Post by Critique on Jan 26, 2007 2:13:05 GMT -5
January 25, 2007
By Amanda Milkovits
A state trooper who was found guilty last fall of beating a handcuffed man in the back of a South Kingstown police cruiser has been fired.
Jeffrey L. Clark is appealing his criminal conviction — and he’s been granted bail after serving just two weeks of a year-long prison sentence.
But even if he wins the appeal, Clark won’t get his job back.
Clark was fired in November by a state police reenlistment panel, which voted 2 to 1 against allowing him to remain on the force, said Maj. Steven O’Donnell. Unlike municipal police departments, troopers undergo a reenlistment procedure every three years, and there is no appeal of the decision. Clark was fired nearly 12 years to the day that he joined the force, O’Donnell said.
However, under the Rhode Island Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights, the state is obliged to continue paying Clark’s medical, dental and life insurance until he exhausts all of his criminal appeals. The state has been paying these costs since Clark was suspended in February 2005, at an annual cost of $6,523.
The conviction stemmed from a September night in 2004, when Clark returned to his home at 254 Laurel Lane in South Kingstown and became enraged by a neighbor’s barking dog. He got into a fight with another man, William Skwirz Jr., who was next door celebrating his stepbrother’s return from Iraq.
The South Kingstown police came and arrested Skwirz. When one local officer brought the handcuffed man to Clark for identification, Clark got into the back seat of the cruiser and started beating the prisoner, yelling at him about disrespecting the state police. The officer drove off, but stopped at Clark’s request, and the off-duty trooper punched Skwirz in the head again, opening a deep gash in his head, according to court testimony. The police took Skwirz to South County Hospital to be treated; prosecutors said the 22-year-old man was left with permanent scars.
Clark then convinced several South Kingstown officers to help him cover up the assault; three were later disciplined.
A jury convicted Clark of felony assault last June, and a Superior Court judge sentenced him to a year in prison, with six more years suspended with probation. Clark entered the ACI on Nov. 14 and was moved to the high security prison, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Ann Fortin.
But he was released on Nov. 30 when a judge agreed to bail, pending Clark’s appeal to the Supreme Court, his lawyer Kevin Bristow said yesterday.
Bristow declined to discuss the basis of the appeal. He said Clark is back at home and has found another job.
www.projo.com/news/content/trooper_fired25_01-25-07_M443J8A.18cb0ea.html
By Amanda Milkovits
A state trooper who was found guilty last fall of beating a handcuffed man in the back of a South Kingstown police cruiser has been fired.
Jeffrey L. Clark is appealing his criminal conviction — and he’s been granted bail after serving just two weeks of a year-long prison sentence.
But even if he wins the appeal, Clark won’t get his job back.
Clark was fired in November by a state police reenlistment panel, which voted 2 to 1 against allowing him to remain on the force, said Maj. Steven O’Donnell. Unlike municipal police departments, troopers undergo a reenlistment procedure every three years, and there is no appeal of the decision. Clark was fired nearly 12 years to the day that he joined the force, O’Donnell said.
However, under the Rhode Island Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights, the state is obliged to continue paying Clark’s medical, dental and life insurance until he exhausts all of his criminal appeals. The state has been paying these costs since Clark was suspended in February 2005, at an annual cost of $6,523.
The conviction stemmed from a September night in 2004, when Clark returned to his home at 254 Laurel Lane in South Kingstown and became enraged by a neighbor’s barking dog. He got into a fight with another man, William Skwirz Jr., who was next door celebrating his stepbrother’s return from Iraq.
The South Kingstown police came and arrested Skwirz. When one local officer brought the handcuffed man to Clark for identification, Clark got into the back seat of the cruiser and started beating the prisoner, yelling at him about disrespecting the state police. The officer drove off, but stopped at Clark’s request, and the off-duty trooper punched Skwirz in the head again, opening a deep gash in his head, according to court testimony. The police took Skwirz to South County Hospital to be treated; prosecutors said the 22-year-old man was left with permanent scars.
Clark then convinced several South Kingstown officers to help him cover up the assault; three were later disciplined.
A jury convicted Clark of felony assault last June, and a Superior Court judge sentenced him to a year in prison, with six more years suspended with probation. Clark entered the ACI on Nov. 14 and was moved to the high security prison, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Ann Fortin.
But he was released on Nov. 30 when a judge agreed to bail, pending Clark’s appeal to the Supreme Court, his lawyer Kevin Bristow said yesterday.
Bristow declined to discuss the basis of the appeal. He said Clark is back at home and has found another job.
www.projo.com/news/content/trooper_fired25_01-25-07_M443J8A.18cb0ea.html