VALLEJO – The former head of the Vallejo Police Officers Association worked to “significantly” lower the department’s standards so he could get promoted, according to testimony in a whistleblower’s lawsuit.
In 2017, Det. Mat Mustard — then president of the Vallejo Police Officers Association — had failed his written sergeant’s exam and wasn’t further considered for promotion. But he then advocated for changes to the exam, which then-police Chief Andrew Bidou accepted, leading to Mustard’s promotion, according to former Vallejo police Capt. John Whitney’s testimony last December in a deposition for his wrongful termination suit against the city of Vallejo.
The lowered standard didn’t sit well with some of the department’s higher-ranking officers, including Whitney and Capt. Lee Horton. Both took offense to two provisions: it “put very little significance” on the written exam and removed a provision that rejected anyone who couldn’t score higher than 70%.
“Captain Horton and I both protested this for a good amount of time in the chief's office, with
Mat Mustard saying that this is how it should be done,” Whitney testified. “The chief ultimately went with what Mat Mustard wanted.”
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Mustard by then was well-known for falsely accusing two people of staging a graphic and highly publicized kidnapping, which later led to a $2.5 million settlement for the couple after the real kidnapper was found by investigators in another jurisdiction.
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