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Henry
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« : July 24, 2008, 08:39:27 AM » |
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Pete Lavallee, brother of JoAnne Wilkins and son of Roger & Elaine (Spiller) Lavallee is testifying in the current court case where the Black Minister was arrested. You may have seen the news on local television.
Officer in lawsuit was monitored
By John Briggs
Free Press Staff Writer
The South Burlington police officer responsible for supervising detective Jack O'Connor testified Wednesday that he continued generally to monitor O'Connor as he had previously, even after a county prosecutor questioned O'Connor's tactics.
"I was asked to keep a closer eye on his cases," retired Lt. Peter Lavallee testified in U.S. District Court in Burlington.
The often-intense questioning of Lavallee by Burlington attorney Lisa Shelkrot took place on the second day of the jury trial in a lawsuit brought by Burlington minister Rico Diamond against O'Connor and the city of South Burlington.
On March 21, 2005, O'Connor and other officers, acting on a tip from a hotel clerk, raided Diamond's hotel room and seized $5,200 in cash from him. The money wasn't returned for three weeks. Diamond was not charged with a crime.
His lawsuit says O'Connor's raid was racially motivated and legally unjustified. The city is named for failing to supervise O'Connor properly even though the Police Department knew of complaints from citizens and concerns by Chittenden County State's Attorney Robert Simpson that O'Connor paid scant attention to constitutional constraints on searches and seizures of property.
Simpsonwrote to South Burlington Police Chief Lealand Graham more than a month before the Diamond incident, on Feb. 14, 2005, that he had received more complaints about O'Connor "than any other officer in the county."
He wrote that O'Connor's attitude was "troubling" in that he acted as though "the rules we are all obligated to follow are often just silly impediments to his concept of justice. To put it bluntly," Simpson wrote, "I am concerned that he may believe that the only thing 'wrong' with the fact that he may have conducted an illegal search is that his case will not be prosecuted."
Simpson asked Graham to assign "a senior officer to thoroughly review all of Officer O'Connor's work," and warned that if his conduct didn't change, "this office will no longer accept his cases."
Lavallee agreed in court that the Simpson letter was "unusual."
"Yes," he said, "it was of concern," but he said he reviewed the "timeliness" of O'Connor's paperwork and the affidavits he provided to the State's Attorney's Office rather than whether OConnor, then with three years on the force, had probable cause to conduct a search or to seize property from individuals he was investigating.
He agreed that those issues, rather than paperwork, were what concerned Simpson.
Lavallee also testified that he never asked Graham for specific details about Simpson's complaint nor spoke to Simpson about the concerns he had raised in his letter.
He said he wasn't asked to create a formal monitoring plan for O'Connor. "Not that formal, no," he said.
Shelkrot, who represents Diamond, also focused her questions on a positive evaluation of O'Connor that Lavallee wrote and signed three days after Simpson's letter.
That evaluation referred to O'Connor's "dogged efforts" in combating drug trafficking and spoke of him as "an inspiration to other officers," but made no mention of Simpson's letter other than to say O'Connor didn't always have the backing of the county prosecutor.
Capt. Todd Shepard, second in command of the South Burlington police, testified he "signed off" on O'Connor's 2005 evaluation and, at Graham's behest, told Lavallee after the Simpson letter to monitor O'Connor.
He said his instructions to Lavallee were "very vague, because I was given no specific guidelines" from Graham. He said he didn't ask Graham for specifics.
Both Shepard and Lavallee testified they didn't take a closer look at O'Connor's search and seizure practices a month later, when he seized Diamond's $5,200.
Shepard said O'Connor received no departmental discipline -- which can range from counseling through verbal and written reprimands to termination -- for his conduct, even though a number of his search cases had been termed "illegal" by Vermont courts.
Former Chief Graham is scheduled to testify today, as is Diamond. The trial is likely to continue through next week.
Contact John Briggs at (802) 660-1863 or jbriggs@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
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