2 Durham officers charged with assault (Another DukeLax Coverup)

Durham HeraldSun ^ | July 28, 2006 | Ray Gronberg

[abb]

DURHAM -- Raleigh police have charged two Durham Police Department officers in connection with an incident that occurred July 20 outside a Glenwood Avenue sports bar.

The officers, Gary Powell Lee, 38, of 3588 Copper Creek Lane, Franklinton, and Scott Christian Tanner, 33, of 2516 Hiking Trail, Raleigh, both face counts of simple assault. Conviction on the misdemeanor carries with it, for someone with no prior offenses on their record, the possibility of a maximum 30-day jail sentence and a $1,000 fine.

Lee and Tanner are accused of assaulting Rene Dennis Thomas, a cook who works at Blinco's Sports Restaurant and Bar, 6711 Glenwood Ave., Raleigh. The charges stem from a parking-lot altercation that occurred late on July 20 as five current and two former Durham Police Department officers were leaving a going-away party for a departing officer.

A criminal summons issued Thursday alleged that Lee, a member of the department's Special Operations Division, tried to strike Thomas and tackled him, causing the cook to fall to the ground. A second summons alleged that Tanner, a motorcycle officer who works in the department's Traffic Services Unit, kicked Thomas in the head.

Thomas has told television reporters that as many as six men participated in the assault, which began with an exchange of racial slurs. But Raleigh Police Department spokesman Jim Sughrue said detectives in that city don't intend to charge anyone else in connection with the incident, or add later to the charges they've already filed.

"It's been extensively investigated, and we're confident that the responsible individuals have been charged," Sughrue said.

But Lee and Tanner -- and three of their colleagues -- could still face sanctions from the Durham Police Department. An internal investigation is continuing and should conclude in two to three weeks, Police Chief Steve Chalmers said at a news conference Thursday.

The Durham probe is focusing on a wider range of issues that include the alleged use of racial slurs. "The alleged conduct is something that is certainly deplorable to us, and something we don't want to be consistent in the way we operate and conduct ourselves," Chalmers said. "The entire allegation is disturbing."

Lee and Tanner had previously been restricted to administrative duties, and remain so. The other three officers in the case -- Sgt. Mark Gottlieb, Officer Richard Clayton and Officer James Griffin -- had also been restricted but on Thursday were allowed to resume their normal duties.

The decision doesn't mean the three have been cleared, but does indicate that based on "the facts we've already uncovered ... there's no reason we can't put these officers back on full duty," Chalmers said.

Asked later if that meant the three had played only a minor role in the incident, Chalmers said, "At least we can say it wasn't a major role."

All of the officers have the right to a lawyer's help, and two, Gottlieb and Lee, have retained the Durham firm of Clayton Myrick McClanahan & Coulter to represent them as the internal investigation and criminal case unfold.

A lawyer there, Allen Mason, confirmed Thursday that senior partner Jerry Clayton had spoken to Gottlieb and that another of his colleagues, former Assistant District Attorney Freda Black, had spoken to Lee.

One of the two former Durham officers involved in the case, James Kennedy, has also retained Clayton's firm and has talked with Mason. Kennedy is a former motorcycle officer who left the department late last year. The other former Durham officer who was present remains unidentified.

Asked if the lawyers and their clients would speak up to offer their version of what happened, Mason said there's "not a chance in the world" of that happening outside formal channels.

"We're not Duke lacrosse lawyers," Mason said alluding to the year's most highly publicized Durham Police Department case, one that Gottlieb and Richard Clayton, who's no relation to lawyer Jerry Clayton, have both worked on. "We don't practice that way. We don't comment about pending cases, we don't do interviews, we don't make statements."

The Raleigh charges were notable for the fact that they didn't address what Thomas has said was the first act of the confrontation, a move by one of the men involved to poke him in the shoulder with a finger. The charge against Lee addressed an act Thomas alleged was committed immediately afterward by a second man, and the charge against Tanner addressed something that happened after Thomas fell to the ground.

The shoulder poke was likely a criminal act under North Carolina law, given court decisions that have held "the merest unauthorized touching of another [person] is an assault," said Barry Winston, a criminal-defense lawyer in Chapel Hill.

A judge "who strictly interprets the law would, I suspect, hold that North Carolina law requires him to convict someone who walks up to someone and in an antagonistic fashion pokes that person with his finger," although that's "not what the average person thinks of as assault," Winston said.

Raleigh detectives filed Thursday's charges after consulting prosecutors in Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby's office, a move Sughrue said is standard in officer-involved cases. The spokesman declined to say why there wasn't a charge addressing the alleged shoulder-poke.

"Based on the investigation of the case, and facts present, it was determined that these two charges were the appropriate charges to bring," Sughrue said.

Thomas was surprised Thursday to hear that the charges involved the officers they did. "Lee and Tanner? Huh. OK. Check that again and call me back," he said before cutting off a brief interview. "I don't think you have the right guys."

The cook did not elaborate, and did not return a call placed to his cell phone late Thursday afternoon.

The Raleigh department's decision to issue a criminal summons for each of the officers, rather than an arrest warrant, saved Lee and Tanner an appearance before a magistrate and possibly the need to post bail to avoid detention. Sughrue said the officers didn't receive any special treatment.

"That is very typically the way a simple assault case is handled," he said. "That's very consistent with the way we'd handle the same case if the suspects had not been law enforcement officers."

Also routine was the Raleigh department's decision to assign detectives from its own internal-affairs unit to work the case. No matter what agency they work for, when police are "suspect in a case in Raleigh, the case is investigated by internal affairs," Sughrue said.

Elected officials said they're watching how the criminal case plays out.

Mayor Bill Bell said the allegations, if true, are unfortunate. "If in fact it did happen, I'd hope they'd be prosecuted to the fullest extent," he said.

City Councilman Eugene Brown agreed. "It's always problematic when you have those hired and paid for enforcing the law breaking the law," he said. "I want to withhold judgment, but so far, this is just embarrassing."

Lee has worked for the department since 1999. Tanner joined the force in 1997, and was recently the beneficiary of a department-organized fundraiser intended to help him and another officer pay for cancer treatments. He suffers from Hodgkin's

[JLS]

Nifong misleading the public AGAIN?!

Scum of the earth, isn't he? Is he going to stir up things enough to get Cheek plenty of votes?

[Hogeye13]

Have you ever heard of a smoke screen. That is very likely what Nifong's statement is.

[Hogeye13]

Correct, we don't know. Your red herring is equal to my smoke screen.

[GAgal]

The LieStopper folks have some good bumper sticker ideas. Could we help them by offering others here?

http://www.liestoppers.blogspot.com/

[abb]

"Come Get Some"

Vote Anybody but Nifong.

[Hogeye13]

Thanks Jane. For someone that jenny thinks didn't want to run in the first place, Cheek sure took a long time figuring it out. I could have made the same decision he did before they ever wrote a petition. I think that there was a circumstance that would have caused him to keep his hat in the ring. A compromise was reached that he felt comfortable with and he stepped out. All of this did not require a meeting between the two principal parties.

[jennyd]

Oh give me a break.
It's rather obvious to me Cheek's decision not to run had nothing to do with a special designation for the case.
They last met on March 3rd, before the lacrosse party.
Yet Nifong still tried to blame Cheek for attempting to influence the DA's office.
If Cheek ever brought up anything regarding Duke's case, Nifong probably would have had him arrested.

[Hogeye13]

That is a good one abb.

[jennyd]

What compromise? Is this a joke? Cheek said he would appoint a special prosecutor. Having this case go to trial, just faster, hardly seems like a compromise to me.

[jennyd]

They make a deal, and then Nifong publicly accuses Cheek of influencing DA's office?
As a red herring?
I think bigfoot's theory is more plausible.

[JLS]

Using that logic, Nifong made a secret deal with Cheek,

Yep this part could be true.

and then publicly accused Cheek of trying to influence DA's office.

That's kind of funny, actually.

Yeah apparently Nifong can not help himself. He is either a compulsive liar/miss leader or he learns very very slowly.

I am agnostic about the possibility of a deal. I could see it more of a deal that Cheeks would not run if this embarrassment were in the hands of an out of Durham judge who would rule quickly on the admissibility of the ID, but with no promise on how the judge would rule. I guess Nifong might have promised to dismiss if the IDs were tossed.

[TommyDale]

"They last met on March 3rd, before the lacrosse party."

Gee, I guess they don't ever use email, telephones or courier? Why would they even RISK being seen together, if they had planned this? This was a setup and a deal was made, plain and simple.

[jennyd]

Cheek never even said he would run. I don't think he ever wanted to. He was talked into the petition drive, but he never really agreed to run. And then he decided not to run. I think it's just as simple as that, actually.

[jennyd]

Believe what you want. Like I said, I find bigfoot's theory much more plausible.

[TommyDale]

What is bigfoot's theory? Link?

[JLS]

You are right, Cheek never said he would run, Cheek never wanted to run, but he apparently felt it was necessary that someone collect the signatures to get on the ballot this fall against Nifong. He did but now says he will not campaign.

So we are left with WHY and have at least four to me equally plausible answers:

1. Cheek was in on it with Nifong to keep Monks off the ballot. All along this was a plot to help Nifong.

2. Cheek felt there was a need to run for someone to run against Nifong to stop the damage being done to Durham. But now something has changed and so he has decided not to run. Now the only hint of a change we have gotten is a newspaper report of this deal to take the case out of the Durham case management system.

3. Cheek felt the need for someone to run against Nifong but after collecting the signatures ultimately decided he could not do it.

4. Cheek felt the need for someone to run against Nifong and has decided to do so. Cheek could have just decided that a rope-a-dope strategy is the right one here. By announcing he is not running, the pro-Nifong vote will be complacent but the anti-Nifong vote will still turn out and do what Cheek said he was doing and vote for Cheek. [Whether he would follow through and not accept the post or whether he would reverse his announced decision matters little different in this strategy.]

As for the lie/redherring. I seriously believe Nifong is pathological and can not help himself. So he can not help taking a shot at Cheek will doing what he has been forced into doing.

[abb]

JLS, one other theory is that Cheek sincerely wanted to run, but was "sent a message" from the CourtHouse Crowd that it wouldn't be in his best interests to do so if he wanted to remain healthy...

[jennyd]

I think this theory is much more plausible. He could have been scared into not running.

[TommyDale]

Well, we might agree on this one. This is the other reason he might have been "convinced" to not run. Thr Durham Mafia.

[jennyd]

My theory is-Cheek never really wanted to run, but was talked into it.
He never said he would run. Since he never really wanted to run, he decided not to run in the end.
He could have also been scared into not running, and since he never really wanted to do it in a first place, the easiest way was not to run.
A special designation for the case came about some other way, not through Cheek.