Dallas police reject investigative offer
Posted on 07/29/2002 6:01:03 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Dallas police reject investigative offer
Daughters mad group can't review homicide; Rangers to study case
07/29/2002
The Dallas Police Department has rejected a crime-solving group's offer to review a nearly two-decade-old unsolved homicide.
The department's decision has infuriated three daughters of slain Carrollton insurance agent Thomas Clancy Sr. The daughters had sought assistance from the private Philadelphia-based Vidocq Society.
"If ... [the police] wanted to, they could have found a way to do it," said Janie Williams, a daughter who lives in Dallas.
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But the daughters said they were heartened by news that the department has agreed to open its case file to the Texas Rangers' Unsolved Crimes Investigation Team.
Deputy Chief Zackary Belton of the Dallas Police Department said the city's attorneys have advised that presenting the case to a private organization such as Vidocq would result in the case becoming an open record and require the department to release its file to anyone who wanted it.
"There is some information that we don't want the public to know," Chief Belton said. "Once we release the file, anybody can come in and get everything we've got. We have no problem working with other police agencies."
A Southern Methodist University adjunct law professor said a 1991 attorney general's opinion found that if a governmental agency voluntarily releases all or part of its records, those records must be made available to the public.
Although the opinion did not specifically address police investigations, Dallas police are "probably acting out of an abundance of caution," said Tim Brightman, a McKinney lawyer.
But he said he believes that if police want to work with Vidocq, the department could argue that releasing the information to the group would be "in furtherance of the investigation" and would not constitute a waiver of investigative privilege.
The department also could seek an attorney general's opinion on whether the use of Vidocq constitutes a waiver of investigative privilege, he said.
Another of Mr. Clancy's daughters, Anita Clancy, said she believes Dallas police are simply looking for excuses to not release the file to Vidocq Society.
"It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," she said.
Vidocq Society, an organization of law-enforcement and forensic professionals, has helped other police agencies solve difficult cases, including a Lubbock slaying in which a body was never found.
Mr. Clancy, a 60-year-old World War II veteran, had been missing for several days when his body was found Nov. 15, 1983. He had been shot in the head and his body was stuffed in the trunk of his car at a Dallas hotel.
Mr. Clancy's daughters said they have no faith in the ability of Dallas police to investigate their father's death.
"I don't think they have the time or the manpower, and I think no one has the motivation," Mrs. Williams said.
Police officials have defended the work of previous detectives, saying that a lack of evidence has hindered the case.
Lt. David Elliston, head of the homicide unit, said he had spoken with the Texas Rangers about examining the Clancy case.
"If we determine through that re-evaluation of the case that there's something that needs to be done, we will take action," Lt. Elliston said. "We're going to do everything within our power to solve our case."
Texas Rangers Lt. Gerardo De Los Santos said his unit was created to assist local agencies in investigating unsolved slayings and other major felonies.
He commands a San Antonio-based unit of four detectives and a profiler.
"We have the luxury of concentrating our efforts on these types of crimes only," Lt. De Los Santos said. "You never know what you're going to find when you go out and beat the bushes."
E-mail teiserer@dallasnews.com
The Dallas Police have a monopoly. They're obviously more concerned about their monopoly, their own power and fear of being "embarassed". A word to Dallas PD, it's NOT about you! It's about finding a bloody murderer.
The murderer's badge number, for instance....
I don't expect that the Secret Service will allow such a brutal interrogation of the Ranger's suspects in the crime....
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