After branding a man guilty on social media, three RPD officers have been named in $12 million defamation suit
When Phetakhom Tu Manivong was arrested in 2022, Redding Police officers posted on the department’s Facebook page, claiming he had committed a heinous crime. After being found not guilty by a jury of his peers, Manivong has filed a lawsuit against the city alleging that RPD’s false statement followed him for years, ruining his career and his reputation.
The Robert P. Blankenship Police Facility in Redding, California. Photo by Nevin Kallepalli
Probable cause is a foundational principle that every California cadet learns during training. It’s defined by state manuals as when circumstances lead officers to have an “honest and strong suspicion that the person to be arrested is guilty of a crime.”
The Fourth Amendment requires law enforcement officers to establish probable cause to justify an arrest. But probable cause is a suspicion, not an established fact. And under America’s justice system, defendants accused of crimes are to be treated as innocent until proven guilty by trial.
But that foundational truth didn’t stop the Redding Police Department from referring to Phetakhom Tu Manivong as guilty in a 2022 post on the department’s Facebook about his arrest — long before he would have his day in court.
Manivong’s trial concluded in May of 2025. He was found not guilty and acquitted of all charges. Now he’s suing the City of Redding for defamation, among other alleged civil violations of his rights.
Manivong, who worked for the city, was apprehended by officers in 2022 under suspicion of committing a sexual crime against a minor.
But in a social media post at the time, Officer Regan Ortega documented the arrest on social media differently, telling RPD’s tens of thousands of followers that officers had definitive proof of the suspect’s guilt. Her RPD post, which included a photo pulled from Manivong’s driver’s license, stated that a police investigation revealed a victim “had been sexually assaulted by Manivong for a period of about 1.5 years.”
The post went beyond sharing the news of his arrest to describe crimes now known to be falsely attributed to him in disturbing detail, noting officers had spoken with an underage victim and other witnesses.
The social media narrative elicited hundreds of comments from the public, including multiple calls for Manivong’s castration and expressions of hope that he would be physically harmed in prison. The post was also amplified by local news sources, which regularly draw on RPD’s communications for crime reporting, extending the message’s damaging impact even farther.
Last year, RPD implemented changes to its social media practices after a Shasta Scout investigation revealed that the department appeared to be routinely violating California law. That law bans law enforcement from posting mug shots, or arrest photos — something the department did hundreds of times in 2024 alone. The law was based on research that documents how the practice fundamentally undermines a person’s presumption of innocence.
It can also open up police departments to defamation suits like the one filed last December by Manivong.
His suit against the City of Redding names Ortega and officers Lauren Meyer and Jon Sheldon, along with local union I.B.E.W. 1245, which represents some of Redding’s city workers. Manivong is claiming breach of contract and wrongful discharge in violation of public policy after the city of Redding was allegedly motivated by RPD’s post to terminate him. He also included claims related to malicious prosecution and defamation and is seeking $12 million in damages.
RPD Chief Brian Barner declined to comment on ongoing litigation for this story. But last year, Barner bragged about RPD’s social media following of 51,000, a number second only to KRCR, he said. At the time, he described RPD’s social media posts as “arrest stories,” saying they are an important part of a larger social media strategy which is used to communicate “all the positive work being done by our Department to make our community better.”
Manivong’s attorney, Eric Alan Berg, said in an interview a few weeks ago that he’s observed this particular kind of conduct among police officers many times, saying social media posts like the one about Manivong are used as an effort “to garner public opinion on their side … they have no regard for the possible innocence of someone.”
Berg drew a distinction between simply publishing a false allegation from a victim and what RPD wrote in the Facebook caption about Manivong — that a police investigation had actually revealed his guilt.
“That’s as bad or worse than just saying that he did it, right?” Berg said. “Because they’re saying, not only did [the victim] say it happened, but they investigated this and they believed it to be true.”
Berg said that Manivong had lost his city job, and with it, his retirement and means of supporting his wife and children, based on a mere accusation.
3.20.2026 12:03 p.m. We have updated the headline and subhead to align with the language of the courts which use the phrases guilty and not guilty rather than innocent.
Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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If I’m on the jury, my vote is Manivong is awarded all $12M. Cops have absolutely no business pronouncing suspects guilty on social media, even if they have the goods. The right-wing authoritarians in this country are out of control. The redder the state/county, the more brazen the authoritarianism.
This happened to me as well in 2025.
I was described on their Facebook page as a “Local Known Transient”, when in fact I have been a taxpaying homeowner for 25 years. The rest of the clip was nothing but lies and conjecture.
The Shasta Superior Court system is shaped the same, essentially it is an extorsion scam aimed at the inmates. It is simplicity, really. Their stated goal is to have a 100% conviction rate, they are very open about this goal. They achieve this by setting unbelievably high bail amounts, or many like me were simply assigned no bail if there was any possibility of raising over $1 Million bail money.
Then they just hold you without a trial or access to a public defender until you agree to plead guilty to something. There are VERY few trials in the Shasta Superior Court system, almost everyone is given some sort of plea deal. Your only options at that point are to plead guilty to a crime you did not commit, or you can just sit in limbo indefinitely without any trial, they just re assign the date, or re-file your charges to extend your stay.
On February 10, 2025 I was told by Sergeant O’Hara of the RPD that I could retrieve personal belongings from a car that was being held hostage at a well-known “Chop Shop” on Airport Road. I asked SGT. O’Hara for a civil standby as I would be heavily outnumbered in this fight.
The Coward refused and hung up on me. The DA had a audio copy of the call.
Sergeant O’Hara is a Coward, because he was the first one on the scene, and simply sat in his car watching this 3 against 1 street brawl. HE ALREADY KNEW WHERE THE CHOP SHOP WAS!! Instead of doing his job, and legally sworn duty to protect the public, I was arrested for Burglary and spent 10 months in Jail until I had been there so long my time just waiting for a non-existent trial had exceeded any sentence they could offer from the Prosecuting Attorney.
I served 303 days in jail, and also accumulated 303 days good conduct time, for a total of 606 days, or nearly 2 years. The most they could sentence me to was 1 year, which I had already passed waiting for trial. They were forced to release me and just threw away the rest of the time, no apology, but it was made very clear to me that if I did not agree to plead guilty to this charge, I would remain in limbo possibly for the rest of my life.
In the 10 months there I saw 3 men killed while in custody, one of whom, Michael Jorgensen, died only feet away from me from the staff withholding medical attention from him until he died, this 24 year old young father of 2 boys had been transported to the hospital already for seizures, and we were all worried about him, and were very vocal with the staff about getting him help.
Our pleas were ignored, and the young man died on a cold concrete floor, after which the staff would come check on his corpse and kick it, then claim he moved.
These are not human beings that run this enterprise, they are ghouls.
There are approximately 200,000 attorneys in California. Between sprawl and revenue considerations either the new manager for the city cleans house or ‘The people” will handle it… #TIME!!!
The proof of the validity and if valid the value of that validity in the civil action that is the subject of this Shasta Scout post will be determined by the outcome of the action. As the old saying goes: “Time will tell.” I will wait for that outcome for my conclusions about this civil suit.
There is no exact, official statistic for the total number of specialized civil rights lawyers in California, but they represent a segment of the state’s ~195,000 active licensed attorneys. While thousands of lawyers may handle related cases, specialized civil rights firms and practitioners are scattered across the state, with high concentrations in legal hubs like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego.
This happens every day, sadly. Not too different from what’s now happening with Cesar Chavez. You’re always guilty from the moment an accusation is made. There is zero presumption of innocence, and the courts dont play fair, either. If you havent yet, watch the Steven Avery “Making a Murderer” ahow on netflix to see how a not guilty verdict is practically impossible to achieve.
Caesar Chavez is not a comp. He’s a pedo rapist. Adios amigo.
I would advise you to read the NY Times article about their meticulously researched investigation before pronouncing César Chavez a victim of reckless, unproved accusations. He was one of my heroes, but no longer.
.
I think that’s one of the defining differences between liberals and conservatives. Our admiration is cautious, contingent, and revokable. You are going to see a lot of renaming of César Chavez streets, schools, and university buildings in the coming months. Orange Mussolini brags of sexually assaulting women and redacts, withholds, and possibly destroys the Epstein files that incriminate him, and his popularity among MAGAs only grows.
Google “Afroman” for a person whose home was breached by law enforcement, they left with nothing incriminating- but had waved their automatic weapons around his children. When he started making songs to ridicule their actions, the deputies had the audacity to sue him for defamation. He recently won against their lawsuit.
Just look at RPD doing a good job! Violating people’s rights. Doing it blatantly in public, makes you wonder what’s going on in the jail where everyone is dying.
I phoned a report to the DA’s office per posts from pre booking at the jail (including photos) on Craigslist in 2016. “What do you want us to do about it?” was the response. Welcome to the County of Collusion where you are presumed “guilty” ‘cuz “We say” (period).
Business as usual. . . for decades.
Regardless of the charges, or of the guilt or innocence of the accused, the ‘presumption of innocence’ doctrine in America is being undermined – and I can’t help but wonder if this is yet another intentional, coordinated and covert attack on our Constitutional Rights by a hidden hand.
Oh absolutely!
This kind of thing was made popular by Rudy Giuliani when he was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He started using the “perp walk” to publicize arrests, knowing it would help him get convictions by undermining the legal presumption of innocence. Soon other cities began using the tactic, and now the “Walk of Shame” is an accepted part of our tainted legal system.
Please let this be the beginning of a landslide of lawsuits. RPD did this COUNTLESS times to citizens, when they KNEW it was against the law. (I personally pointed this out many times in FB comments). The ONLY reason the stopped is because the AG of California made them. If anyone has had the pleasure of dealing with pretty much any RPD officer, this attitude is evident. Everyone is treated as guilty; they are only concerned with trying to punish people, never to help or support the community. I even heard a Sergeant say one time: “If the police were called, then a crime was committed. It’s our job to find the person to charge with a crime.”