Homophobic Ex-Police Chief Pleads Guilty to Financial Crime

(Canyon Lake, CA) Former Garden Grove, California, police chief Frank Kessler (and his wife) are finally getting payback for the years of torture and hate that at least Mr. K inflicted on the Orange County lesbitrangay community while he was the top cop in Garden Grove decades ago.

Kessler, who is also a former city councilmember of Canyon Lake (a gated community near Lake Elsinore), plead guilty to one count of embezzlement on February 24, according to North County Times. The plea deal was reached after this jerk went to town with a city-issued credit card! His wife, Suzanne, only recently got out of jail pending her anticipated criminal trial for 23 criminal counts, including borrowing nearly $1 million on false promises to repay AND writing nearly $100,000 worth of checks from a phony account.

When this writer was secretary to the board of directors of the Orange County Gay and Lesbian Community Center decades ago, Kessler came to one of our board meetings after the center had become a frequent target of vandalism, fire bombs, death threats (what today would amount to terrorism). At that time, Kessler told the board something like, “Just take that damn sign down and you won’t have so many problems,” which was in reference to a large sign with the name of the center on it in front of the facility on Euclid Avenue.

I actually testified about this incident as a witness in a federal civil rights case against the City of Garden Grove brought by Mac’s Landing, a gay-friendly bar.

Click here for an in-depth 1987 Los Angeles Times article that discusses the Mac’s Landing case and documents the history of anti-gay harassment by Garden Grove police under Kessler’s watch (and with his full knowledge and support).