Compiled from various news services
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) -- A joint state-federal investigation into the career of Tacoma Police Chief David Brame, who fatally shot his estranged wife and himself as their two children watched, has found no grounds for criminal charges but “abundant evidence of troubling management practices” in the city’s Police Department.
Three investigations remain following Tacoma Police Chief David Brame’s fatal shooting of his estranged wife Crystal and himself on April 26. They are:
-- An administrative investigation by the State Patrol into what Washington Attorney General Christine Gregoire called ""examples of misconduct, poor judgment, troublesome behavior by top officers, lax accountability” and other deficiencies in the Tacoma Police Department.
-- An FBI investigation into possible corruption in city government, including problems with the issuance of city contracts. U.S. Attorney John McKay said he didn’t know how long that investigation will take.
-- The city’s own administrative review into the Brame scandal, to be conducted by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. That probe, put on hold for months during the joint federal and state investigation, can now move forward, Gregoire said.
State Patrol investigators spent more than 6,600 hours investigating the Tacoma Police Department and allegations of criminal behavior by former Deputy Chief Catherine Woodard. They interviewed more than 80 people and generated some 6,600 pages of documents. The probe cost the State Patrol more than $200,000, Chief Ronal Serpas said.
Attorney General Christine Gregoire, State Patrol Chief Ronal Serpas, U.S. Attorney John McKay and FBI Special Agent in Charge Charles Mandigo announced the investigation May 12, nine days after Crystal Brame died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
The results of the investigation, released Monday, cite poor judgment, troubling behavior by top officers and lax accountability, but say no criminal charges are warranted.
“After nearly six months of scrutiny ... the patrol found no evidence to indicate that the Tacoma Police Department is a criminally corrupt organization,” the investigation report stated. “There are, however, indications the department is culturally deficient in some very important areas.”
The report from Gregoire recommends:
-- An internal review of the police department by the State Patrol that may result in sanctions.
-- A policy stating when internal complaints should be treated as criminal matters.
-- A state audit of department payroll and timekeeping procedures.
-- A detailed review of errors made in hiring and promoting Brame, and developing a policy not to repeat them.
-- Adopting guidelines for domestic violence complaints when the alleged abuser is a police officer.
In particular, the investigation focused on why Brame was hired in 1981 against the recommendations of psychologists who found him unfit for duty; why he was promoted despite a date-rape allegation in 1988 and accusations of domestic violence; and whether Assistant Chief Catherine Woodard acted illegally when she accompanied Brame on a visit to the home of his wife’s parents in Gig Harbor.
Gregoire called Woodard’s judgment “extraordinarily poor” and said there was enough evidence of misconduct to prompt an internal review.
The investigation also showed a police chief who was emotionally deteriorating in the six months before the shooting, Gregoire said.
A report to Pierce County Prosecutor Gerry Horne recommends that the city use the State Patrol to investigate potential police misconduct, develop policies covering when the police department should treat internal complaints as criminal matters, investigate errors made in the hiring and promotion of Brame and adopt procedures for handling domestic violence complaints against police officers.
Besides looking at allegations of criminal misconduct, the probe was intended to point out needed changes.
“The management culture at the Tacoma Police Department needs an overhaul and these recommendations should provide a road map for reform that line officers and the people deserve,” Gregoire said.
But other areas in city government must be scrutinized as well, the attorney general said. There were “plenty of opportunities” by a number of people in city government to see - and act on - David Brame’s failing mental health and abandonment of some of his duties as chief, she said.
“As part of the reviews, we would ask why action wasn’t taken when it was clear that many in City Hall saw an individual who was failing to attend meetings, whose appearance was unkempt and who was obsessed with talking about his personal life,” Gregoire said.
Brian T. Moran, chief criminal prosecutor for the attorney general’s office, and Mark Larson, chief criminal prosecutor for King County, sent a letter to Horne listing the steps needed for a thorough review of the Tacoma Police Department. Those include:
-- Whether Woodard engaged in misconduct while helping Brame with his divorce.
-- Whether Tacoma Police public information officer Jim Mattheis and detective Barry McColemen engaged in misconduct by attending a court hearing on the Brames’ divorce.
-- Whether officers and employees of the police department should have advised Brame’s supervisor, then-City Manager Ray Corpuz, about his failing job performance in the weeks before his death.
-- Whether officers and members of the department should have told Corpuz about Brame’s preoccupation with sex and sexual topics in the workplace.
-- Whether the promotion of at least one police officer was made on the basis of sexual activities or other inappropriate relationships.
-- Whether favoritism and other inappropriate factors played a role in past disciplinary matters.
Brame shot his wife and then himself in a Gig Harbor parking lot April 22, after he picked up their son and daughter at a karate class. Crystal Brame was on her way home from a class in Tacoma titled “What Children of Divorce Really Need” when she pulled into the parking lot to meet her husband.
Brame died that afternoon. His wife, who had told her counselor and others that she feared for her life, died a week later.
The murder-suicide quickly unraveled Tacoma’s city government. City Manager Ray Corpuz Jr. appointed Woodard to take over as police chief, but placed her on paid administrative leave days later and asked the State Patrol to investigate her role in the visit to Brame’s in-laws on April 11. After the visit, Crystal Brame called 911 to report that she felt intimidated and threatened by Woodard’s presence.
The City Council later fired Corpuz for his handling of the Brame matter. Corpuz had said he considered Crystal Brame’s allegations of abuse a private matter.
Read the full Report and Criminal Referral letter by the Washington State Attorney General’s Chief Criminal Prosecutor’s office Nov. 14, 2003 (PDF File)
KIRO-TV News, The (Tacoma) News Tribune, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.