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| NEWS > 20 November 2006 |
Other related articles:
Friends And Family In Police D
Jobs at the Miami-Dade Police training bureau are considered by some to be a cushy assignment, and they are the focus of a county probe to determine if nepotism played a role in certain assignments.
While the complaints of nepotism and racism in the Miami-Dade Police Department come from anonymous letters sent to Commissioner Joe Martinez, Rebecca Sosa and our news organization, County Manager George Burgess says he wants a full review of each issue raised.
He added that, “there are extremely serious allegations involved.” In a memo to Assistant County Manager Alina Hudak... Read more
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The Robesonian - Lumberton,NC,
20 November 2006
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Ex-officers suing city
LUMBERTON - Two former Lumberton police officers have sued the city, saying they were wrongfully fired from their jobs two years ago.
Russell Joseph Conway and Jerry Earl Kinlaw have filed separate suits, but each paints the claimants as whistler blowers who were fired after revealing problems within the Police Department. Kinlaw's suit alleged a cover up of corruption in the Police Department.
The city maintains that the men were fired because they violated policy.
The former officers are each seeking judgments in excess of $10,000 and reinstatement to their former jobs with back pay. Fayetteville attorney Garris Neil Yarborough is representing both.
After they were fired, the city's Personnel Committee examined each case and recommended Kinlaw and Conway be reinstated. But in each case former interim City Manager Dixon Ivey upheld Police Chief Robert Grice's decisions to fire the men.
Grice referred all comments to the City Attorney Kevin Whiteheart.
“At issue is a personnel matter that the chief of police felt necessary to handle. Since it involves personnel I cannot go into the details of the lawsuit,” Whiteheart said.
Kinlaw, who was hired as a patrol officer in December 1994, was fired a month shy of his 10th anniversary with the department. Two months before the firing, Kinlaw was promoted to a detective in the Juvenile Division.
Kinlaw's lawsuit said his problems began when he mistakenly picked up a notebook that belonged to Grice. It contained notes from a meeting Grice had with agents in the State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI about alleged corruption within the department.
According to the lawsuit, Grice released a press statement clearing police Officers Larry Williamson and James Atkinson of any wrongdoing in a case involving Leon Oxendine, a former police lieutenant. Oxendine was convicted in September 2004 of having an informant plant a computer disk in a suspect's house during an investigation in 2001. He was sentenced to four years in federal prison.
The lawsuit says that Grice's notes were inconsistent with what the chief told the media and that Kinlaw was fired after he turned those notes over to District Attorney Johnson Britt.
Grice and the Police Department “appeared to be somehow directly involved in a departmental conspiracy to cover up police corruption within the department,” according to the lawsuit.
In its response, the city said Kinlaw was fired because he misused confidential information, lied to an internal affairs officer and acted disloyally.
The city hired Conway on April 21, 1999, and Grice fired him on Nov. 8, 2004.
Conway's lawsuit seeks compensation for his loss of pay and benefits, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression and injury to his reputation that resulted from his termination. The 33-year-old lives near Parkton.
Conway said he was fired after he discovered the daughter of a high-ranking police officer had been using marijuana and told that officer of his suspicions. The lawsuit did not indicate who the officer or his daughter were.
The lawsuit said Conway encouraged the officer to “talk to his daughter.”
Instead, the officer and others in the department conspired to get rid of Conway to cover up the problem, the suit says.
In its response to the lawsuit, the city said there was insufficient evidence to support Conway's claims about the girl and that Conway had said he was “frustrated with the high-ranking officer and intended to find his daughter and arrest her.”
The city says Conway was terminated because he violated department policy that stated “a member shall conduct themselves at all times both on and off duty to reflect favorably on the department.” But the lawsuit called the policy a vague “catch-all reason” to support terminations in which specific grounds could not be cited. The lawsuit says the city failed to show a valid reason or follow its own policy in Conway's termination.
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