Posted on 09/09/2006 2:39:24 AM PDT by abb
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.
Students go to jail
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.
Get-tough tactics
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."
Party house
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.
Only on one side of his family. He's a semiColon. [Ducks and runs like h*ll]
Goes to show what happens when there is no real new news!!
Here's some news! Bald cop skates?!?
http://www.wral.com/news/9849010/detail.html
Sources: 2 Durham Officers Accused In Bar Assault To Be Fired
POSTED: 11:50 am EDT September 14, 2006
UPDATED: 12:10 pm EDT September 14, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. -- The Durham Police Department is expected to hold a news conference at 2 p.m. in regard to an internal investigation involving two police officers charged with assaulting a man outside a Raleigh sports bar.
Sources tell WRAL that the officers involved will be terminated.
Rene Dennis Thomas, a 29-year-old cook at Blinco's on Glenwood Avenue, told authorities that he exchanged racial slurs with at least one man that was later to determined to be an officer in the parking lot of the restaurant and was assaulted. The alleged incident happened in late July.
Four Durham police officers were initially placed on administrative leave, and the Durham Police Department launched an internal investigation.
The men had gathered at the bar, sources said, for a going-away party for the sixth man. He had resigned from the department prior to the incident in question.
BTW: thanks for the setup.
And what happens when they get to court and the Thomas says they are the wrong guys?
I don't think we've heard the end from Thomas.
I hope he has a good attorney.
Wonder if the fired cops will rat out the bald cop.
City ready to give out development grants
By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
Sep 13, 2006 : 10:29 pm ET
DURHAM -- City officials are poised to award four groups -- among them Mayor Bill Bell's employer -- $412,428 in revitalization grants it is hoped will promote new development in several downtrodden parts of Durham.
Administrators from the Office of Economic and Workforce Development briefed elected officials on the grants last week, and intend to ask them for an approval vote Monday.
The largest of the four grants -- $186,107 -- would go to the UDI Community Development Corp., a nonprofit that has orchestrated a variety of development and work force-training initiatives over the years. Bell is the group's chief operating officer.
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-769556.html
** No conflict of interest here. The mayor had the city attorneys fix that. His boss at UDI is the former chairman of the board of trustees at NCCU. Real cozy downtown. UDI has a long history of pissing away many millions of taxpayer's dollars with little to show for it. Great management. The mayor is described as a former senior engineer at IBM in RTP. We always wondered what if anything he ever engineered besides sweet deals. His expertise has certainly not helped the city with all it's computer problems. We also wonder how a kid in the city attorney's office became city manager. You would think a professional should fill that job.
Thanks for the post.
Who else is involved in the UDI group?
"The largest of the four grants -- $186,107 -- would go to the UDI Community Development Corp., a nonprofit that has orchestrated a variety of development and work force-training initiatives over the years. Bell is the group's chief operating officer."
So Mayor Bell gets a nice addition to his salary. . . this is so blatant it is almost ludicrous.
If there were not a lapdog press in Durham, there would be a major expose and a Pulitzer waiting. . .
A while ago I have attempted to research UDI Community Development Corp., a nonprofit ... no luck.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:qUP3glqZEcQJ:www.durhamnc.gov/agendas/minutes/cc_minutes_02_16_04.pdf+UDI+bell+durham&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=10&client=firefox-a
This public disclosure is in connection with the request by the City of Durham to
the Department of Housing and Urban Development to be allowed to enter into a
contract between the City of Durham and UDI, CDC a nonprofit corporation to
purchase two existing town homes from the City that are a part of the Mangum
Court Housing Community for the purpose of rehabilitating the homes for sale to
low-moderate families.
You have to wonder about how brazen or stupid they are to be doing this while many around the country have the entire Durham power elite under the microscope.
Good point. If "taking the fall" consisted of a reprimand then they might cover for the "bald cop". Losing their jobs is something else entirely.
Older article re: UDI
The News & Observer
November 21, 1998
Nonprofit gets job-finding cash
Author: ELIZABETH WELLINGTON; STAFF WRITER
Edition: Final
Section: News
Page: B5
Index Terms:
U. S. Department of Labor
employment
aid
UDI Community
Estimated printed pages: 2
Article Text:
DURHAM -- A nonprofit community development corporation was awarded $3.7 million Friday from the U.S. Department of Labor to help welfare recipients find jobs.
UDI Community Development Corp. was one of 75 operations nationwide to receive a chunk of the federal money, which totaled $273 million and was announced by U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman at a news conference in Washington. Durham county and city officials dialed into the conference.
The $273 million from Friday's grant is part of $3 billion appropriated by Congress for the 2-year-old Welfare to Work program designed to put an end to welfare.
"This is altering welfare as we know it," Herman said.
UDI, a 24-year-old nonprofit, routinely seeks federal and local dollars to build low-income housing and provide job training for residents in the county's most blighted areas. The agency serves 16,000 low-income residents.
This was the second time UDI had applied for the grant. The first time was in March, but the organization was turned down.
The nonprofit has earmarked the new money, which it will receive over two years, to form partnerships with city and county officials, the Durham Chamber of Commerce and local businesses to help people who are the hardest to employ find jobs.
With the money, UDI will be able to offer computer training and training on construction sites, two of the areas with the highest job demand.
"We think this is a way for us to expand our offerings," said Ed Stewart, executive director of UDI. "We have a lot under way, and if people want to work, they will be able to."
Stewart said 400 Durham residents can be placed in the "hard to employ" category. Nearly 2,000 Durham residents are a part of the county's Work First program.
Recipients of the grant will receive the money in January. Stewart said his nonprofit hasn't identified the first beneficiaries yet, but the grant is still good news for Durham resident Audrey Brown, who is the kind of candidate who will be eligible for the training.
Brown, 48, is on public assistance and works on and off. She has job skills, such as being able to type 50 words a minute, and she has her high school diploma. But Brown is the mother of a 5-year-old son who was born prematurely and will have lifelong complications.
Brown said she can't keep a job because her son requires around-the-clock care. If she worked, she said, she would only have money to pay for her son's care and rent.
"How am I supposed to eat?" Brown said from her home Friday afternoon. "I am very excited. Maybe this will be a way out. Every day I have to figure out how I am going to make a living with a sick child. Maybe this will help people like me.
Copyright 1998 by The News & Observer Pub. Co.
Record Number: 1998324033
http://www.prattcenter.net/cdc-udicdc.php
United Durham, Inc. Community Development Corp. (UDI/CDC), Durham, NC
http://www.nccu.edu/administration/trustees.shtml
NCCU's Board Of Trustees
Mr. R. Edward Stewart
UDI Community Development Corp.
Post Office Box 1349
Durham , NC 27707
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:NhS7RS_pa20J:www.ci.durham.nc.us/agendas/minutes/cc_minutes_03_01_04.pdf+udi+stewart+durham+bell&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2&client=firefox-a
City Manager Conner reported the conflict is under the federal guidelines regarding the
use of federal funds and the City would have to disclose the relationship of Ms. Bodison
being a board member of UDI of which the Mayor is an employee. The Manager noted
in order to avoid a conflict she is recommending that CDBG funds not be used, but to
change the funding source to Housing Bond funds. Also, she stated this issue has been in
discussion with the regional HUD office in terms of the recommendation on the
appropriate way to handle this matter.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:_V_z3blnTc0J:www.ci.durham.nc.us/agendas/minutes/cc_minutes_04_19_04.pdf+udi+stewart+durham+bell+Bodison&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2&client=firefox-a
We ought to press for a congressional oversight investigation of where our tax money has been going--
Tanner is actually the bald one, it seems.
It looks like he is bald like Gottlieb, except Tanner has recently shaved his noggin to appear totally bald.
What a joke. Why would these guys help cover up for Gottlieb? It's like - oh yeah, sure, fire me, no problem. Anything for the Sarge.
There was probably some kind of "deal" made about this. What a cesspool.
KC Johnson deserves a Pulitzer Prize, not NYT
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/gaynor/060914
Two Durham police officers fired
http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/486133.html
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