By Joel Anderson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When the sexual encounter was over and police officers were seconds away from storming the room, the Sandy Springs detective told the woman she was under arrest.
“But we had sex,” the woman said. “Can you do that?”
That question goes to the heart of a discrimination lawsuit that was recently filed against the Sandy Springs Police Department by the detective involved in the prostitution sting.
In the lawsuit, among a number of other claims, Jamaal Mayberry alleges that he was unfairly targeted for punishment after being suspended for two days without pay because of his actions during three undercover prostitution investigations in 2008.
The suit, which was filed in December, has brought to light the department’s policies and general handling of such investigations.
An informal survey of law enforcement authorities, attorneys, academics and other officials turned up no definitive answer for the woman who was arrested during that undercover sting on Aug. 19, 2008.
But all of them were unanimous in their belief that Mayberry, the Sandy Springs Police Department, and any other law enforcement officer in a similar situation should not cross that line during a prostitution investigation.
“It is not necessary to go that far to make a case,” said Peter Fenton, a criminal justice professor at Kennesaw State University and former officer with Cobb County. “I can’t imagine that a reasonable and prudent officer --- even one not properly trained --- would engage in sexual intercourse with a prostitute.”
Mayberry claimed in the lawsuit that that sort of behavior was commonplace during vice investigations. He “was singled out,” the suit said, “evidenced by the fact that he was the only officer that received any actionable reprimand, while others had the same culpability.”
His attorney, Curt Thompson, previously told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Mayberry had been treated differently because of his race but has since repeatedly declined further comment on the case.
A review of incident reports from other prostitution investigations from 2006 to 2008 discloses that no other Sandy Springs police officer went nearly as far as Mayberry to make an arrest. But the department’s subsequent internal investigation also revealed Mayberry, who started working at the agency when it launched in July 2006, and other officers did not receive training they requested before conducting the investigations.
“Mayberry’s actions brought disrepute upon him and the SSPD’s reputation,” Police Chief Terry Sult said in one of the agency’s internal reports in April 2009.
Mayberry reportedly had sexual contact with women in two previous sting operations in 2008. It was on his final bust on Aug. 22 that Mayberry had intercourse with a woman before making the arrest. That incident caught the attention of his superiors and started the process of an internal review.
That investigation revealed a number of missteps along the way, including inadequate training for vice operations, a lack of audio surveillance to record the investigations and a “crisis in leadership” following the resignation of Police Chief Gene Wilson amid accusations of department-wide policy violations.
“Though there are many causal factors ... the lack of common sense judgment of Detective Mayberry was a key factor,” Sult said in the report.
Ultimately, Mayberry was suspended, the department was reorganized and all charges were dropped against the women arrested in the undercover investigations.
However, Charles Olson, the general counsel of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, told the SSPD in an e-mail in September 2008 that other cases from around the country indicated “what your officers did is a legitimate investigative technique.” Olson declined comment when reached recently.
Ken Vance, director of the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, said his agency teaches officers the minimum standard needed for probable cause to make an arrest, which is usually when money is exchanged for the promise of a sexual favor.
Copyright 2011 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution