Trust me on this folks. People on the “Shea List”, or anyone
concerned about being tracked, should consider buying one of these. I know from
experience it is a pain in the rear to crawl underneath a vehicle to attach or remove
a GPS Tracking Device especially in the winter so one of these would be very
helpful if you want to check your vehicle for trackers.
If you do find one make sure you DM SR Reporter Chad Sokol,
because I would love to read that story.
One thing to keep in mind is if you do locate a tracker on
your vehicle and before you accuse the Shea Crew, you want photograph it in
place, be very careful removing the tracker use gloves to preserve finger
prints and so your own don’t show up on the device, prior to contacting Chad
Sokol or Law Enforcement try and determine the brand to make sure it isn’t a
law enforcement tracking device, or just an over the counter model. If you are
able to determine it is a law enforcement device I would contact a lawyer first
if I were you.
Another thing to keep in mind is that sometimes even the high-end law enforcement trackers fall off the vehicle, so it is also a good idea to check the cartilage around your home and driveway to make sure one hasn’t fallen off your vehicle as was the case here. As you can see you may be interrogated by law enforcement if they think you stole their tracker…so be careful.
Tonight, is the night for the Guild and Chief Meidl to step
up to the plate and voice their objection to the Office of Police Ombudsman
Commission renewing the contract of their nemesis Ombuds Bart Logue. Maybe they
can convince the OPOC to get rid of Logue and find a snowflake who isn’t
willing to take them on in the interest of the Community.
Here is a copy of the meeting agenda but I would suggest they
get there early just in case things go faster than predicted.
If you haven’t been keeping up you might not know just how
hard the Spokane Police Guild has been trying behind the scenes to defame and
discredit OPO Logue, including once again falsely accusing him of things he did
not do. Logue’s temperament must be considerably better than mine, I personally
wouldn’t put up with the Guilds defamation and they would be using some of that
big legal defense fund they have to fend off a defamation lawsuit.
Even the National Association for the Civilian Oversight of
Law Enforcement (NACOLE) realizes just how the Police Guild is playing the game
and wrote this letter to Mayor Condon and Council President Stuckart.
If you guys and gals in the Spokane Police Guild want Logue
gone “Be There or Be Square”!
In other related news, the Guild and Chief Meidl absolutely
don’t want the Public or Ombuds Logue to know about these two cases as I
received yet another delay notice from the City, likely because the two cases
go to the heart of SPD problems and if the details were released around the
time the Lesser Body Warn Camera Video is finally made public they would just
add to the embarrassment.
Goes to Terri Pfister and Laurie Farnsworth of the City of
Spokane Clerks Office.
Can you imagine having to deal with a Curmudgeonist like me
for all these years?
I think it is important to understand that their jobs cover
a multitude of different areas and not just the Public Records Game which is
difficult enough. They do an outstanding job of trying to professionally go
about their duties despite all the hindrances of being underpaid, understaffed,
and in many cases having to deal with uncooperative City Departments like SPD
and Human Resources who will make ever effort to withhold responsive but
embarrassing PRR documents if they can get away with it, and is not the fault
of the City Clerks Office because of the way the system is set up.
The way it works with City PRRs is that once the Clerk’s
Office receives a request from the Media or the public they send a copy of the
request to the proper City Department and then have to rely on that department
to provide them with all responsive records to provide the requestor. The
problem is some departments will withhold embarrassing public records
unbeknownst to the Clerk’s Office, as was done in this recent case.
As you can see from this email from Laurie Farnsworth the
City Clerk’s Office was unaware that the second Tom Michaud interview which
demonstrates possible policy violations by Lt. Dave Staben was withheld from me
and it wasn’t until I pressed the issue that I received the responsive
documents.
Obviously the conduct alleged by Crime Analyst Michaud
should have been investigated immediately, but it wasn’t and likely never will
be unless a formal complaint is filed with SPD IA. Any investigation of that
matter should be independently investigated outside of SPD because of Director
of Strategic Initiatives and Head of IA, Jacqui MacConnell’s direct involvement
in the case.
Investigative Reporters if they are diligent can not assume
that they have received everything in a PRR response and should always dig
deeper.
Often times one set of PRR responses will lead to another
request.
If you listened to the second Michaud interview carefully
toward the end of the interview you would have heard Michaud mention the IA
Case against SPD “Brady Officer” Lydia Taylor.
Some might remember the previous
high-profile IA Case against Lydia Taylor, her husband former SPD Officer Mel
Taylor, and former Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney
The interesting thing about this
somewhat new IA complaint against Lydia Taylor is that once again a member of
the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is involved, this time DPA
Mark Cipolla who during one of the once infamous Huckleberry’s Coffee Klatches
Cipolla supposedly brought up issues regarding Lydia Taylor’s conduct during
the former Officer Gordon Ennis Rape Case, and from those issues brought up by
Cipolla Lt. Dave Staben who was present at the Coffee Klatch initiated an IA
Case against Lydia Taylor.
Since Mayor Condon and Chief Meidl
are doing everything they can to withhold and delay a number of Public Records
Requests I have made which reflect directly on the how SPD is being run, I
wonder how long it will take for a response to this one.
Some people are speculating that many
of my requests won’t be filled until after the November election for Mayor
including the “horrific” Lesser Body Worn Camera Video, much like Mayor Condon
did with records associated with the Cotton/Straub Affair.
Politicians make all kinds of
promises they don’t keep, like the promise Condon made to properly fund the
Clerks’ Office after the settlement of my PRR Lawsuit against Condon and the
City.
Since whomever becomes the new Mayor
of the City of Spokane will be directly responsible or cleaning up the
continuing problems with SPD as well as the continuing problems with not
properly funding transparency and Police Oversight I find it real odd that neither
Stuckart or Woodward seem to be interested in answering any direct questions
relating to solutions and clean-up. Of course, even though the problems are
well documented including this recent case involving Officer Kristopher
Henderson, but perhaps Stuckart and Woodward don’t think there are any
problems.
The answer of course is absolutely not without legitimate
oversight!
The Otto Zehm case pretty well established you can’t, and
the documents in that case reflect that SPD Hero Karl Thompson was provided information
about the investigations by SPD Guild Members and others every step of the way.
Evidence that the same standards from the time of the Karl
Thompson case continue right up to present continue to mount and once again
some of the Golden Boys/Girls are being protected by SPD Command Staff.
Mayor Condon, Teresa Sanders, Chief Craig Meidl, Director
Jacqui MacConnell, and the Police Guild’s efforts to hide the truth from,
mitigate the limited powers of, and intimidate the OPO and the OPOC are well
documented, and here is some more evidence which reflects how things are done
with SPD HR/IA Investigations.
On January 3, 2019 I submitted a Public Records Request in
which I requested all documents relating to the Human Resources Complaint made
by Detective Lonnie Tofsrud against Lt. Dave Staben. On April 5, 2019 I
received an installment of records which included this.
After reading the above document (you do have to read this
stuff) it became obvious to me that there was a second interview with SPD Crime
Analyst Tom Michaud and that Lt. Staben had been made aware of at least some of
the details of Michaud’s first interview with HR Investigator Jennifer Jackson
and Director Jacqui MacConnell on August 8, 2018, so I did some of that
investigative reporting stuff.
On May 10, 2019 I received an installment of records which included the recorded statements of Officers Vigesaa, Turman, Stevens, Singley, Preuninger, Barrington, and Ombuds Logue.
On July 25, 2019 I received another installment which
included the recorded statements of Michaud, Officers Arleth, Staben and Wendt
as well as former SPD Officer Hensley.
After listening to the Michaud recording it became quite
clear exactly why Lt. Staben was very concerned about Michaud’s first HR/IA
statement as it very clearly supported Tofsrud’s complaint against Staben.
You can listen to the August 8, 2018 Michaud HR Statement
here.
Interestingly for some reason the City Clerk’s Office wasn’t originally aware of the second Michaud interview and it wasn’t immediately provided to them by HR or SPD until it became apparent the records exist. Perhaps when you listen to the actual recording of the second interview linked below you will understand why some people, not the Clerk’s Office, wouldn’t want it made Public.
The important thing to remember if you listen to the above
recording is that Jacqui MacConnell SPD’s Director of Strategic Initiatives who
oversees Internal Affairs conducted the second Tom Michaud interview along with
HR Investigator Jennifer Jackson, and had to have know full well what Michaud
was expressing in the interview were clear violations on the part of Lt. Staben,
yet no action was taken against Lt. Staben.
There is considerably more to this story, but clearly when you have an investigative process that allows confidential HR/IA investigative information to be shared with the individual who was the target of the complaint and that individual, in this case Lt. Staben, is allowed to confront witnesses in an ongoing investigation, the investigation cannot be trusted.
Buffalo Brian Breen 