Post by WaTcHeR on Nov 1, 2006 15:13:39 GMT -5
11.01.2006 - A Sangamon County grand jury Thursday indicted a Springfield police detective on two charges for which he previously had been charged by criminal complaint.
Paul Carpenter, one of two city detectives at the center of a months-long Illinois State Police probe, was charged with official misconduct and wire fraud, said Charles Zalar of the state's attorney's appellate prosecutor's office, who is the special prosecutor in the case.
Zalar said that seeking a grand jury indictment rather than proceeding with the information filed on Oct. 18 was more a matter of fitting his schedule than anything else.
"It is just a simpler way of doing it," he said.
Zalar, like other appellate prosecutors, travels throughout the state to help local prosecutors and to handle cases in which local authorities ask for a special prosecutor because of a conflict of interest.
In Carpenter's case, the indictment simply supercedes the information, Zalar said, meaning that Carpenter won't have a preliminary hearing on the charges. Instead, he will return to court Nov. 15 for arraignment.
Carpenter, can enter a plea at that hearing. Carpenter has been free on $5,000 bond since his arrest Oct. 18.
Carpenter, 37, a 13-year veteran, and detective Jim Graham, who has been on the police force 14 years, have been on paid leave for almost a year.
Graham faces no criminal charges, although a state police investigation accused both detectives of violating a number of city police regulations.
Graham and Carpenter apparently were served with termination papers earlier this week, but they will continue to be paid until Police Chief Don Kliment makes a final decision on their status. They are entitled to pre-disposition hearings at which they can plead their cases in hopes of persuading Kliment to keep them on the force.
Former city police Sgt. Ron Vose originally accused the two of taking investigative shortcuts and other violations of both state law and department policies.
Included was a charge that Carpenter had falsified court-ordered community-service hours for a man who had provided information to police. Carpenter allegedly had someone at St. John's Breadline forge community-service verification for the informant and then allegedly faxed that document to the man's probation officer in Texas. The criminal charges against Carpenter stem from that incident.
Alan Jones, president of the Police Benevolent and Protective Association Unit 5, said he thinks that many of the allegations against Carpenter involve incidents that took place while he was doing common police work. In Wednesday's newspaper, Jones made a comment that it seemed much of what Carpenter was doing was trading "little fish for big fish." Some people misconstrued that statement, Jones said, but he believes it is accurate.
"Anyone who watches TV knows that deals are made where police officers or investigators on the state, local or federal levels trade something on some little fish in order to catch the big fish," Jones said. "I think his intent was to accomplish something that was of more importance rather than to get someone on a smaller thing, to solve a murder." The charges are both Class 3 felonies punishable by up to two to five years in prison, or by probation.
www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/99159.asp
Paul Carpenter, one of two city detectives at the center of a months-long Illinois State Police probe, was charged with official misconduct and wire fraud, said Charles Zalar of the state's attorney's appellate prosecutor's office, who is the special prosecutor in the case.
Zalar said that seeking a grand jury indictment rather than proceeding with the information filed on Oct. 18 was more a matter of fitting his schedule than anything else.
"It is just a simpler way of doing it," he said.
Zalar, like other appellate prosecutors, travels throughout the state to help local prosecutors and to handle cases in which local authorities ask for a special prosecutor because of a conflict of interest.
In Carpenter's case, the indictment simply supercedes the information, Zalar said, meaning that Carpenter won't have a preliminary hearing on the charges. Instead, he will return to court Nov. 15 for arraignment.
Carpenter, can enter a plea at that hearing. Carpenter has been free on $5,000 bond since his arrest Oct. 18.
Carpenter, 37, a 13-year veteran, and detective Jim Graham, who has been on the police force 14 years, have been on paid leave for almost a year.
Graham faces no criminal charges, although a state police investigation accused both detectives of violating a number of city police regulations.
Graham and Carpenter apparently were served with termination papers earlier this week, but they will continue to be paid until Police Chief Don Kliment makes a final decision on their status. They are entitled to pre-disposition hearings at which they can plead their cases in hopes of persuading Kliment to keep them on the force.
Former city police Sgt. Ron Vose originally accused the two of taking investigative shortcuts and other violations of both state law and department policies.
Included was a charge that Carpenter had falsified court-ordered community-service hours for a man who had provided information to police. Carpenter allegedly had someone at St. John's Breadline forge community-service verification for the informant and then allegedly faxed that document to the man's probation officer in Texas. The criminal charges against Carpenter stem from that incident.
Alan Jones, president of the Police Benevolent and Protective Association Unit 5, said he thinks that many of the allegations against Carpenter involve incidents that took place while he was doing common police work. In Wednesday's newspaper, Jones made a comment that it seemed much of what Carpenter was doing was trading "little fish for big fish." Some people misconstrued that statement, Jones said, but he believes it is accurate.
"Anyone who watches TV knows that deals are made where police officers or investigators on the state, local or federal levels trade something on some little fish in order to catch the big fish," Jones said. "I think his intent was to accomplish something that was of more importance rather than to get someone on a smaller thing, to solve a murder." The charges are both Class 3 felonies punishable by up to two to five years in prison, or by probation.
www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/99159.asp