What Is Going On With The CMPD?
Many fine officers, tainted by the inept and/or alleged illegal actions of a few? or is it something more pervasive that goes to a failure of leadership, a command either willing to turn a blind eye toward gross misconduct or incompetence within the department or unable to change a culture that has led to a series of devastating outcomes?
The most recent example came Tuesday afternoon, when Judge Forrest Bridges tossed out the possibility of imposing the death penalty in the trial of accused cop killer Demeatrius Montgomery because of a detective’s misconduct during the investigation into the 2007 killings of Charlotte police officers Sean Clark and Jeff Shelton.
The ruling was handed down after a day and a half of testimony that revealed CMPD detective Arvin Fant had destroyed and discarded notes he took while investigating the 2007 fatal shootings and had also copied and used another officer’s notes to augment his own. Fant has been placed on administrative leave and is under investigation by the department for his actions, but the damage had already been done, according to this report from WBTV:
“The officer in question admitted being untruthful in meetings and in violation of police procedures,” Bridges said. He added that the issue of Fants notes “questions the integrity of the trial.”
That integrity took another hit when it was learned Tuesday that Fant had called his Sergeant earlier that morning “to say there could be more notes at his desk about a witness who says Montgomery did not shoot the officers.
“Two other homicide detectives were immediately ordered to get the box and go through it. An initial report from those detectives indicated nothing pertaining to the trial was in that box.”
As disturbing as Fant’s admitted improper actions in the Montgomery investigation are, there’s history it wasn’t the first time he has run into problems with evidence collection. The Meck Deck’s Jeff Taylor runs down Fant’s previous transgressions here, stemming from a 2004 felony robbery case:
The trial judge clearly thought Fant half-assed his initial search for the witness statements. One of the statements prosecutors had to admit they and CMPD had lost. The other statement? Fant maintained it never existed, despite sworn testimony to the contrary. So, Fant went 0-for-2 in producing the statements the defense wanted.
Nor is Fant the first CMPD officer to run afoul of the rules while conducting an investigation in prep for trial. Recall that earlier this year former CMPD officer Brian Cloninger resigned after being accused of trying to rig a lineup during his investigation of a robbery. That case, which involved a repeat violent offender, was ultimately dismissed and prosecutors were subsequently forced to throw out an estimated 70 cases Cloninger had investigated. This from the uptown paper of record’s report at the time:
Prosecutors say when they confronted Cloninger, the 15-year veteran was unrepentant and told them he was “just trying to get a bad guy off the streets.”
Cloninger also expressed frustration about prosecutors dismissing “good cases” he’d brought them.
Tension between police and prosecutors has surfaced in the last year over Mecklenburg’s high rate of dismissing criminal cases. In 2008, prosecutors dropped 52 percent of felonies they handled – more than in any other urban area in North Carolina.
While prosecutors rarely uncover cases of police acting unethically or illegally, Cloninger’s case comes after several incidents of police misconduct.
CMPD recently fired Officer Marcus Jackson, who is charged with sexually assaulting six women while on patrol. A few weeks later, an officer quit after he was seen having sex in a restaurant bathroom. And last year, two officers went to prison for protecting a drug dealer and conspiring to sell cocaine.
This, of course, was all preceded by the taint that enveloped Police Chief Rodney Monroe when he was first hired to helm the CMPD and the legitimacy of his purported college degree came to light, leaving in its wake questions that still linger concerning Monroe’s overall veracity. The chief had said back in 2008 that he planned to take action to rectify the degree controversy, possibly by returning to college or even giving up the improperly awarded degree he had received from Virginia Commonwealth University; nearly two years later – nothing to report.
And now we have the death penalty taken off the table in the prosecution of an accused cop killer, because of the improper actions of a fellow officer. All of which begs the question: What is going on at the CMPD under the leadership of Chief Rodney Monroe and when is the City Council going to step up to the plate and start demanding some accountability from that leadership?
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