By Angela Galloway
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
SEATTLE, Wash. — Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske cleared or reduced the charges officers faced in at least 11 misconduct cases in 2003 -- despite findings of wrongdoing by the department’s internal affairs unit, or Office of Professional Accountability.
In such cases, the director of OPA investigates and recommends to the chief whether the allegations should be “sustained.” The chief has final say.
The chief also rejected the OPA director’s recommendations six times in 2004 and six times in 2005, according to a city review board.
Here are highlights of some of the 2003 misconduct reversals, as reported Monday by the OPA Review Board.
An officer who allegedly beat a drunken, handcuffed man with his fists and baton at Harborview Medical Center in front of four security guards, two fellow officers, a student officer and a video camera. The head of OPA and internal affairs officers had sustained an allegation of unnecessary force against the officer in the “brutal incident,” OPARB reported. But the chief rejected those findings. An officer who “popped” a suspect’s lungs and broke several ribs when the officer jumped on him “with all his weight” as the suspect lay on his stomach. The chief did not sustain the excessive force allegation recommended by the OPA director. An officer “apparently used his official authority repeatedly” to get into a private home. For example, he tried to collect nude photos of his sister-in-law and “to thwart an apparent extramarital affair.” The civilian obtained an anti-harassment order against the officer and the OPA director recommended the officer be found guilty of “misuse of authority.” The chief reduced that to “conduct unbecoming an officer.” A male officer accused of harassing a female colleague wrote an article in the police union newspaper “ridiculing” the woman’s harassment complaint. The OPA director recommended finding the article constituted workplace harassment, but the chief disagreed. An officer repeatedly spanked a juvenile -- apparently with the blessing of the juvenile’s parents and the officer’s sergeant. The OPA director recommended charging the officer and his sergeant with violations; the chief apparently reduced the findings to “supervisory referrals.” After officers involuntarily transported a complainant a few blocks, the man emerged with “a bloody, injured nose.” Witnesses and the OPA director recommended findings of “unnecessary force” and “misuse of authority,” but the chief sustained only the latter charge. An officer claimed a hit-and-run driver was to blame for heavy damage to his patrol car. Although the officer’s supervisors agreed that he had lied, the chief “apparently refused to sustain” a count of misconduct.
Copyright 2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
