Bail
extended in Cleveland Police misconduct probe
FIVE
people - including Cleveland’s Chief Constable and Deputy Chief Constable - who
were arrested as part of Operation Sacristy have had their bail extended to
later in the year.
Sean
Price, the Chief Constable; Derek Bonnard, the Deputy Chief Constable and
Caroline Llewellyn, the former Cleveland Police solicitor were arrested in
August and were due to answer bail on Tuesday.
Their
bail has now been extended to late October.
Councillor
Dave McLuckie, the former chairman of Cleveland Police Authority, and an
unnamed man who were due to answer their bail later in April have both had
their bail extended to a date in mid-November.
Mr
Price, Mr Bonnard and Cllr McLuckie have issued statements denying any
wrongdoing.
Operation
Sacristy was launched last May and is a criminal and misconduct investigation
focused on a number of people with current or past associations with Cleveland
Police Authority.
Almost
5,000 documents have been gathered and more than 700 people have been named as
part of the investigation.
An
Operation Sacristy spokesperson said: “Operation Sacristy continues to progress
its investigation into criminal and conduct matters as quickly as is
professionally possible.”
Ex-police
officers face more charges
One
has pleaded guilty; another has a hearing in district court
Polk
County prosecutors this month filed charges against two former Des Moines
police officers in connection with the 2008 use of excessive force case
involving Octavius Bonds and Erin Evans.
Former
officers Mersed Dautovic and John Mailander were charged with willful injury,
felonius misconduct in office and perjury.
Mailander
immediately entered a guilty plea. Dautovic has a hearing in Polk County court
next week to learn why prosecutors believe he lied about the beating in court
and on police documents.
Legal
troubles for Dautovic and Mailander began to accelerate last September when the
city of Des Moines agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a civil lawsuit filed by
Bonds and Evans. Dautovic and Mailander were indicted three months later in
federal court for obstructing justice and violating Bonds’ civil rights.
Two
weeks ago, Polk County prosecutors quietly added the new charges.
Mailander
pleaded guilty to the federal obstruction of justice charge and faces up to 20
years in prison. The new charges could add up to 20 more years in prison.
Dautovic
faces up to 30 years in prison on the federal charges and up to 20 years on the
state charges.
State
court documents accuse both former officers of assaulting Bonds, of
intentionally falsifying a police report and of lying during the March 2009
trial where Bonds and Evans faced misdemeanor charges for interference and
assault. (Bonds and Evans were acquitted.)
Paperwork
filed by Dautovic’s lawyer on the state charges contends that there simply
aren’t enough details available in the case for him to adequately prepare a
defense.
Sealed
documents filed with the state-court trial information “generally outline the
subject matters that the state alleges are the false statement and perjury
concerns,” according to a motion filed by defense attorney J. Keith Rigg.
“However, it does not list the specific portion of the report, or the
particular question and answer alleged to be perjury in this case.”
Similarly,
“the particular statement (in the police report) which is the basis for the
charge had not been specified,” according to Rigg.
Dautovic’s
court documents seek a more detailed explanation of the charges. A hearing is
scheduled for Thursday before Judge Richard Blane II.
Mailander
acknowledged in a January deal with federal prosecutors that he knew
immediately that he and Dautovic had used excessive force while striking Bonds
with a baton during a 2008 traffic stop. But it wasn’t mentioned in a report.
Mailander,
who signed the police report and certified it as true, told federal authorities
that he “knew these ASP strikes were relevant and should have been included in
the Des Moines Police Department Case Investigation Report.” Court papers say
Evans, now 24, and Bonds, now 27, were driving in the northbound left lane of
Southeast 14th Street in Des Moines on Sept. 13, 2008, when Dautovic and
Mailander overtook them while headed to a soon-canceled emergency call. The
officers quickly stopped Evans’ fogged-up car to ask why she hadn’t yielded to
their emergency vehicle.
Evans
did not immediately roll down her window and was slow to produce
identification, according to the lawsuit documents.
She
eventually was threatened with pepper spray, pulled from the car by Mailander,
and “kind of tossed” across the hood of the police car before being handcuffed.
Documents
say Bonds was pepper sprayed after he partially climbed out of the car and
failed to comply with commands to get back in.
Bonds
at some point grabbed Dautovic’s hands while asking him to stop the pepper
spray.
Both
officers then hit Bonds with batons, including roughly 14 blows while he was on
the ground curled up in a fetal position.
Court
papers say Bonds suffered multiple wounds, including fractures that required
metal plating in various parts of his body and a head injury that required
eight staples to close.
Dautovic’s
trials currently are scheduled to take place in May and July.
