Related news: La. cop accused of threats suspended, La. cop suspended for fight with officers
By Laura Maggi
The Times-Picayune
NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley on Thursday fired two officers accused in recent misconduct cases after expedited disciplinary hearings.
Officer Ashley Terry -- accused by witnesses at the Treme Community Center last week of brandishing her gun while yelling profanities at a woman in the carpool line -- was dismissed after supervisors concluded she’d violated multiple New Orleans Police Department standards, including moral conduct, courtesy, following instructions and exhibiting a firearm only with proper justification, Riley said.
Also dismissed was officer Donyell Sanchell, who allegedly led Crescent City Connection police on a chase this month, ending with Sanchell slapping a bridge officer near the 1st District police station.
The department concluded that Sanchell drove recklessly, committed a hit-and-run when he bumped the bridge officer with his truck, committed a simple battery and hadn’t met the NOPD’s professionalism standards, Riley said.
Riley announced the dismissals at a noon news conference, held after morning hearings conducted by Assistant Superintendent Marlon Defillo.
After the hearings, the department also restored the honorable retirement status of Sgt. Bobby Guidry, who ended up “retiring while under investigation” last month after he wore the wrong uniform on his last day in a 35-year career.
Guidry said he wore the traditional powder-blue shirt to honor officers who died while in that uniform. The department switched to a dark, one-color uniform after Hurricane Katrina -- in large part because some of the old uniforms were missing after the storm -- but plans to return to the powder blue shirts this year.
Riley was criticized for his handling of the Guidry case. The retirement-under-investigation designation temporarily assigned to Guidry is the same one given to officers who resign under suspicion of far more serious infractions, and many critics said it was too harsh for a dress code infraction.
Because Guidry cooperated with the investigation, that designation will be removed from his file and he will receive only a letter of reprimand, Riley said.
Riley said all of the cases were expedited, in part because witnesses were available. The Sanchell case was also bolstered by video from by the bridge officer’s squad car. But the NOPD superintendent acknowledged that the public outcry about the Sanchell and Terry cases also motivated department leaders to take swift action.
“All we can do is continue to push forward and do the right thing. We are going to continue to do the best we can,” Riley said. “Ninety percent of the men and women of the Police Department do the right thing.”
After his run-in with the bridge officers, Sanchell was given a summons to appear in Municipal Court on a battery charge. That decision provoked some public outrage, with observers questioning whether the officer received kid-glove treatment.
But Robert White, the prosecutor in charge of the Orleans Parish district attorney’s public corruption unit, said Thursday he’s concluded the case properly belongs in Municipal Court. Because the underlying offenses are in Traffic Court -- where Sanchell faces hit-and-run and careless-driving charges -- the battery charge should play out in Municipal Court, White said.
Sanchell plans to appeal his dismissal to the Civil Service Commission, said Eric Hessler, his attorney. Hessler said the officer regrets some of his actions, but also offered some “mitigating circumstances.”
The Terry case will be forwarded to the district attorney’s office for a similar review to determine whether criminal charges are warranted, Riley said. But he added that police investigators received conflicting testimony about whether Terry “wielded” a gun.
“She did remove her weapon. The wielding part is very, very questionable, even from the witnesses,” Riley said before saying he could not expand on the facts of the case until the district attorney’s review is complete.
People at the Treme Community Center said that Terry, who served on the police force for 15 months, screamed expletives and repeatedly honked at the woman ahead of her when she went to pick up her 7-year-old nephew. Witnesses said Terry announced she was a 7th District police officer and could be seen holding a gun while she was in her Jeep, as well as continuing to hold it, behind the car door, when she partially stepped out of the vehicle.
Because Terry has officially been a police officer for less than a year -- she had to complete about 20 weeks of Police Academy training before being assigned to a district -- she is still in a probationary period.
This could mean she does not have a right to appeal the department’s decision to the Civil Service Commission, said Townsend Myers, her attorney. But Myers added he is looking at her options. He declined to comment further.
A disciplinary hearing will be held Aug. 1 for officer David Ellis, who went to the Treme Community Center to investigate the 911 call reporting that an officer had displayed her gun. Ellis, who has been suspended, allegedly spoke only with Terry before finding the complaints about her conduct “unfounded.”
Copyright 2008 The Times-Picayune