There have been a number of stories I have written that have
exposed serious breaches in conduct, not only by member of SPD, but also other
City Employees and Officials.
My most recent story regarding a Federal Judge questioning the veracity of Officer Winston Brooks must have hit home for Chief Craig Meidl, considering the content of the email sent to Council Members Beggs and Kinnear, which is imaged below, Chief Meidl is none to happy with folks who expose the truth, and especially me.
Perhaps Chief Meidl doesn’t think the Brooks testimony
reaches the level of atrocity my exposure of the McMurtrey case did?
Needless to say, I back everything I report up with lots of information and documents to support what I write such was the case in my Officer Winston Brooks story linked above where I provided a complete transcript of exactly what Federal Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr said about Chief Meidl’s own Officers veracity, which I should add is seldom seen in Courtrooms throughout the US. My Winston Brooks story has caused quite the shock-wave at SPD, and any among members of the local bar who I’m sure will be filing Henthorn requests.
I’m not anti-cop Chief Meidl, and the good Cops that talk to
me know that. I will admit to being anti-dishonest/corrupt Cop… is that so
bad…and I don’t like cover-ups!!!
I wonder if Chief Meidl has the guts to do an on-camera
interview with me? 😊
The meeting last night of the OPOC clearly demonstrated that
the battle by the Office of Police Ombudsman (OPO) and Office of Police
Ombudsman Commission (OPOC) with Chief Craig Meidl and the Police Guild over
transparency, actually doing internal investigations, and what the OPO
Ordinance actually says may have heated up, and it is all because of Chief
Craig Meidl’s refusal to investigate complaints about the demeanor of SPD
Officer Scott “Batman” Hice’s demeanor toward protesters while on duty working
security for a Cathy McMorris-Rodgers event, even though the OPOC for the first
time ever used their authority under the OPO Ordinance to try and force an
investigation.
Officer Hice is certainly a part of the “cool kids clique”
and boy can the Officer dance.
I would hope that some of the reporters attending last nights OPOC Meeting found it as interesting as I did because truly there has been ongoing evidence over the years that SPD doesn’t like any kind of legitimate oversight and that evidence started to show when Mayor Condon with City Council approval negotiated away any semblance of legitimate oversight the majority of Spokane Voters wanted by approving changes to the Spokane City Charter. Diligent, Aggressive, and Hard-Working Investigative Reporting has rooted out corruption all over the Country in places like NYC, LA, Las Vegas, Chicago time and time again, even in the White house with the Watergate/Nixon scandal. Seek “Deep-throats” kids!
This story by new to the area and new Inlander Reporter Josh
Kelety is a good start but there needs to be more and each and every Candidate
for City Offices needs to be asked specific and hard-hitting questions about
Police Oversight and the many other problems currently going on at City Hall.
If “This is as good as we can get,” we are in big trouble!
____________________________________
“This isn’t a matter of me saying, ‘This is as good as we
can get,’ ” Stuckart said. “This is me saying, ‘This is good for the citizens.’
“This should’ve been a time to take a victory lap,” he said.
“Together, the citizens and the council forced the mayor to get it done, and
it’s going to be a really good thing for the community.”
Okay, so much for the background now what was so interesting
to me about last nights OPOC meeting, aside from re-confirming what I already
knew it became quite obvious the OPO and the OPOC are pissed that Chief Meidl
wrote them a letter on December 14, 2018…yes on Christmas Eve, refusing to
investigate the Batman Case, they were also pissed that Meidl in his letter
trying to justify not adhering to the OPOC’s direction to investigate the case
Meidl conveniently left off the highlighted portion of the Definitions section
OPO Ordinance.
It isn’t like it wasn’t very, very, predictable that the issue of what constitutes an OPO Investigation wouldn’t come up on the very first OPO/OPOC demand that SPD conduct an IA Investigation. I knew it would and addressed it back in this 2015 story. It was also inevitable the first case would result in a Guild Grievance and the Batman Case has./There was also discussion of why the Police Advisory Committee (PAC) would kick the OPO and OPOC off the PAC.
The question I have is did someone put PAC Chair Joan Butler up to giving the OPO and OPOC the boot and what will the supplemental emails, etc. show?
You can always tell just how serious Politicians are about
programs by the way they are funded, or not funded. The discussion about
OPO/OPOC finances was enlightening, why in the hell would OPOC Chair Jenny Rose
have to pay her own way to National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law
Enforcement (NACOLE) training, and what is the story about OPO Benefit payments
and the way the City accounts for them?
I’m also curious about what case OPOC lawyer and former City
of Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession’s prearranged meeting with Teresa Sanders is
all about, I think I know but I’m not sure.
I was hoping to shorten this story up by simply providing a
link to last nights audio recorded meeting, but there was a glitch because Mr.
Hession happen to mention Officer Hice’s name during the meeting and they are trying
to figure out how to bleep out Hice’s name, I already knew the Officer in
question was Scott Hice and had lots of confirmation but when you hear the
recording you will note from the audience I blurted out “That’s okay I already
knew!”, I wasn’t being a jerk I just wanted to mark that spot in the recording.
You will also hear at the beginning of the meeting during the public comments
portion me asking several questions. Unfortunately, because local politicians
refuse to respond to my legitimate questions I’m left with limited options to
get to the truth.
As soon as the recording is available I will post a link for
you to listen to and decide for yourself what is going on. This story will of
course be overshadowed by the Officer Involved Shooting Press Conference today,
but it needs reported and has a direct connection to the OIS press conference.
In knew when I started this investigation it would be a
document review nightmare for an Investigative Reporter and trust me it is,
even though I haven’t yet submitted a Public Records Request for the records
relating to the Human Resources and EEOC complaints against Mayor Condon’s
Director of Human Resources Christine Cavanaugh.
I thought I better start out by providing some background
information so in the future I can just refer to this story.
Let me start out by responding to a question I received regarding
the ethics of hiring Lawyer Erin Jacobson to do HR Investigations and HR
Training after she left City employment and started working for Archbright.
IMO, although the Ethics Code written by former City
Attorney Nancy Isserlis didn’t go into effect Sunday, December 18, 2016 because
Erin Jacobson was a “central figure” in the million plus dollar Cotton/Straub
case, a person with decent ethical standards never would have hired her for
much of anything involving City of Spokane issues, especially when you consider
all of the negative press Jacobson and the City were getting.
Even with all of the bad press about Jacobson, including her refusal to cooperate with the Cappel Investigation what does Teresa Sanders, Mayor Condon’s City Administrator, do to keep Jacobson in the fold? Teresa Sanders, as the documents linked below clearly demonstrate has a letter prepared to send to the Ethics Commission just after the bad press hits the news so Jacobson an continue to get that good old City Money (Timelines are always important in cases like this).
To give you some idea of Erin Jacobson’s handling of the Cotton/Straub case you might want to read the statement Heather Lowe, Mayor Condon’s former Director of City HR, made to Investigator Cappel.
As an aside, back in the day I used to love finding emails
like this one sent by Heather Lowe trying to shape other HR Investigations regarding
As it stands at this point it sure appears to me that
nothing has changed since Christine Cavanaugh took over Heather Lowe’s spot in
the Condon Administration, we still have Erin Jacobson involved even to the
point of representing the City in EEOC Complaints involving Cavanaugh, and of
course Mr. Reliable… Bob Dunn chomping at the bit!
Buffalo Brian Breen 