Doyle's story. It's very unlikely that he could have hogtied himself and, yes, there were witnesses to corroborate his story. However, it always struck me that these hitmen just seemed a little TOO incompetent. In addition to calling the San Diego PD and asking for Donovan Jacobs by name, they somehow managed to screw up shooting a hogtied man in the back of the head at point blank range and left the scene without even making sure he was dead.

However, this would make more sense if this was all an elaborate set-up to frame Jacobs. I'm even considering the possibility that whoever was responsible may not have even had anything against Wheeler and just wanted to use him as a pawn. They conveniently "miss" shooting him in the head, so that he'd be left alive to point the finger at Jacobs.

Watching this as a kid, I totally thought Donovan Jacobs was a douche bag who went after Doyle Wheeler. However, over the years, I've realized it wasn't that cut and dry. Robin made those points perfectly.

1. If you're going to execute someone, wouldn't you make sure they were dead? If you don't, you will be identified and caught. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that.

2. If DJ set all this in motion, as much as an arrogant ***** he is, I still don't see him telling his minions to call him at work WHERE CALLS ARE RECORDED to tell him the job is done. No, he would find another way.

3. Neither were very well liked, but DW was out of that orbit for a while in WA. He wasn't nearby stirring up trouble. Whomever did this seeked Doyle out, not the other way around. As for DJ, he did contribute to what happened to Riggs. No, he didn't pull the trigger, but he created the **** storm with his racism. Riggs sounds like a cop that was well respected by his friends.

If Wheeler died, you could say circumstantially that DJ started the plan in motion with the phone call to the police, but unless you found the men, it could be chalked up to a prank call. However, with Wheeler ALIVE, you have a witness who can testify to all these events, including that these men broke in to kill him and were calling SDPD to confirm the job was done. This connects DJ to the crime.

Whether DW was a pawn or some were still pissed at him, I think this was an attempt to get at DJ that, well, failed. I don't think Doyle was meant to die at all and him being accused of faking is the cherry on the sundae to some cops who hated him.

Thinking a lot about the Doyle Wheeler case lately and found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWCf0abM-oA

This is a short, pro-Penn documentary (on a self-described 'copwatch' YT channel) I found concerning the incident that I thought would be of interest primarily because there's some footage of the trial and Donovan Jacobs' and Sarah Pina-Ruiz's testimony, as well as some police press conferences, Thomas Riggs' memorial ceremony, and some interviews with a few of the eyewitnesses. Apparently quite a few people saw the altercation and actual shooting. Wheeler isn't featured nor mentioned at all, although I suspect the film was probably produced before his attack in April 1988.

Thank you for that, that was really interesting. I still contend that Penn loses his claims of self defense the moment he shot Sarah Pina-Ruiz while she was seated in the passenger seat of the car.

This year 2023 falls exactly like 1989. It was on this day 34 years ago, on Wednesday Nov 8th. 1989, one day before the fall of the Berlin Wall, that the episode that included the cases of Doyle Wheeler;Salvatore Caruana with the original drug trafficker roll call: Douglas Alan Costa, Lewis Michael Geiger,Lavada Floyd & Richard Green; the Update about the capture of fugitive Charles Wickman; the murder of Rachael Runyan and the search for fugitive conman Gene Flannes was originally broadcasted. It was repeated only once on April 11th. 1990 with the drug trafficker roll call changed: with the exception of Lavada Floyd all the other fugitives are different (Richard Joseph Alvarado, William McGeehee & Alvaro Zapata).

It is one of the most edited segments of the Film Rise collection. Please correct me, but I think the only segment that was kept from this episode is the Salvatore Caruana case without the original or the second drug trafficker roll call, and it was transferred to the episode of Oct 25th. 1989, to substitute the segment of Bonnie Wilder and the infamous Missing Persons Roll Call.

I don’t know if the whole episode, but the segment of Doyle Wheeler was never repeated after the second broadcast of April 11th. 1990, because of the Donovan Jacobs lawsuit threat, but I saw the original episode, from Wednesday Nov 8th 1989, in some Latin American countries in the late 90s, as late as the first months of 2001, so maybe Jacobs’ lawsuit only applied to the US?

It's often underdiscussed, but Wheeler delayed the orders of taking out James Huberty (gunman in the San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre) by about 25 minutes. Multiple people were killed during that time frame and Wheeler took it hard. He tried committing suicide in March of 1985 and was forced to retire in October of 1985.

It's often underdiscussed, but Wheeler delayed the orders of taking out James Huberty (gunman in the San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre) by about 25 minutes. Multiple people were killed during that time frame and Wheeler took it hard. He tried committing suicide in March of 1985 and was forced to retire in October of 1985.

The segment mentions that he gave the order but "for some reason" it was not carried out for about 25 minutes. They don't explain why SWAT took so long to fire. In looking up the incident online, it looks like SWAT didn't fire until they had a completely unobstructed view of Huberty after he moved to a different area of the restaurant. Even so, Doyle suffered a lot of anguish even if the delay wasn't his fault.

Just saw this on the forbidden site for the first time, even before they got to the part about the investigation my gut reaction is that Doyle staged this event with the help of an accomplice.

Only question I have for this case is why it was introduced with the category "The Unexplained" when usually this category is used for cases involving unexplained phenomena and/or supernatural events—basically anything with a paranormal aspect to it and this case had none whatsoever.

I would've thought a more appropriate category for this case would've been "Wanted" since there were at least two suspects wanted over Wheeler's attempted murder.

I can only surmise it was a mistake on the part of whoever was editing the episode.

Only question I have for this case is why it was introduced with the category "The Unexplained" when usually this category is used for cases involving unexplained phenomena and/or supernatural events—basically anything with a paranormal aspect to it and this case had none whatsoever.

I would've thought a more appropriate category for this case would've been "Wanted" since there were at least two suspects wanted over Wheeler's attempted murder.

I can only surmise it was a mistake on the part of whoever was editing the episode.

I think it was under that category because there was the possibility that Doyle was making everything up. I don't believe it, but if he was making it up, there wouldn't be anyone to be "wanted".