APD, Citizen Review Board continue to disagree

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When the Citizen Review Board said there was evidence to support a citizen’s complaint against a police officer, the Atlanta Police Department still sided with cops, according to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

One of those cases involved a death and another centered on a police officer, suspended without pay for an unrelated matter, who was accused of arresting and jailing a 61-year-old woman when she asked “why” when he told her to move.

Yet APD agreed with the board’s findings when it dismissed a citizen’s complaint as “not sustained” or “unfounded.”

“This pattern is so obvious,” said Joy Morrissey, the board’s chairman, “If it was my pattern, I would embarrassed. We’re not getting the support we need. There isn’t much respect in this business.”

The Atlanta City Council revived the board after the 2006 fatal shooting of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnson. Undercover drug officers fired 39 rounds when they crashed into on her home in a botched raid.

The board heard its first case in November 2008, after 18 months of creating the board, its policies and procedures, and finding staff.

It has met resistance since.

The officers first refused to respond when the board called for interviews. After then-police chief Richard Pennington ordered them to go, they showed up but refused to answer questions. In recent weeks, some were cooperative after they received subpoenas.

The officers said they were not protected from criminal investigations when answering questions from the board as they are when interviewed as part of an internal investigation. Pennington and interim chief George Turner have declined to tell officers that they must answer questions. Mayor Kasim Reed has expressed concerns about any the impact their comments would have on police-related lawsuits pending against the city.

APD said the board’s findings were irrelevant to the decisions made in the police agency’s internal investigations by the Office of Professional Standards.

“Our investigation has absolutely nothing to do with theirs,” said Sgt. Curtis Davenport, an APD spokesman. “The purpose of internal affairs is to find the facts."

Reed's spokeswoman pointed out that almost all the board's recommendations were made to the previous police chief. “ Mayor Reed and his administration have been clear in supporting the CRB as a body that makes substantive policy recommendations regarding police discipline, policies, procedures and programs," said spokeswoman Sonji Jacobs Dade.

The board has closed 14 cases and sustained the citizens’ complaints in five of them. APD has not responded to two of the cases, but the chief “rejected the board’s recommendation” in the other three.

The chief “agreed with the board’s findings” in the eight cases in which the board found nothing to support any wrongdoing on the part of the officers.

One of the complaints that the board and APD disagreed on was brought by the father of Jared Tiller, who was killed in a June 2, 2008, car accident that occurred after an officer began following the car in which he was riding.

The board said Officer Thomas Gleason had “improperly initiated a pursuit.”

According to records, Gleason saw a silver Honda shortly after it was reported stolen from a driveway on Hyde Manor Road. The officer told internal affairs investigators that he turned on his blue lights to alert other drivers of the potential for danger, and that is when the Honda sped up and crashed 20 seconds later.

Tiller, the passenger, was killed.

Gleason, who would not be interviewed by the board, told an OPS investigator that he did not activate the siren, so the chase could not be considered a “pursuit,” according to APD policy.

The board said that explanation suggested an officer could claim there was no pursuit by simply not engaging the siren.

APD agreed with Gleason’s reasoning.

“Officer Gleason maintained that he was following the suspect vehicle while waiting for backup and that he did not activate his blue lights until the suspect vehicle began swerving around a curve,” Pennington wrote in his required response to the board.

“The allegation should be not sustained,” according to the letter.

In another case, Minnie Casey, 61, was arrested and taken to jail when she questioned officer Brandy Dolson, who told her and three other women to move down the sidewalk in March 2009. The women had stopped in front of a store on Boulevard to discuss the upcoming funeral of a friend.

The disorderly conduct charge was dismissed because Dolson did not appear in court when Casey’s case was scheduled.

The board’s letter to Turner noted that 16 complaints had been filed against Dolson since he joined the force in 2001. Four complaints were sustained, four were pending, and the rest were dismissed.

“He doesn’t have a very good personnel jacket,” said Morrssey, the board chairwoman.

Dolson has declined to comment.

The board recommended that Dolson be suspended without pay for 15 days for false arrest. APD did suspend him without pay, but it was for an unrelated matter, the department’s spokesman said.

Turner wrote the board that APD had concluded, based on an internal investigation, to “not sustain the allegation against officer Dolson. The file was inconclusive in determining whether a work rule violation occurred.”

Carrey has since filed a lawsuit against Dolson, APD and the city.

“It seems very odd … that the board would only be correct if there was a finding of no culpability,” said Cristina Beamud, the board’s executive director. “The disagreements are only when the board finds culpability. I think that’s interesting.”