A good day for old news!!!!

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/may/11/city-of-spokane-rejects-police-captains-grievance-/

FURNITURE-GATE PART EIGHT… IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT???

 

This will be the last story, at this point, concerning FURNITURE-GATE. Because there are “moving parts” there may be more later however. One of those “moving parts” is that Arleth’s appeal is now sitting on Teresa Sanders desk awaiting her decision to make this RIGHT, or continue the threat to ALL cops not to buck the Condon Administration and their Cronies or there will be consequences.

 

If you read PART SEVEN of this Series, I don’t know how you or anyone else wouldn’t come to the conclusion that Tim Schwering’s Internal Affairs Investigations have NOT gotten any better since the Use of Force Commission Report, or for that matter the COPS/DOJ Report and Six Month Review.

 

PART SEVEN:

https://examplepro.me/2016/03/28/furniture-gate-part-seven-the-garrity-statements/

 

If you read PART SIX of this Series you would see that SPD is in the process of a “CLEAN-UP”, and that “CLEAN-UP” continues as I type. The CLEAN-UP however goes well beyond what I reported in PART SIX.

PART SIX:

https://examplepro.me/2016/03/26/furniture-gate-part-six-the-clean-up/

 

As I mentioned before, and many of you know, I have been railing for years about SPD’s continued violation of the Washington State Public Records Act. They have time and time again released personal information, including names, date of births, addresses, phone numbers, even Driver Licenses and Social Security Numbers to the Public. What is even worse is that they often released the personal information of people who made IA Complaints against Cops on Schwering’s Website.

 

As far as the “CLEAN-UP” is concerned my railing about it, even to the Spokesman Review, and the previous City Council did nothing to get it taken care of. My railing fell upon deaf ears. I have been criticized by some members of the Public for picking a Cop IA Case to demonstrate just how bad things are at SPD when I could have used any number of complaints made by Citizens against Cops, instead of Cop complaints against another Cop. The fact is…what the Cops get, in some cases, is the same thing a Citizen gets and this one was SO EASY. Guess what folks…it wasn’t my railing which was responsible for SPD starting the cleaning up of Schwering’s Website…nope…it was this Cop IA Case that got it started for you Private Citizens. Why?? you might ask. Pretty simple! When SPD released the Arleth IA case to the Public they DID NOT redact Arleth’s Personal Information, The Union complained, and now as you can see SPD is FINALLY in the process of trying to right all of their past wrongs…but it is far too late SPD…I have copies.

 

Part of the “CLEAN UP”, as I have noted, included getting rid of the notes Lundgren took when Arleth presented evidence to him which was never included in the IA File. If it were you as a Private Citizen, what would you think of that. Please keep this in mind as we continue.

LUNGREN’S INVESTIGATIVE FOCUS…WHY THE CHANGE???

 

Remember that this IA Investigation began on December 30^th, 2015 when Meidl at the direction of Dobrow went to Lundgen to male the complaint. Meidl’s complaint according to Lundgren’s report was two fold:

1) Arleth violated an order “contrary to the wishes of the Department and City Hall, specifically City Administrator Teresa Sanders.” (Get the drift?).

2) “Captain Artleth had expressed many concerns about moving the DTP to the Intermodal Facility and had spokane out in a meeting attended by the public against leaving the Peyton Building, according to Chief Dobrow.

 

 

The following day December 31^st, 2015 Lundgren starts his Investigatigation with a focus emails between the key players in this game with the exception of one, “BIG MOMMA” (Most of the Cop Climbers are afraid of “BIG MOMMA”).

 

 

 

Having some experience with the City of Spokane’s Enterprise Vault Storage System and the methodology used to search it I can pretty much guarantee you the bulk of the emails Lundgren received came from this request. I would also venture a guess that some of the emails Arleth presented during his Garrity statement which were ignored were also in this batch.

 

Something else that could be contained in this first batch is communication between Lukas, Simmons, and Knight that might demonstrate Lukas, or all of them, knew the NEW, PURCHASED, SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FURNITURE was all BS.

 

As you can see from Lundgren’s IA Report, he received the first email dump on 01/05/16. Fifteen days later Lundgren states in his report that he “needed to conduct a broader search”. The truth is that the second search he requested is not “broader”, actually it is NARROWER with the exception of extending the date to 09/01/2015. As you can see Lundgren’s search was narrowed to Arleth, Meidl, and Dobrow.

 

 

 

If Arleth ever decided to sue the City of Spokane, I can assure you one of the many, many questions Major Lundgren would be asked in his deposition is why he narrowed his “Investigative Focus” 15 days later and whether or not it was solely his decision as the “Independent IA Investigator”.

 

 

Lundgren’s report states that he received over 1800 email threads from his two requests and that “Some were not relevant to the investigation”

 

 

 

 

 

Lundgren makes clear in his report that of all of those email threads he only found two which were relevant to the investigation, he describes them as email string #1 and #2, which you can read for yourself.

Lundgren submitted his case file to OPO Bart Logue and Dobrow on 02/19/16, and even though Arleth had provided Lundgren, during Arleth’s Garrity Statement, with what sound to be relevant emails and would have been included in the ones Lundgren received from IT, Lundgren whether on his own or with some help decided the evidence Arleth provided was NOT relevant and it never appeared in the file. So even though Lundgren made notes when Arleth gave him the defense evidence…it wasn’t relevant???

 

If Arleth decided to sue the City, the Investigator for the Law Firm hired by Arleth would be going through all 1800 emails Lundgren “reviewed” and would be picking a bunch out that would be used in Lundgren’s deposition (Trust me I know, and it is a pain in the ass, but the money is good!).

 

At this point, I think I’ve pretty much filled in most of the blanks…. so let’s move on.

 

On Friday, February 19^th, 2016, Lundgren submits his case to Interim Ombudsman Bart Logue. I forgot to mention that Major Lundgren back when he was a Lieutenant was one of the individuals along with Dennis Hession who put Logue’s name forward to the OPOC (Long story another time).

 

TWO working days later on the morning of Wednesday, February 24^th,2016 at 9:30 AM Logue and Lundgren meet in person and discuss the Arleth case, after the discussion between the two on the same day at 6:44 PM Logue delivers his written “Certification” Lundgren.

I wonder what Bart Logue would have to say in a deposition about the conversation he had with Lundgren prior to his certification.

I wonder how an individual other than a Cop making an IA Complaint would feel if they knew the OPO went in and talked to the IA Investigator, made recommendations about the handling of the case prior to a certification, and then came up with this weird “Certification”?

 

 

 

 ATTENTION OMBUDSMAN LOGUE!

 

 

When you read Logue’s “Certification” you have to understand that Logue is a former Marine Corps Lt. Colonel and it takes them a while to learn what the world outside the Marine Corps and the UCMJ really is, so I’ll try and help him out.

 

Colonel Logue you document in your recommendation “1.”, and that would be a… “No shit sir!” … there isn’t any “substantive documents or statements” regarding Arleth’s “general attitude or demeanor about the move”.

Yes, Colonel you were right! Even though on 12/30/2015 it was part of Meidl’s complaint, and it was hit hard on by Lundgren in Meidl’s and Arleth’s Garrity Statements ZERO effort was made to Investigate it, and here is why it wasn’t. The list of witnesses, as you know, for Garrity Statements would have been:

Teresa Sanders

Ed Lukas

Scott Simmons

 

It should have been plain to you that they were OFF-LIMITS, to coin a military term. As a Civilian OPO part of your job try and establish the underling motive behind a complaint and determine whether or not it played a role in the complaint itself or the way the investigation may have been conducted, it doesn’t matter whether the complaint originates from a Citizen against a Cop, or a Cop against a Cop.

If you have a concern about underlying motives or any other aspect of an IA Case DO NOT Certify it. Submit in writing your questions to IA and ALWAYS get the answers in writing…in other words CYA, the need for CYA out here is much more important than it was in the Corps.

 

You are right again in your recommendation “2.”! She did say to “mark the furniture” and a statement should have been taken from her…but once again… obviously OFF-LIMITS.

 

Colonel you are WRONG in both “1. And 2.” when you state “it does not impact the charges of whether Captain Arleth disobeyed or was insubordinate between 12/23/15 and 12/30/15”.

Of course it does Colonel, and based upon your Certification documentation you were able to figure that out.

When you state “as Judy Knight was not in a position to provide an order to Captain Arleth.” It ain’t that way our here Colonel and Lundgren’s IA Report clearly delineates the “Chain of Command”; Teresa Sanders to Ed Lukas, Ed Lukas to Judy Knight…this entire gig was City Hall’s NOT SPD’s. So when Sanders granted supervisory authority to Lukas, and Lukas granted Knight her authority everyone from Dobrow on down were GRUNTS. So when Arleth followed Knight’s orders to mark and move he did.

 

Your 9:30 AM meeting with Lundgren obviously had the element of “Between The Four Corners Doctrine” which in essence means the only thing that counts is what is written inside the four corners of the document. The case you certified had more that the Four Corners of the charging document, there were lots of pages containing Four Corners, and just so you know the whole truth will never be between the Four Corners of ANY document you receive whether it be from Cops or Citizens, your job Sir is to go outside the Four Corners and get to the TRUTH. Just in case Arleth does sue or you are called to testify in an Arbitration Hearing you might want to have your notes from your morning conversation with Lundgren on February 24^th, 2015 at 9:30 AM handy.

Ever wonder why Lundgren pulled the Intermodal contracts, found that there never was any new, specifically designed furniture, and that entire aspect of the case ended. Does it make you wonder who ended it?

 

TIMELY? Can’t argue with that it went pretty quick, of course as you point out not all the witnesses were contacted. THOROUGH? You even noted in your recommendations it wasn’t. OBJECTIVE? Wow…just Wow!

 

LET’S TREAT EVERYONE THE SAME DON’T YOU THINK?

 

I would hope I have pointed out to the folks reading this what a JOKE this was, and it may end up a costly JOKE. As far as I’m concerned a real sloppy investigation. If you don’t believe me that this was sloppy just take a look at what I saved for last:

 

I must have been dreaming when I took a look at the Arleth IA Case File…because the record is clear between the Four Corners…FURNITURE-GATE…hasn’t even happened yet. So I’ll wait and take a look at the case when Arleth is scheduled to be Disobedient and Insubordinate on 12/29/2016!

 

I swear…I do not make this stuff up!!!

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!