A judge recently ordered the city to publicly release the final report on an investigation into the San Jose Fire Department that started when a video surfaced showing a bikini-clad woman stepping out of a firetruck and into a strip club.
The investigative report names names for the first time and answers a key question.
But it also raises more questions about the integrity of the firefighters involved and why the department doled out so little punishment.
In the months that followed NBC Bay Area’s sources helped uncover pieces of the story.
For example, firefighters told investigators they were giving the woman, a club employee, a ride around the block after she demanded it.
Our Investigative Unit also learned the firetruck made a second stop at AJ’s Bikini Bar a few blocks away before returning.
But this partially-redacted report, which a judge ordered the city to release after being sued by The Mercury News, answers a central question -- why were firefighters at the Pink Poodle in the first place?
In the report, firefighters claimed a fire captain had recruited a photographer who also worked at the Pink Poodle to take pictures of his fire crew.
The firefighters said they had gone to the club to pick up the photos.
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On Tuesday, NBC Bay Area asked former Mayor Sam Liccardo if he thought the whole incident was as bad as he imagined when we first told him about it in October.
“In some ways it's worse because not only do you have whatever happened at the Pink Poodle but now there seems to be some cover up about whatever was happening afterward,” he said.
For the first time the report also identifies the fire Captain William Tognozzi.
He was demoted to fire engineer, but during our investigation we also learned that he was the only person disciplined for the ride along that a bikini-clad woman demanded.
“A lot of members of the community can understand how a bikini-clad woman could demand a member of the fire department to take her for a ride,” said Steven Clark.
The legal analyst said the incident could have raised numerous liability concerns for the city.
Clark says a life saving apparatus is not an Uber, and he too is surprised that it took 10 months to get to this point, and that the discipline was so minimal.
“The city got behind this story from day one, and followed it straight into the gutter, instead of acknowledging wrongdoing at the earliest point,” said Clark.
After first looking at the video in October, former Mayor Liccardo said that if it was as bad as it looked, then heads must roll.
And now that the facts are all out, he was asked if heads rolled in the case, and he said, “no.”
Read the city's full statement below:
The complete investigatory report and disciplinary records concerning the October 5, 2022, incident at the Pink Poodle were released.
This is an isolated incident that is highly unacceptable and should not overshadow the tireless work thousands of employees perform every day to serve our community, while being transparent, honest and ethical in every aspect of their job.
The City takes great care to balance the privacy rights of reporting parties and witnesses to alleged misconduct in an effort to encourage employees and members of the public to raise concerns. The City's ability to conduct a complete and thorough investigation relies on the participation of reporting parties and witnesses to cooperate in the investigative process and we hope the release of the report does not detract from that.
