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.

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/487753.html
Police OK'd Duke crackdown
Durham chief says an officer tough on Duke students was part of an effort to fight rowdy parties

Michael Biesecker, Staff Writer
DURHAM - Durham's police chief says one of his officers was just doing his job last year when he aggressively cracked down on partying college students in the city's Trinity Park neighborhood.

The record of arrests made by Sgt. Mark Gottlieb, who supervised the investigation that led to the arrest of three Duke University lacrosse players on rape charges, is being closely scrutinized by defense attorneys.

About a month before the March 13 team party during which an escort service dancer says she was attacked, Gottlieb changed jobs from a position supervising patrol officers in police District 2, an area that includes Trinity Park.

An article in the Sept. 9 issue of The News & Observer recounted that Gottlieb had arrested at least 20 Duke students during his time in District 2, a number that appears disproportionate compared with three other patrol sergeants working in the same area at the same time.

Court records show Gottlieb arrested many of those students and took them to jail on misdemeanor charges, such as possession of an open container of alcohol and violating the city's noise ordinance. Meanwhile, some nonstudents intercepted by Gottlieb were not arrested, but instead were written citations similar to a speeding ticket on seemingly more serious charges such as possession of marijuana and a concealed firearm.

Police Chief Steve Chalmers declined to be interviewed about Gottlieb before publication of the Sept. 9 article, but he said Thursday that the record must be put in the context of his department's wider efforts to combat student drinking and partying at rented houses in Trinity Park.

Fed-up residents in the neighborhood had requested "zero tolerance" enforcement of alcohol and noise violations by police, and in August 2005 one of Gottlieb's supervisors, Capt. Ed Sarvis, sent a letter to known party houses warning students they risked arrest if the rowdy behavior persisted.

The police chief said officers patrolling Trinity Park were specifically instructed to arrest problem students rather than cite them. Gottlieb not only was carrying out those directions, Chalmers said, but was likely to have made more arrests than other officers because he volunteered to work extra shifts patrolling areas near Duke's campus.

"Most sergeants don't make many arrests at all, but Mark is a hands-on supervisor," Chalmers said. "He was doing his job. He was just doing it more aggressively than some others. That doesn't mean he was wrong."

Before the publication of the Sept. 9 article on Gottlieb, N&O reporters repeatedly asked city and police officials whether Gottlieb was following orders in treating Duke students more aggressively than others. Chalmers said he declined to talk because he has generally avoided commenting on anything related to the lacrosse case. He said he discussed the issue with City Manager Patrick Baker and deferred to him.

In an interview Sept. 8, Baker said cracking down on the partying was an enforcement priority but that "to his knowledge" Gottlieb was not under any specific direction to treat Duke students differently. Baker also made no mention of Sarvis' letter warning the students they might be arrested.

Baker clarified Friday that he was simply not aware of the additional information.

On Monday, Duke's campus newspaper, The Chronicle, published an article that included comments from students and former students about their treatment when arrested by Gottlieb.

Urosh Tomovich recounted how Gottlieb and officers raided his house at 3 a.m. after a party, pulling him and his roommates out of their beds, handcuffing them and dragging them downstairs. Charged with violating the noise ordinance and having an open container of alcohol, Tomovich said he was taken to a room and questioned by Gottlieb, who then threatened to have him deported. Tomovich, then 21, is a U.S. citizen.

Andrea Brezing, another Duke student who is 21, recounted how she and her roommate were arrested for an alcohol violation and locked in a holding cell until the next morning with a woman whose clothes were covered in blood.

Tomovich, as well as several other students, were reached by The N&O over the past month but declined to be interviewed about Gottlieb. Attempts to reach Brezing were unsuccessful.

Chalmers said Thursday that he had read The Chronicle story but didn't see any reason to change his opinion that Gottlieb is a good officer. "If what they say is the truth," the police chief said of the students, "then they should have filed a complaint."
Staff writer Michael Biesecker can be reached at 956-2421 or mbieseck@newsobserver.com.

http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsletters/
Chalmers jumped the gun in firing two officers

Does anyone believe in innocent until proven guilty anymore? Being charged with misdemeanor assault does not constitute guilt. Police Chief Steve Chalmers has fired two officers for breaking the law and doing things that brought "embarrassment and negative attention" to the police force. That has not been proven yet. I understand that the cook involved was fired from his job at the restaurant where the alleged incident took place. I remember reading about other Durham officers who have been found guilty of spousal abuse and are still working at the department and are on the streets.

Which laws do Chalmers think merit firing and which ones are overlooked? I hope the new recruits and trainees are given lists of which laws they can be accused of breaking which will get them fired and which ones they can break and still keep their jobs.

The two officers, Scott Tanner and Gary Lee, should be reinstated until they are convicted or exonerated.

SHIRLEY ELLIS
Durham
September 18, 2006

Thanks, Durham police

I hope that the Durham police officers who arrested Duke students for noise and alcohol violations in the autumn of 2005 realize how grateful most of us in Trinity Park are to them.

Their actions gave us the hope that we might once again have a peaceful, family neighborhood in which to live.

And we hope that these officers or their successors will also remember that every September brings a new crop of students who want to live off-campus and who appear never to learn from the experiences of their predecessors.

Please, Durham Police Department, continue to defend our neighborhood.

ELGIN W. MELLOWN
Durham
September 18, 2006

http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/gaynor/060917
Come forward, Crystal; carry on, Cash

You know, I have not chosen to respond to your ignorance since you revealed you know nothing about academics and sports a few weeks back. But I will this one time since you addressed me on this issue.

Arrest records are forever. They can limit what you can do in life. That is why in every reasonable jurisdiction and particularly in college towns the police try to bend over backwards not to unnecessarily arrest college students for just the types of things these students are being targetted for. The police most places do not want to give someone trying to make something of their life an arrest record. The police every where else arrest losers who are not going any place in the life more readily because the cost to the arrestee is far less.

Now that fact that you have, as you revealed in your foolish rant about athlete admission at Duke, a sophmoric idylic view of Duke has nothing to do with the growups here discussing this case. A couple of decades ago, I hypothesized that the strain of liberalism associated with dicrimminating against males and in favor of females would not last because women have a propensity to produce sons. I still think that is basically true, but certainly a segment of the Duke families are such stupid liberals that they are willing to sacrifice their sons in the name of liberalism. And yes, I believe they are idiots.

College is about broadening your horizons and openning doors for people. Duke is apparently indifferent to its students having doors slammed in their students faces due to Durham arrest records for trivial matters. It is great that you foolishly support your school no matter what. But for people who have children at Duke now or are considering Duke this a reality.

I personally had no problem with Duke until it became clear Duke was willing to take people's money but sacrifice their children's futures. It really is not Duke, but rather the Duke administration and faculty. To bad you know so little about academics that you can not separate Duke, basketball or whatever sport you are a fan of and this issue.

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