Exclusive: One-on-one with Cathedral City Police sergeant who says he’s being retaliated against

News Channel 3 spoke exclusively with the Cathedral City police officer who claims he's being retaliated against at work.

The reason, he says, is his decades-long relationship with the city's mayor, Ernesto Gutierrez.

"I'm getting told that I can't even protect my city, just because they don't like the council person," Sgt. Corwin de Veas told News Channel 3's Jake Ingrassia.

de Veas made explosive accusations at last week's city council meeting. "Mr. Mayor, you are ruining and have ruined my professional police career at Cathedral City Police Department," he said.

de Veas now says he made that impassioned 3-minute speech not to call out ayor, but rather to inform the public about retaliations he said he's facing for their friendship – and for Gutierrez giving direction to the police department.

"When he calls out something, you know – the the rolled eyes. 'Oh, it's it's your friend again. It's your friend again. It's your friend again,'" he said.

de Veas said he's being belittled by department leadership. His hours and work days have changed. He's even been called off the gang unit.

"There's nobody that's had more arrests than me. As far as convictions... I have, percentage-wise, more than anybody else," de Veas said. "You're telling me, ridiculously... that, a person's job is to protect and serve, that I can't do that."

City manager Charlie McClendon said there are other ways to bring concerns to the city. "That would include the chain of command in the police department, a formal grievance procedure, we have union representatives... and I have an open door policy," he said.

But those are routes de Veas said would be a waste of time. "If they do an investigation, I say there's a grievance, where does it go to? It goes to the city, it goes to the city manager, it goes to the chief and they can just say no, there's no grievance here. We haven't broken any laws, which is true," he said.

Feeling out of options, de Veas said he wants to put it all out there for the public to see.

"I can do my job, I don't need to be put on timeout," he said.

de Veas is currently on leave from the department after an injury. The city manager said he and the police chief are now "evaluating what next steps may be required."

The chief did not respond to our request for comment, and the mayor would not comment, calling it a personnel matter.