The “Show” starts Thursday at the West Central Community Center between 6-8 PM.

 

The “Show” is of course the roll out of Mayor Condon’s choice for Chief of Police Craig Meidl, supposedly it is going to be a NO HOLDS BARRED AFFAIR, and the public will be able to ask any question of Meidl and get some answers. However, the rules of engagement have not yet been made public, if it is in fact No Holds Barred then myself as well as the public will have an opportunity to ask Meidl questions regarding the Zehm case and the “Infamous Salute” my assumption is that negotiations are going on regarding the ground rules as I type and a part of those negotiations includes Meidl NOT answering questions regarding the Zehm case. Keep in mind that when myself Mitch Ryals, and Rachel Alexander were able to interview Craig Meidl he refused to answer any questions regarding the Zehm case or the Salute, according to him at the direction of Jim McDevitt, so we shall see.

 

It is important to remember that Mayor Condon put together an eight member “Police Leadership Advisory Committee” to establish criterion for picking the next City of Spokane Chief of Police, and it is also important to remember that he completely ignored their criterion with his choice of Meidl who never even applied for the position. That PLAC also took public input at the West Central and East Central Community centers just as this “Show” will. We all also have to remember that this roll out of Craig Meidl is exactly the same as the roll out of the Tentative Contract Agreement of the Guild and Lieutenant and Captains Association that completely gutted OPO Powers and placed power for Body Camera issues entirely in the hands of the Unions. The City Council caved on that and ultimately signed off on the Contract. The big question is, are they going to do the same with Meidl?

 

Somehow lost in this entire discussion is that the City of Spokane is currently in negotiations with the Unions on the next contract, and if Meidl ends up being the new Chief of Police he will continue to be involved in those negotiations supposedly representing the Citizen’s interests, so when I see stories like these I have to laugh.

 

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/aug/03/police-association-supports-chief-appointment/

 

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/aug/05/spokane-police-guild-gives-chief-nominee-craig-mei/

 

Despite what many folks think…Cops Ain’t No Dummies, we have always known which side the butter is on!

 

IF and that is a BIG IF, Spokane Citizens have an opportunity to question Meidl regarding his involvement in the Zehm case and the Infamous Salute, I am at an advantage in formulating questions because I am the only one that has all of the Public Records regarding the case and the Salute. I have shared SOME but not all of those records with a few folks and you could see some questions by others of Meidl in the news prior to “The Show”

 

Let’s don’t forget that Craig Meidl was third in Command of the Spokane Police Department when the Salute took place.

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/44b44582-7ac4-4dfb-901d-99878c58be58

 

My guess is that each Citizen will be limited to three minutes to ask questions or make statements just like Council Meetings, that is a total of six minutes if a Citizen participates in both Shows, obviously that won’t be enough for all my questions so I will have to prioritize and hope that the City Council actually asks Meidl the questions they should be asking when they have a bigger and broader opportunity to do so.

Here are two things I’ll be looking for:

 THE EAT UP THE TIME PLAY, which is a common play in situations like this and simply means the individual answers simple questions often requiring just a simple YES or NO with a long drawn mostly meaningless answer to a simple question. Craig Meidl is notorious for this this, often quoting books he says he has read.

 

ADMINISTRATIVE AMNESIA PLAY, which is a common affliction among many government administrators in situations like this. Somehow they can’t remember certain facts no matter how important they might be.

 

IS THE APPOINTMENT OF MEIDL A DEFLECTION FROM THE CAPPEL REPORT???

You can lump me into the group that believes it is an effort on Mayor Condon’s part to deflect from the issues facing him as a result of violations of the Public Records Act.

The question is… “Will it work?” Well that depends on just how well people, including the City Council, study the Cappel Report and understand Meidl’s involvement in the issues surrounding the entire matter. It isn’t pretty folks and as time goes on even more will come out in litigation depositions, if not Court.

The deflection has worked with me to the extent that I have to prepare for “The Show” and write about that for the time being instead of focusing on the Cappel Report… But “I shall return!” to quote General Douglas MacArthur.

I am going to tip my hand on one of the questions I’ll be asking Craig Meidl. The question requires a simple YES or NO and the answer will be very telling. Since I know Meidl reads my stories, here you go Craig:

“Interim Chief Meidl, would you be willing to withdraw your name from contention because of the tremendous controversy involved with your nomination, suggest that the Mayor and City Council utilize one of the many organizations that provide temporary Police Chiefs for situations like Spokane’s, renew the search, and if you truly are interested submit your application for consideration at that time?”

________________________________________

One of Many Examples of Organizations Available:

 

________________

Interim Staffing and Mentoring

On occasion communities find themselves without a police executive for short periods of time. This can be the result of a short term disability or other unexpected absence. The duties and responsibilities of a police department are too important to the residents of a city or town to allow a void to develop due to the absence of the chief. Municipal Resources has the ability to place an experienced police manager in your police department on short notice and remain in place until the current chief returns to duty or a replacement is selected. A number of former police executives are affiliated with MRI that have years of quality police administrative experience. These former officials continue their involvement in the police field through various consulting projects and can confidently take command of any police department with little time needed for familiarization.

 

http://www.mrigov.com/contentInline/policeservices-30

__________________

 

 

 

 

The answer to that question is a simple YES or NO, and the answer will be very telling from the standpoint of whether or not Meidl’s true desires are self-serving or he really does believe that the Community should come first, the SPD second, and he and his wife’s well compensated and benefited careers last.

 

Now back to preparing questions so don’t look for more stories until after Thursday.

 

*** Special Note to Gonzaga Prep Grads!!! It has been brought to my attention that some of my readers who did graduate from Gonzaga Prep take offense to me sometimes kidding about Prep. Let me assure you it is just that… kidding from this LC Grad, and Prep has some great graduates, some of whom were cops. By the same token along with those Great Graduates there were also some Slugs, just like we had at LC… and yes Fredrick Harlan Coe comes to mind!

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!! 

 

 

 

 

Literally… According to Public Records!!

 

I thought I would throw in this story regarding regarding SPD for a bit of levity and to give you a bit of an idea of how things work at City Hall and SPD. Mayor Condon’s predictable move to name Meidl Chief does of course really STINK but more on that later.

To give you an idea of how it STINKS at SPD I’m providing you with some emails from the documents I have. I might that my last predictions regarding how long it would take to turn things around at SPD was 6-10 years. Given the recent turn of events it appears I will have to put it out even further. I hope I’m around when SPD finally becomes something many of us retired folks are hoping for.

 

______________________________

From: Nemec, Sean

Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 2:03 PM

To: Scalise, Frank

Cc: Lundgren, Justin; Mullennix, Scott

Subject: Detective S. Carr statements:

At approx. 0900 hours, Detective Carr came into my office wishing to talk to me. She was holding a surgical type mask. She stated that, “Elise was causing her allergies to severely flair up again and that she was moving her work station into the small interview room next to the mail boxes.

Detective Robertson came into my office at approx. 11:45 am. and wanted to know if Detective Carr had complained about her again. I told her “yes”, at which time Detective Robertson told me that she would be filing a complaint with Sgt. Lundgren for “harassment”. She said that based upon a meeting that she had with City HR, she would file said complaint if ever Detective Carr made such allegations against her again.

 

Sgt. Sean Nemec

______________________________

 

From: Scalise, Frank

Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 2:08 PM

To: Walker, Joe

Cc: Lundgren, Justin; Mullennix, Scott

Subject: RE: Detective S. Carr statements:

Joe, per our earlier conversation, this looks like it needs to go straight to HR. If you agree, I will send it to Gita.

Frank Scalise

Captain, Strategic and Tactical Ops

__________________________________

 

From: Scalise, Frank

Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 2:55 PM

To: George-Hatcher, Gita

Cc: Walker, Joe; Mullennix, Scott

Subject: FW: Detective S. Carr statements:

 

Gita,

It is my understanding that you are well aware of the details of this situation referenced below. I am referring it to you, since both sides of the issue seemed to reside in HR territory. Let me know what you need from me, Commander Walker or Lieutenant Mullennix to either resolve the situation or take appropriate action.

Thanks,

Frank

Frank Scalise

Captain, Strategic and Tactical Ops

_____________________________________________

 

From: Scalise, Frank

Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 2:55 PM

To: George-Hatcher, Gita

Cc: Walker, Joe; Mullennix, Scott

Subject: FW: Detective S. Carr statements:

Gita,

It is my understanding that you are well aware of the details of this situation referenced below. I am referring it to you, since both sides of the issue seemed to reside in HR territory. Let me know what you need from me, Commander Walker or Lieutenant Mullennix to either resolve the situation or take appropriate action.

Thanks,

Frank

Frank Scalise Captain, Strategic and Tactical Ops

___________________________________________

 

From: George-Hatcher, Gita

Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 11:16 AM

To: Scalise, Frank

Cc: Walker, Joe; Mullennix, Scott; Lowe, Heather; Wuthrich, Ernest; Jacobson, Erin; Meidl, Craig

Subject: RE: Detective S. Carr statements:

Importance: High

Hello all,

I received your information in the emails below and in the meantime, received an email from Elise Robertson as well as Stacey Carr. I believe the approach we need to take at this time is two-pronged. First, we should have Det. Robertson go through the protocols and complaint process under IA with HR being the lead on the investigation – exactly as it was handled in the recent case we handled a few months ago in the Detectives unit. Second, we schedule a meeting with Stacey Carr, her supervisors and Ernie to follow through on the two actions we discussed to addressing this situation if the attempts that were then in the process did not solve the problem. These actions were temporarily set aside because the situation appeared to be resolved for the time being. Those actions were:

1. To send Detective Carr for a Fit for Duty Evaluation with respect to her ability to continue to work as a Detective given what appears to be serious fragrance sensitivities that we have attempted to address; and
2. To find an alternative work location for the time being while the Fitness for Duty is being conducted that would prevent Det. Carr from coming into contact with the specific fragrance that is being worn by Det. Robertson and that appears to be the main cause of Det. Carr’s sensitivity.

I am also copying Heather Lowe and Erin Jacobson in case they may have additional advice on the direction to take in this situation. I am also copying Asst. Chief Meidl because he had been involved at the last meeting that was held concerning this issue. Please let me know if you are in agreement with the above approaches. Thanks!

Have a wonderful day!

Gita

Gita S. George-Hatcher, M.P.A., C.L.R.P., P.H.R

Human Resources Analyst

City of Spokane

44 W. Riverside Avenue

Spokane, WA. 99201

(509) 625-7083

__________________________________________________

 

 

The reason at this point I thought you would be interested in a previous stink problem at SPD is because the email interaction gives you an idea of how HR interacts with SPD to accomplish what SPD wants. I will have more on that later but since, Gita George-Hatcher is one of the players in the Cappel report I thought you might be interested as well as get a bit of a laugh.

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/8cd64d64-9cca-4241-99a0-0405871c0b5a

 

 

I HATE IT WHEN I SEE THIS IN A STATEMENT!

CAPPEL: And I’m just going to go off the record for one second because I want to find out what you have heard he said without it being on the record and then we’ll go back on. (WHEREUPON, a discussion was held off record)

 

 

 

THIS ALSO STINKS!!!

But as we all know it is the way the Condon Administration and SPD has been doing business since 2012.

 

___________________________________

From: Krauss, Benjamin

Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2013 6:48 AM

To: Straub, Frank; Meidl, Craig; Arleth, Brad

Subject: Position Proposal

 

Chief Straub, Assistant Chief Meidl, Commander Arleth,

Thank you for the opportunity to propose a position aligned with my education, experience and skill set.

I look forward to listening to your thoughts and input.

 

Ben

625.4097

____________________________________

From: Meidl, Craig

Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2013 7:08 PM

To: Krauss, Benjamin

Subject: RE: Position Proposal

 

This is very impressive. Thank you for sending.

 

Craig

________________________________________

 

From: Meidl, Craig

Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2013 5:26 PM

To: Krauss, Benjamin

Cc: Straub, Frank

Subject: RE: Position Proposal

 

Thank you Ben. I will discuss further details with the Chief and get back to you ASAP. A couple of the projects we will be working on together (“code” for you’ll do the work but I’ll get all the credit) include a system for auditing department-wide evaluations for consistency, a revamping of our complaint process (not as ominous as it sounds), and developing a separate leadership development program for sergeants and lieutenants (though this is not a priority as we may use material from the LPO course we are hosting this Fall). This development program would be heavy on the different roles at each level, developing and fostering police legitimacy, etc.

 

Thank you,

Craig

__________________________________________________

Hi Craig,

Sounds great, I’m ready to move forward on all of this.

Please remember to use proper hand gestures when presenting key ideas and take-away messages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNCrMEOqHpc

 

Thank you,

Ben

625.4097

_________________________________________________

 

This is real typical of the way positions are made and filled in the Condon Administration, and is typical of what to expect with the pliable, glib, outwardly PC, Craig Meidl. There is of course much more in that regard.

So who in the hell is Benjamin Krauss?

“Mike Fagan, the council’s most conservative member, is being challenged by Randy Ramos, a recruiter with the Spokane Tribal College, and Ben Krauss, an analyst with the city who said he’s running because of Fagan’s views on pay differences between men and women working in city government.”

http://www.inlander.com/spokane/the-contenders/Content?oid=2462464

“Krauss, an analyst with the Spokane Police Department, filed to run against Fagan before suspending most of his campaign because of work.”

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/aug/05/condon-and-lichty-advance-in-mayor-race/

You might want to take a good look at this, as Mr. Krauss’s name may show up again.

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/0ea49cd0-af9a-468f-858f-b0ba7e03ab64

 

_____________________________________

 

There is a lot of controversy since Mayor Condon’s effort to install Craig Meidl as the SPD Chief because of his relationship with Karl Thompson and the Infamous Salute. Some of you might enjoy reading my earlier stories regarding the Q & A Mitch Ryals, Rachel Alexander, and I had with Craig Meidl and Justin Lundgren.

But keep this in mind the Otto Zehm case and the Salute were off limits to we reporters. I did however manage to sneak a couple in in that regard.

_______________________________

From: Meidl, Craig (cmeidl@spokanepolice.org) You moved this message to its current location.

Sent: Mon 3/28/16 3:57 PM

To: Brian Breen

Dir. McDevitt has advised we will not discuss the Zehm incident any further. His reasonings are well documented in the media and I will honor his direction.

The Arleth investigation you asked about last week is still going through due process so I don’t want to get into that.

The City Hall investigation of former Chief Straub is still on-going. As you know from your investigative days, it is imprudent to discuss open active investigations and would be contrary to our SOPs.

Anything that makes me look unintelligent.

_______________________________

 

https://examplepro.me/2016/04/03/a-conversation-with-interim-chief-meidl-and-major-justin-lundgrepart-one/

 

One of the problems Meidl has as far as the Salute is concerned is that his public statements are not consistent with the truth, and he knows that I know that so it wasn’t surprising that he didn’t want to talk about it.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/dec/03/miedl-named-temporary-assistant-police-chief/

 

The truth is that the “Infamous Salute” was pre-planned and organized by Detective Bryan Tafoya, so for Meidl to say;

“No one realized how negatively the salute would be construed, Meidl said. “The salute was not planned,” he said. “It was spontaneous. Nobody in the courtroom knew anyone from Zehm’s family was there.”

Meidl, who has a military background himself, said his salute after someone said “Present arms” was partly instinctive. He said he was off duty at the time, but as the senior officer present he volunteered to take responsibility for the incident and accept a demotion.”

 

Simply is not the truth…the question is will there be more of the same?

 

There is quite a bit more regarding Craig Meidl of course including his time in IA and his conflicts with the OPO, but I won’t get into that at this point, other than to just throw a couple of things in to give you an idea where SPD is headed.

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/c56cca73-e514-4bea-9b72-fd3791135556

 

________________________

Hello and welcome. My name is Barry Bratburd and on behalf of the COPS Office I’d like to introduce

you to Assistant Chief Meidl from the Spokane Police Department, who is here today to discuss use of

force issues. Has your agency been concerned about use of force issues—can you talk about that for a

minute?

 

Craig Meidl

00:27

You know it seems to be not just use of force in general, but mostly it’s the—tends to be the use of

deadly force—that seems to be the hot topic with most of our community. We had an incident about

seven years ago with one of our officers, who got into a fairly prolonged scuffle with a—turned out he

was a janitor, not working at the time, was schizophrenic—as a result of the scuffle the individual

ended up dying. The officer was charged with civil rights violations, ended up getting convicted and

sentenced for about three and a half years of prison. Another officer pled to perjury and was forced to

resign as well. And seven years later we’re still dealing with some of those issues as well. So that’s led

to a Use of Force Commission that was implemented by the Mayor’s office. As a matter of fact, at the

time the then-mayor had asked the Department of Justice to come in and review the Spokane Police

Department. However, in the process in waiting for the Department of Justice to get back to us, she

implemented a use of force commission, and they came out with 26 recommendations for

improvement—19 of those applied directly to the Spokane Police Department and we’re in the

process of working through those recommendations right now.

 

Craig

03:36

It’s funny. I was reading the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, and one of the things he discusses in the

book is we’re never very good at analyzing ourselves. We always look at ourselves through our own

lenses, and despite our best efforts trying to be as accurate as we can, we are still colored by the

lenses that we see ourselves in, and I would say that also applies to uses of force. Especially if you’ve

come from within the department, and you’re promoted from within the department, you’re used to

this system, you don’t know any other system. So you’re not as aware of what other agencies are

doing. And one of the nice things of having Chief Straub come in—and then we’re also having

Department of Justice come in under a technical assistance program letter—and look at our system, is

where can we improve? We think we’re doing pretty good, but we know we can improve. And it’s

always been official when you can have another outside entity come in and examine it and work

collaboratively with you to develop those processes. So I would also throw out that any use of force

policies are more of a, kind of a living, breathing document—they change based on state law, federal

law, case law—so you really do have to constantly be evaluating your use of force policies to make

sure they’re in-line with the law.

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/689f81f5-cd40-4d71-b8b4-43f6c23bb1cc

 

Needless to say after some of my stories here Craig Meidl doesn’t have time for interviews with me anymore…oh well story of my life! 🙂 🙂

____________________________

 

From: Meidl, Craig (cmeidl@spokanepolice.org)

Sent: Wed 4/06/16 9:54 PM

To: Brian Breen

Brian

I’m not going to have time to respond to individual requests for reports and don’t want to start that habit.   If you submit a PRR, they will make sure this and any future requests are located and redacted as appropriate.

 

Thanks,

Craig

 

On Apr 6, 2016 6:40 AM, Brian Breen:

Chief Meidl,

 

I can’t find anyone who knows anything about the Staffing Analysis RFP or Contract we talked about. Some City Council folks weren’t even aware of it. Would you or Justin have a copy you could share with me?

Brian Breen

________________________

 

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!!

 

I decided to cover the Cortright Saga early because it provides a good picture of how the Condon/Straub control of SPD sent the Department on an even faster tailspin downward. That tailspin will continue if those individuals recently promoted to the rank of Major, all of whom are and were Straub toadies, are allowed to remain in their current positions.

A Little Background Regarding Kris Cappel:

https://examplepro.me/2016/03/02/answering-some-questions/

I will preface this story by stating I am not a personal friend of Carly Cortright and only know her by reputation as well as meeting with her on two occasions to obtain SPD data when I was doing a volunteer stint for AmeriCorps focusing on the retention of Rogers High School Students. She has an impeccable reputation within SPD and her assistance with the AmeriCorps Retention Project was outstanding. So when I learned that she was in a battle with Straub over his spending and the Golden Goose Fund I knew it was just a matter of time before Straub would get rid of her, the same way he had gotten rid of people who stood in his way while in Indianapolis and White Plains. The information regarding exactly how Straub handled people in his previous failures was of course provided to Addy Hatch of the SR in 2013 but even though the SR had the information regarding Straub’s past employee practices and knew Cortright had been transferred out of SPD regarding budget issues they were either incapable of putting 2 + 2 together or any stories about Cortright were spiked somewhere along the line.

I don’t know how many times without going through my documentation I warned the Media and City Council members of the Cortright/Budget/Golden Goose Fund problems but needless to say there were many.

https://examplepro.me/2015/10/31/boy-is-this-embarrassing/

https://examplepro.me/2016/02/04/officer-tim-schwering-the-golden-goose-fund-furniture-gate-the-culture-continues/

https://examplepro.me/2015/11/01/you-are-one-confused-jeremiah/

I should note that I have had a number of discussions with other reporters on how to approach the Cortright/Golden Goose Fund story most notably Mitch Ryals from the Inlander, who are doing a really good job of covering the various dramas, on how to prepare a PRR that would encompass the data needed to look into the expenditures. I explained to Mitch that it would be one hell of a project for a reporter to take on and he would not be able to get via PRR all of the documents necessary to actually reconcile expenditures. I also told him that the Spokane City Council are the people that should be demanding an audit, which is ever so true from reading not only the Cortright statement, but others as well. I also explained to Mitch the importance of getting Cortright to talk, something I told the City Council long, long ago.

Mitch was able to get Carly Cortright to finally open up a bit, and was the only one that ever made the attempt that I am aware of.

http://www.inlander.com/spokane/cop-culture/Content?oid=2631527

https://examplepro.me/2015/12/10/the-inlander-is-making-the-review-look-even-worse/

https://examplepro.me/2015/12/17/how-can-you-tell-when-you-have-been-blown-off/ (Teaser)

Before I get to Carly Cortright’s statement there are a few things which need pointing out. The statements released to the public are not corrected and signed under the penalty of perjury even though there is a separate perjury affirmation and correction sheet. The transcripts do not contain a recorded perjury affirmation (Something I have discussed before regarding formal statements) which should be standard investigative practice for a number of reasons including situations where the subject of the statement refuses to return, correct, and affirm. Experienced investigators know you must also document each and every attempt to get the individual in to correct and affirm the statement, if they refuse you have the individuals voice on tape making the perjury affirmation, which provides great evidence in court, and when the investigator is on the witness stand. Hopefully all individuals in this case were provided the opportunity to correct and affirm their formal statements.

There are a number of mistakes in the transcripts but just so you know Cortright wasn’t referring to an “AutoZone” case… rather Otto Zehm case.

In Cappel’s “Summary Report”, she Summarizes the “The Investigation Scope”;

____________________________________

1. Complaints against Chief Straub That Were Known to the Condon Administration.
2. The Facts and Circumstances of Carly Cortright’s Transfer to City Hall in October 2013.
3. The Facts and Circumstances of Monique Cotton’s Transfer to Parks in May 2015.
4. Whether the Cortright and Cotton Transfers Were Consistent with City Policies.
5. The Facts and Circumstances That Led to Chief Straub’s Resignation.
6. The Facts and Circumstances of the City’s November 13 and November 24, 2015 Responses to the Spokesman-Review’s August 18, 2015 Public Records Request.
7. Carly Cortright’s December 2015 Discrimination Complaint.
8. Whether the City’s Policies and Procedures for Investigating Sexual Harassment Complaints Were Followed in Connection with Ms. Cotton’s Complaint.
9. Summary of Seabold Group’s Recommendations Regarding the City’s Sexual Harassment Policies and Procedures.

______________________________

 

Even though the issues involving the Golden Goose Fund were clearly within the “Investigation Scope” and that it was one of the primary reasons Cortright was “disappeared” it was not Investigated by Cappel.

_____________________________________

43 Ms. Cortright said she also raised issues with Ms. Muramatsu about how the Chief wanted to use seizure funds. Ms. Muramatsu concluded that the Chief’s spending was an appropriate use of those funds. (Cortright Tr. 40-41). We did not independently investigate this issue.

_________________________________________

For folks that don’t know who Ms. Muramatsu is, she is the SPD legal advisor who has the responsibility to advise SPD on legal issues. To be clear her job is to provide legal advice to SPD, and not PROTECT SPD or follow their whims. SPD has had a “Legal Advisor” since back when I was on the job, some were cops and members of the Bar. I sat through a lot of meetings with those folks and the meetings DID NOT involve… “How do we cover our ass?”.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/may/31/officials-mum-on-cop-let-felon-off/

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/aug/27/in-the-sordid-wake-of-the-bikini-clad-prosecutor/

https://examplepro.me/2016/01/12/nepotism-and-cronyismalive-and-well/

I won’t get into the Body Camera issue again regarding Muramatsu, the articles above should provide some perspective. I will note however Ms. Muramatsu is on the list of folks who “declined to participate”, and were never forced to because Condon refused to invoke Garrity. Note that Muramatsu, Dalton, and Steinolfson are still OUR employees and could be forced to provide statements under Garrity should Mayor Condon decide not to further obstruct an investigation. The City Council could also subpoena them, granted they would very likely either claim a privilege or stand on the Fifth Amendment, however not doing so leaves the door completely open for any Mayor under our “Strong Mayor” form of government to do whatever the hell they want without fear of accountability. Obviously you won’t be able to utilize the CC’s Administrative Subpoena Power to force the people who have left Spokane to comply with a Subpoena, however a few of those still around besides, OUR EMPLOYEES, could be subpoenaed, refuse and risk a Bar Complaint.

____________________________________________

There were several important witnesses who declined to participate in the investigation.

They include:

• Frank Straub
• Monique Cotton
• Nancy Isserlis
• Erin Jacobson
• Pat Dalton
• Mary Muramatsu
• Meghann Steinolfson
• Selby Smith

_________________________________________

This statement in Cappel’s report is critical to understand:

Finally, our factual findings are based on a “preponderance of evidence” standard, which means that based on the credible evidence gathered during the investigation, it is “more likely than not” that a particular event occurred or did not occur as alleged.

The “preponderance of evidence” standard is the standard used in almost every law enforcement agency throughout the Nation, but one glaring exception is the Spokane Police Department who depending upon who you are utilize the higher standard of “Clear and Convincing Evidence”.

The reason it is important to understand the difference is because the SPD standard of “Clear and Convincing Evidence” is utilized arbitrarily depending upon who you are and whether or not you are willing to conform to the Condon/Sanders agenda. The Furniture-gate/Captain Arleth case is a perfect example of just that.

It is interesting note regarding Furniture-gate is that the case went to mediation and the Mayor and Teresa Sanders’, I will do anything to keep my job surrogates, Craig Meidl and Meghann Steinolfson refused to dismiss the finding of Rick Dobrow who was acting directly for Condon and Sanders. That should give you somewhat of a clue as to what is going on at City Hall and SPD, especially when you look at the recent promotions to Major of other very inexperienced pliable individuals. Interesting… is it not…that Meghann Steinolfson declined to participate in the Cappel “Investigation”.

I feel it is always good to demonstrate how favoritism plays a role in IA cases, and there are many SPD IA cases that reek of favoritism or the reverse. One of my favorites as far as contrasts are concerned is the way Mayor Condon handled the Steroid Case of Straub’s friends, Golden Boy and Golden Girl, Mel and Lydia Taylor. Some of you may remember the efforts made by then Director of Strategic Initiatives Tim Schwering to hide the Taylor IA Case from public scrutiny. I had to do a PRR with both the City and County to get the damn thing. You can read the links below to get a feel for what I’m referring to. Schwering you might recall was gifted by Mayor Condon, at our expense and even though he failed the SPD Civil Service Exam, with a free trip to the State Law Enforcement Academy, and a job as a probationary SPD Patrolman. Schwering has always wanted to be a cop so Condon granted his wish, and if you read the statements from the Cappel investigation there may be a clue why Schwering got his wish.

https://examplepro.me/2015/12/16/straub-steriods-and-the-spd/

https://examplepro.me/2016/03/02/so-it-is-a-big-secretbut-why/

https://examplepro.me/2016/03/08/prr-update-lydia-mell-taylor/

https://examplepro.me/2016/03/22/dont-blame-me/

https://examplepro.me/2016/04/03/a-conversation-with-interim-chief-meidl-and-major-justin-lundgrepart-one/

https://examplepro.me/2016/05/11/the-cops-threat/

https://examplepro.me/2016/06/19/the-beginning-of-something-goodlets-hope-sobut-it-took-a-while/

Of course no one had any trouble whatsoever getting the Furniture-gate IA Case.

***Just so you folks know SPD still has not put the IA Cases back up on Tim Schwering’s IA Website, which is now Major Justin Lundgren’s Website, even though the Use of Force Commission and Cops/DOJ touted what a great job it was for SPD to do so.

As we got into the investigation, we learned that there were at least 34 (possibly more) public records requests, resulting in the production of many thousands of pages of records, that were potentially encompassed within the original scope. Such an undertaking would have consumed the investigation budget and likely much, much more. Accordingly, at the investigator’s recommendation, the Committee agreed to limit the inquiry to the documents that were produced on November 13, 2015, and November 24, 2015, in response to a records request filed by the Spokesman-Review on August 18, 2015.

***Yes folks there are thousands of pages of documents in my possession…but what the hell…I’m not charging $250.00 an hour plus expenses… so not to worry.

I now want to get into the Carly Cortright to an extent but with some hold backs for possible litigation.

With respect to all of the statements in this case, at this point, I don’t find any evidence that the statements were compelled under Garrity v New Jersey it appears they were all done voluntarily. When I learned that some of OUR employees were not willing to cooperate in the Cappel I emailed a suggestion to the City Council on March 9^th, 2016 that they formally request Mayor Condon invoke Garrity forcing OUR employees to cooperate. Because they were unfamiliar with Garrity after explaining it to them I suggested that they consult their legal counsel, which they did, on March 11^th, 2016 I was informed that my suggestion had been “acted upon”. During that email interaction, because I had considerable information regarding the case I correctly predicted that Mayor Condon would refuse to invoke Garrity, even though doing so would not only speed the investigative process but would also eliminate the need for subpoenaing witnesses. It was far too risky for him to have people talk so in my mind his refusal was a given.

https://examplepro.me/2016/03/12/now-what-will-the-mayor-do/

http://www.inlander.com/Bloglander/archives/2016/03/18/stuckart-asks-mayor-to-compel-participation-in-the-straub-investigation

I have already heard the rumblings… so for any of you folks that have their panties in a wad over me offering suggestions to the CC as far as the Cappel Investigation is concerned, LET ME BE PERFECTLY CLEAR, it isn’t the first time I have offered suggestions, or been sought out for suggestions because of my background and experience, and it won’t be the last. As a Citizen of Spokane and as a Citizen/Journalist I have every right to make suggestions and will continue to do so. Another area where I offered suggestions that were followed was the SPD Body Camera Issues and I’m glad I did at least it got the legal ball rolling.

Cortright Statement:

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3Af4d5eb2b-be11-40a4-850f-aa5893321110

But that is part of the problem is, if you briefed him, it’s not clear if he wasn’t briefing Straub, but then you would get in trouble for not having told Straub. So then I started reporting to Straub, and then Craig would get upset that I was telling him. It was very unclear who, technically, I was supposed to be reporting to.

***This of course was a problem throughout Straub’s tenure, what makes it even worse is that the problem still exists and is worse having been exacerbated with the temporary hiring of Condon Crony Jim McDevitt and lowering the standards necessary to become an SPD Major.

Around March, the chief started to become impatient. Some things weren’t changing quickly enough for him, which I was always found very ironic, because as a person has a Ph.D, he should realize that you need time to have things in place before you can measure here was the baseline, here’s where we’re at right now, two months isn’t enough time to see significant change. His major number one mandate is, we need to bring down crime. You know, nothing else matters. We have to bring down the crime numbers.

And so we would do that, but it’s like, but now we don’t know which system is working because you’ve overlapped them. You don’t know what you’re measuring.

 

***I have explained over and over how that was accomplished so there in no sense in doing it again here.

https://examplepro.me/2015/10/31/boy-is-this-embarrassing/

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/oct/30/candidate-fact-check-has-crime-really-fallen-under/

I mean, Straub would, “You’re not doing this. We need to work faster. We need to, you know, stay ahead of everybody else. You know, we’ve got to keep council off beat. You know, we have to –“

He was quite upset, during a budget presentation, that people didn’t have the answers, and so he was basically caught off foot by the council, and we got chewed out the next day, that we needed to know all that, that we always needed to know them — know the answers so they couldn’t catch us that way again.

*** The translation for “off beat” in law enforcement vernacular is “in the dark” …just so you know.

Yeah. That’s when a lot of the, right, bad things started happening. One of his favorite — and he would do this — I mean, numerous times. We’ve all seen it – where he would make references to, “Let’s us take out and measure,” and then he’d slam his forearm down on the table in an apparent reference to measuring penis size.

Yeah. We would just flop his arm out, so we’d take them out and measure.

Oh, he’d say, “Let’s take them out and measure.” I mean, it was — and then flop it down like he was graphically trying to display slapping his penis down on the table.

 

***I’m not going to comment much on this, other than to make note that obviously it took a while for Cappel to grasp what Cortright was saying.

Yeah, ’13. And I don’t — I don’t remember the context. It, obviously, probably had to do something with budget, which is why I was brought along. So we rode from the Public Safety Building here at City Hall, which isn’t that far. I rode in the car with him. After the meeting was over and we got back and drove off, we were crossing the Post Street Bridge, and he made a comment to me along the lines of, “Well, that was just like we went and masturbated each other.” And I just remember sitting there like, this is so weird. I don’t know you well enough to have you make that kind of comment. And I still remember that after all this time, because I joke about it with one of my friends. I’m like, I felt like asking, “Do you need a tissue?” I mean, I just — I didn’t know how to respond, it was so weird. And he clearly meant it as a joke, I’m trying to be friendly with you. But again, it was that same — that’s just really inappropriate from a boss, and I’ve known you three months. I mean, it’s weird.

*** Carl Cortright admits in her statement that her long association with law enforcement has kind of made her a potty mouth which is par for the course for the vast majority of women entering that environment, but simply being a potty mouth doesn’t eliminate one from being the victim of a hostile work environment, or sexual harassment for that matter. Potty mouth or not it appears someone needs to help Carl with what Straub may have been leading up to with the comment she alludes to in her statement.

After she reads this she may understand what it could have been, assuming Lynds statements are true

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/b55c6a35-3c9e-4322-abf7-03d7c9a91a8b

Keep in mind that the link above are NOTES from an interview on 4/29/2016 and took place after the Lynds formal statement on 3/15/2016. The reason the second interview took place was because during the Teresa Sanders statement on 4/27/2016 the issue of an affair between Cotton and Straub came up. (More on this later.)

So that was Monique, Brad, and myself. I believe both Craig and Joe were on vacation. But he specifically said, “Executive staff, I want you to meet now.” So we step into the room. He closes the door and yells. I mean, turns bright red. And I’ll never forget it because I’ve never had a boss speak to me in such a horrible manner. I mean, it was just — and he yelled at us and said, “If either one of you ever disrespect another member of this command staff ever again, I will fire you –” and he pointed at me – and then “I’ll demote you,” pointed at Brad, and then said, “If you don’t believe me, call Indianapolis, because I’m a real cocksucker,” and then stormed out of the office. And from that moment on, I was — I’m like, he’s going to fire me. I mean, it’s pretty evident that he hates me; that, you know, I came in for — ironically, it didn’t last very long — for about the next week just pretty sure that I was going to get fired at any moment.

*** Well the fact is that shortly after Condon hired Straub some of us retired cop folks did our research and did call several people in Indianapolis as well as White Plains and NYC and were able to easily determine that Straub was in fact “a real cocksucker” we of course passed that info on to the CC and the SR.

 

So he wanted to bring it here to Spokane. So we had gotten got a proposal from the company that does it, and I want to say it was around $75,000. With city budget rules, anything over $50,000 needs to go to council for approval, and really, anything over — I can’t remember the limits now — 15,000, 10,000 — are supposed to go out for RFPs. A good steward, so the city’s money. So we canceled source contracts, but you have to justify why. So he wanted that done. I had to come up with funding for it. He really wanted to use — and we didn’t have a lot of extra money. I mean, our general fund money almost all goes to paying for cops. We have some grant money, and then the rest of our money comes from seizure and forfeiture. The seizure and forfeiture money has a lot of strict regulation on it, that it can only be used towards drug enforcement.

 

Right. So and that was — we had some pretty significant cases at that point time, that that was our fairly large — and I don’t remember the exact amount, but we had a hundred thousand or so in there. I mean, it was pretty substantial. And we’ve always used it traditionally to fund our SWAT team for new equipment, and there’s an nexus there to drug enforcement or anything for the gang and drug units.

 

So he really wanted to spend the money on that with this YPI program, with, you know, it’s keeping kids out of gangs, so it’s going to keep them out of drugs. Like, okay. I mean, there’s kind of a link there, but — so that’s what we were going to do. Accounting was like, no, we don’t feel comfortable doing that. We’re going to get audited, and we can’t show that clear link. And then our purchasing department said, no, you can’t do a sole source. You need to put this out for an RFP, which, of course, takes time. So I came back and told him that.

 

Yes. So I would come back and relay that information. Like, okay, I’ll get going on RFP so we can do this. We’ll have to find some other way to fund it. And then, again, we’d get the lecture of, what do you mean, that’s stupid, just go do a sole source. I can’t do a sole source. They won’t let me. I mean, it was just this constant, like, really? I really believed that he thought I was purposely just saying no because I wanted to. We did end up putting it out to RFP. I think we ended up talking to our legal advisor, who decided that the link there was close enough that we’d be able to justify using the seizure money. So that, kind of, full process happened.

*** You might want to ask yourself why Mary Muramatsu refused/declined to participate in the investigation? Could it be that someone might ask her exactly what the “nexus” is between Frank Straub’s buddies at YPI and the laws governing forfeiture expenditures? Of course I would also be asking why we are spending thousands of dollars out of the forfeiture funds for legal fees when we have a City Attorney’s Office, among a multitude of other questions I would have for her.

https://examplepro.me/2015/12/11/the-embarrassment-continueson-and-on/

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/may/10/police-youth-consultant-accused-of-getting-into/

https://examplepro.me/2016/05/11/the-cops-threat/ 

Yeah. Which, again, I think it was $8,000 a person. And I remember saying that, you know, I’m like he’s — he’s going to get rid of me. And my family, my friends were all, “He’s spending $8,000 on you for leadership training. He can’t quite possibly dislike you as much as you think he does.”

***Straub all the time he was here was spending one hell of a lot of money on un-necessary travel and training. The question is where did the money come from? You might recall that Straub told the Use of Force Commission that he was spending all this money on travel and training in order to eliminate the need for the infamous “Culture Audit”. The exchange between Straub and Earl Martin during one of Straub’s presentations before them was nothing short of hilarious.

Yep. He knew who he was hiring. His name is Tim Schwering, S-c-h-w-e-r-i-n-g.

*** Yes, he sure did and so did Mayor Condon.

https://examplepro.me/2016/01/11/yes-they-would-have-kicked-me-out/

https://examplepro.me/2016/01/19/new-spd-officer-tim-schwering/

https://examplepro.me/2016/02/04/officer-tim-schwering-the-golden-goose-fund-furniture-gate-the-culture-continues/

You know, we’ve got this vacant position so we can fund it. And, you know, can someone please fill out the — the, like, the council briefing sheet that we need to do. At that time is when I found out the salary range for this new position, which was titled Deputy Director of Strategic Initiatives, which was to be in charge of the department’s seizure, so civil assets, and he was hiring a gentleman from the federal defender’s office who had experience with fraud and seizures.

*** That was the public narrative but not the truth Carly.

So, again, it was sort of a slap in the face, at that point in time, that here we are hiring this new man who is going to make the same amount of pay as I am with less responsibility. He was given a take-home car, because, in theory, he’d be out doing I don’t know what. You know, I — I wouldn’t have taken a take-home car. I mean, I’m single. It would have been a pain in the butt to try to juggle two cars. But it was never offered to me. It was never suggested that I needed a take-home car. I was down at City Hall weekly for meetings driving my own car.

*** Carly…Carly…Carly… don’t you understand that special cronies get special treatment in this Administration, and especially those with dirt?

No. The only difference would be the rush on when it was done. We had met Tim before we went to Boston. I mean, he had met him somewhere, and he thought Tim was, quite frankly, the bee’s knees. And so he was interested in bringing him on board. I think what’s different — and maybe not different. I think, again, it was another one of these we’re going to create a job description to fit the person we want to hire instead of what I believe is the correct method of, I’m going to create a job description, then go find the right person.

*** Yes Carly Straub met Schwering and his wife at one of those fancy “Big Wig Parties” and just created a job for him, that is the way it works in this City Administration.

https://spokanepublishing.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/spokane-metro-magazines-launch-party-at-the-fox/

In October of 2013, after I was moved out and they reorganized, he developed a new position for Tim, which basically took over all of the functions I previously had, plus the Internal Affairs department, and that new position afforded him an $18,000 raise.

 

***Well of course…. that is the way it works!

You know, I mean, she’s complicit to that extent. And that’s her job as the HR director, to make the department heads happy. They want this job spec, I’ll go make it for you.

***It is imperative for any Mayor of questionable ethics to have a Director of Human Resources who is “complicit” in creating jobs for pliable cronies to protect their rear end, and that was exactly the case with Heather Lowe and Condon/Sanders it is no wonder Heather Lowe split town for San Clemente Calif. The complicity continues with the redefining of the rank of Major and dropping the 3 year in grade requirement down to 2 years in order to get people in power positions who Condon, Sanders, McDevitt, and Meidl feel will protect their back ends.

http://www.inlander.com/Bloglander/archives/2016/07/13/email-from-retired-spokane-cop-details-problematic-promotions-rift-among-top-brass

I may return later to Carly Cortright’s statement but as I stated earlier I have hold backs.

All of you can read her statement and draw your own conclusions, however I feel her statement provides a pretty good picture of what was and is going on at City Hall and SPD.

What happened to Carly Cortright was not only corrupt but also a tremendous waste of a very talented Law Enforcement asset, which given the way things are going may never be recovered.

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!

DISSECTING THE CAPPEL “INVESTIGATION” WILL BE DIVIDED INTO SEVERAL PARTS AND WE WILL START HERE:

 

The Investigative Summary of Kris Cappel which was released to the public is just that a Summary and not an Investigative Report so until I have a chance to review in detail all of transcripts of the interviews I’m limited. Most of those transcripts have been posted on the City Website with the exception of four which apparently aren’t really transcripts from recorded interviews rather are “transcribed from handwritten notes into typed notes” which is of course is problematic.

 

One important note regarding the Interviews/Statements is that Perjury Affirmations are NOT included in the recordings and they should be. The Perjury Affirmations and Correction Documents are not completed nor signed.

Just a quick look at the interviews/statements already documents exactly what I have been saying for years and some very important issues are not even mentioned in Cappel’s Summary.

 

So why is my name mentioned a number of times in the Cappel report and why the hell am I involved?

 

If you notice in the last image above Ms. Cappel makes this statement regarding my PRR “which closely mirrored, but was even broader than Deshais’”. The truth is my PRR was in fact considerably more specific in the very important area of text messages to and from City and Private cellphones used for City Business consistent with the Nissen v Pierce County Case, something no one else had requested and I’m still battling the City about. With respect to my PRR being “even broader than Deshais’” , yes it was, but because this isn’t my first Rodeo, it was crafted in a way that it was broad but not broad enough to allow the City to claim it was too broad. You have to be careful in that area as Ms. Cappel knows, or at least should know.

 

So why was I lucky enough to get all the attention from Nancy Isserlis and the City Attorney’s Office…because they knew I knew, as did the Mayor.

 

Some of you who follow me know that the reason I’m here is because the Spokesman Review has not done the job they are ethically obligated to do with Mayor Condon as well as the SPD. Much of the information contained in the Cappel investigation was provided to the SR by myself and others over several years, however even though the documentation and sources were available to them they sat on it. As I have noted in previous stories Addy Hatch of the SR was supplied with a volume of well documented evidence of the type of behavior now again documented in Cappel’s report in Straub’s past stops back in November of 2015. Hatch told the individual providing the documentation she was going to assign the story to Jonathan Brundt when he returned from maternity leave, the story was of course never run nor has Hatch ever challenged or denied my stories regarding this, simply because she can’t as the evidence is well documented.

 

Folks that follow me also know that one of the reasons I’m up to my neck in this is because of this anonymous letter I received seeking my help.

 

 

There will be lots more to come. I will likely start with the Carly Cortright saga and statement in my next story because I have reported on her story long ago when she was transferred and the fact that, yes… it was her integrity regarding Straub’s expenditures from the “Golden Goose Fund” that caused her transfer, long before Cotton. If the City Council doesn’t read her interview/statement and take the necessary action the Golden Goose Game will continue. Here is just one of many.

https://examplepro.me/2015/11/01/you-are-one-confused-jeremiah/

 

NO SUBPOENAS’ NECESSARY…RIGHT???

 

 

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!!