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A man described by law-enforcement officials as one
of the city’s biggest drug dealers says in a federal lawsuit filed
Wednesday that police conspired to violate his constitutional rights. Larry Washington wants the city and six other
defendants, including former Springfield Police Department detectives Jim
Graham and Paul Carpenter, to pay $3.65 million in compensatory and
punitive damages. Washington, arrested in March 2005 on charges of
cocaine possession, always maintained his innocence, claiming that he had
been framed.
Last month, after State’s Attorney John Schmidt
dropped all charges against him, Washington met with the Rev. Jesse Jackson
in Chicago and retained attorney Tamara Holder, who works with
Jackson’s RainbowPUSH Coalition. The civil-rights leader gave Washington a sympathetic
hearing. “The basic thing is that we all deserve equal
protection under the law,” Jackson tells Illinois Times.
“We’re all innocent until proven guilty.
It seems in this case that police overreached — and it will be
resolved in a court of law just the way it should be.”
Washington’s lawsuit is the latest in a series
of legal problems for the city that stem from Carpenter and Graham’s
actions. A federal judge last week rejected the city’s
motion to dismiss a lawsuit by former officer Ron Vose, who claims that
police management retaliated against him for blowing the whistle on the two
detectives. Vose, former head of the SPD narcotics unit, prepared
a detailed memo in early 2005 that outlined problems with searches
conducted by Carpenter and Graham, specifically the use of “trash
rips,” in which police sift through a suspect’s garbage to find
evidence of illegal (usually drug-related) activity and use that evidence
to obtain a search warrant. A few weeks after Vose submitted his memo, Graham and
Carpenter performed a trash rip at Washington’s residence at 1429
Guemes Court and found plastic bags that field-tested positive for cocaine
residue, according to the affidavit Graham submitted to a judge. However, when the Illinois State Police crime lab
tested the plastic bags the detectives said they had found in
Washington’s trash, no drug residue was found. Without that evidence,
the detectives had no right to search Washington’s home [see
“Springfield’s worst nightmare,” Feb. 15]. Washington’s complaint contains four counts:
conspiracy and false arrest allegations involving the search warrant, an
additional count of false arrest against the now-retired Lt. Rickey Davis
— who, in May 2006, had Washington rearrested for
“harassing” him at Gold’s Gym — and a claim against
the city and the detectives’ supervisors, Davis and Deputy Chief
William Rouse, for maintaining a “practice and policy” that
allowed certain detectives to “operate as rogue police
officers.” The suit was filed on behalf of Washington and Jennifer
Jenkins, a woman who was living with Washington at the time of his arrest. Holder’s co-counsel in the lawsuit is Greg
Kulis, who was part of a legal team that won a $9 million settlement from
the city of Chicago in January 2006 for LaFonso Rollins, who spent 11 years
in prison before being exonerated by DNA evidence. Detectives Steve Welsh
and J.T. Wooldridge are also named as defendants. The officers all
participated in the execution or planning of the raid on Washington’s
home, and are sued individually. City officials contacted Wednesday declined to
comment on the case, saying they had not yet seen Washington’s
complaint. Attorneys for the city learned last week that their
motion to dismiss Vose’s lawsuit against Chief Don Kliment and Rouse
had been denied by U.S. District Judge Jeanne Scott. The ruling indicates
only that if all the facts alleged in Vose’s complaint are true, and
the complaint is viewed from a perspective most favorable to Vose, he has a
legitimate cause for action. The city had raised four separate issues. The first
argued that Vose’s complaints about Carpenter and Graham —
detailed in a 20-page memo he submitted to Kliment in February 2005 —
could not be classified as protected speech because, as a sergeant, he was
duty-bound to report wrongdoing by subordinates. Scott ruled that
Vose’s allegations concerning the two detectives were not
“squarely within [his] official duties.”
The city also argued that Vose didn’t suffer
significant adverse employment action as a result of his complaint. Scott
ruled that “even minor harassment” could deter the exercise of
First Amendment rights. She also rebuffed the city’s argument that
Vose failed to adequately allege a claim for constructive discharge. The city also argued that Kliment and Rouse are
entitled to qualified immunity. Scott rejected that idea as well, though
the city has the right to appeal her decision.
Contact Dusty Rhodes at drhodes@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Mar 8-14, 2007.
