Article Courtesy of The Panama City
NewsHerald
By Ed Offley
Published July 18, 2007
The
Panama City Beach Police Department is conducting an internal
investigation into a confrontation at the Fontainebleau Terrace
condominiums on June 9 in which two city police officers forcibly
intervened in a dispute between several dozen owners and the condo
manager, City Manager Richard Jackson announced Tuesday.
An
advocate of the condo owners involved in the brief melee immediately
renewed a call for a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation,
charging that Police Chief Richard Harding already had spiked one internal
probe several weeks after the incident occurred.
The
Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced in a statement Tuesday
that Harding had informed the agency that his department had initiated an
internal affairs investigation. Upon completion, Harding has agreed to
submit a copy of the report to Jackson and FDLE officials, FDLE
spokeswoman Kristen Perezluha said late Tuesday.
“They
are going to conduct an internal (review) and provide us the report,”
Perezluha said. “We will review that report.”
The
incident generated publicity after condo rights activist Lynda Grant
Killingsworth released video of the encounter between Officer Donald
Nichols and owners Steven Bell, Wanda Ford and Linda Pender. The videotape
showed Nichols and condo manager Ray McDonald pushing through a doorway
and in the collision, knocking Ford and Pender to the ground. Nichols then
arrested Bell on charges of “resisting a law enforcement officer without
violence” and committing battery by “intentionally touching or
striking” McDonald.
Deputy
Chief Maj. David W. Humphreys, who acts as spokesman for the department,
declined to answer questions from The News Herald for this story.
Killingsworth
on Tuesday renewed her call for an independent state investigation into
the police conduct.
“I
must ask that the FDLE not allow the Internal Affairs of the Panama City
Beach Police to investigate the fiasco that took place on June 9,”
Killingsworth wrote in an e-mail to FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey on
Tuesday that she made available to The News Herald. “To say that that
would be a travesty of justice would be the very least one might say about
this situation.”
But
State Rep. Julio Robaina, R-Miami, said Tuesday night that for the Beach
police to conduct the internal affairs report is the normal process in
such instances, and the FDLE review will encourage a good effort by Beach
officials.
“They
know other people are watching,” said Robaina, who personally called on
the FDLE to probe the June 9 incident after he saw the video.
“I
understand peoples’ concern,” Robaina said of the condo owners’
suspicions. “But this is not over when they present their findings to
the FDLE. They (the state agency) can either accept it or decide to
investigate further.”
Several
residents involved in the June 9 confrontation said Monday that they had
decided to pursue an FDLE investigation because they did not have
confidence Beach police officials would investigate the incident
objectively.
Pender,
a condo owner who had organized the dissident owners’ meeting, said
Beach police immediately after the encounter refused to allow her to file
a complaint.
“Lt.
(Jeffrey) Heath said he would not take the complaint,” Pender said.
“He said the only report that would be filed was that filed by the
police officer. I asked for a copy of that report — I asked if he would
fax it — and he said ‘no.’ He said, ‘Give me your addresses and
I’ll mail it,’ but we still haven’t gotten a copy.”
Ford
said she and her husband also went to the Beach Police Department to
register a complaint against the officers, only to be snubbed by the desk
officer as well.
“Chief
Harding later called me,” Ford said. “I told him I wanted to file a
complaint, but he said, ‘From what I heard, you were just in the
way.’”
Jackson
said the internal review could be completed as early as today. “It’s
pretty much fact-finding,” he said. “The complaint was that the police
mishandled the situation.
“I
will make a determination,” Jackson added. “If any of the officers
violated any department policies or procedures or laws, we will deal with
them.”
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