Dec 21, 2003

Allegations By Sergeant Spur Probe Of Captain

By VALERIE KALFRIN and LENNY SAVINO
The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Weeks before her retirement, the captain in charge of the Tampa Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau is facing allegations she helped steer investigations to a desired outcome, and passed scalped Tampa Bay Buccaneers tickets to her secretary.

Capt. Jill Marks, 44, in charge of Internal Affairs since early 2001, has been under investigation since a former subordinate, Sgt. Borthland Murray, wrote to Mayor Pam Iorio in September criticizing Marks.

Murray, a 15-year police veteran, spent four years in Internal Affairs as a detective, investigating dozens of complaints against officers before a recent transfer to patrol.

He has accused Marks of eroding the integrity and honesty of the bureau through shoddy investigations and improper behavior.

``The major problem appears to be with management choosing who will be and who will not be investigated or disciplined according to whom they like or dislike,'' Murray wrote in his letter to Iorio.

Marks denied Murray's charges, saying she expected to be exonerated.

Since August, Murray also has detailed his complaints in a series of letters and meetings with department leaders, including then-Police Chief Bennie Holder and an assistant U.S. attorney. Murray said he received no word of a formal investigation until Police Chief Stephen Hogue took office in September.

Among the allegations and cases detailed in Murray's letters are:

* Marks gave Tampa Bay Buccaneers tickets confiscated from a scalper to a secretary and the woman's husband, Murray said. Holder failed to investigate, Murray said.

* A patrol officer was allowed to keep his job after admitting he had sex with a 16-year-old girl he met at an Ybor City nightclub. A Pinellas County deputy who had sex with the same girl was fired, convicted of a second-degree felony and registered as a sex offender.

* A sergeant failed to turn in a required report until a year after he and other officers used their batons and pepper spray against a man who resisted police. The man received cuts and bruises to his head and body.

* A corporal billed the city for a day's worth of military leave to go to a doctor's appointment at a veterans hospital that Murray said took about 30 minutes. The case was eventually dismissed.

Holder, who retired from the department in August after 30 years, 10 as chief, declined to comment on the allegations.

Department rules prohibit Marks from commenting on the case, which is being investigated by Capt. Joan Dias, head of the major crimes bureau.

Marks has been with the department since 1980. She is retiring in January after what many of her peers say has been a spotless career. Her personnel file shows no serious discipline.

``Captain Marks is a consummate professional,'' said Tampa police spokesman Capt. Bob Guidara. ``She's known as a straight-liner, and a person of integrity. I would be surprised if there's any merit to the allegations.''

Hogue declined to comment.

Iorio said, ``It's not fair to the investigators to have people go out and take their case to the media. ... That's not the way we can handle complaints.''

But retired Deputy Chief John Bushell, reacting to Murray's allegations, including one that Bushell covered for a corporal who faced an internal investigation, said superior officers at the police department have corrupted the disciplinary process for a long time.

During the time he handled disciplinary actions, Bushell said, most of the time Internal Affairs ``conducted their investigations to support the desired outcome.''

Holder often influenced the findings, saying, `` `Well, that's just the way we want it,' '' said Bushell, who held the third highest rank in the department until he retired in 2003.

Murray, 37, is uncertain whether the U.S. Attorney's Office has pursued the matter. Robert E. O'Neill, head of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Middle District of Florida, declined to comment on Murray's allegations, saying only that ``a charge of favoritism in and of itself is not a criminal violation.''

Murray said he lodged the complaint because he has a ``zeal to protect the underdog.''

Murray was named ``officer of the month'' in 2001 for developing a new archiving system in Internal Affairs. He is a member of the honor guard, which performs at formal police and public events, and a former amateur body-building champion.

He worked as a detective in the narcotics and robbery units before Holder, a former Internal Affairs investigator, transferred him to that bureau.

Life in Internal Affairs was an uneasy ``purgatory,'' Murray said. ``Citizens don't trust you and the cops don't trust you.''

He and Marks often butted heads over her hands- on style and his habit of talking openly with Holder without consulting her. In a September 2002 evaluation, Marks noted Murray had ``become narrow in his perceptions of employee activities.''

``Detective Murray needs to be more aware of different ways to achieve solutions to a problem than just through the discipline process,'' she wrote. ``He needs to work on approaching employee incidents ... with a more open mind.''

Bucs Tickets And 2 PunishmentsThe most recent allegation in Murray's letter involves whether Marks gave an Internal Affairs secretary scalped tickets to attend a Bucs game. Murray said he overheard the secretary thanking Marks for the tickets. Another secretary complained about the alleged giveaway to Dan Grossi, a stadium security officer for the National Football League who retired from the police department as a sergeant, Murray said. Grossi told Marks not to let anyone use scalped tickets, Murray said.

Grossi said he was aware of the allegations but didn't want to comment.

Another case involves Officer Mathew L. Graham, whom Internal Affairs investigated in 2001. Graham, then 26, had sex with a 16-year-old girl he met that spring at Club Hedo, an Ybor City nightclub. The girl had acknowledged a prior affair with a married Pinellas County deputy, Sean LeClaire, who was fired amid that agency's internal investigation, sheriff's office records show. LeClaire also was stripped of his state police officer certification, pleaded guilty to having sex with an underage girl and was placed on Florida's sex offender registry.

When Graham's name came up during the Pinellas investigation, deputies alerted Tampa police.

Graham told Tampa investigators he spent the night dancing and talking with the girl before they went to his apartment and had sex, Internal Affairs records show. Graham said he didn't know the girl was 16 until afterward. The investigation showed, however, that over the course of their two-month relationship, the two had sex a second time, and the girl asked Graham if he could retrieve her fake identification from another officer who had confiscated it. The girl's mother also told investigators that she warned ``Mat'' to stay away from her daughter.

In an Internal Affairs memo, then-Capt. George McNamara wrote there was ``ample evidence [Graham] should have known she was 16 years of age.''

The charge of which LeClaire was convicted, unlawful sex with certain minors, prohibits a person 24 years of age or older from having sex with a person 16- or 17-years-old. The law does not stipulate the offender must have known the age of the teenager. Additionally, the teenager's prior sexual conduct ``is not a relevant issue,'' the law states.

But State Attorney Mark Ober declined to prosecute Graham, who was found to have violated only the department's standard of conduct rule. Graham was suspended from work for 10 days, but was allowed instead to forfeit two weeks of vacation.

Graham is married now and a patrol officer in District 1, which covers downtown and western Tampa, and Ybor City. He declined to comment on the case.

Pam Bondi, a spokeswoman for Ober's office, said the case against Graham did not proceed because of a delay in reporting the alleged offense, no medical evidence and no cooperation from the girl and her mother, who signed a waiver saying she did not want Graham prosecuted.

Still, Murray said, ``It's against the law. The department should have fired Graham.''

Internal Affairs Cases Low?Internal Affairs reports to the chief of police. The chief and command staff review each investigation, determine whether there is sufficient evidence to prove the allegations and administer discipline.

Bushell said even before Marks' tenure in the bureau, less-than-thorough investigations landed on his desk for dispositions.

From January 1999 to October 2003, Internal Affairs investigated 363 cases alleging violations by department members, records show. The bureau found wrongdoing in about a third of those cases and issued 18 terminations and 21 suspensions. Twenty-three people, some of whom also faced criminal charges, were allowed to retire or resign. The remainder received other discipline, such as written reprimands.

The number of cases appears low to Lou Reiter, a Providence, R.I., consultant who audits Internal Affairs bureaus nationwide. The Tampa Police Department has not been a client. In general, departments have about one complaint per five officers each year, he said.

For an agency of Tampa's size - about 960 sworn officers - that would mean an about 190 complaints a year. Tampa averages about 76.

Allegations of favoritism within police departments are common, Reiter said: ``There's a lot of politics in police work.''

For instance, people who back a particular chief may appear to be coasting in disciplinary matters.

``A lot of that is perception,'' Reiter said, ``but it may not in fact be real.

``The only way to really determine whether it's true is to look at some of the charges and the discipline.''

The police union, which represents officers during investigations, helps officers appeal discipline.

Kevin Durkin, president of the West Central Florida Police Benevolent Association, said the union was ``at odds on a regular basis'' with Holder over disciplining officers.

Durkin was confident the investigation of Marks would determine whether there was improper conduct. He did question Murray's motives.

``Where were these complaints when he was in Internal Affairs for four years?'' Durkin asked.

Murray said he complained repeatedly to his bosses to no avail.

A Use-Of-Force CaseOne 2002 case that rankled him involved a patrol sergeant's missing paperwork.

Sgt. Dale Pritcher, now in the robbery unit, was one of several officers who arrested Edward LaRiviere, then 37, on April 5, 2001. A required use-of- force form from one officer said officers used pepper spray, flashlights and batons against LaRiviere, causing cuts that required stitches.

Internal affairs began investigating after the family complained officers used excessive force.

The police department's records division could not find Pritcher's report, which was required to be filed by the end of the shift. He sent Internal Affairs detectives copies in June 2002. One of the reports was dated April 7, 2002, the case file states.

``It's a typo,'' Pritcher said. He says the report, which predated the department's computerized report system, was misfiled.

``I wouldn't intend to cover up anything because it never works and you put your own career in jeopardy,'' he said.

Department policy on filing use of force reports is flexible, Pritcher said. After his encounter with LaRiviere toward the end of his shift, Pritcher said, he was covered with blood and needed to shower. He told his lieutenant what had happened.

Investigators absolved him of any wrongdoing, noting he must have written his report promptly because of its ``length and attention to detail.''

In contrast, in 2001, the department suspended and demoted another officer because he submitted his paperwork four hours after using physical force against a homeless man who was trespassing outside the GTE Federal Credit Union on Dale Mabry Highway, Murray said.

The officer, Dwayne Johnson, a corporal at the time, appealed the discipline, which was reduced to a reprimand several months later.

Military Leave DebatedCpl. Steve Thurman is another person Murray said was treated favorably.

On April 1, 1998, Thurman incorrectly charged the city for about 11 hours of military time to keep an appointment at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital, Murray said.

Department policy allows use of military leave for military obligations or scheduled functions. The policy is not clear about hospital visits.

Murray said Thurman was at the hospital for only about 30 minutes.

Supervisors agreed, but the case dragged on, until Aug. 9, 2002, when assistant city attorney Kirby Rainsberger reversed the ruling, saying that substituting annual or sick leave for the military leave would rectify the situation.

Holder told the staff to make the case ``disappear,'' Murray said.

Other officers were fired for falsifying time cards, Murray said. ``If you're going to do that, do it for everybody else.''

Thurman said he never reimbursed the city because he used the military leave properly.

Murray said he was transferred out of Internal Affairs earlier this year at his request. He was promoted to sergeant in June.

As the Marks investigation winds down, Murray is having misgivings.

``If you truthfully ask me, I should've just left it alone,'' he said. ``Who am I to think I'm going to change anything?''

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800. Lenny Savino can be reached at (813) 259-7567.

This story can be found at: http://www.tampatrib.com/FloridaMetro/MGAQZG6MGOD.html

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