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 was told over 2 months ago - that two reporters on the Herald Sun staff regularly socialize and hang out with investigators on the Duke Case - and to look for prosecution leaks to go to that Paper due to this relationship. Watching and reading the HS - this has proved true. The Herald Sun was on the only Media outlet IN THE COUNTRY to print the Causcasian Hair found on the AV story.
The day before press time with that story Victoria Peterson went on a Local Radio show and spoke about this hair and she added that it was absolute proof - and it had been found in an area that could only mean one thing. The Talk Show host persisted in asking her the source of this information and she finally stated - from an investigator on the case. From that I concluded that the Hair story printed the following day was from the same source - an investigator on the case.

Now comes the Herald Sun:
Gottlieb was just doing his Job. The stats can are skewed. He's a great man, etc. and so forth...

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-769168.html

Gottlieb was "encouraged to arrest students and take them to jail, rather than issue warnings and tickets"

Yeah, and I guess they told him to let others found in suspiciuos circumstances with a .45 caliber concealed and drugs on them off too! I guess the procedure said those people shouldn't be arrested. This is comical. Let's all pretend Durham isn't overrun with Crime.

How much preferential treatment are they willing to give one man?

Blinco's .. Accident .. Not arresting suspicous characters carrying .45 caliber and drugs - YET, those 20 year olds drinking MUST be stopped.

Durham is filthy with crime, how can anyone justify this

_

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-769168.html

Policeman who arrested students was doing his job

By Ray Gronberg, The Herald-Sun
September 12, 2006 8:11 pm

DURHAM -- A Durham police sergeant's crackdown on Duke University students last year was part of a concerted effort to get control of the off-campus party scene, not the act of a rogue cop, his former boss says.

Sgt. Mark Gottlieb and other squad leaders responsible for policing the Trinity Park area next to Duke's East Campus were encouraged to arrest students and take them to jail, rather than issue warnings and tickets, because experience showed lesser measures lacked deterrent value, said Capt. Ed Sarvis, former commander of the Durham Police Department's District 2.

Sarvis added that the pressure to make arrests came from him, and that Gottlieb's fellow squad leaders in District 2 were just as aggressive about responding to it, even if their efforts didn't show up in their personal arrest statistics.

The captain also said that before the start of the 2005-06 academic year, he sent every Duke student who'd signed up for housing controlled by two popular landlords a letter saying his officers would crack down hard on noise and alcohol violations.

"I fully stand behind the decision to make an actual, physical arrest," Sarvis said. "I sent every off-campus student in the Trinity Park area a letter and warned them of this very thing. They knew to expect it. Maybe they didn't like it, but they certainly can't say they weren't warned. They were warned."

Gottlieb, he added, "was doing his job, and doing what I asked him to do."

Sarvis offered his comments Monday, after reports surfaced in a Raleigh newspaper and the Duke Chronicle alleging that Gottlieb singled out Duke students for harsh treatment, arresting them in disproportionate numbers and in some cases allegedly subjecting them to verbal abuse.

Many of the complaints centered on the fact that Gottlieb would arrest students for noise and alcohol offenses rather than issuing them tickets. He allegedly was more prone to doing so than the other three sergeants who commanded patrol squads in District 2 last year.

The scrutiny of Gottlieb's conduct comes because of his role as the supervising investigator of the Duke lacrosse rape case. The Chronicle reported that its story was inspired by a dossier on the sergeant's arrest statistics supplied by "a Durham attorney close to the lacrosse case."

A representative of Durham lawyer Bob Ekstrand -- who counseled many lacrosse players in the early stages of that investigation -- offered to discuss the dossier with The Herald-Sun on Monday. But she stipulated that the interview be off-the-record, a request The Herald-Sun declined.

The representative, who identified herself only as Bethany, said she'd compiled the dossier.

Sarvis' warning letter, dated Aug. 10, 2005, went to students renting from landlords Guy Solie and Bob Schmitz. Its 999 words left no doubt that police intended to address long-standing complaints about the party scene lodged by residents of the Trinity Park, Trinity Heights and Walltown neighborhoods.

"We want to end this problem and the negative impression surrounding communities have toward Duke students, starting with you and the residents living with you," the captain said in the letter, adding that police would hold the residents of a home personally accountable for any noise and alcohol violations, even violations committed by party guests.

The letter said the department's response would be a ticket "at a minimum," and that more severe treatment was possible. "If the officers responding to the scene feel it is more appropriate, residents may be subject to an actual physical arrest and transported to the Durham County Jail for formal charging," the letter said.

In Monday's interview, Sarvis said he encouraged arrests because more lenient treatment hadn't made any dent in the problem. Officers found that students shrugged off tickets, with some even "taking one for the team" by accepting one and paying it off on behalf of a whole house.

The point of making arrests was to find out if the students would "feel the same way if they were taken away in handcuffs," Sarvis said, adding that the pressure worked and officers found that "students were for the most part not willing to be the fall guy" for their compatriots

The effort squared with state law and department policy that gives officers discretion to arrest people for misdemeanors, Sarvis said.

Sarvis added that he developed the policy in response to persistent complaints from neighbors. "I had plenty of residents come to me and say the student behavior was out of control and they felt we were doing nothing about it," he said. "Their opinion was that we were driving by [problems] with a blind eye."

Trinity Park activists confirmed Monday that they'd pushed the department to conduct a "zero-tolerance" enforcement effort, starting as far back as the spring of 2002. Their lobbying targeted the Police Department, city administrators and elected officials, N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement and the Durham County district attorney's office, then headed by Jim Hardin.

"There had been a 20-year history of issues here, affecting the quality of life of the neighbors here, and other students who lived in the neighborhood," said David C. Smith, a Durham civil lawyer who headed the Trinity Park Neighborhood Association from the spring of 2003 to the spring of 2005. "This isn't an anti-student issue, it's a lack-of-respect-for-their-neighborhoods issue.

Sarvis said one of the recent reports on Gottlieb's arrest statistics exaggerated the potential disparity in part by comparing them to those of another sergeant, John Shelton, who was not leading one of District 2's patrol squads at the same time Gottlieb was. Shelton replaced Gottlieb as the D squad's commander this winter.

Two of the other sergeants who were running 12-officer patrol squads in the district at the same time as Gottlieb, Laird Evans and Paul Daye, frequently delegated the task of making arrests to their subordinates, Sarvis said. Gottlieb and the fourth sergeant, Dale Gunter, tended to be more hands-on.

Gottlieb's statistics were also were at least partly the luck of the draw under the Police Department's shift structure, which asks officers to rotate shifts in a way that means a squad works one set of weekend nights a month. By luck of the draw, Gottlieb's squad happened to be on duty last Oct. 8, the night of a Rolling Stones concert at Wallace Wade stadium.

He and his officers spent a good part of that evening coping with a party at 203 Watts St. that produced seven arrests, most or all of which went on Gottlieb's ledger.

The Solie-owned house was already the "No. 1 house for complaints" about alcohol violations and noise in all of District 2, Sarvis said, adding that the raid effectively shut it down because parents notified of the incident immediately began pulling students out of the house.

Elected officials interviewed Monday and Tuesday had little quarrel with the idea of police having arrested students or cracked down on the party scene, but said there were allegations in the Chronicle's story that merited further study.

They concerned claims that Gottlieb had threatened to pursue deportation proceedings against two students, one an international student, the other a resident of 203 Watts St. and U.S. citizen with a foreign-sounding name. The student, Urosh Tomovich, is an Ekstrand client who's appealing a District Court conviction on a noise-law violation and a charge of aiding and abetting open container violations that netted him two years of probation.

"[If] any charges of racial comments or violent arrests have any merit, they need to be investigated," said City Councilman Mike Woodard, who's also a Duke employee. "But if it's just Duke students whining because they were arrested for violating the law, these were all cases of Gottlieb doing his job. There's really nothing for these students to stand on if that's all there is."

Duke spokesman John Burness said the university had been aware of the Durham Police Department's zero-tolerance policy, and said administrators would be concerned if there was evidence Gottlieb "was being disproportionate."

"It'd be a matter for the police and the city manager to look at now that it's been brought to their attention, to see if there are patterns that are inappropriate," Burness said. "If there are, we assume they'd take appropriate action."

URL for this article: http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-769168.html

Duke spokesman John Burness said the university had been aware of the Durham Police Department's zero-tolerance policy, and said administrators would be concerned if there was evidence Gottlieb "was being disproportionate."

"It'd be a matter for the police and the city manager to look at now that it's been brought to their attention, to see if there are patterns that are inappropriate," Burness said. "If there are, we assume they'd take appropriate action."

____________________________________

Someone should send John Burness this information:

http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2006/09/nifong-duke-and-gottlieb.html

Thanks to recent articles from the N&O and especially the Duke Chronicle, we now know that:

- for a period of several months before the lacrosse incident, Sgt. Mark Gottlieb arrested 10 times as many Duke students as the district's other three squad commanders combined;

- the sergeant--who, the N&O took pains to note, has no degree beyond high school--appears to have engaged in ethnic stereotyping, asking one foreign-born Duke student if he needed to speak to his consulate and threatening another with deportation;

- several Duke students (of varying genders and ethnicities, and all unconnected to the lacrosse team) accused Gottlieb of behaving as he has in the lacrosse case--misstating facts and violating standard procedures.

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