Mitch Ryals the Inlander Journalist and Gadfly did a great job of covering the “McMurtrey Intimidation Leak Investigation Case” in the story linked below.
To be perfectly clear my description Ryals as a “Gadfly” refers to the fact that he is one of the very few Mainstream Media Reporters who covers the goings on in local law enforcement, providing reader stimulation while at the annoyance of local law enforcement, I was not referring to him as a horsefly, botfly, or warble fly. 😊
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Definition of gadfly
- 1 : any of various flies (such as a horsefly, botfly, or warble fly) that bite or annoy livestock
- 2 : a person who stimulates or annoys other people especially by persistent criticism a political gadfly
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I… as you might suspect… will be doing a story of my own since I was the “Gadfly” that caused all the commotion, however as is quite usual with the Condon Administration I’m still waiting for response to my Public Records Request regarding the “Investigation”.
Let’s be clear the investigation started long before McMurtrey made his IA complaint. Keep in mind the Mayor’s mouth piece Brian Coddington reviews all of my PRRs the minute they hit the City Clerk’s Office.
There are a lot of negatives associated with this intimidation attempt some of which were pointed out by the OPO Assistant Luvimae Omana.
“For Omana, who is Logue’s assistant, another big takeaway is the department’s focus on rooting out an internal leaker, rather than how to deal with misconduct identified through body camera footage. When the department originally investigated McMurtrey, the lack of an official body camera policy precluded administrators from handing down any formal discipline.”
Although Ms. Omana is dead on about the leak focus, IMO the Guild Control of all things Body Camera was a non-factor in the McMurtrey case as there was an independent witness (ASU Researcher) who was never even interviewed, and McMurtrey confessed on two occasions regarding his “atrocious” conduct.
Another negative is the way this was handled by one-time finalist for the OPO position Jacqui MacConnell a former Police Officer whom I spoke highly of when she was a Candidate for the OPO position. MacConnell replaced Tim Schwering as the Director of Strategic Initiatives, as I expressed at the time she was appointed as DSI my hope was she wouldn’t drink the Cool-Aide. MacConnell has disappointed me and we will see how she takes Gadfly Criticism.
This is an interesting quote from Assistant Chief Justin Lundgren:
“Not every police document is a public record,” Assistant Chief Justin Lundgren says via email. “Those documents that are public record have a specific process that much be followed to ensure the record is released in accordance with Washington State law.
“The investigation centered around the manner in which the record was released.”
Lundgren must have forgotten the tape-recorded interview I along with Mitch Ryals, and Rachel Alexander from the SR had with him and Meidl, and the series of stories I did regarding that interview. Somewhat surprising since SPD has been mining my blog… maybe the just missed it.
On a positive note two of McMurtrey’s supervisors, like others, recognized the distinct possibility that use of force history, two OIS cases, and patrol conduct there was a strong likely McMurtrey was a “Cowboy” which in law enforcement vernacular means an overly aggressive cop who could be dangerous. The problem for the cops that recognized the behavior, was that no-one above them was willing to deal with it and instead tried to hide it.
Weird Stuff???
Lots more coming on this!
I GADFLY YOU DECIDE!!! 🙂
Buffalo Brian Breen 