It seems like the hornet's nest at the Hartford Police Department continues to be poked, and plenty of people are willing to talk about it.
Last night a comment was posted by someone who claimed to be a juror in the Rashim Campbell case. I asked them to get in touch with me and tonight they did. Another juror has apparently also posted a comment here on the blog.
It continues to amaze me the following this blog has developed and who is actually reading.
The juror who called had some very interesting information to relay. The two biggest factors in Rashim Campbell's acquittal were that, according to the juror, the Prosecution didn't do their job and that the IAD investigator was not credible.
The juror was very candid and didn't avoid any of the questions I asked. Apparently the feeling was unanimous when they entered the jurors room, but Lieutenant Ford started off on the wrong foot right from the start. Now keep in mind that these jurors really didn't know the facts of the case other than what was presented in the court room. They didn't know the police officers, they didn't know the alleged victim Michael Stewart and they definitely had never heard of IAD Sergeant Rob Ford.
I guess the recently promoted Lieutenant Ford had tried to impress the jurors with his introduction, but that apparently backfired big time. In his introduction, Lt. Ford informed the jurors that he was the newly promoted Lieutenant for the Blue Hills area of the City and proudly told the jurors "If you have any problems in Blue Hills, call me ".
Apparently that was the wrong thing to say. The juror who called me said that almost all of the jurors felt as though they were being offered a bribe by Lt. Ford. They also said that he seemed to need his notes to be able to testify and that raised questions. For whatever reason, they also felt that Ford's promotion might have been a reward for the Campbell investigation.
That one took me by surprise, because keep in mind, the jury had no knowledge of the politics or the players that seem to be coming to the surface recently.
The other part that surprised me, was that the jurors thought the prosecution didn't do their job. Apparently the general consensus was that the facts hadn't been laid out and even the video didn't support the assault allegations and looked more like reasonable force to get the situation under control.
During the conversation I was asked why they would put a new prosecutor in charge of this case. The juror was very surprised to find out that the prosecutor was actually Hartford County States Attorney Gail Hardy and was not a brand new prosecutor.
In the end, it seemed like a pretty clear decision for the jurors and apparently the perceived credibility of Lt. Ford played a large role.A unanimous not guilty verdict was reached in less than an hour.
Another juror posted their thoughts on the trial under the posting "Officer Rashim Campbell...not guilty on all counts"
In the meantime, several police sources are telling me that the calls for an outside investigation into the Hartford Police Department are mounting. Requests are being prepared for investigations into the removal of Lt. Brooks as well as potentially false information fabricated for the Rashim Campbell arrest warrant application as well as potential complaints against Lieutenant Ford.
This can prove to be an interesting situation for Mayor Pedro Segarra and how he approaches these problems in an election year. This one has the potential to blow up into a major problem and seems to be getting worse by the day.
Keep those calls coming.
I too thought the same thing that Sgt Ford was promoted to LT for his outright lies on his IAD report just to take down Officer Campbell for the Chief. A little quid-pro-quo, something Eddie Perez is also well versed in.
ReplyDeleteLT Ford and LT Brooks are the perfect examples of what happens when you unlawfully follow the Chief's wishes vs follow the law.
Neville took the high road and did the right thing. Sure he's going to have a longer battle but he will win in the end because he has integrity on his side. Lt Ford took the quick and easy road because he's too afraid or stupid to disagree with the Chief so know could end up in jail when it's over.
The question is how long are the cops of HPD going to let Chief Roberts rule the PD like this before they say enough is enough?
The jury made the right call 100%. Now that the case is over they can read about all the corruption at HPD and be reassured they made the right call. Good job jury and thank you for righting a wrong.
ReplyDeleteSimply, a case of a female (ab)using her extremely disproportionate power/position to 'punish' or otherwise crush a young male. Forget, momentarily, or better yet, disregard entirely, their not-even-in-the-same-balpark levels of education, life experience, and community standing.for starters. Also, the invited young lady's name seems to indicate that she would be a minority: A double, double-whammy for the young man, if he happens to be caucasion.
ReplyDeleteBottom line: Nice job there, Beth. Your feminist erudition has endeared you to my heart in a manner easily comprehended by a 9-year-old, yet occasionally seems to induce spasmodic intracranial activtity in a sampling of decidedly delineated doctorates.
Hey DKR, now explain to the mayor why you have chosen to send Lieutenant Ford away to The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) training in Boston for a month. That should only cost the tax payers about $30,000.00 for the training. You could at least explain it to the mayor. Don’t worry about announcing it to your staff or the department; since you kept the whole thing a big secret, I will do it for you.
ReplyDeleteFor those of you who don’t know PERF is basically ‘Chief of Police Training’. Lieutenant Ford is the most junior lieutenant on the department, and has the least amount of field experience of any Zone Commander; in fact he has the least amount of field experience then all lieutenants except for 1. Not to mention the ignored Captains!!!
Couple that with the factor the Lieutenant Ford has almost no field experience as a Sergeant either. He spent most of his Sergeant days in IAD. - and we can clearly see how that is working out. Oh, and Lieutenant Ford was not a detective either. He had no investigative training or experience when DKR put him in IAD. I think the Jury has figured that one out too; nobody is happier about that than Officer Campbell.
Let’s get back to DKR. How did he go about selecting Lieutenant Ford for the PERF Training? It wasn't posted, announced or offered to the Lieutenants or Captains. It was advertised, it wasn't put out to all the Captains and Lieutenants in a fair, open or transparent manner. Nope, DKR just called Lieutenant Ford and offered it to him. Forget about who deserves it, or who has earned it, or who is most qualified. DKR is the chief he can do that kind of stuff.
One problem, you have dozens of captains and lieutenants who are left out of the loop. This creates a morale issue; and forget about respect from your ranks. Are these dozens of bypassed captains and Lieutenants enraged by this? Nope, it is pretty much understood this is how DKR operates- just another bitter pill to swallow working for DKR.
Ask any captain or lieutenant what they think about Lieutenant Ford getting the appointment to PERF training. Here is the answer you will get 100% of the time: "Are you surprised- What did you expect?" More DKR crooked and unexplainable shenanigans... Probably more bad advice from Lester McCrash.
DKR you could at least explain it to your Lieutenants and Captains that you selected and are sending Lt. Ford to this school. Your back-door sneakiness is very telling. Be open, explain to us why it wasn’t posted or announced. Explain why you chose Lt. Ford over all the other individuals. Or just ignore it, you’re the chief, you can do whatever you want. Next COMSTAT, when you ask, “does anyone have anything?”; take this post as a yes. It’s pretty simple really- Explain this process for selecting PERF candidates, and explain why you skipped so many qualified commanders. Explain why it was not announced before or after. After that, if any of your command staff can still look you in the eye, look around. Your entire command staff is watching you fly this plane right into the ground.
Do I have sour grapes? No I am not a chief, never gonna be one, I just want to see fairness, and hate seeing our qualified true leaders disrespected by you.
If what the juror is saying is true about Rob Ford aka Mr. Bluehills, that he wasn't credible and if he lied in the arrest warrant than an arrest warrant should be issued for him. He should also and have his certification revoked under the current law. IAD investigators are supposed to find and report the facts not make false allegations to support thier own agenda. If I were Rob Ford I would be getting my application to McDonalds ready.
ReplyDeleteIf the Mayor is holding onto this incompetent Chief for his election campaign in November thinking he'll get the northend vote then he's just as corrupt as Eddie Perez was and this city will never be What it could be. It will be a city of empty buildings and tumble weed blowing down main street.
Mayor Seggara I know you or your staff reads this blog. If I can give you one piece of advise, it's alot easier to get out in front of this train wreck, called Chief Roberts and his other Chiefs, than to get out from behind it. Once the department of justice comes in it will be way to late for you to repair your political carrier. The media will have a field day with you. Knowing what you know now and to do nothing about it makes you just an inept leader as Roberts is a Chief. You got "punked out" by the board of Ed with thier appointment of thier superintendent don't get punked again.
This is the Capitol city (the only thing it has going for it) let's
stop being the laughing stock of the state and make it what
can be by being the strong Mayor you were appointed to be and cleaning house at HPD.
How about looking into this PERF training Lt.Ford has gone to...If he is not qualified then he should not go. If that is the future leadership of the Hartford Police Department then they are in big trouble. He deserve no place in a chiefs office. From the way it sounds, it is an ego issue and that this is Chiefs Roberts pick for the future... Shut that nonsense down before those officers for that department are picked off one by one..
ReplyDeleteDear DKR,
ReplyDeleteLt. Ford must have really done something magnanimous to deserve this expensive and prestigious PERF training. What is it, what did he do? He must have shown some incredibly superior leadership qualities. I mean you have overlooked some many of your command staff, so many captains and lieutenants to reach down and pick Lt. Ford. When and where did he do all these great things to deserve this honor?” Why keep it a big secret? Was it college? Wow, college, you went to McCollege too, very impressive. A lot of your staff went to real colleges.
Nobody trusts you anymore. If it wasn’t for this blog, you would just keep flying low and fast without accountability. Are you going to call for an outside/impartial investigator to investigate Neville? I know Neville is going to ask for one. If an out outside/impartial investigator comes for the Neville thing, will you have the open issues regarding your deputies and assistants investigated too? (Or at your direction, has the new IAD commander already investigated and cleared everyone). I think that’s only the smart and fair thing to do, but since when does that matter to you? Are you going to have Lt. Ford’s arrest warrant examined by an outside/impartial investigator? Is probationary Captain Bernier’s one-side opinion piece or his violation of 4.02, 4.04 or 4.05 regarding both Pepler and Dailey subject to an impartial investigation? We both know if it is left up to you, you would never take these steps to protect our integrity. But do not worry; many of your commanders have already hired somebody to examine these matters.
All of a sudden you dumped your own tiny inspection of the time card/private job issue raised in the Robles matter on Lt. Rodriguez. I understand Lt. Rodriguez (the one who towed your escorts’ cruiser) is looking back at a couple of weeks in 2010 (not exactly a broad spanning examination). Why not do a full inspection of say the last 8 years? Luis is a smart man, I wonder if he will discover anything wrong with your timecard-payroll. Lt. Rodriguez has already found violations- One big question: Will the supervisors of the offenders also be charged or disciplined? I bet Attorney Jeff Ment asks you that question too. You should probably prepare an answer.
I got a great idea: When the outside/impartial investigator comes to look into things, show him what you have already got, steer them the way you want them to go. Bring them to your IAD steering committee meeting. Have Lt. Ford get them anything they need from the Blue Hills neighborhood. They will appreciate that.
It is time for everyone over the rank of Lieutenant to be shitcanned except for Captain Joe Buyak. That's the guy who should be chief. He is a steadying force, proud to be a cop and one who has actually made arrests by himself. He leads like cops used to lead and that is by example.
ReplyDeleteIts okay to be test and book smart but some practical experience is needed to lead men and women at the PD and being a member of the bike squad does not cut it.
Or better bring back Chief Bernard Sullivan. Theres a guy who can spot an asskisser in a second and someone w/o any problem setting the record straight and getting the PD back to work.
I always thought that officers who made LT. should have made at least some quality arrests.Maybe a famous movie line should be asked in all oral examinations "Tell us about your best felony arrest ot tell us about your best misdemeanor arrest" Some guys on the second floor could not answer even those simple questions.
Interesting.....no comments!!! LOL!!!!!!!
ReplyDelete