Post by WaTcHeR on May 6, 2006 12:59:05 GMT -5
05/06/2006 - In one case, a cellphone call from a commander stopped a caravan of police vehicles on their way to search an officer's home. In another, a tape-recorded death threat somehow did not make it into a police report.
In both cases, the suspects were DeKalb County police officers accused of domestic violence.
at first — in spite of physical evidence suggesting a crime had been committed, according to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution under the Georgia Open Records Act.
Authorities will not say whether these two cases are among those that will be pursued by a special prosecutor looking into allegations of misconduct by DeKalb police.
The state attorney general's office said Monday it will appoint a prosecutor after DeKalb District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming disqualified herself because of a conflict of interest that arose during her investigation of the Police Department. Keyes Fleming did not elaborate on the conflict.
But a review of four years of domestic violence complaints against the county's police officers raises questions about how the department investigated two if its own — Officers Jamilia Davis and Samuel Freeman.
Case 1: Search called off
The case against Davis began on April 9, 2005, when her boyfriend told DeKalb County police Davis had slashed him with a butcher knife during an argument.
Even though the incident happened six days earlier, cuts were still visible on the man's chest and hand, according to a report filed by the Police Department's internal affairs unit .
The man, who is also a DeKalb County police officer, decided to report it, he said in a written statement, because Davis was continuing to make threatening phone calls.
So on April 11, 2005, a caravan of criminal investigators, internal affairs investigators and crime scene technicians headed toward Davis' home with a search warrant.
But a few minutes after they left headquarters, Lt. M.A. Williams' cellphone rang, according to a memo he later wrote.
The caller, a police major, told Williams not to go to the house, not to execute the search warrant and to drop the entire matter, Williams wrote in his memo.
In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Deputy Chief Darryl Farley said he called off the search because he was concerned that the officers were acting without a formal complaint from the victim.
"We didn't have the facts at the time," Farley said.
Farley said he hadn't seen the official report on the incident when he canceled the search, even though the report was dated two days before he intervened.
He said he wasn't shown the April 9 report even after he canceled the search.
"We'd have jumped on it," especially because officers were involved, he said. Instead, he said he heard nothing more about the case until after the district attorney's office began an investigation.
The district attorney's office began investigating about two weeks later after "sources in the DeKalb Police Department" tipped off the district attorney about the allegations against Davis, said Adora Andy, a spokeswoman for the district attorney. Andy discussed the case before Keyes Fleming turned over the office's files to the state attorney general.
Seven months after the incident, on Nov. 3, 2005, Davis was indicted. In February, she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor family violence battery, a conviction that made her ineligible to be a police officer.
A judge sentenced Davis to two years of probation, and she was later fired from the Police Department.
The district attorney's file on the Davis prosecution includes an undated memo written by John Richey, the district attorney's chief investigator.
"We have known of this case for a while, and the police department failed to make any arrest(s) on it ... prior to the investigation being called off by the chief of police," Richey wrote in his memo.
Through a spokesman, Louis Graham, DeKalb County's police chief, said he did not call off the search of Davis' home and did not stop the criminal investigation.
Graham has not commented on the appointment of a special prosecutor.
Responding through the spokesman to questions about the Davis case, Graham said he thought that investigation was handled "correctly."
Richey refused to elaborate on his reference to Graham in his memo.
Case 2: Threat to 'kill her'
The case against the second officer, Samuel Freeman, surfaced on Feb. 16, 2005.
That's the day, records show, that police received a recording of threatening phone calls Freeman supposedly made to his ex-girlfriend.
The original police report noted that Freeman had threatened to kill himself, but it did not mention the threats the woman maintained had been made against her or even the existence of the recordings.
Freeman wasn't arrested until months later — on June 3, 2005 — when a new report was filed and noted that the woman's telephone system had recorded 15 phone calls from Freeman to the woman on Feb. 16.
The calls included a threat that "he was going to kill her," according to the new report.
The report, though, didn't explain why the recorded calls weren't used to make a criminal case against Freeman, who has been charged with making terroristic threats. He is on unpaid leave.
Andy, the district attorney's spokeswoman, could not comment on whether the department's handling of the Freeman complaint is being reviewed because the criminal case against him is still under way, she said.
In an e-mail response to questions about Freeman, Graham said he immediately ordered an investigation of Freeman when he learned of the reported death threat.
He declined to comment on whether the original investigation was conducted properly.
But the chief said he takes complaints of domestic violence against police officers seriously.
Shortly after becoming chief in 2004, he made the issue a priority by using training videos and messages in the department newsletter to offer counseling and to warn officers of criminal and disciplinary penalties.
Beginning this year, police recruits will take three days of "personal relationship training," including emotional skills to resolve conflicts at home and on the job.
In addition, all officers will be required to have one day of the training each year.
"This," Graham said, "is not a flash-in-the-pan initiative."
In both cases, the suspects were DeKalb County police officers accused of domestic violence.
at first — in spite of physical evidence suggesting a crime had been committed, according to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution under the Georgia Open Records Act.
Authorities will not say whether these two cases are among those that will be pursued by a special prosecutor looking into allegations of misconduct by DeKalb police.
The state attorney general's office said Monday it will appoint a prosecutor after DeKalb District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming disqualified herself because of a conflict of interest that arose during her investigation of the Police Department. Keyes Fleming did not elaborate on the conflict.
But a review of four years of domestic violence complaints against the county's police officers raises questions about how the department investigated two if its own — Officers Jamilia Davis and Samuel Freeman.
Case 1: Search called off
The case against Davis began on April 9, 2005, when her boyfriend told DeKalb County police Davis had slashed him with a butcher knife during an argument.
Even though the incident happened six days earlier, cuts were still visible on the man's chest and hand, according to a report filed by the Police Department's internal affairs unit .
The man, who is also a DeKalb County police officer, decided to report it, he said in a written statement, because Davis was continuing to make threatening phone calls.
So on April 11, 2005, a caravan of criminal investigators, internal affairs investigators and crime scene technicians headed toward Davis' home with a search warrant.
But a few minutes after they left headquarters, Lt. M.A. Williams' cellphone rang, according to a memo he later wrote.
The caller, a police major, told Williams not to go to the house, not to execute the search warrant and to drop the entire matter, Williams wrote in his memo.
In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Deputy Chief Darryl Farley said he called off the search because he was concerned that the officers were acting without a formal complaint from the victim.
"We didn't have the facts at the time," Farley said.
Farley said he hadn't seen the official report on the incident when he canceled the search, even though the report was dated two days before he intervened.
He said he wasn't shown the April 9 report even after he canceled the search.
"We'd have jumped on it," especially because officers were involved, he said. Instead, he said he heard nothing more about the case until after the district attorney's office began an investigation.
The district attorney's office began investigating about two weeks later after "sources in the DeKalb Police Department" tipped off the district attorney about the allegations against Davis, said Adora Andy, a spokeswoman for the district attorney. Andy discussed the case before Keyes Fleming turned over the office's files to the state attorney general.
Seven months after the incident, on Nov. 3, 2005, Davis was indicted. In February, she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor family violence battery, a conviction that made her ineligible to be a police officer.
A judge sentenced Davis to two years of probation, and she was later fired from the Police Department.
The district attorney's file on the Davis prosecution includes an undated memo written by John Richey, the district attorney's chief investigator.
"We have known of this case for a while, and the police department failed to make any arrest(s) on it ... prior to the investigation being called off by the chief of police," Richey wrote in his memo.
Through a spokesman, Louis Graham, DeKalb County's police chief, said he did not call off the search of Davis' home and did not stop the criminal investigation.
Graham has not commented on the appointment of a special prosecutor.
Responding through the spokesman to questions about the Davis case, Graham said he thought that investigation was handled "correctly."
Richey refused to elaborate on his reference to Graham in his memo.
Case 2: Threat to 'kill her'
The case against the second officer, Samuel Freeman, surfaced on Feb. 16, 2005.
That's the day, records show, that police received a recording of threatening phone calls Freeman supposedly made to his ex-girlfriend.
The original police report noted that Freeman had threatened to kill himself, but it did not mention the threats the woman maintained had been made against her or even the existence of the recordings.
Freeman wasn't arrested until months later — on June 3, 2005 — when a new report was filed and noted that the woman's telephone system had recorded 15 phone calls from Freeman to the woman on Feb. 16.
The calls included a threat that "he was going to kill her," according to the new report.
The report, though, didn't explain why the recorded calls weren't used to make a criminal case against Freeman, who has been charged with making terroristic threats. He is on unpaid leave.
Andy, the district attorney's spokeswoman, could not comment on whether the department's handling of the Freeman complaint is being reviewed because the criminal case against him is still under way, she said.
In an e-mail response to questions about Freeman, Graham said he immediately ordered an investigation of Freeman when he learned of the reported death threat.
He declined to comment on whether the original investigation was conducted properly.
But the chief said he takes complaints of domestic violence against police officers seriously.
Shortly after becoming chief in 2004, he made the issue a priority by using training videos and messages in the department newsletter to offer counseling and to warn officers of criminal and disciplinary penalties.
Beginning this year, police recruits will take three days of "personal relationship training," including emotional skills to resolve conflicts at home and on the job.
In addition, all officers will be required to have one day of the training each year.
"This," Graham said, "is not a flash-in-the-pan initiative."