Posted on 12/01/2001 11:51:14 AM PST by Attila_the_Hun
Dispatcher ignored 911 call about kidnapping
A woman was abducted from a N.J. train station and killed. Police say the operator failed to act when a witness called.
By Dwight Ott and Maureen Graham INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
The night that Christine Lynn Eberle was abducted and murdered, Camden police dispatchers received a 911 call reporting an emergency and asking for help at the Ferry Avenue station of the PATCO High-Speed Line.
But the information was never relayed to officers on patrol, according to police, and within hours Eberle was dead.
Last night, a 20-year veteran dispatcher with the Camden police was suspended without pay for failing to pass on the caller's information.
The dispatcher, identified as Marie H. Cupparo, 69, of Camden, did not respond to a request for comment left on her answering machine, and no one answered the door at her home last night.
Police Chief Robert E. Allenbach said that he suspended Cupparo for "failing to take action on information supplied in a 911 call."
Eberle, 27, a Center City office worker, was on her way home to Washington Township when she was abducted about 8 p.m. on Nov. 12 in the 1,200-space parking lot. Her body was found the following night about three miles away in a wooded area.
Two Camden men are facing murder charges in the case.
According to investigators, the caller telephoned police from his car in the PATCO lot to say that he saw a woman struggling with two men. The caller, whom police would not identify, said a woman was screaming as she was being dragged into a car. The man followed the abductors' car through the parking lot and then lost sight of it, investigators said. All the while he was on the phone with police dispatch, they said.
The dispatcher dismissed the incident as a domestic dispute and never relayed the information to patrol officers, according to investigators.
Camden County Prosecutor Lee A. Solomon said his office was actively investigating the lapse.
"If anybody failed to take action or acted in any way to contribute to what happened to Christine Eberle, there will be hell to pay," Solomon said.
A transcript of the 911 tape was not available last night.
Allenbach said the Camden Police Department would release a full account of the incident next week.
"I assure that the Camden Police Department Internal Affairs Office and myself will investigate this matter to the fullest," Allenbach said.
This comes as Allenbach is fighting to keep his job as police chief. The city's mayor, Gwendolyn Faison, has refused to sign a new contract with him. But Allenbach has many supporters and allies, among them Solomon, who said he would investigate how the information was leaked and whether word about the 911 lapse was leaked to discredit the Police Department.
"If this was leaked for political purposes, or to gain a political advantage, it is reprehensible," Solomon said.
Eberle's mother, Linda Reis, said earlier yesterday that she had not been told of the 911 call.
Eberle was a financial manager at Delaware Investments in Center City and was engaged to be married in April.
When she did not come home from work that night, her fiance went looking for her. He found her 2002 Ford Explorer in the PATCO lot about 1 a.m., but it was not there when he returned about 5 a.m. That morning he filed a missing-person report with the Washington Township police.
Later that day, suspect Ryshaone H. Thomas, 23, of Camden, was spotted driving the Explorer and was arrested. That night, Eberle's beaten body was found in a wooded area in the Fairview section of Camden, not far from where Thomas lived with his grandmother. Police said she had died warding off a sexual assault.
The second suspect, Marcus D. Toliver, 22, was arrested Nov. 16. Both are being held in the Camden County Jail on $1 million bail.
Gee... I wonder who he voted for in the 2000 election?
Yeah, that's the real scandal here. How about charging
the dispatcher with accessory to murder?
And just blaming the dispatcher isn't right either... She's probably a product of that police department's overall "FU" attitude to the public that they "protect and serve."
Anybody want to bet that this is another unreported black on white hate crime?
Citizens shoot and kill at least twice as many criminals as police do every year (1,527 to 606).
Kleck, Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America, (1991):111-116, 148.
In 1966-67, the media highly publicized a safety course which taught Orlando women how to use guns. The result: Orlando's rape rate dropped 88% in 1967, whereas the rape rate remained constant in the rest of Florida and the nation.
Kleck, 'Crime Control,' at 13.
Courtesy of gunfacts.org
That's odd...what I personally find reprehensible is the actions of this dispatcher playing cop. I guess the public has no right to know about this, Mr. Solomon. And would the dispatcher even have been disciplined it the story didn't come out? Somehow I doubt it.
The names of the criminals are black names and Christine is a common white name. I have never depended upon the cops to protect me. That is why I have a concealed pistol permit.
The next morning I awoke to a great deal of commotion in the park. Seems an early morning jogger found the body of a man who had committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
Citizens in 44 states Do not fear Gun Owners who Citizen Carry (CC).
In 1986 only eight (8) states allow citizen carry (CC) and crime was on the rise. In the year 2001, 42 states now have CC laws on the books and crime continues to drop. Researchers to the self-defense issue, has noticed crime begin dropping immediately after enactment in each state and showed up four - five years before the Brady law. Our Indiana neighbor has issued 350,000 CC permits and zero (0) has been revoked for a firearms homicide. In these states Police Chiefs are pleasantly surprised in the quality of the applicant.
There are 21 times more (est. 2,500,000) CC owners than street policeman (120,000) in the United States. Policemen killed 330 innocent citizens in 1996 and CCers (30). Statistically you are 300 times more likely to be innocently shot by a policeman than a CC owner. Sidebar: 700,000 Doctors kill by mistake 90,000 people annually in our nation. Our hearts should go out to each and every family and our heads need to be crystal clear on this issue. Also Citizen Carry citizens commit less crime that even Police officers as a statistical group.
Women are the fastest growing group of gun owners in the United States. Dial 911 and Die is real with 911 response times from 5 to 30 minutes. Police only stop 4% in the act violent crime. What logic would as representative suggest to a woman to talk down the rapist with AIDS or HIV or STD? 10 minutes is a long time. Get your watch and start talking. Do GG (Gun Grabbers) honestly think the rapist will use a condom? Women should be outraged at the GG for forcing such defenseless thinking. Did you know most rapes last from 2 to 4 hours.
Question? Why do you think, judges, probation officers, bail bondman, attorneys and social workers are given the right to CC or decide to carry illegally? If you ask they will tell you, they are dealing bad guys everyday and know the mindset of these early release felons.
Bad guys will always have guns. It is dumb and dumber to believe America is safer by taking away firearms from honest American Citizens or to make felons. Anti gun groups and faulty ordinances in Chicago land are doing just the opposite providing gun free zones for criminals to operate in.
Most all State Statues are written to protect the general public not the individual. It is the individuals responsibility to protect themselves and their families at home and away from home.
Road Rage: It is a myth that CC owners kill cops, or citizens with Road Rage. In the United States over the last twenty years only two (2) known road rage shootings have occurred. Believe me if Road Rage shootings were a problem, the Gun Grabbers (GGers), would let us know. One case, after a car accident in TX, the driver begins to punch the man in the face, breaking his eye socket, nose. Profusely bleeding from the face and fearing for his life, the 65 yr old driver pulled his gun and shot the road raged driver saving his life.
· My personal thoughts: Every solid citizen who elects to CC carrys a tremendous burden. This burden is to stay legal, or be charged with a felony or at least a grand jury indictment, should they ever break one of 25,000 gun laws or kill an attacking criminal. We have plenty of criminal laws to put them away for life should any CCer turn to the dark side. · Jesus in the Bible was smart enough to cast blame on Cain for killing Abel, not blame the stone. Those who believe the GG fear spinners need to wake up. · One final closing thought, Christian religions and other religions teach the need to protect ones self. Jesus said in Luke 22:36 30 He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. The sword was the finest weapon outside of the home of its time, far better than rocks, clubs, and stones.
PS Michigan CC red herring http://www.townhall.com/columnists/stevechapman/sc20010628.shtml
Department of Justice, FBI, CIA, statistics and facts http://members.home.com/guys/GunFacts.pdf
Aw, you know that "hate crimes" only happen when the perp is white. I bet their lawyers will be blaming it on the "racist" woman for resisting their amorous advances.
Which is why only the police should have guns.< /gun grabber logic>
Now that their funding is increased, the FBI is getting better at developing the intelligence necessary to prevent actions by groups, but they are not very good at preventing individuals from taking such action.
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