An officer accused of throwing a man in jail because he wanted to sleep with his girlfriend will not face criminal charges.
Coweta Circuit District Attorney Peter Skandalakis told Channel 2 Action News his agency chose not to pursue charges against Eric Mischel because the evidence did not prove he violated his oath of office.
Skandalakis did tell Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Erica Byfield the information investigators collected did prompt him to send the case file to POST. POST is the agency that certifies officer in Georgia. Skandalakis told Byfield he wanted to see if Mischel's conduct violated any of POST's standards.
Bruce Coley, the other man tied to the investigation, told Byfield he was disappointed.
For more than a year Coley has said Mischel arrested him so that he could have a sexual relationship with his girlfriend, Margaret Wilkinson.
Mischel patrolled Luthersville's streets. Coley and Wilkinson lived there at the time.
Our original investigation involving Mischel aired in May. Back then Mischel dodged our camera. Byfield asked him if he would speak to us. He didn't respond and walked into the Luthersville Police Department.
As soon as Byfield learned the district attorney decided not to pursue criminal charges, she requested the closed case file.
It contains hours of recordings from close to a dozen people. Wilkinson is heard saying, "We ended up in his room and we did what adults do and then he took me home." The GBI Agent asked, "What do you mean?" "We had sex," she responded.
The file also includes hundreds of documents.
The information shows Mischel never spoke face to face with the GBI Agent and sent him a statement instead.
In summary, it says he never had a sexual relationship with Wilkinson and charged Coley based on the evidence.
Back in May, Wilkinson and Coley told Byfield they took polygraph tests and passed.
The documentation we obtained proves they did pass. An investigator asked Wilkinson if she said a sexual relationship with Mischel, she said yes. The same investigator as Coley if he committed a criminal act, he said no.
Byfield left a message on Mischel's cell phone.
State records show he quit his job with the Luthersville Police Department on July 8.
The taped and summarized interviews also indicate Mischel had questionable relationships with two other women and then men in their lives wound up in trouble.
One man told the GBI he thinks he got arrested for terroristic threats because he “feels that due to the fact that Officer Mischel was having a sexual relationship with Brenda Gaddy, Officer Mischel took Tyler Gaddy’s word and arrested Lewis falsely.”
Another said “(When) Goodine and Coleman were living together, Coleman became involved with Luthersville Police Officer Mischel in some type of sexual relationship. In 2010, Goodine was arrested and charged for stalking.”
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