Instructors:

              Legal Seminar

                    Eugene Ramirez

              K-9 and Tactical Instructors

                    Brad Smith  West Covina Police Department CA

                    Lane Critser, Utah County Sheriff’s Department UT

                    Jay Miller, Santa Ana County Sheriff’s Department CA

              Coordinator

                    Kevin Sheldahl, Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department NM

This group of instructors is experienced in the fields they will be teaching.

Please see their brief bio’s below.

Eugene P. Ramirez, a founding member of the firm, graduated from Whittier College School of Law (J.D., 1987), where he was Notes & Comments Editor of the Law Review, a member of the Moot Court Honors Board and President of the Student Bar Association.  At Whittier, he received an award as the Best Oral Advocate and the Outstanding Moot Court Graduate Award.  He received his undergraduate degree in Political Science from California State University, Long Beach (B.A., 1983), where he minored in Criminal Justice & Public Policy.

Before joining the firm, Gene worked as a deputy district attorney for the L.A. County District Attorney's Office, where he conducted numerous misdemeanor and felony jury trials, including murder trials.  Mr. Ramirez also has worked for the Long Beach Naval Legal Services Office and as a reserve police officer for the Whittier Police Department and the Monterey Park Police Department.

Mr. Ramirez is a supervisor of the firm’s rapidly-growing employment law group.  Gene represents employers in all aspects of employment law, which includes sexual harassment, wrongful termination, employee discipline, Title VII issues, the Fair Employment and Housing Act, wage and hour issues (FLSA), the Americans with Disability Act issues, employee handbooks, personnel issues and  preventive counseling matters.

As a supervising member of the police civil liability team, he combines his civil experience with his former law enforcement background.  He serves as an advisor to several public entities on the issues of use of force, policies and procedures and on employment issues.  Mr. Ramirez has acquired significant expertise on civil liability arising out of the use of police dogs in law  enforcement by winning several cases, and has lectured widely on the subject to police departments nationwide.   He is General Counsel for the United States Police Canine Association and has authored several articles for the USPCA's "Canine Courier". He was recently retained as a consultant to the United States Secret Service Canine Unit.

 Mr. Ramirez has published an article on the topic of police civil liability: Police Misconduct Suits, the Duty to Defend; the Duty to Indemnify and Whether There is a Duty to Provide Separate Counsel under Calif. Government Code 825.

Mr. Ramirez is also experienced in defending SWAT Teams in civil liability cases.  He is an instructor on liability issues for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Basic and Advanced SWAT Schools.  He is also an instructor for the California Association of Tactical Officers (CATO) and for the National Tactical Officers’ Association (NTOA).  He lectures on SWAT liability to departments across the country. He was a member of the State Attorney General’s Blue Ribbon SWAT Committee and he is currently a member of POST’s Executive Advisory Committee for SWAT Teams.

Mr. Ramirez was profiled in the April 2003, California Lawyer Magazine, for his work in defending law enforcement.  He was recently honored with the 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs(ALADS).  He also was named as a 2005 Super Lawyer for Southern California.  This award only goes to the top 5% of attorneys in the Los Angeles/Orange County Bar.  He was also recently named to the distinguished American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), an award only bestowed upon proven trial attorneys.

He was selected as the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department’s 1993 Trial Lawyer of the Year.  He is an instructor for POST on the use of  force and is an instructor at the California Specialized Training Institute (CSTI) where he lectures police officers from various California Police departments on use of force liability.  He is also an adjunct professor of Trial Advocacy at Whittier College School of Law.  Mr. Ramirez was a commentator for K-CAL, Channel 9 News during the “O.J. Simpson Trial”.  He appears regularly on television as a legal commentator.

Officer Brad Smith is a 21 year veteran of the West Covina Police Department in Southern California. Officer Smith is the current Canine Chairperson for N.T.O.A. and Subject Matter Expert for the California Association of Tactical Officers, C.A.T.O.  Officer Smith has been a K-9 handler for the last 16 years, 13 of those years as a team member and Swat dog handler.

Officer Smith specializes in field tactics and officer safety. Over the years Officer Smith has instructed thousands of canine handlers and Swat team members during the numerous courses he has given on K-9 Swat Deployment throughout the United States, Canada and Brazil. He has published several articles for a wide variety of publications on K-9 Swat Deployment and training. Some of these publications are N.T.O.A.’s Tactical Edge, C.A.T.O., Law & Order and Police Magazine.

Officer Smith graduated from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Swat school in 1988.  Officer Smith is also a graduate of the P.O.S.T. Master Instructor Development Program and is certified to evaluate and certify any police dog in the State of California and Utah.  For his Master Instructor Project, Officer Smith designed and implemented the first and only P.O.S.T certified K-9 SWAT School in the State of California and Arizona.  The school is called S.K.I.D.D.S., which stands for SWAT & K-9’s Interacting During Deployment School.

Officer Smith has competed internationally as well as regionally in numerous police canine  competitions.  He has won 6 Grand Championships, 5 Reserve Grand Championships, 6 Top Agency Awards and has over 60 other K-9 awards.  Officer Smith has also been a judge at 16 Police K-9 competitions and a guest speaker at numerous K-9 and Swat seminars around the world.

Lane Critser is a deputy for the Utah County Sheriff’s Office. As a member of the K9 team, he is responsible for the training and deployment of his canine, Danno; this includes patrol, narcotic and SWAT dog applications. He is also an operator of the Utah County SWAT team. As a team leader, he is responsible for a 37 member multi-jurisdictional team that services 85% of Utah counties municipalities for tactical deployments.

Prior to joining the Utah County Sheriff’s Office as a deputy, Critser served as a K9 handler for the Emergency Services Division/Search and Rescue Detail for the Sheriff’s office. During that time, he helped establish the K9 training program that included avalanche, area search, tracking and water recovery search. His experience includes lost person behavior, high angle rope rescue, dive rescue and swift water rescue. He also participated in an informal Search and Rescue dog training with the Osterreich Rettungschundbrigade of Salzburg, Austria.

Critser is a certified instructor for Utah POST Patrol Dog, Utah POST SWAT Dog, Utah POST Detector Dog, Tactical Handgun, OC Aerosol, Chemical Munitions, Mechanical and Ballistic Breaching, Specialty Impact Munitions and Light-Sound Distraction devices.

He is a graduate of the Adlerhorst Basic Patrol Dog Course, West Covina Police Department SKIDDS School, and many other SWAT and K9 schools.

Critser is an honorary member of the SpecialEinsatzKommando, Bielefeld, Germany and Police Luxembourg Groupement Special. He has received the Exceptional Service, Division Commanders, and Lifesaving Awards from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office. In addition, he and his canine have received the Tough Dog Award.

Critser was honored in 2000 to represent the law enforcement community of the United States at the Internationale Polizeimeisterschaft in Hannover, Germany. He was the only non-German judge selected for the event and was tasked with the Shutzdienst (protection) phase of the competition.

Jay Miller

Kevin Sheldahl