Two Springfield police detectives who have been on
leave and under investigation for several months won’t face criminal
charges, the state appellate prosecutor announced this week. The news came
Monday afternoon, and spread quickly through the department thanks to an
announcement sent out over the SPD pager system. However, detectives Paul Carpenter and Jim Graham
still face allegations that they violated departmental policies —
allegations that could lead to discipline ranging from oral reprimand to
termination, says SPD Chief Don Kliment. “If there’s any administrative rule
violations, it will fall to me [to decide],” Kliment says. He
declined to comment further. The prosecutor’s announcement echoes an earlier
decision by the U.S. Attorney’s office, which also declined to press
criminal charges against either of the two officers. The investigation originated with a complaint from
another officer, former Sgt. Ron Vose, who was in charge of SPD’s
narcotics unit. At the request of a supervisor, Vose in March 2005 wrote a
memo listing all incidents of apparent misconduct by Carpenter or Graham
that he knew of, and submitted it to Chief Don Kliment. Kliment passed the
memo to SPD’s internal affairs division, which asked the Illinois
State Police to investigate. The results of that investigation have so far not
been disclosed to SPD or city officials. Carpenter was placed on
administrative leave in October; Graham was placed on leave in January. Also in January, Vose resigned, saying he feared
further retaliation after he was transferred from narcotics to patrol about
a month after submitting his memo. He later filed a lawsuit against Deputy
Chief Bill Rouse and Kliment. The news that Graham and Carpenter won’t face
criminal charges came as no surprise to Howard Feldman, Vose’s
attorney. “It is not unexpected,” he says, adding
that cops are rarely prosecuted for anything less than physical violence,
such as the January 1999 Office Tavern incident involving several off-duty
SPD officers and an inebriated patron who damaged one of their cars.
“Aside from that, I am not aware of any investigation in recent
memory that has resulted in the prosecution of a law enforcement official
that doesn’t have videotape of the [officer],” Feldman said. The investigation has fractured the police
department, where some officers support the detectives and others support
Vose. The attorney for the Policemen’s Benevolent and Protective
Agency Unit 5, representing the rank and file, did not return a phone call
seeking comment. However, he recently made statements in open court
supporting the two detectives and implying that the union has a track
record of getting policy violations dismissed. “There’s an investigation of
allegations,” Ron Stone said at a May 1 hearing. “There
hasn’t been a finding. And even if there were, we have a history of
overturning findings.” Bruce Locher, a defense attorney with internal
affairs complaints pending against Carpenter and Graham along with SPD
detective Steve Welsh, says the investigation should have been assigned to
someone from another city. “I probably would’ve gone to Illinois
Supreme Court and asked that a judge from outside this circuit be appointed
to oversee any investigation, and that judge appoint a special
prosecutor,” Locher says.
This article appears in Jun 1-7, 2006.
