A detective who was removed from the Springfield
Police Department’s major-case unit on the same day his longtime
partner was placed on administrative leave is now facing a federal lawsuit
accusing him of giving false testimony. Jim Graham, a member of SPD’s
detective bureau since 1999, is named as the sole defendant in a suit filed
Oct. 19 by Thomas Munoz, a man Graham arrested and charged with attempted
burglary late last year. The charge was eventually dropped, but only after
Munoz had spent 70 days in prison and lost his job. Graham was reassigned to general investigations on
Oct. 4, the same day Det. Paul Carpenter was forced to relinquish his badge
and service weapon [see “Top detective put on leave” Oct. 13].
Police officials have refused to comment on Graham’s reassignment or
Carpenter’s leave, citing a policy against discussing personnel
matters. However, sources inside SPD and the court system say that the
moves came in the course of a wide-ranging internal investigation being
handled by Illinois State Police. Munoz’s lawsuit stems from his Dec. 30, 2004,
arrest. At the time, SPD Dets. Graham, Carpenter, and Rick Dhabalt were
trying to solve the case of a priest found brutally beaten in Douglas Park,
and they considered Munoz a suspect. After Graham made a sworn complaint
saying that Munoz tried to break into the rectory of St. Jude Catholic
Church in Rochester, they were able to arrest him and question him about
the attack on the priest. They quickly determined that he had no connection
to the beating (two other individuals subsequently confessed to the crime),
but they allowed Munoz, then a parolee, to be sent back to prison on the
burglary charge. That charge was based on a Dec. 18 report to
Rochester police made after a St. Jude’s parishioner noticed Munoz
trying various doors at the church during an evening Mass. Munoz insists
that he was simply trying to deliver a poinsettia. Rochester Police Chief
Bill Marass told Illinois Times in May that he had no evidence that any crime had
been committed; his department recorded the incident as a suspicious-person
report. Josh Carter, assistant corporation counsel in charge
of police affairs, says that he can’t comment on the Munoz lawsuit.
“We will obviously review and act accordingly,” he says. Munoz filed pro se but was granted pauper status and
hopes that the federal court will appoint an attorney to represent him. His
suit asks for compensatory damages of $100,000 and punitive damages of
$100,000.
This article appears in Oct 27 – Nov 2, 2005.
