Posted on 04/09/2003 11:57:42 AM PDT by Prince Charles
Police union probes Moose
Special panel to investigate why chief withheld suspect, vehicle descriptions
Posted: April 9, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Paul Sperry © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The police union here has formed a special committee to investigate Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose's handling of look-out information during the Beltway sniper manhunt, union officials told WorldNetDaily.
Officials complain that Moose, who led the multi-agency sniper investigation, withheld critical information about the sniper suspects from investigators and patrol officers, thereby jeopardizing their safety.
Chief Charles Moose
In their recently inked labor contract, the county agreed to include a safety provision that obligates Moose to share information with his officers in such dangerous cases. Moose vehemently opposed the measure, officials say, arguing that it implied he had done something wrong.
But the 1,050-member Montgomery County Fraternal Order of Police isn't stopping there.
"We want to determine when management first knew the ID of the suspects and the vehicle" during the three-week manhunt, said FOP President Walter Bader.
The 10-member committee last month began soliciting testimony from detectives who worked on the sniper case, he says. It plans to report its findings publicly in May.
"This is a serious thing," Bader said, defending the union's plans to go public with details about the controversial investigation.
"Imagine over in Iraq commanding officers withholding information from soldiers that could mean the difference between life and death," he said in a WorldNetDaily interview. "Police officers are in a war every day."
John Lee Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo
Police department sources warn that the panel's report could trigger negligence lawsuits by families of some of the sniper victims, if it concludes Moose delayed the capture of sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo by holding back information about them, such as their physical descriptions.
Phone calls and e-mails to Moose's office and lawyer were not returned.
Sources say at least three detectives on the case have already come forward with information that reveals Moose had a solid ID of the suspects earlier than he claims. He says Muhammad and Malvo weren't suspects until Oct. 23, the day before they were caught.
They shot their last victim, bus driver Conrad Johnson, in Maryland on Oct. 22.
But as WorldNetDaily first revealed, Moose dispatched a team of five undercover agents to stake-out Muhammad's ex-wife's house on Oct. 22, and swore them to secrecy.
"There's no doubt Moose knew [they were the suspects] either the day the bus driver was shot or the day before," said a Montgomery County police officer.
Yet, up until late in the evening of Oct. 23, Moose and the sniper task force had investigators and patrol officers looking for a white suspect in a white vehicle.
"They should have known they were black from Day One, if they had listened to witnesses here and in D.C.," the officer said.
A witness to the first shooting at a Michaels crafts store in Maryland, which took place Oct. 2, described the suspects as two short-haired black males driving a dark, beat-up vehicle, as WND first reported.
Moose has parlayed his fame from the high-profile sniper case into book and movie contracts. Despite a county ethics panel ruling against the deals, his lawyer says he plans go ahead with at least the book.
Don't even try to tell me the press had nothing to do with it. His dumbass just rode the glorifying wave of the press and now he's gonna get called on it.
Actually this some of info was reported locally a few weeks after these scumbags were captured.
I'm soooo glad the FOP is going to do something about it.
Moose was fired from Portland. Does anyone know why?
Very possibly, he should be charged with conduct unbecoming of an officer and bringing dishonour and disrepute on his badge and that of the officers serving with him.
The sad part is, his political bosses can't conceive of such a thing. He's just like one of them.
-archy-/-
Thank God, I have asked this question since prior to the last 2 murders..I feared PC justice would reign..We shall see.
A FReeper from Portland had things to say about that at the time of the sniper furor. If I remember correctly, Moose was accused in Portland both of having an ungovernable temper and of behaving in a racist fashion towards a subordinate (a gay white police captain, if memory serves.)
Several of whom are killed by their fellow officers under less than honourable circumstances. And of course, at least four are on death row for crimes they've themselves committed, including premeditated murders, and it appears possible that the feds might be adding four from Miami to that list.
-archy-/-
OK, I can't figure this whole moose thing out. Can someone please explain, or is it some kind of club or something?
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