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Dallas Morning News - TX,USA
25 August 2007

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Dallas Police Department, TX

Dallas officer investigated fo

One of three officers being investigated on suspicion of making false arrests and writing fake citations has been returned to the streets after investigators cleared him of any major rule violations.

But an internal affairs investigation into the activities of Senior Cpl. Timothy Stecker and the two other officers � Senior Cpls. Jeffrey Nelson and Al Schoelen � is ongoing.

"After talking to [at least] 60 officers and reviewing a substantial portion of his work product, we ended up with minor issues of misconduct," Police Chief David Kunkle said Friday. The findings are "more administrative in nature that can be corrected through counseling."

Haakon Donnelly, an attorney for the three officers, said Cpl. Stecker feels vindicated.

"I think this is bittersweet for him," Mr. Donnelly said. "He's happy to be returning to duty and that nothing has been found against him, but it's been a hard process for him and his family to go through."

Mr. Donnelly said he believed that "the other two officers will be returned to [regular] duty soon, as well. I think these guys are good cops. They should be back on the street."

An investigation into the actions of the three officers, who worked the overnight shift in East Dallas and the Lower Greenville area, began earlier this year after a Dallas police officer publicly complained that they had engaged in serious misconduct including making false arrests. Chief Kunkle has said supervisors thought Cpls. Stecker, Schoelen and Nelson were simply "old-school cops."

The allegations prompted Chief Kunkle to appoint a special police panel that found that other officers who worked with the trio didn't see probable cause for some of the citations and arrests they made.

"There was almost universal agreement by officers and supervisors that the small number of officers in question were a clique unto themselves," according to the panel report. "Descriptions were that the clique only did what they wanted to, officers avoided them and were very uncomfortable" backing them up "because of how they operated."

Chief Kunkle said that what investigators have found is that much of what the officers believed couldn't be proved. "These stories were going around, but once you traced the story back to its source, it either could not be substantiated or apparently it did not happen," he said.

Officials say that much of what they have found indicates that the officers were operating in a gray area � not breaking rules but acting in ways that the department doesn't condone.

One of those gray areas was the practice of issuing "at-large" citations. Such tickets are mailed to the defendants. But if mailed to the wrong address � a risk with the prostitutes and transients the officers typically dealt with � the people who were cited would never receive them.

That could result in their being jailed for failing to appear at a court hearing, even though they never knew the hearing had been scheduled. Most police officers issue very few such citations, but Cpls. Nelson and Schoelen wrote far more than the average officer.

The concerns prompted a procedural change that requires that supervisors approve any at large citations before they are sent to the courts.

One of the other more serious allegations specifically leveled against Cpl. Stecker was that he made a man sign a blank citation and then didn't give the man a copy of it.

Another officer had also alleged that Cpl. Stecker arrested two women on Feb. 24 who were not drunk and that during a Nov. 3 incident, Cpl. Stecker had written a fraudulent police report that led to the arrest of a man on charges of felony assault on a peace officer.

Deputy Chief Calvin Cunigan, commander of the internal affairs division, said he could not comment in detail on those specific allegations of misconduct involving Cpl. Stecker.

"We found no serious misconduct on Cpl. Stecker's part," Chief Cunigan said. "All of the allegations have been looked at, and no serious misconduct has been identified."

Four minor administrative issues were referred to Cpl. Stecker's commanders for discussion with the officer:

�Failing to keep his citation books for at least a year as required by department policy.

�Issuing citations from another officer's ticket book without notating that he had done so.

�Placing improper remarks on citations, such as writing the words "Minutiae Tech" in the blank for "employer" or "occupation" on citations. Departmental policy forbids officers from writing anything on tickets that they know not to be true.

A police supervisor told internal investigators that he gave the officers permission to write that on citations. Chief Cunigan said investigators are still investigating why the sergeant would have done so. "The sergeant may get in trouble for that," Chief Kunkle said.

�Writing someone an at large ticket while he was on duty for an incident that he saw the night before while he was off duty. Officers are not allowed to take enforcement action for Class C misdemeanors while off duty, but no rule covered whether an officer could write a citation on duty for something they saw off duty. "This is not a practice we want to happen," Chief Cunigan said.

Last month, Chief Kunkle decided to allow the three officers to moonlight in uniform on off-duty security jobs because investigators so far had not found what he deemed to be "significant misconduct." He also said then that he did not feel "comfortable" enough yet to return the three officers to regular patrol work.

But he abruptly rescinded that decision a few days later and declined to comment on his reasoning.

Cpls. Schoelen and Nelson remain on restricted duty, which means that they are prohibited from wearing their uniforms or patrolling the streets on duty.

"We're full speed ahead on trying to get to the finish line," Chief Cunigan said.

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Dallas Morning News - TX,USA25 August 2007

Dallas officer investigated fo

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Dallas Morning News - TX,USA
25 August 2007