Yeah, you read that right. A Fresno, California liberal group (Peace Fresno) discovered that the quiet guy taking notes in their meetings who claimed to be “independently wealthy” was in fact an undercover sheriff’s detective (who died in a motorcycle accident on August 30; coverage of his death in the paper included a photo that members noticed).

Local law enforcement insists there was no investigation of the group (described in the article as “a bunch of Unitarian schoolteachers”), and that there are no documents or notes resulting from his surveillance. The officer’s family insist he was unlikely to be a member of the group on his own time, however, and he was using an assumed name for his role there.

In July, state attorney general Bill Lockyer told California law enforcement to not collect intelligence on religious or political groups without evidence of criminal activity. But under the federal Homeland Security Act of 2002, intelligence agents can look at acts of civil disobedience and minor law-breaking.

Shit like this gives me The Fear.