| APA
Reported News
07-07-06:
Overtime or Understaffed - What's the Real Issue? APD
NEWS
07-12-06:
SUSPECT
ARRESTED WITH LARGE QUANTITY OF CRACK COCAINE TV
News
10-10-06:
PROP 7 to help APD improve facilities
03-04-06:
KXAN - 30 years of female police officers
11-16-05:
FOX7 - City Deals with Leak in Rocha Shooting
11-16-05:
KXAN - Citizen's Review Panel's Recommendation Leaked
11-16-05:
NEWS8 - Schroeder should be fired, panel says
11-16-05:
KEYE42 - Austin Police Chief Stan Knee is expected to decide on the recommendations
of the citizens review panel on friday
08-12-05:
New Policy for Austin Police Cars
04-13-05:
KVUE: Officer credits support for recovery
KXAN
- Interview Regarding "Rocket Docket"
KXAN
- Apd Officer Killed
Other News Sources
The
Texas Police Star: 08-26-06: APA PAC Found Not Guilty
CNN:
07-24-06: Lonely Boys bassist arrest 'misunderstanding'
02-10-06
: The Daily Texan: APD chief of staff will head UTPD
01-03-06:
SA Express-News: Austin chief ripped by officers, residents
11-09-05:
The Daily Texan: Inaccuracies not lies, says police rep
The
Dallas Morning News: 05-13-05: Michelle Malkin - Heroes in Blue
The
Daily Texan: 02-15-05: Claiming their territory
The
Houston Chronicle: 06-23-05: Houston FOP - Telephone Solicitation Scrutinized
2004 Other News ARCHIVES
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TV NEWS STORIES & OTHER NEWS SOURCES
10-10-06: PROP 7 to help APD improve facilities
Austin police
are hoping you'll vote "yes" on at least one bond proposition this November.
The city's wording says it "includes funding for constructing, renovating,
improving and equipping public safety facilities."
So what does it
have to do with toilets for police cadets? KXAN NBC Austin's Sally Hernandez
explains with this exclusive report. If first impressions are everything,
then Austin police cadets may not have a good picture of APD right now. "They're
first impression of us is they are coming here to train and they look around and
have to go use the restroom in an outhouse. I mean there is something just a little
bit demoralizing about that," Austin Police Association President Mike Sheffield
said. Next to the portables are Port-A-Potties at the training center for
cadets. "We have a facility that is woefully substandard. In fact we
are to the point where we are using an outhouse. It is a fancy outhouse. Nonetheless,
it's an outhouse. It's an air conditioned comfort station is what they are calling
it. But it's on wheels and it's outside so it's an outhouse," Sheffield said. So
the City of Austin will present a $58.1 million bond package to voters next month.
Twenty million dollars will be used to expand the current training facility. All
of it paid with your money. "Certainly if you vote for it your taxes
will go up and they are not going down in the future," Director of Americans
for Prosperity Peggy Venable said. Taxes would go up about three cents over
the next seven years. Venable is part of watchdog group for taxpayers and wonders
why the city's current police budget isn't enough to pay for the expansion. "If
the taxpayers don't agree to fund this tax hike then they should encourage their
elected officials to go back to the drawing board and find those dollars else
where in the budget. It will be there," Venable said. Sheffield says
if taxpayers don't pay for it now they'll pay for it another way. "You're
sending a message about your thoughts on public safety. Whether you support training
these folks because these folks are going to be out here serving you and I think
you want them to be the best they possibly can be," Sheffield said. Voters
will decide Nov. 7. Expanding the training facility is just one part of
Proposition 7. It also asks for $7 million to build a north east Austin police
substation and $16 million for a new municipal court facility.
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to top
08-26-06: APA PAC FOUND NOT GUILTY
CLEAT DEFENDS APA PAC TREASURER
APA's Jim Beck and CLEAT's Tom Stribling review file for trial
The
Treasurer of the Austin Police Association Political Action Committee was found
not guilty of charges that he knowingly failed to file a required PAC report with
the City Clerk. A Class C complaint was filed upon Sergeant James Beck of the
Austin Police Department by the Assistant Director of the Texas Libertarian Party.
The complaint alleged that Beck, who was the Political Action Committee Treasurer,
failed to file a required PAC contribution and expenditure report with the City
Clerk as required by a City of Austin Ordinance. The ordinance provides that a
knowing violation is a Class C misdemeanor. CLEAT Staff Attorney Tom Stribling,
who defended Sergeant Beck on the charge, stated that he was unaware of any other
case in which the Austin Municipal Prosecutor had pursued a complaint under this
ordinance.
The Prosecutor introduced evidence to show that the City
Clerk’s Office had been unable to locate a report that was due in July of
2005. However, on cross-examination by Stribling, the Administrative Clerk admitted
that documents have been misfiled in the past, and testified that he could not
state under oath that the report had not been filed. Stribling also introduced
evidence to show that the Austin Police Association PAC had always filed the report
when required, and that Beck believed the missing July report had also been filed.
Municipal Judge John Vasquez ruled that the Prosecutor had failed to
prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Beck had not filed the report. Judge Vasquez
also ruled that even if the report was not filed, the evidence did not prove that
Beck knowingly violated the ordinance.
The Austin Police Association
and its leaders have been attacked by several individuals and organizations that
apparently believe police officers shouldn’t be involved in the political
process as do all the other interest groups. Beck, who is also the Vice President
of the APA, said “Our PAC has been sued, they have filed complaints with
the Texas Ethics Commission and in municipal court. These attacks will not stop
the Association’s continued efforts to elect public officials who support
Austin police officers. Police officers have the same right to participate politically
as other citizens do, AND WE WILL!”
back
to top
07-24-06: CNN
Lonely Boys bassist arrest 'misunderstanding'
JoJo Garza arrested on charges of assault, possession
AUSTIN,
Texas (AP) -- The arrest of the bassist for Los Lonely Boys on allegations he
assaulted his fiancee was all a misunderstanding, the band's publicist said Sunday. Police
arrested Joey "JoJo" Sacarais Garza, 26, at an Austin hotel Saturday
on charges of assault causing bodily injury and possession of less than 2 ounces
of marijuana, authorities said. Garza was released on bond from Travis County
Jail hours later. "This is simply a misunderstanding. We were being
too loud," Carina Lyn, Garza's fiancee, said through the publicist. "We
apologize to the hotel guests. JoJo and I are very much in love and we are planning
to be married." Garza, Lyn and Garza's sibling-bandmates were celebrating
last week's release of the band's new album, "Sacred," when another
hotel guest reported a disturbance, publicist Diana Baron said. Police arrived
to find a woman who had been assaulted and marijuana, Austin police spokeswoman
Laura Albrecht said. Baron declined to comment on the marijuana charge but
said Lyn was unharmed and had protested the arrest. The Austin police erred
on the side of caution, but their actions were "completely unnecessary,"
Garza's attorney Charlie Roadman said in the release. Austin police spokeswoman
Ruth Bullock said investigators will give a report to the Travis County District
Attorney's Office, which will decide whether to press formal charges. In cases
of family violence, alleged victims cannot drop charges, she said. She disputed
the band's account of the incident. "We can only arrest if visible
injury or complaint of pain is there, so undoubtedly the officers saw that,"
she said. The band of brothers from San Angelo, Texas, won a Grammy in 2005
for their Tex-Mex rock, and their self-titled debut two years ago went double
platinum. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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07-12-06: APD NEWS
SUSPECT ARRESTED WITH LARGE QUANTITY OF CRACK COCAINE
The
Austin Police Department South Central Area Command patrol officers responded
to a business in the 2700 block of I-35 south at approximately 9:00 a.m. on Monday,
July 3rd, for a disturbance with violence call. After arriving at the business,
patrol officers were provided a description of the suspect and a description of
the vehicle that the suspect was driving. While canvassing the area, officers
were able to locate the vehicle. Shortly thereafter, officers located an individual
that matched the suspect description as he approached the vehicle. Kevin
Ray Landry, 35 (DOB: 06-19-71) was taken into custody for providing an alias when
officers requested that he identify himself. Landry was found to be in possession
of approximately ten grams of crack cocaine at the time of his arrest. South Central
patrol officers contacted the APD Narcotic Conspiracy Unit who responded to the
scene. Narcotic Conspiracy personnel subsequently executed a search warrant on
Landry's vehicle resulting in the additional seizure of 17 cookies of crack cocaine.
Landry's arrest will have an impact on the crack cocaine distribution in
Austin. It is believed that Landry has been actively involved in the distribution
of crack cocaine in the Austin area for an extended period of time. In addition,
since 1994, there have been seven (7) financial seizures filed on currency seized
from Landry in the past totaling approximately $50,000. Landry was charged
federally by the Narcotics Conspiracy personnel with Possession with Intent to
Distribute - Crack Cocaine. Media Advisory: The Commander of the Organized
Crime Division will be available for interviews today from 2:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Please call APD PIO to schedule an interview time.
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to top
07-07-06: APA News
Overtime or Understaffed? by Laura Doyle
Sergeant
Catherine Haggerty, who also serves as Treasurer of the Austin Police Association,
says, "I'm thankful some officers are willing to volunteer to work so many
hours of overtime. We need the help. There are some days when you put the call
out to fill a vacant shift and no one answers it." Five years ago,
the City of Austin and Austin Police Chief Stan Knee decided the citizens of Austin
no longer needed 90% of their patrol officers, but a new goal of 80% staffing
should be maintained. This means that each of the city's nine sectors must have
at least 80 percent of its assigned districts covered at each police shift. For
example, the Southeast Area Command, the Frank sector, has seven districts, based
on call loads. "On my shift, there are two vacancies," said Haggerty.
These vacancies are because of a shortage APD has in staffing officers on patrol.
Where the APD historically set a goal of 90% staffing on patrol in the 1990's
and early 2000's, even the more lenient goal of 80% staffing is not being achieved.
There is an ongoing effort to fill vacancies to reach the 80 percent. When
one or more officers are sick, on vacation, injured, reassigned or in training,
then the challenge is even greater. Officers do not complain about needing
to reach at least 80 percent, they just say they need more officers to fill in
the gaps. Filling vacancies with other officers helps the officers to be more
effective on the job, and the ample back-up increases safety for both officers
and citizens. "Even at 80 percent, we're often breaking our necks out
there," said Haggerty, who notices that on a busy night, missing an officer
or two can make a big difference. Every officer then helps pick up the slack.
"The dedication of
officers here is exemplar." Eventually,
the struggle to meet the demands of the job when a shift is short of officers
begins to takes its toll,
especially when a sector is not able to fill its
vacancies and must operate at less than 80 percent. The South East Area Command
has had to patrol with as low as 57 percent of its full force on a shift. Obviously,
911 calls do not stop just because there is a shortage of officers. With fewer
officers, the ones on duty work harder and faster, sometimes getting the minimum
amount of information, leaving the police report for later, and quickly moving
to the next call for help. At the end of a busy shift, there may be as many as
2 or more hours of reports to complete. "Nineteen years ago, there
was a busy night only once in a while; now if it's a little slow, it's usually
only the calm before the storm," said Haggerty. As recently as 2000,
but well into the early 1990's, APD was required to be at 90% staffing on patrol.
When the change was made to 80%, this did not originally include the newly created
rank of 'Corporal'. It is often unclear between sectors how the “corporal”
is being counted towards the 80% because of their role and position on that particular
shift. Corporal Noel Guerin relays his experience on a previous shift: “When
I became a Corporal, I was informed that I counted towards staffing levels unless
the Sergeant was absent. So now on my shift of 10 positions and 9 bodies, we can
only let 2 people take off; unless the Sergeant or Corporal takes off; in which
case only 1 other person can take off.” Haggerty and others are concerned
that the percentages and policy changes are due more to budgetary constraints
than what is good for the citizens of Austin and due more to statistics than what
is really
happening on the streets. Due to the serious, yet unpredictable
nature of police work, there is a certain flexibility needed, and the overtime
reflects that need. An officer does not let a drunk driver go by just because
he or she is nearing the end of the shift. When an officer makes an arrest, he
or she needs an extra hour or two at arrest review to write the police report.
His or her fellow officers are also now short an officer for the next call. When
a priority-one call goes out, and there is not an officer to take the call, the
next thing heard is, "Can anyone break away?" When a neighboring sector
is also busy with its own calls, an officer even further away will come to assist.
While the 911 calls do get answered, it does take longer for an officer to travel
across the city to get there, and this affects response time, which affects the
safety of the citizens and officers. With fewer officers to carry the workload,
other programs also suffer. Community policing is supported by both APD and the
public, but it is expensive in the sense that it takes people to do it. Some see
the reality of the situation - no new program can help the city unless there is
the dedication and budget to make it a success. Although budget cuts left
fewer police academies to replenish APD vacancies, on Friday, June 23, 2006, a
class of cadets graduated into Austin Police officers. Seventy cadets joined APD
to be immediately assigned to a 15 month probationary status on patrol –
which also includes the initial 12 week field training process, during which time
(the 12 week training period) they do not and will not count towards staffing
levels. Unfortunately, the target size of the cadet class had originally
been 150, but the patrol shifts of Austin will continue to carry the extra vacancies
as long as it remains necessary for APD to remain below its authorized 100% staffing
goal. In addition, while the newly graduated officers are “a fresh
addition to the force,” said Haggerty, “there will still be a learning
curve. There are some things you can only learn on the street. The new recruits
will need to be able to think fast, have a commanding presence, look for evidence,
make good decisions quickly and think critically. It will take some time before
they are all up to speed." APD's customer base is growing. Haggerty
and others hope that all of the growth is taken into consideration when deciding
how many more officers are needed, that areas exploding with housing developments
are counted, and not just the newly annexed areas that are promised City services.
In October, 2006, three sectors, the South East, South Central and North
Central Area Commands, will be getting an eighth district. These hardworking,
motivated, and dedicated new recruits will fill the vacancies this city has suffered,
as all of the officers of the Austin Police Department continue with their commitment
to serve and protect all of the citizens of Austin. back
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03-04-06: KXAN
30 years of female police officers
Updated:
3/4/2006 11:01 AM
By: Reagan Hackleman
Lt. Patti Robinson has been an
Austin police officer for almost 20 years. She sad there hasn't been a single
day she hasn't wanted to come to work. "I want to be able to give back
something to the community. I
wanted to do something that would make it better
and I decided
becoming a police officer was the best way to do that,"
Robinson said. This year marks the 30th anniversary of female police officers
in the city of Austin. Currently there are 158 females in blue, which is about
11 percent of the force. Sgt. Katherine Haggerty, president of the Austin
Police Women's Association, said Austin is just above the national average. "I
think women actually do a better job then men and vise versa, there are some cases
where men do it better than women," Haggerty said. The first female
officer was hired at APD in 1950 with an administrative position with a desk job.
Twenty-six years later, women were allowed to attend the police academy and become
licensed peace officers. In 1976, the 55th cadet class graduated three
female officers that met the same training standards as male officers. Prior to
that class, women were traditionally assigned to cases involving juveniles, female
suspects or missing persons. "The best part of being a female is that
we are more inclined to use our voices as opposed to brute strength," Robinson
said. But, in the end, they all wear the same uniform. "When
you are a police officer and you put on this uniform there is no difference in
the sexes. There is no difference in the colors.
There is no difference in
the religions or the creeds. We're all blue," Robinson said. Soon there
should be even more Women in Blue patrolling the
streets of Austin, with
16 more in the current class of cadets.
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top
11-10-05: The Daily Texan
APD chief of staff will head UTPD
Robert Dahlstrom beat out Houston ISD's John Blackburn for
job
By Patrick George
The chief of staff for the Austin
Police Department was selected Thursday to be the new chief of police for the
University of Texas Police Department. Robert Dahlstrom, who is currently
the senior assistant to APD Chief Stan Knee, will assume his position in mid-March,
said Vice President for Employee and Campus Services Pat Clubb. Dahlstrom
will replace interim Chief Terry McMahan as commander of the 56 officers of the
UT police force, and McMahan will return to his position as assistant chief of
police. "I'm very honored to be here," Dahlstrom said. "I'm
looking forward to the challenges ahead and working with a great department." Dahlstrom
is a 28-year veteran of APD, where he supervises all patrol area commands and
about 850 officers and is the police liaison to the Austin City Council, according
to a press release. Dahlstrom was chosen for the University position over
Houston ISD Police Chief John Blackburn. "Robert Dahlstrom has enormous
depth of experience in Austin law enforcement," Clubb said. "He knows
a lot about the city and the campus already, and that will help him to meet our
needs." University officials have been searching for a new police chief
since former Chief Jeffrey Van Slyke left the University in March for a position
at the University of Mississippi. Social work professor Mike Lauderdale
served as chair of the search committee, which encountered setbacks in December
when the leading candidate dropped out of the running to take a position at Duke
University. "We struggled to look at where the campus is today and
the broader city of Austin," Lauderdale said. "Only 6,500 of our students
live on campus, so we needed a chief with a knowledge of the city and how the
University fits into that." During a question-and-answer forum last
week, Dahlstrom demonstrated his knowledge of student-heavy areas such as West
Campus and Riverside Drive and the crimes that have occurred there over the last
few years. He also said he is a big proponent of Taser use. Now that he
has been appointed, he plans to make UT the "safest campus in America." "I
want to have meetings with student groups, discuss the issues and bring down the
crime statistics here," Dahlstrom said. "I hope to alleviate fears about
crime and make sure people think they are safe." Lauderdale said he
hopes Dahlstrom's status with APD will help improve the relations between the
Austin police and UTPD. "In past years, we haven't had the greatest
relations between APD and UTPD," Lauderdale said. "That problematic
relationship is over now, and we are looking forward to a high level of cooperation
between both agencies. We depend on the city for a lot of things, so this is essential." Chuck
Roper, the University's health education coordinator and longtime friend of Dahlstrom,
said that he is "very happy" with the University's decision. "He
is a man of high character with a hard work ethic," said Dahlstrom. "He
is straightforward and honest, and we need a guy who tells us the truth." Dahlstrom
said he has a lot to do between now and when assumes his new position in March,
but that he is excited and optimistic about being at UT. "I want to
go on some shifts with UTPD officers and wrap things up here at APD," Dahlstrom
said. "I'm hopeful that I can fulfill what they want me to do."
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Austin chief ripped
by officers, residents
Web Posted: 01/03/2006 12:00 AM CST
Lisa Sandberg
Express-News Austin Bureau
AUSTIN — The accusations
that this city's police chief is weak and scared of criminals would have been
insulting enough coming from an underworld gang. But the attacks against
Stanley Knee have erupted instead from within his department. "He
has neither the heart, guts nor backbone to defend his force," blasted a
statement to the news media in November by Mike Sheffield, the police union's
outspoken president. It was issued not long before the union's 1,300-plus members
re-elected him by a comfortable margin. Sheffield had called for Knee's
resignation hours after the chief decided to fire an Anglo officer who shot and
killed a Hispanic man, Daniel Rocha, during a struggle last summer. The
chief said he had no choice but to dismiss Officer Julie Schroeder, a seven-year
veteran with no disciplinary record. She violated department policy, he said,
by using her gun in a situation that called, at least initially, for less force.
The Police Department's internal affairs investigation found that she did
not violate use-of-force rules, and a grand jury declined to charge her criminally,
so the decision to terminate Schroeder was one of the most wrenching Knee recently
said he has made in his career. But he stands by it. "If you
want to be loved, this is not the job you should choose," said Knee, a 57-year-old
transplant from California. And so the chief has taken heat on two fronts
— from many of his officers, who complain he doesn't back them, and from
vocal and organized residents of the largely Hispanic community where the shooting
took place, who have been quoted in local news reports as saying they fear the
cops more than the criminals. The shooting and its fallout have touched
a raw nerve in a liberal-leaning city that prefers to be known for its high-tech
businesses, hip music scene and large but esteemed public university. The
death of Rocha, an 18-year-old Hispanic high school senior who was unarmed when
he was shot except for a pair of prohibited steel knuckles in his pocket, exacerbated
longstanding racial tensions and has exposed the difficulty Austin and other cities
have had in recruiting enough minority officers to reflect the diverse communities
they patrol. Nearly 19 percent of the police force is Hispanic, while the
city's Hispanic population stands at 36 percent. "We're not quite
there with Hispanics," the chief acknowledged. Gus Garcia, an outspoken
police critic who was Austin's mayor from 2001 to 2003, said Austin had a way
of keeping its racial conflicts under wraps. "Maybe we're not all
that different from other Southern towns," he said, noting that Austin remained
as segregated as anywhere in the South until the 1960s. He said a common perception
among his peers is that the police "are out of control." He complained
that the police union was being led by hard-liners unfamiliar with minority neighborhoods.
"We're having a serious crisis," Garcia said. "You can't
talk about all the officers being racist because that's not true. What you can
say is that the Austin Police Association is not pro-Hispanic." It
is a charge the union president strongly denies — citing his support for
bilingual training, the promotion of Hispanic officers into leadership positions
and the overall recruitment of more minorities. On Friday, the department
suffered another bruise to its image when three Anglo officers were indicted on
a misdemeanor charge of official oppression, accused of using excessive force
against a handcuffed Hispanic man who was face down on the ground after having
just been subdued. One of the officers resigned; the other two were suspended
without pay pending the outcome of the case. Robert Dahlstrom, an assistant
chief, said he regretted having to spend the last hours of 2005 detailing yet
another incident involving allegations of excessive force by police. But he said
the case could have been handled quietly, in house. Instead, it was handed over
to the Travis County's district attorney's office at the same time the department
conducted an administrative investigation. "We feel like we're very
transparent," Dahlstrom said. Quick decision
Late
on the night of June 9, Rocha was shot once in the back at point-blank range on
a street corner in a Southeast Side neighborhood where he once lived with his
mother and two siblings.
Described by his mother as the family clown and
a fantastic cook, Rocha had been known to police in his old Dove Springs neighborhood,
an area of mobile home parks and three-bedroom tract houses that rent for as little
as $395 a month. He ran with the wrong crowd, consumed and sold illegal
drugs. He was known to pop Ecstasy and Xanax pills. In 2004, was sentenced to
six years' probation for burglary, according to his family and police records.
A warrant issued two weeks before his death accused him of snatching an
elderly woman's purse at a McDonald's and threatening her husband. The
night she fired her gun, Officer Schroeder, a petite woman who colleagues said
could talk a drunk into handcuffs, was assigned to the department's South East
Street Response Unit. Her task: Clamp down on the drug trade plaguing the
neighborhood. Schroeder and her partner were in an unmarked car when they
were summoned to pursue a blue Chevrolet Suburban that had stopped at a well-known
drug house. The buyer later told police she was sold two rocks of crack cocaine.
Rocha was a back-seat passenger in the Suburban. When Schroeder and her
partner, Michelle Borton, pulled the SUV over at Pleasant Valley Road and Quicksilver
Boulevard, Schroeder jumped out of her cruiser and approached it. She saw
Rocha and recognized him immediately; she happened to have been the arresting
officer in his burglary case. She told investigators later that she remembered
that he was wanted for the purse snatching. Rocha tried to flee, Schroeder
grabbed him and her supervisor, Sgt. Don Doyle, jumped into the fray. The
two officers and the wanted fugitive ended up in a tangle on the ground, "engaged
in an intense physical struggle," according to the chief's written summary.
At one point, when Rocha managed to free himself from Schroeder's grasp,
she reached into her vest pocket for her Taser weapon, but it wasn't there. She
told investigators that two thoughts raced through her mind in the next few chaotic
moments: She thought Rocha had taken the Taser and she thought he would use it
against Doyle to disable him and grab his gun. So Schroeder drew her service
weapon and fired one shot at close range. Rocha died at the scene. Investigation,
reaction
Whether Rocha tore the Taser from Schroeder's vest during
the encounter isn't clear. What is known is that he wasn't armed with it when
he was shot. He wasn't carrying a gun of his own, though he did have the illegal
steel knuckles in the front pocket of his pants.
Outraged residents held
rallies insisting that the shooting was another instance of a trigger-happy Anglo
officer using excessive force against a person of color. Anglo officers had been
involved in two other fatal shootings with minorities in 2002 and 2003. The
chief's decision to fire Schroeder stunned many of her colleagues. In August,
a grand jury decided she broke no law; and the department's internal affairs investigators
found she broke no use-of-force rules. A citizens review panel disagreed,
and the chief, with several high-ranking subordinates on the police disciplinary
review board, sided with the citizens panel. In a 12-page memo, he declared that
Schroeder, not having seen a weapon in Rocha's hands, had no reason to believe
he posed a deadly threat to either herself or Doyle. In addition, the evidence
indicated that Rocha was more intent on fleeing than fighting, the chief concluded.
Furthermore, firing her weapon when Rocha and Sgt. Doyle were grappling
put Doyle's life in danger, he concluded.
In an interview, the chief
dismissed allegations that he doesn't back up his force.
Knee said 41 people
have died in custody in almost nine years that he has been the city's police chief.
He said he disciplined officers in only two instances, firing Schroeder and issuing
a 90-day suspension to Officer Scott Glasglow, who in 2002 approached a suspect
in a stolen car without following police rules and waiting for backup. Glasglow
ended up shooting the man, who was unarmed, five times at close range. Sheffield,
the union's president, isn't swayed by the chief's statistics. He insists that
Knee used Schroeder as a "sacrificial lamb" to appease a small but vocal
group of protesters. "This police officer went out there and put her
life on the line, and Chief Knee sacrificed her," Sheffield said. In
what was widely seen as a referendum on the chief, Sheffield won a fourth term,
with 60 percent of the union vote. Among those who cast a vote for Sheffield
was Cpl. Tony Hipolito, a Hispanic who has patrolled the Southeast Side for most
of his 30 years with the department. Driving his patrol car on a recent
evening, Hipolito, 50, said it was indefensible for the chief to second-guess
an officer engaged in a struggle with a fugitive. "Publicly, he should
have supported us more. He should say, 'I support my troops 100 percent,' and
then conduct an investigation. He should have held a press conference (immediately
after the shooting) like he did when he fired her." "We're police
officers first." In the Dove Springs neighborhood where Rocha was
killed, residents interviewed said they were unsure what to believe about the
shooting. Karen Coxe, 33, a stay-at-home mom who lives a block from the
shooting site with her husband, Manny, a former Bexar County constable, and their
two young children, said she was taking a cigarette break in her backyard when
she heard a gunshot, followed by a voice: "Let me see your hands! Let me
see your hands!" She said she would have shared her account with police,
but no one contacted her. She and her husband say they would hate to think
that Rocha was killed without cause. But they're not sure. "I don't
think we'll ever get the true story," she said. Moving on
Rocha's mother, Daniela, 44, has built a shrine to her dead son in the living
room of the two-bedroom apartment she now shares with her 11-year-old daughter,
Vivian, and 26-year-old son, Jerry.
It is a photograph of her middle son,
close up and smiling a few weeks before his death. It sits atop a gold and silver
urn containing his ashes, next to a display of silk roses. He appears as
a boy with straight black hair. Daniela Rocha described him as a kid who could
make anybody laugh, who loved rapping and planned to study graphic design in San
Antonio after graduating from high school. Daniel Rocha had his brushes
with authorities, as did other kids he grew up with, but as a follower he was
often blamed for stuff he didn't do, she said. "He was not the troubled
kid that everybody was making him out to be," said Daniela, a single mother
employed with the state's child welfare agency. She is convinced that her
son was killed for no good reason. She has retained an attorney and hopes one
day that Schroeder will be held criminally responsible for the shooting. Schroeder,
who declined an interview through her attorney, is fighting to get back her job.
Her appeal goes before an arbiter, who will make a final decision in March or
April.
11-16-05:
FOX7
City deals with leak in Rocha shooting
The City of Austin has a leak investigation on its hands now.
This comes
after the police union filed a complaint, claiming somebody shared confidential
information about how Officer Julie Schroeder should be disciplined. Schroeder
fatally shot Daniel Rocha June 9th. The citizen review board is charged
with making recommendations to the chief on how officers should be disciplined. They
don't have the final say. But according to leaked information that appeared
in the Austin American Statesman Wednesday, they unanimously agreed Officer Schroeder
should be fired. The four voting members also agreed Sgt. Don Doyle, who
was fighting with Rocha when he was shot, should be demoted. Several members
of the community voiced concerns at a public hearing October 31st, many asked
for Schroeder to be terminated even though a Travis County grand jury found no
criminal wrongdoing. This is the second time in two weeks details about
the investigation have been leaked to the press. November 1st the Rocha
family attorney released a video re-enactment of the shooting. Austin Police
Chief Stan Knee says regardless of the growing controversy, his decision won't
be influenced by political pressure. "I don't feel the pressure that
perhaps someone else would, I've been in this role before, and what you try to
do is ultimately do the right thing in the disciplinary process based on the facts,"
says Knee. The City Manager is in the process of hiring an independent investigator
to find out who leaked the CRB'S recommendations.
back
to top
11-16-05: KXAN
Citizen's Review Panel's
Recommendation Leaked
Austin's top cop is responding to explosive
top secret information leaked to the media about the officer-involved shooting
death of an Austin teenager.
It's no secret that the Citizen's Review Panel
was looking into this latest shooting but their recommendations to the chief are,
by state law, supposed to be kept secret. Not anymore. According to published
reports, the panel recommends Sgt. Don Doyle be demoted and Officer Julie Schroeder
be fired for the fatally shooting of 18-year-old Daniel Rocha. A police
video re-enactment of that night shows Officer Schroeder explaining how she feared
for her life, and Sgt. Doyle explaining how Rocha put up a violent struggle with
both of them. The Citizen's Review Panel saw the video, among other things,
and made the recommendations to Chief Knee on Halloween. He will not disclose
what the panel suggested, but says it's troubling to know someone broke the rules
and leaked confidential information. "Folks need to play by the rules
and when they're not followed, of course I'm disappointed. I would be disappointed
if it were the janitor at city hall that leaked it," Knee said. Now
the city manager is launching an investigation into the leak. On Friday,
Chief Knee will decide if Schroeder and Doyle keep their job.
back
to top
11-16-05: Schroeder should be fired, panel
says
11/16/2005 8:43 AM
By: News 8 Austin Staff
A newspaper
report states the Austin Police Monitor's "Citizen's Review Panel" has
recommended firing the Austin police officer who shot and killed Daniel Rocha. The
report, from the Austin American-Statesman, says the panel came up with that recommendation
after meeting Oct. 31. Rocha, 18, was shot dead by officer Julie Schroeder
in June. A grand jury decided Schroeder did not violate any laws in the incident. But
many people at the Oct. 31 meeting called for a new independent investigation
into the shooting. They also wanted more discipline for officer Schroeder. The
Austin Police Association would not confirm details of the newspaper report. The
association's president Mike Sheffield is upset the report was leaked and wants
to know how it happened. The leak is a political move to put pressure on
Police Chief Stan Knee, Sheffield said. There is no evidence Officer Schroeder
violated any policies regarding the use of force, Sheffield said. The Statesman
article also says the Citizen's Review Panel recommended Sgt. Don Doyle lose rank
over the shooting. Doyle was Schroeder's partner at the scene. Schroeder
told the grand jury she shot Rocha because she believed he was going to hurt Doyle. APD
confirmed they've received the Citizen's Review Panel recommendations but would
not comment. back to top
10-16-05,
2005: KEYE 42
Austin Police Chief Stan Knee is expected
to decide on the recommendations of the citizens review panel on Friday.
The
panel was created to address recent incidents involving officers using force in
the field. The tough issue of when to use force has been brought into sharp focus
by the fatal shooting of Daniel Rocha. Although the panel’s recommendations
are not yet known, there has been speculation. Austin Police Association President
Mike Sheffield says he hopes the panel reviewed the grand jury’s investigation. Sheffield
said the facts show that the officers involved acted within policy parameters,
that Rocha was armed with steel knuckles and put up a violent struggle. He said
when officers feared their lives were in danger, a shot was fired. A grand
jury chose not to indict the officers involved in the Rocha shooting.
back to top
USA Today - 11-09-2005:
Police Recruits in Heavy Demand
By Kevin Johnson,
USA TODAY Police departments, desperate to beef up their ranks, are using
unprecedented recruiting tactics that include luring officer candidates from other
cities and offering dramatically increased pay, housing allowances and other perks.
The aggressive recruiting efforts have become particularly common in cities
such as Phoenix and Lexington, Ky., where local governments are emerging from
budget slumps and hiring more officers to keep up with the public safety needs
of rapidly growing areas. (Related story: Cops seek more cops) To expand
its pool of candidates for 500 jobs over the next two years, Phoenix's 2,969-officer
department is recruiting on the Los Angeles Police Department's turf in Southern
California. The $300,000 campaign includes TV and newspaper ads that tout Phoenix's
lower cost of living. Los Angeles' 9,000-member department, which is seeking
720 officers, has responded by hiring its own recruiting strategist. "Southern
California is a big market," Los Angeles police Cmdr. Kenneth Garner says.
"It's open season out here." Honolulu's police department, which
has struggled to find applicants on the Hawaiian Islands, is following a strategy
similar to Phoenix's. The 1,800-officer department, trying to fill 200 openings,
recently sent recruiters to San Diego and Portland, Ore., and got commitments
from dozens of prospects. Lexington raised starting salaries from $26,000
to $34,000 to help boost its 540-member force by 200 officers over four years.
The city offers officers up to $7,400 for down payments on houses. Other
police agencies are dangling perks such as bonuses for recruits who speak foreign
languages, says Elaine Deck, who tracks recruiting for the International Association
of Chiefs of Police. Such perks have become more prevalent as departments have
faced stiff competition for recruits in an economy that has created many higher-paying
alternatives to police work. "There are so many (departments) looking
for officers," Deck says. The market is so competitive, she says, that departments
for the first time are "recruiting whole families. ... Everything is on the
table: bilingual bonuses, housing allowances, you name it." Some police
departments have sent recruiters to other cities to sign up experienced officers
from other agencies. Paul Schultz, police chief in Lafayette, Colo., says his
40-officer unit has been raided by larger agencies. "We've had officers go
out on assignments where they have been recruited on the job."
back
to top
The Daily Texan / University of Texas
State & Local | 11/9/05
Inaccuracies not lies, says police rep
By Jimmie Collins
Police
officers involved in critical incidents should not participate in voluntary reenactments,
said Mike Sheffield, Austin Police Association president, Tuesday.
Sheffield's
opinion comes less than a week after civil attorney Bobby Taylor claimed there
were discrepancies between police reenactments and affidavits of the fatal shooting
of an East Austin teen. "There will always be inaccuracies," Sheffield
said. "These reenactments are what they are: the best recollections of the
officers." Sheffield went on to say the reenactments are usually performed
after a stressful event that is often followed by little sleep. He said officers
often have difficulty recounting exactly what happened with every detail, and
inaccuracies are inevitable. A violent struggle with Austin Police Department
officers in early June ended in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Daniel Rocha,
the son of Daniela Rocha whom Taylor is representing. They are now requesting
an independent investigation of the case and the termination of officer Julie
Schroeder, who shot Daniel Rocha. Last week, Taylor argued that Sgt. Dan
Doyle and Schroeder's explanations in the reenactment video of the June 9 shooting
do not match up. In the video, Doyle claimed Schroeder was on the right
of Rocha when she shot him. Trajectory of the bullet and Schroeder's recount of
her actions show she was on Rocha's left. However, the trajectory and medical
examiner's reports also show Schroeder was actually closer than she claimed to
be, Taylor argued. Sheffield said these types of inconsistencies are expected.
"This is a walkthrough of a violent struggle that happened at break-neck
speed," Sheffield said. "Even the DA's office has said they fully expect
there to be discrepancies. The human mind as a memory is not perfect." Sheffield
said Taylor's argument doesn't make sense. "It's virtually impossible
to get it perfect, but [Taylor is] saying because it's not perfect, these officers
must be lying," he said. The video reenactments are done as part of
a criminal investigation. Officers involved in the incident are asked to participate,
but it is voluntary. The officers' participation is required if a reenactment
is done for the APD Internal Affairs Division. "There was never an
expectation that civil attorneys would come along and take this and mischaracterize
these statements as lies," Sheffield said. APD Chief Stan Knee is expected
to make a disciplinary decision by Dec. 6 for Schroeder and Doyle.
back
to top
KXAN 08-12-05:
New Policy for Austin Police Cars
Some Austin Police officers are no longer allowed to chase the
bad guys. A new change will affect police enforcement across the city. If
it's not caught on tape, Austin Police can't pull you over. KXAN News 36
has learned starting immediately, officers without cameras in their police cars
are no longer allowed to make traffic stops. Not only will officers without
cameras in their car lose their authority to pull over traffic violators like
drivers speeding down I-35, but those officers may also lose something else. "To
be safe, what we said was if you don't have a camera in your car, until we can
get this done, don't make stops," APD Assistant Chief Rick Coy said. To
make sure that doesn't happen, those officers may no longer have emergency lights
on their police car. There are only certain police cars that don't have
cameras. Those units belong to officers assigned to special units like hostage
negotiators. "They don't make traffic stops routinely but in case they
were to, we would not have that captured on video," Coy said. "Fine.
If that's the case, let's put cameras in the car. We've called for cameras once.
We'll calling for them again," Austin Police Association President Mike Sheffield
said. Sheffield says it makes more sense to add cameras to the police cars,
not to take away their emergency lights. "We have a policy that is
so restrictive, we're taking the emergency lights out of these vehicles so we
can make certain that someone doesn't make a stop cause we don't have a camera
in that unit," Sheffield said. Coy says this is only an effort to make
sure all traffic stops are recorded. "We don't want to go overboard
on this but we want to do what's right," Coy said. Sheffield says it's
sending the wrong message to certain officers. "I'm not in a car that
has a camera so unless I see something that is absolutely an emergency situation,
I don't get involved because I don't have a camera in my car. That thinking is
de-policing," Sheffield said. Officers in a car without a camera can
initiate a stop only if it is an emergency, but Sheffield says that's open to
interpretation and asks if you want officers second guessing themselves about
that because they're afraid of violating the new policy.
back
to top
The Houston Chronicle 06-23-05:
Houston FOP - Telephone Solicitation
Scrutinized
Continuing Analysis of questionable solicitation tactics
I won't pay $50 pledged to cop union By RICK CASEY
Late last week I received one of those telephone solicitations at home.
You may be getting the same one. It was a man calling on behalf of the Houston
Police Patrolman's Union. He said he was seeking contributions for such things
as legal programs and insurance assistance. He said if I gave, they would send
me a decal that I could put on my car to show my support for police officers.
I agreed to give $50, the second-lowest amount he listed. I didn't want to seem
cheap. When he asked for my address to send an invoice, I gave my work address.
Over the weekend I received a second call. They were confused about the
address. Was there a suite number? No, I said, it'll get to me. It did, but after
doing some research, I've decided not to send in the 50 bucks. It's not because
I'm against police unions. I've been covering police unions in Texas for 20 years,
and while they've sometimes stepped out of line, they've also resulted in better-paid,
more professional police forces. No guns for martyrs I want my police
well-paid. I want them in it for the money, not for the power. To put it another
way, I don't believe in giving guns to people with martyr complexes. So why am
I not giving? Here are some reasons. - You know that sticker with
the obvious suggestion that it may persuade some grateful cop to not give me a
traffic ticket after all? Well, Texas has a lot of competing police unions. This
one has 503 members who have dues taken out of their paychecks. Their biggest
rival, the Houston Police Officers Union, has 4,526 dues-paying members. So I
figure the odds are 9-1 that the cop who stops me is as likely to be ticked off
as grateful. Telephone addiction - I secured a copy of the contract the
union has with the Houston "sole proprietorship " that runs the phone
operation, Public Safety Services. It says the company keeps 70 percent of the
first $4,000 it collects per week, 75 percent of the next $4,000 and 80 percent
of everything over $8,000 a week. So chances are, $40 of my $50 would go to the
people who interrupted my dinner. - The union needs better relations
with the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Houston. The Bureau says of the
union: "This company is a telemarketer that solicits donations in the name
of, or on behalf of law enforcement unions or associations." It notes that
"a very small percentage of donations go to the cause." -
The union allied itself with the Fraternal Order of Police, a group that seems
to suffer from an addiction to telephone solicitation. Two years ago, the Massachusetts
attorney general sued a local FOP lodge, saying 93 percent of $394,000 raised
in 2001 went to the fund-raisers and 5 percent to its own administration. What
happened to the remaining 2 percent wasn't clear. The AG's office called it "badge
fraud solicitation." In 2002, Illinois officials moved to shut
down telemarketing firms soliciting on behalf of four Chicago-area FOP lodges.
Among other embarrassments: the firms were run by felons and hired felons to make
the pro-law enforcement pitch. Prior to that the Oklahoma FOP refused
to register as a charity with the state even after being told by the attorney
general to do so. The police organization used a New Jersey telemarketer. Registration
would have required it to open records to the public on what it did with the money.The
FOP joined in a lawsuit in Colorado that struck down a law requiring charity solicitors
to inform donors that they had three days to change their minds. In
1997, the FOP and others sued in Texas and overturned a law requiring their telephone
solicitors to tell how much of the donation was going to the union. A judge ruled
it violated their First Amendment rights because other charities weren't required
to do the same. I will say this for Houston Police Patrolmen's Union
President Johnnie McFarland. When I asked him how much of the money went to the
solicitors, he was honest. He said, "70 percent." A few minutes later,
he called back to correct it to "80 percent." "We're full-time
police officers, and this is what they do," he said, semi-apologetically.
Maybe so, but I don't want to pay them to do it.
back
to top
The Dallas Morning News 05-12-05:
Michelle Malkin: Heroes in blue
This
National Police Week, let's look past the media's bias and thank our officers
for their sacrifices 12:07 AM CDT on Thursday, May 12, 2005 When
was the last time you thanked a cop? And wouldn't it be nice if, for just
a moment, the mainstream media would hold a cease-fire in their incessant cop-bashing
crusades? There are good cops, and there are bad cops. But national
press outlets, predisposed to harp on law enforcement as an inherently racist
and reckless institution, hype the hellions at the expense of the heroes. Case
in point: the feeding frenzy this week over reports of a cop shootout gone awry
in Compton, Calif., and of a Seattle officer who reportedly used a Taser gun on
a pregnant woman over a speeding ticket. As Jan Golab writes in a cover
story for The American Enterprise magazine this month on how political correctness
undermines policing: "Today, cops all across the United States battle a foe
as destructive as crime itself: the presumption of common prejudice. ... This
view has been fanned by a media elite which has made 'diversity' its virtual religion."
The anti-cop bias, Mr. Golab notes, comes through the national mainstream media's
"sins of omission – the stories never told. Propaganda, as Orwell said,
is in what gets left out." Thus, we'll be subjected to wall-to-wall
coverage of the Tasered pregnant lady and the shot-out SUV. But you won't see
Peter Jennings reporting on the slaying of Denver Detective Donald R. Young. The
married father of two was shot three times from behind last weekend in a cold-blooded
ambush. Police believe the tattooed young assailant, a suspected illegal immigrant,
has fled to Mexico. Detective Young received numerous awards during his 12 years
on the Denver force, including the police department's medal of honor and a distinguished
service cross. And you won't see Larry King talking about the killing of
undercover vice Sgt. Gerald Vick in St. Paul, Minn., at the hands of a reputed
gang member of the Vice Lords. Sgt. Vick, who leaves behind a wife and two children,
was a medal of valor winner who had rescued two children from a raging house fire
in 1990. The St. Paul Pioneer Press recounted his heroism: In 1990, Sgt. Vick
pulled Rachel Patterson's 3-year-old son clear of a fatal house fire. Then he
broke through a window, crawled beneath the smoke and took out her unconscious
15-month-old daughter. He went back in to rescue her husband and 5-year-old son,
but it was too late. Detective Young and Sgt. Vick may not be on the media's
radar screen, but they will undoubtedly be on the minds of those gathering in
Washington, D.C., this week to commemorate National Police Week. The event kicks
off tomorrow with a reminder of the sacrifices American men and women in blue
have made to protect us. The names of 415 fallen officers will be read and added
to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. The memorial's sponsors
remind us that since the first recorded police death in 1792, more than 16,500
law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty. Last year, 153
law enforcement officers were killed – 14 of them in Texas. New York City
has lost more officers in the line of duty than any other department, with more
than 580 deaths. Daniel Felten, a blogger (http://schadenfreude.cogitox.com)
who is also a former police officer and soldier, reflected on the strength of
character required to do a job the rest of us too often take for granted: "Some
people reach a point where they can't face another dead body, another senseless
murder, another grieving family member. Or another dead police officer. Then there
are some who can do the job every day for 20 or 30 years. I thank God for people
like that." Me, too. Thank you, officers, from the bottom of my heart.
Michelle Malkin's column is distributed by the Creators Syndicate. Her
e-mail address is malkin@comcast.net. back to top
KVUE
04-13-05: Officer credits support for recovery
09:39 AM CDT on Wednesday, April 13, 2005
By KEVIN PETERS / KVUE
News
Every day, fellow officers, family and friends visited Officer Steve
Claiborne in the hospital. At one point, some feared he might not survive, until
last week when Claiborne suprised them all.
Claiborne says he doesn't
remember his emergency helicopter ride to the hospital, but he knew he was in
trouble. "The only thing I remember is looking at the little girl and
going, 'Relax, that's why they call them accidents.' She didn't do it on purpose,"
he said. Steve's wife, Jody, remembers the day's event like yesterday. Her
husband's partner called her after police say an 18-year old driver pulled out
in front of her husband on Highway 2222. Claiborne broke bones in his pelvis,
legs and chest. At first, Jody Claiborne says she was able to talk to her
husband. But days after a second surgery at Brackenridge Hospital, Officer Claiborne's
condition worsened. His lungs failed. "He really couldn't communicate
and doctors decided to chemically induce a coma," she said. It's a
condition her husband remained in for several weeks. Jody Claiborne says not talking
to her husband was the toughest thing she ever faced. Her prayers were answered
last week. Officer Claiborne not only woke up, but on Friday, he spoke his first
words in more than a month. "He talked for hours," Jody Claiborne
said. "It was an all-day affair." Steve Claiborne says his therapists
called it "an unbelievable step forward." On Monday, Officer Claiborne
was transferred to St. David's rehab center, where many months of therapy await
him. Through it all, the family credits the support from the city, the public
and fellow officers. "Never give up the hope and the faith of the citizens
of Austin," Claiborne said. "Their hope and faith will carry you through." Both
the Austin Police Association and the 100 Club helped the Claiborne family with
hotel expenses and additional financial support. But Officer Claiborne's
journey toward recovery will require perhaps much more, because his ultimate goal
is to go back to riding motorcycles. Getting back on a bike may take a while.
Doctors say it will likely take Claiborne years just to walk again. But
then again, he's already beat the odds once. back
to top
The Daily Texan 02-15-05: Claiming their
territory
New bill hopes to clarify boundaries
for UT, APD police
By Kathy Adams
A new bill in the
state Legislature is striving to clarify jurisdictional boundaries between UT
police officers and Austin police officers. The lack of clarity in this area has
been causing problems between the departments over the past two years, said Austin
Police Association President Mike Sheffield. If passed, House Bill 479 will
clarify that APD's area of jurisdiction includes the UT campus, meaning it has
the authority to "operate without interference by the UT Austin campus police
department or its policies," according to a written statement by State Rep.
Terry Keel, R-Austin, who authored the bill. The bill will clarify that
UT police and Austin police have concurrent jurisdiction on the UT campus because
it is within Austin city limits, Sheffield said. Keel wrote the bill in
response to former UT Police Chief Jeffrey Van Slyke establishing policies in
August 2004 that prevented Austin police officers from attending campus events
without a ticket or prior approval by the UTPD, according to Keel's statement.
These policies, which were removed in November 2004, also required off-duty Austin
police officers to surrender their weapons to UT police officers when attending
an event. In short, the policies gave UT police authority over Austin police
during UT events. Van Slyke attempted to implement the policies to preserve
the integrity of UT events, according to the statement. Van Slyke was unavailable
for comment. During a 2004 Capital Metro board meeting at the conference
center on campus, an Austin police officer was assigned to cover the event, Sheffield
said, but was unable to because UT police officers required him to surrender his
weapon or leave. "That's when we started to deal with this issue,"
he said. He said Van Slyke's policies were unreasonable and unlawful because
they prevent police officers from doing their duty. UT police and Austin police
are both peace officers with the same authority, as defined by the Code of Criminal
Procedure, he added. "It's stated in law in the Code of Criminal Procedure
that we're police officers, and we're subject to doing our duty 24 hours a day,
seven days a week," Sheffield said. Sheffield said if an officer is
forced to surrender his weapon at an event and an emergency occurs, he may not
be able to respond appropriately. Relations with the UT police officers
are not hostile and the officers are in "no way, shape or fashion to be held
responsible for this" because they must enforce the administration's policies,
he said. "It was very surprising to me that the chief of police at
that university was allowed to take this stand, and we felt like this was the
only way to deal with it," Sheffield said. He said he has not heard of similar
problems at other Austin or state campuses during his 26 years with the Austin
Police Association. The bill, if passed, will not change current law, which
grants the UT police the "same powers, privileges and immunities of peace
officers" in the city. It will, however, clarify the departments' areas of
jurisdiction and will emphasize that the APD may deploy officers on the UT campus
and in its facilities as allowed by law. back
to top
02-17-05
KXAN
Interview Regarding "Rocket Docket"
Your tax money
helps bring criminals to justice in Travis County. The district attorney's office
admits it made a major mistake in the process.
District Attorney Ronnie
Earle confirms they failed several victims of violence specifically the family
of a fallen police officer because there was a rush to get a criminal case through
the system. "This doesn't usually happen in fact it never happens.
For it to happen involving a police officer is just terrible," Earle said. What
ended in a terrible mistake started out as a mistake. In late October, Officer
Amy Donovan was accidentally struck and killed by her own patrol car driven by
her own partner all in pursuit of a suspect later identified as Nicholas Jarmon. He
was later arrested and charged with possessing a controlled substance and evading
arrest. Then came another mistake, this time by the DA's office. "It
was handled only as a drug case, not as evading arrest. We made a mistake,"
Earle said. The mistake was putting Jarmon on the rocket docket -- a system
designed to quickly dispose of drug cases but it was so fast prosecutors overlooked
the evading charge. "This was a case of somebody not doing their job.
The file is very clear. If you had open the file and read the probable cause affidavit,
you would have recognized this is not just a drug case," Mike Sheffield with
the Austin Police Association said. Jarmon got four-and-half years in prison
and will never stand trial for evading arrest leaving the Donovan family once
again at a loss. "This case does combine our two worst nightmares.
The first is the victim gets lost in the process, that happened here with Mr.
Donovan. The second is that we do something that does not do justice for police
officers because we're part of the same family," Earle said. Jarmon
could have received up to 20 years in prison for the evading arrest charge. Earle
says he will look a the entire rocket docket system to make sure this doesn't
happen again.
back to top
02-17-05
KVUE Interview Regarding "Rocket Docket"
District attorney, family outraged by plea deal
09:14 AM CST
on Thursday, February 17, 2005 By Rudy Koski / KVUE News The Travis
County district attorney says he's outraged after a suspect that
led to the
death of an Austin police officer reaches a plea bargain with
prosecutors.
Officer Amy Donovan and her partner were chasing a suspect last October
when
her partner, Officer Adrian Valdovino, accidentally backed over Donovan
with
their patrol car. She was killed. Valdovino remains on administrative
leave, but he will not be charged with any
crime. The suspect, Nicholas
Jarmon, was picked up by police the day after the
accident and identified
by those at the accident. He was charged with evading arrest but also had
an unrelated charge that was
pending. The evading arrest charge was
dropped in a plea bargain. District Attorney Ronnie Earle says the case
was a casualty of the court
system's "rocket-docket."
KVUE Online
Video
KVUE's Casey Stegall reports
"It was handled
only as a drug case, not as an evading arrest case. We made a
mistake,"
says Earle. The Donovan family will never have the day to face Jarmon.
They were expecting
a trial by jury. But Jarmon had already been in court
months before, and
there's no going back. It has outraged not only
Donovan's family, but the Austin Police family as
well. "I was
very disappointed," says Austin Police Chief Stan Knee. Jarmon is
serving four and a half years for the drug charge. He could have been sentenced
to 20 years for evading arrest.
back to
top
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