The theme of the week is accountability, justice must prevail and hold those accountable to the law without preferential treatment or to cater to any ones convenience.

The quotes above, the first Eleanor Roosevelt’s, the second mine not only speak about the last couple days in the City of Portsmouth but also it touches on my day in the Portsmouth Courts. Even though I am no longer an officer with the Portsmouth Police Department I still have quite a few outstanding court cases to deal with. I am obligated to attend court now just as I was when I was a Police Officer. I have been making all my court dates and seeing my cases through not only because I am obligated but it is my duty as a citizen. I no longer get paid to attend court as I would have if I were a Police Officer, worse I have to pay for my own parking to meet my legal obligations in coming to court. Such as life it’s my duty and I have no problem doing it.

Today I was extremely disturbed and disappointed in the actions of a substitute Judge that was sitting in Portsmouth General District Traffic Court. I had a Circuit Court trial that I was subpoenaed to attend that started at 10am. My Traffic Court cases didn’t start to 11am. My name was placed on the attendance roster in the Traffic Court so that the court was notified that I was in Circuit Court. Circuit Court is a court of record and as such it is a “higher” court which has priority over lower courts such as General District court. I could not leave Circuit Court till the trial was completed and I was released by the prosecuting attorney. I was finally released at about 11:30-11:45am and immediately responded to Traffic Court. When I got there I found the doors to the court room locked. I went to the clerks office and was told that Judge Babbs had dismissed all my cases.

All of the people I had charged with various traffic related offenses got out of their traffic tickets (Click here to see the cases dismissed today by Judge Babbs). Several of these involve people who were driving suspended. These are jailable offenses and are a serious menace to the motoring public. There is a reason these people had their drivers licenses suspended or revoked. One of the cases had more serious ramifications that could impact whether the victim of an accident can recover damages when she was hit by an unlicensed driver and was sent to a hospital. This incident even involved the driver switching places with the passenger (who owned the vehicle) and lied to me about it in the course of the investigation. Had the driver been held accountable and found guilty of the failure to yield offense it would have made it easier for the injured victim to pursue a civil case to recover damages for the damage to her vehicle and her hospital stay.

I could completely understand if I had failed to show up that the Judge had every right to dismiss the cases. That was not the case I was in another court in the next building over, Judge Babbs knew that and his actions are inexcusable. During the trial in Circuit Court Judge Babbs Bailiff called the Bailiff in Circuit Court to advise her that they were waiting on me and the Bailiff in Circuit Court told me that she told Traffic Court I was in the middle of a trial and would respond to Traffic Court as soon as I could.

I lived up to my duties to appear and proceed with my cases even though I no longer get paid for. Their was no justifiable reason for the judge to dismiss any of those cases, he could have just as easily continued them to my next Traffic Court date (which I have two per month) or made them wait for me to finish in Circuit Court.

I am going to approach the Commonwealth Attorney to have the cases put back on the docket since I don’t have the power to do this as a private citizen. This is a travesty against the very nature of the justice system and their is NO EXCUSE for Judge Babbs to dismiss these cases and not hold these people accountable for their illegal activities.

Shame on you Judge Babbs, if you no longer have the patience to see justice through then perhaps it’s time to retire permanently from the bench. I have no control over when trials are set and had to follow the rules of the court going to Circuit Court first.

My Dad taught me that if you do something, do it RIGHT or don’t do it at all..

It appears accountability is the word of the day in Portsmouth. Chief is the first to go, hopefully some others in management who can’t follow their department’s policies or the law will follow shortly. Read on if you want to know what I am referring to.

Well those that read this blog and are familiar with the Portsmouth Police Department found Chief Edward G. Long’s departure today as no surprise. Most of us have been speculating for months about when he was going to depart not if. Their have been numerous rumors about issues between the Chief and City Hall but nothing that could be pinned down till today.

I actually had a meeting with the Chief at 11am this morning involving the grievance of my termination and trying to get my job back. Meeting involved myself, the Chief and his Administrative Aide Sgt Huntington. Normally he is not real friendly with me (no surprise their) but he actually laughed when I walked in wearing shorts, deck shoes and an untucked collared shirt. Normally I wear suit & tie to such affairs but I figured that for what I thought was going to be a 30 second meeting to hear the Chief tell me “NO” about getting my job back at least I was going to be comfortable. I was surprised at his attitude, it wasn’t friendly but it was cordial. In fact he allowed me to ask him a bunch of questions involving my termination and we chatted for a while. I tried to explain that perhaps he was unaware of some issues involving the underling facts. I asked him why he waited till March of 2008 to initiate my termination when the last of these alleged incidents occurred in August 2007 (7 months before). He really could not provide me with any real answers to my questions and in fact appeared not to be familiar with a good bit of the underlining facts. He told me several times that he was going to let my grievance continue to the next phase. One of the issues I did raise is that one of the “alleged transgressions” he terminated me for. I had never received Disciplinary Review prior to the termination. This is a procedure required by Departmental Policy anytime an officer is investigated (Click here to read the Portsmouth Police Policy ADM-23 Disciplinary Review) an results in the opinion that a charge is founded. The charge could be anything from a policy violation (and their are lots, 3 inch thick 3 ring binder full of them) to an officer getting a traffic ticket or a citizen complaining about an officers demeanor. Some time after the Disciplinary Review (sometimes months) the Chief makes his decision on discipline and then the officer is notified by letter. I was never given that opportunity and that is a violation of Departmental Policy. In fact from what I can determine Chief Long never followed that policy as written since he became Chief. In addition I was never provided with a written list of charges against me prior to the discipline (my termination), this is another Department Policy violation. Each of those violations is termed a Group Two offense punishable with up to 10 days unpaid suspension. Three Group Two offenses in a 12 month period can result in termination. During one of my previous court sessions involving documents I was attempting to obtain under the state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) the Chief through his legal counsel (Ms. Cheran Cordell) admitted that he was in violation of the law by failing to respond to my FOIA. That is another Group Two offense. So by my count that was three Group Two offenses comitted by the Chief in a 12 month period. Perhaps the City Manager Kenneth Chandler finally had enough of the Police Administration steam rolling the troops but committing numerous Departmental Policy violations themselves. It would be a pleasant and long overdue surprise that City Hall is finally holding the Chief and several of his senior staff accountable to the same polices they have enforced against the Police Officers who are the backbone of the Portsmouth Police Department.

A couple of good examples of the Police Departments selective discipline or selective law enforcement. One involves the disgraced SWAT Commander Lt. Brian Ali. You will note that he was arrested on 12/19/2006 (Click here for the online Portsmouth Circuit Court document showing the arrest date and sentence of Lt. Brian Ali’s Felony Conviction). As far as anyone knows or can determine he was never disciplined for his FELONY misconduct but he was rewarded with his retirement on 2/1/2007. Click here to see the email that was sent about Felon Lt Brian Ali’s retiring. Talk about not holding someone accountable, here is part of what it said “Please join me in wishing this employee success and prosperity as he embarks into a new chapter of his life”. Yea in prison. Here’s another, I tried to hold a City Police Contract Tow Truck accountable for it’s flagrant violation of the law. Click here to read the email detailing Wet Towing flagrant disregard of the law. This exchange involved the now acting Chief of Police Harry (Skip) L. Fremd who made in perfectly clear that nothing was to be done about the illegal activity by a Police Contract Wrecker. Next time you’re in Portsmouth take a look at any of the Wet Towing tow trucks. I will bet two years later they still have tint so dark you can’t see into the vehicle. That is termed “Limo” tint and is illegal but they are not held accountable because they “help” the police. Well I say to that that they are doing the duties as a good citizen should and should not receive preferential treatment. In fact as you read in the email they are a representative of the Portsmouth Police as a Contract Tow company and should be held accountable for illegal activity. As to the comments about stopping the criminals with the dark tint I did that as much as I could but with only three tint meters (an electronic device that can measure the percent of light passing through a tinted window) in the entire department two years ago and when I last worked a month ago none (they were all broke) it can be difficult to enforce the law without the required tools.

Several years ago I was involved in the Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) Project testing and installation. During that period I became concerned about less then competent operation of the Portsmouth 911 Center. I was concerned that the way the dispatchers were performing could be a liability to the city and expose the public to undue hazard. I was also provided with information that indicated that the Portsmouth Police Department was spending the 911 Telephone Tax money on items that were in violation of law. I submitted my first FOIA and it was down hill with the department from there. Click to read the Internal Affairs complaint involving the Portsmouth Police 911 Center and the Captain in charge I made. This was for a threat made against me via another employee that I was told about. Threats such as this are Group 3 termination offenses. Years later as far as I can determine that incident has never been investigated and the party involved is now in line for a position as Deputy Chief of the Department. I guess you can get the point I am trying to make. Their has been up to now NO ACCOUNTABILITY at the upper management level of the Portsmouth Police Department. Chief Long never held his senior people accountable and as far as I am aware never investigated complaints such as mine that were made.

But I digress back to today ..

After my meeting with the Chief I decided to go over to the City Attorneys office and see if I could meet with the City Attorney to see if some of the issues could be resolved. I was informed that he was out of the office. I then asked to see the Chief’s legal counsel Cheran Cordell. She was in the office but was too busy to see me and said via one of the Legal Assistants that she couldn’t see me till end of next week. At that point I told the legal assistant that I came over to pay a courtesy call to try and resolve some of the issues. I made the effort to try and work some of the issues out but if no one wants to see me then at least I feel as though I made the attempt. Oh well the things I wanted to discuss with them will be making it’s appearance in the next several days on this blog.

Their was no signs in Chief Long’s office today indicating that he was leaving the department. No boxes, nothing being packed, all his wall decorations in place. Based on my conversation with him, his attitude and the condition of his office I would say his resignation today was unplanned. In fact I have heard through reliable sources that their was quite the blowup in City Hall today when Chief Long was summoned over to see the City Manager. Sources said that he was told by someone in authority that he needed to leave City Hall immediately because his conduct was becoming disorderly. My best guess is that his departure was unknown to him till that meeting in the late afternoon in City Hall. As others have said Ex-Chief Long appears to be a nice guy but just didn’t cut it as Chief of Police.