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.
The car was reported after the fifth sniper murder, that of the Haitian man in D.C. the second day of the murders. But now it turns out a similar car was reported after the first shooting, the one that broke a window without killing anyone.
Not at all. But some are not only filthy criminals themselves, but are so sloppy at it that it becomes obvious to the general public, and those idiots have to be made examples. Most of the rest will go along with the coverups and *blue wall of silence* so long as they get their cut of the action, or at least continue receiving the perks, freebies and immunities from obeying the laws they enforce on others.
Gee, four are on death row. Out of how many thousands that serve and protect us?
I'd hope the one in Louisiana who murdered her partner and the owners of the restaurant she robbed but overlooked one child witness she forget to kill with her other victims was an exception. But who can better pull off a murder and get away with it, and who is better able to cut a deal with the prosecution for a lesser charge?
Well, fellow Freepers, looks like archy has a revelation for all of us: Police officers are human beings and sometimes do bad things!!!
Like murder people and rape children. And cover up for their fellow criminals in blue who continue to do so, much less the ones with their fingers and noses in the drug rackets, too numerous to count.
Gosh, we better indict all cops now!!!
Nah, just keep an eye on them, and get rid of the ones that need it as we can, treating them the same as any other criminals.
Go back to DU...
Sorry, I don't even hunt ducks since my last birddog died.
-archy-/-
Was she driving a white van?
And remember even Bill and Hil got paid to write books about things they couldn't remember while they were in office.
No they don't, they earn it just like everyone else.
That sounds like a start. But actually, the best thing would be if somebody sued the city for failing to provide protection, or found some other way to sue them, since cities and city agencies are notoriously hard to sue.
The only thing that talks to the bureaucracy is money. If cities lose money for hiring and promoting people like Moose (and I suspect he was racially motivated - there was some similar incident in Portland, if I recall correctly), they'll get the message.
Moose's hiding of the facts cost the lives of black people, as well. Antics like his benefit nobody in this society except the criminals.
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