Audio files posted on the OC Register web site here shows Tyler Diep to be more knowledgeable of what he was doing than the image of an inexperienced new council member he made himself out to be on Vietnamese-language media.
He knew, for example, that his phone call to the police department was being recorded and so asked the watch commander to call him back instead of speaking on the police line.
The issue is whether and to what extent Councilman Tyler Diep interfered with police inspection on behalf of the owner of a Little Saigon area watering hole called Citryst (commercial vidcap shown above).
The Reg’s Deepa Bharath reports here that a review of campaign finance disclosure shows no contributions from Citryst or its owner Amanda Dung Nguyen. So at least we know that it’s not because of public campaign contributions that Diep woke up in the middle of the night to try to stop the police from inspecting the place.
Anyway, so on the night of February 6 – 7, 2008, three officers showed up to conduct a routine business check at Citryst.
But, when they got there, the owner Amanda Dung Nguyen told her security guard to bar the glass door and keep the cops from going in.
Later, when they were let in, there were no problems to be seen.
And then, Amanda Dung Nguyen called Diep.
Barely 20 later, at about 12:15 am on Feb. 7, Diep called the Westminster Police Department. He sounded upset, but alert enough to be careful about being recorded.
The conversation, shown on the Reg’s web site, went like this:
Police: Watch commander, Sgt. Vu, how may I help you?
Diep: Hi. What’s the… Who’s the watch commander tonight?
Police: This is Sgt. Vu I’m the watch commander right now. Can I help you sir?
Diep: Sgt. Vu, uhm. It’s, it’s Tim Vu right?
Police: I’m sorry? Yes. Timothy Vu, yes, yes sir.
Diep: It’s Timothy Vu.
Police: Your voice sounds really familiar, sir. Is this Councilman Diep?
Diep: Yes.
Police: How are you?
Diep: I don’t know. I have to get out of my bed at midnight. I, uhm, you, uhm, you have an officer named Officer Tran, on shift tonight?
Police: Yes sir we do. (pause on both ends) Is there, is there something that’s going on?
Diep: Uh, uhm, how do I say this. Uh. Now, by, I guess, policy, you have to log in this call when I called you.
Police: Yes sir. Everything on this line right here is being recorded.
Diep: (pause) Ok. I’m going to give you my cell phone number, can you give me a call back?
Police: If you like, sir, what’s your cell phone number?
Diep: <number bleeped out> Give me, hold on, give me… It’s midnight and I have to deal with this crap. Did you send anybody … Just give me a call back on my cell phone.
Police: You want me to call you right back, or give you a few minutes and then call you back?
Diep: Give me, give me 15 minutes and then call me back.
Police: I’ll call you back at 12:30 sir.
Before the time came for the sergeant to call Diep back, lo and behold Diep materialized in the flesh at the police station.
He was still so upset he couldn’t quite say what he wanted. One officer even offered to help:
Police: What is it you would like us to do?
Police: How can we help you?
Police: You seem frustrated.
<something the Bolsavik couldn’t make out>
Police: You seem upset.
Diep: I am.
Police: If you talk to us about it. If you don’t, we won’t be able to help you.
Diep: Why were your men out there again?
Police: Why were the officers out there?
Diep: Yeah.
Police: My understanding is they were just out there to do a routine business check. It’s a third or fourth cafe/restaurant they were at tonight.
The same bar, Citryst, has been rumored as the place where Councilman Andy Quach went to get himself stone cold drunk before hitting a car and crashing through a power pole and a concrete wall.
Quach claimed he was at West Coast Buffet, but the manager there said the group had left by 10 and Quach didn’t crash his car until near midnight. Not to mention that he was not driving away from West Coast at that time.
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