Detective got tough with Duke students (Herr Gottlieb's Record)

DURHAM - If three Duke University lacrosse players face a jury this spring, defense attorneys likely will take aim at Sgt. Mark Gottlieb, the Durham police officer who supervised the investigation into the March 13 party at which an escort service dancer says she was raped.

The 43-year-old detective could be the prosecution's most important witness aside from the dancer herself.

In recent weeks, an attorney for one of the lacrosse players questioned the plausibility of Gottlieb's case notes, provided to the defense as evidence. Attorneys also have criticized Gottlieb for not following the Durham Police Department's guidelines in a photo lineup that he showed the accuser.

Members of the defense team are now closely examining the arrests Gottlieb made before the rape case. Records show that the sergeant arrested a disproportionate number of Duke students, all on misdemeanor violations such as carrying an open beer on a public sidewalk or violating the city's noise ordinance.

Such charges usually earn an offender a pink ticket such as those issued for speeding. But court records show Gottlieb often arrested Duke students on such charges, taking them to jail in handcuffs.

Reached by telephone, Gottlieb declined to be interviewed for this story. A department spokesman said this week the sergeant is on leave, though what kind was not disclosed.

Some residents of neighborhoods where Gottlieb worked and victims' advocates say that the sergeant is a dedicated and fair officer.

A native of Ohio, Gottlieb is married and the father of young twins. The couple is expecting another child soon. Over the past 18 years, Gottlieb has worked as a paramedic in Wake and Durham counties, as well as a Durham police officer.

A barrel-chested man, Gottlieb tends to walk with his shoulders back and chin up. Among his colleagues, he is known as outspoken and sometimes headstrong. In a 2005 court affidavit that noted his qualifications, Gottlieb listed several community colleges he has attended and professional certifications. The affidavit did not mention an academic degree beyond high school.

Gottlieb got the lacrosse case weeks after serving 10 months as a patrol shift supervisor in police District 2, which includes about a quarter of the city. The district has neighborhoods as disparate as the crime-ridden Oxford Manor public housing complex and Trinity Park -- the blocks of historic homes across from a low stone wall rimming Duke's East Campus.

From May 2005 to February 2006, the period during which Gottlieb was a patrol supervisor in the district, court and police records examined by The News & Observer show that Gottlieb arrested 28 people. Twenty were Duke students, including a quarterback of the football team and the sister of a men's lacrosse player. At least 15 of the Duke students were taken to jail.

In comparison, the three other squad supervisors working in District 2 during the same 10 months -- Sgts. Dale Gunter, John Shelton and Paul Daye -- tallied a combined 64 arrests. Two were Duke students. Both were taken to jail.

Gottlieb often treated Duke students and nonstudents differently. For example, Gottlieb in 2004 wrote a young man a citation for illegally carrying a concealed .45-caliber handgun and possessing less than a half-ounce of marijuana, but records indicate he wasn't taken to jail. He was not a Duke student.

Trinity Park residents have long complained to university and city officials about the boisterous parties thrown by the students who live there. That spurred Duke in February to buy a dozen rental properties in the neighborhood, including the house where the lacrosse team threw its spring break bash two weeks later.

The Durham police officers who responded to 911 calls about the parties were sometimes on the receiving end of defiance and disrespectful taunts. Trinity Park resident Ellen Dagenhart praised Gottlieb's get-tough tactics as a direct response to community concerns about disruptive, drunken behavior.

"There were a lot of homeowners and taxpayers who were calling the cops saying, 'Please come and make yourself seen,' " said Dagenhart, who has known Gottlieb for years. "Anyone who's seen kids passed out in a puddle of vomit is certainly happy to see the police show up. You can't blame Mark Gottlieb for that."

Durham City Manager Patrick Baker said that cracking down on Trinity Park partying was a priority for police last year.

The police department's official policy gives officers discretion in whether to transport someone to the lockup downtown. Factors other than just the "elements of the crime" can be considered, such as whether the suspect is belligerent.

"Our general order, it basically gives the officer room to use his or her own judgment," said Cpl. David Addison, a police spokesman.

But a standing order encourages officers to use alternatives to arrests for misdemeanors, including the use of written citations because of "jail overcrowding, crowded court dockets, staffing problems and the intrusiveness involved in a physical arrest."

On Oct. 8, Gottlieb and officers he supervised responded to a call about a rowdy student at a duplex at 203 Watts St. -- a Trinity Park address familiar to the police as a party house.

In an affidavit, Gottlieb wrote that officers arrived about 6:30 p.m. and told partygoers to be quiet. After the police left, party-goers urinated on neighbor Lee Coggins' home and threw a beer bottle in her direction that shattered on the sidewalk, Gottlieb wrote.

Police obtained a search warrant, and Gottlieb's squad entered the duplex at 3:19 a.m. They seized three beer kegs -- one empty -- and "beer bong tubing." On the wall was what Gottlieb described as a "stolen Duke flag." A Duke flag had been reported stolen from an administrative building on campus the previous spring.

Five students there were arrested by Gottlieb for violating the city's noise ordinance and alcohol-related misdemeanors. Another housemate, Mike Kenney, was arrested the next day.

Kenney, then 21, was charged with a noise ordinance violation and possession of an open container of alcohol on public property and taken to jail. Two days later, records show, Kenney was arrested a second time and taken to jail on charges of possession of stolen property. The flag had been in his room.

When the case went to trial in January, Gottlieb testified that in the wake of rowdy parties in Trinity Park, the department's policy was to take alcohol-related violations seriously. But the judge threw out the charges against Kenney, citing a lack of evidence.

Glen Bachman, Kenney's attorney, successfully argued that Gottlieb couldn't prove the college senior was home during the party or that the flag in his room was the same flag that had been stolen.

Coggins, the woman who called police about the party at the duplex, said Gottlieb's actions seemed responsive and professional. He doesn't have a vendetta against Duke students, she said.

"It's not like he's hanging out at their house waiting for them to do something," Coggins said.

Kathy Summerlee, Kenney's mother and a lawyer in Minnesota, called the arrest and prosecution of her son "frivolous."

Though the charges were thrown out, Kenney could have faced suspension if convicted. He graduated from Duke in May and now is looking for a job, she said.

"It was clear to all of us that the police were feeling a lot of pressure to make a difference in the behavior in that neighborhood," Summerlee said this week. "I think there was a lot of damage done in this process. It cost us money. It cost us a lot of worry. It rearranged Mike's life."

Still, some in Trinity Park cite Gottlieb as a dedicated officer. He prides himself on being a victim's advocate, often recounting stories from his years as a domestic violence investigator.

Dagenhart said she remembers seeing him at a vigil for domestic violence victims.

"This was not something he had to do as a part of his job," she said. "It's something he did as someone who cared. I know he cares about Durham. It's not just a job for him."

(News researchers David Raynor and Denise Jones contributed to this report.) Staff writer Michael Biesecker can be reached at 956-2421 or mbieseck@newsobserver.com. News researchers David Raynor and Denise Jones contributed to this report.

I said from the beginning -- it's not going to go away. Once it gets that far -- it goes and goes, like the Energizer Bunny. I knew those families and those young men were in for the long-term and a very, very bumpy ride. That's why I've asked for prayers and been a cheerleader for each and every one of you who have spent hours helping to get this story out. I wish I'd had the courage to write to all of you when we were going through it, but we were just small fry and it hadn't happend on such a large scale. Plus, our attorney asked me if I wanted the media and I said NO!!! He stopped it in it's tracks. Hindsight -- maybe that was wrong, but I didn't think my knees would hold as it was. Got a little weak thereabouts. Leaving for the day, but I MEAN IT -- thank God for you guys. You may have saved lives here and that's a wonderful thing.

You did not ask me but it was Nifong giving so many public statements that cause me to look more carefully at this. It is offensive for a DA to use a case to win a primary election like this. So I watched for a while and then when it turned out to be a hoax that was pushed by the DA, it became compelling to me.

Well if it dies, I think we will all point to a time much earlier, even when Nifong lies and claims it was because something hand changed.

As for Gottlie:

1. He clearly has made up evidence in this case.

2. He may as someone pointed out taken the easy arrest and gone after nondangerous drinking college kids.

3. I can see police reasons for bringing that many officers along. I am sure they have tired of going out on these calls and having many of the students just split as they arrive. If you want to taken in a whole party of people, you need a number on your own.

4. The Blinco's incident would not be such a big deal, if he were not trying to frame these kids. That is really my point. A bunch of drinking cops getting out of hand is not such a big deal. It is a misdemeanor. They did not do it under the color of law or anything. But he was bound to get this kind of publicity from it and I bet more in the Triangle area than here. His old accident was bound to come up. He would have been much better off had this case had gone away several months ago. I guess he can not influence Nifong either.

I'm curious. What got the hook in you on this? IIRC, it was the 911 call that first set my BS meter off.

I had seen the activity on FreeRepublic when the threads began, but I didn't pay much attention to it. In fact, mrs. abb asked me what Lacrosse was and I had to look it up on Wikipedia. This was about the time the potbangers were in full bloom.

I began to follow the threads and kept up. When the DNA came back negative, I said there's no way the DA will keep going. But he did. That's when I decided I would keep at this thing for the long haul. I knew exactly what we had - a rogue DA completely out of control. Nothing scares me more than government - at any level - that has unchecked power. So here I am, and here I shall stay until the last dog dies...

I don't think it's necessary to take nine cops along to arrest some students on a misdemeanor noise violation. I don't think it's necessary to show up at 3AM and put them all in handcuffs and drag one out of bed and down the stairs either. That sounds excessive to me. Especially since this same cop just gave a citation to a non-Duke student who was carrying a concealed gun and had some pot. No arrest and no handcuffs for that person.

I should also say, as the daughter of a non-US citizen, that I think his threats to have someone deported are really offensive. Since I've had Immigration Law, I can tell you that generally, to be deported, you have to commit a crime involving "moral turpitude". This is sort of a hazy term but generally it means an act of baseness, vileness and depravity and is generally restricted to felonies and offenses that are "malum in se". I don't think making noise qualifies for this. Gottlieb strikes me as someone who likes to use his authority to threaten and scare students and that sounds like an abuse of authority to me.

"I don't think it's necessary to take nine cops along to arrest some students on a misdemeanor noise violation."

Durham crime is so bad that according to an article in USA today, some black pastors buy tickets out of Durham for their youth. Durham has about ten times as many gang members as Raleigh. Durham has, in fact, a "crime emergency" (and an absent police chief) whether they declared one or not.

And to put this much effort into quieting some noisy college kids is ridiculous. They could have left that to Duke, and been doing some real police work.

There will be other stories; there always is when a renegade like Gottlieb is involved -- he can't help himself. The September 22 hearing will be fascinating since Gottlieb conducted the line up. There may be a suppression hearing on the photo ID and, if so, Gottlieb will be forced to testify. I find it interesting that the dossiers mentioned in the article were collected before the LAX case broke, meaning that people knew he was out of control and did nothing to reign him in. Because some students chose to go to trial to fight bogus charges, the Duke administration cannot claim ignorance of this situation. As an aside, I'd love to ask Brodhead what did he know and when did he know it.

The ironic part is this is nothing new. When we went to Duke twenty years ago, students knew not to roam into Durham after dark because we did not know the dangerous areas and even then the local police had a reputation for roughing up Duke students. In my humble opinion, Gottlieb and Nifong had been pulling these stunts of treating Duke students like yesterday's garbage for years with impunity, only this time they took it way over the top.

And what is it that Gottlieb reported said?

He separates one and threatens him with deportation in order to apply pressure to one in order for him to make incriminating statements against the others at the party.

The incident that I'm aware of is the DPD showing up a Duke house with a reputation for parties with the Large Swat team truck and a Paddy wagon. The enormous blinding lights from the Swat team truck were turned onto the house and seconds later they broke through the front door.

They only found underage drinking (by 19-20 year olds) and they charged those over 21 with noise violations and some with open container violations. But, several students were pulled aside individually and told of how long they'd be in jail - and what other things they had on them; however, they could extricate themselves from the arrest and the ensuing suspension and expulsion from Duke - if they incriminated some other students in illegal drug use at the party - so they were told.

Where's the sense of appropriateness compared to the wrong-doing (underage drinking) ? Compared to the daily shooting and gang activities in Durham?

And Nifong sounds like he echoed this feeling against the Duke Students in that public statement where he said something like for too long, there's been a feeling that the Duke students could escape Justice and their Rich Daddies would get them off???

It almost sounds like powerful parts of the DPD and the DA were content to leave most of Durham under seige while they exacted revenge on a tiny portion of the population - due to inherent biases they harbor to this day!

FreeRepublic was the FIRST bulletin board to get out in front of this hoax. We were the only ones for a while. Before the blogs

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I was told by a local covering the case that Crystal's name was first disclosed on Free Republic. And it was hard for me not to weigh in that I was very familiar with FR.

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http://johnsville.blogspot.com/

Duke Case: The Asylum - Doing Crazy

The Duke lacrosse rape hoax needs to be ended ASAP. "Soon" is the operative word. Three innocent young men should be immediately found innocent of all the bogus rape charges manufactured by Mike Nifong. The goal for all concerned citizens should be: immediate exoneration and proof of innocence for the three Duke lacrosse players. This injustice should not be allowed to stand.

This case is an insane breakdown of truth, justice, law enforcement, journalism, administration, commonsense, the work ethic, and the American way. And following the Duke lacrosse case feels like being trapped in an insane asylum with the crazies.

THe picture is coming together clearly. Simultaneously, there was a DA with an upcoming election and police with a track history of (at best) grossly exaggerating incidents involving Duke students.....
The flag incident noted in the article is revealing because it shows his willingness to concoct a charge to make life more painful for Duke students when he had to know there was no way that charge would ever be sustained.
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You make some excellent points.

It appears that Gottlieb had no fear of being rebuked or censured by a Judge in Durham - and he didn't fear any internal investigation into his actions. I doubt someone that believed they were subject to oversight or even the possibility of scrutiny would've acted like this repeatedly.

He operated fearlessly - did he have good reason?

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