documents: 96

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rowid	docid	page_count	pdf_db_path	pdf_db_id	pdf_db_content_hash	txt_db_path	txt_db_id	txt_db_content_hash	hrg_type	year	month	day	dt_source	hrg_no	accused	matched_uid	hrg_text	title	agency
96	1f6e9bcf	6	/PPACT/meeting-minutes-extraction/export/pdf/1f6e9bcf.pdf	id:8ceKnrnmgi0AAAAAAAAqog	aca5acb0b8c9fc08a12e049560bdfc2e45799159a5201b1850288625a1d5d528	/PPACT/meeting-minutes-extraction/export/txt/1f6e9bcf.txt	id:8ceKnrnmgi0AAAAAAAAr7A	31a80c9d08668f0ebc64c8297fc5dd4d874946601e850e771feaed8e35a1343c	unknown	2002	3	21	scraped	1	EDWARD COULTER	57eb3d577bf43e83ae10625c2a561491	APPEAL HEARING FOR EDWARD COULTER (5 Day Suspension) Attorney for Edward Coulter is Michael Walsh. Mr. Lotwick introduced four exhibits BRPD 1 - 4. Sgt. Darryl Rice Sgt. Rice has been a liaison officer for the District Attorney’s office for the last seven years. He corrects files that are submitted to the District Attorney’s office for prosecution. His job involves getting officers to court and getting officers away from 2 court if they are not needed. He gathers evidence and works with investigators. His job entails court orders for evidence destruction. He works with all divisions of criminal court. On 01/02/01, he was asked for assistance in a preliminary investigation. Sgt. Williams (the court liaison) called and was trying to locate Corporal Coulter. The allegation that had been made was that the arresting officer had taken money during a traffic ticketing stop. Sgt. Rice stated that Corporal Coulter had not shown up for a previous case (a murder case). Corporal Coulter had received a subpoena. When Set. Rice contacted him, Corporal Coulter had told him he was on restricted duty and that he did not have to go to court. Corporal Coulter used a lot of profanity. Sgt. Rice gave him a direct order to come to court. Sgt. Rice told Corporal Coulter that he would ask for a bench warrant for his arrest. Sgt. Rice told Corporal Coulter that he would write a letter to his superior. Sgt. Rice stated insubordination to a senior officer in his letter to Chief Phares regarding these events. The case was reassigned due to Corporal Coulter not appearing. BRPD #1 - The letter written by Sgt. Rice describing the events that happened when Sgt. Rice contacted Corporal Coulter and told him he needed to come to court. BRPD #2 - The first page is a court subpoena from Judge Kelly set for ¥4/01. The officer was served at the place of employment. The second page is a record of when the subpoena was received by Corporal Coulter. It shows that Corporal Coulter worked at and District on shift one. The officer signs and dates when he receives the subpoena. The third page is a court order for a bench warrant arrest for Corporal Coulter for failure to appear. The fourth page is the court minutes from that day. The state moved to reassign the case for April. Mr. Walsh asked Sgt. Rice what the current status of the case was to which Corporal Coulter had been subpoenaed and Sgt. Rice stated that the case had been dismissed at the victim’s request. The District Attorney had dropped the case at the victim’s request. When asked what the status of the allegation of Corporal Coulter taking $900, Sgt. Rice stated that he does not know. Sgt. Rice stated that Corporal Coulter told him he was at home when Sgt. Rice called him on the phone. Chief Englade Chief of Police since 1/18/01 Chief Englade stated that this matter was pending when he became Chief. He discussed the matter with Sgt. Rice and he received a report from Internal Affairs. He wrote a pre- disciplinary hearing letter dated 2/16/01 and a pre-disciplinary hearing was held 2/23/01. He suspended Corporal Coulter for 5 days (Letter of 4/6/01 which stated department violations and state civil service law violations). He expects police officers to appear in court when they are subpoenaed. He feels that Corporal Coulter was unprofessional in the manner in which he handled himself with a superior officer. 3 Chief Englade stated that there were mechanisms in place which Corporal Coulter could have used to inform the court that he was sick and could not appear. Chief Englade checked Corporal Coulter’s prior disciplinary actions and found that Corporal Coulter had been given a three day suspension previously for not appearing in court for which he had been subpoenaed and had been found guilty of contempt of court. Michael Walsh asked Chief Englade if he would be surprised to find out that Corporal Coulter was not even the arresting officer and Chief Englade stated that he would be surprised if that were true. Chief Englade stated that if this were true, then Corporal Coulter should have notified someone if he had been subpoenaed in a case that he was not involved in. Chief Englade stated that he did not issue the subpoena and he cannot release officers from subpoenas. Mr. Walsh produced a letter from Dr. Banks listing 13 drugs which Corporal Coulter was taking during the time that he had been subpoenaed. Mr. Walsh also questioned Chief Englade about where Corporal Coulter had said that he was when he received the call from Sgt. Rice. Chief Englade only recalled that he was on a cell phone. Chief Englade also testified that he was unaware of the circumstances of the first incident. He also stated that he did not know that Sgt. Rice and Corporal Coulter had problems in the past, but he did know that Corporal Coulter had gotten a three day suspension for not honoring a subpoena. Chief Englade stated that Corporal Coulter had a subpoena to go to court. He did not appear. Sgt. Rice gave him a direct order to appear in court. Chief Englade stated that he gets calls from judges about twice a week; he notified police officers and tries to locate them and get them to court. A bench warrant was issued. Corporal Coulter had been informed to be in court. Internal Affairs did investigation on relationship between Sgt. Rice and Corporal Coulter. Internal Affairs only reports facts to Chief. The Chief makes the decision on disciplinary action. Mr. Walsh asked if Corporal Coulter had told Sgt. Rice that he was at the doctor’s office, couldn’t Sgt. Rice have told the judge and that could have taken care of the situation. Chief Englade stated that it was still incumbent upon the officer to take care of subpoena. Mr. Lotwick rested. Mr. Walsh made a motion for summary disposition of the case. Sgt. Rice did not notify the court of Corporal Coulter’s problems. Corporal Coulter was on medical leave and doctor’s bed rest. Mr. Lotwick objected. This would ignore all the information that Chief Englade just testified to. Corporal Coulter was not suspended for contempt of court or for allegations 4 that were dismissed some weeks later. That is irrelevant. Corporal Coulter failed to take care of his business of notifying the court that he was sick and under a doctor’s care. He was also suspended for the nature of the subordination to a superior officer. Mr. Lotwick stated that the evidence supports the allegations outlined in the suspension letter. Chief Johnston denied the motion for summary disposition of the case. Corporal Coulter Corporal Coulter stated that Sgt. Rice’s testimony was incorrect. He testified that he had just had knee surgery. When he received the call from Set. Rice, he left the doctor’s office and went immediately to court. He went to court immediately because he had already been found in contempt of court previously. He had to return later to the doctor’s office. He arrived in court in about 15 minutes. The bench warrant had already been issued by Judge Kelly. The judge told him to pay the $25 for the paperwork and recalled the bench warrant. Corporal Coulter stated that he did not take $900 from Mr. Jones. It turned out to be a boyfriend/girlfriend case. Corporal Coulter stated that he was not the arresting officer in the case. He was on the scene as a backup unit. He asked the Board to reverse the decision on his five day suspension. Regarding the first subpoena, he was planning to go on vacation. He went to court and was told he was not needed. Sgt. Rice told him that if he did not call him by 5:00 PM, he was free to go on vacation. Corporal Coulter did not receive a call that day and he also stayed the following day before he left to go on vacation. The case was brought up in court while Corporal Coulter was gone. Corporal Coulter stated that he used profanity only after Sgt. Rice used profanity. Yes, he did agree that this was insubordination. He admitted at the pre-disciplinary hearing to using profanity. He stated that his knee surgery was in October and he had been going through rehabilitation and taking pain medication for the pain. Mrs. Sharon Coulter (wife) Sharon Coulter is a registered nurse. Her husband was on medication due to two knee surgeries. The medications included narcotics, medication for gout, nausea and high blood pressure. He had to take medication in order to cope with the pain. She was with her husband when he answered the cell phone call from Sgt. Rice. She drove him to straight to court after they received the call from Sgt. Rice. Closing - Joe Lotwick Chief Englade believes in progressive discipline. Corporal Coulter had already gotten a three day suspension for not appearing in court. Corporal Coulter admitted here that he was in violation of three of the department’s disciplinary codes: Conduct Unbecoming an Officer, Respect of Fellow Members and Insubordination. Clearly by his own testimony, 5 discipline is in order and using progressive discipline, then the five days is in order. He asks the Board to uphold the 5 day suspension issued by the Chief. Closing - Michael Walsh Michael Walsh asked the Board to look at the situation. If you have a liaison and Sgt. Rice had told the court of the situation, the arrest warrant would never have been issued. There was bad blood between Corporal Coulter and Sgt. Rice. Sgt. Rice should have informed the Judge that Corporal Coulter was at the doctor’s office when this happened. This is not just a case that a police officer did not show up. The Judge said that if he had known that Corporal Coulter was at the doctor’s office, then he never would have issued a bench warrant. He did not find him in contempt of court. He just asked him to pay the $25 paperwork cost. He asked the Board to consider reinstating the 5 days back pay. Henry Clark made a motion to reduce the suspension from 5 days to 2 days. This motion was seconded by Lyle Johnson. Vote: Henry Clark Yes Daryl Edgens Yes Cynthia Wilkinson No Lyle Johnson Yes Chief Johnston Yes Motion carries to reduce suspension from 5 days to 2 days.	Appeal hearing: EDWARD COULTER on 2002-3-21