NAACP head again calls for police chief to resign

Seattle NAACP President James Bible reiterated his demand Friday that police Chief Gil Kerlikowske resign following the leak of a citizen oversight panel's report that criticized the chief's involvement in a controversial internal investigation.

Bible also said Friday that he is seeking to review a second Seattle police case in which video footage led to the dismissal of charges against a man who accused officers of excessive force.

But other African American leaders, including former NAACP President Carl Mack, rushed to Kerlikowske's defense with a hastily scheduled news conference Friday at the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, where Bible had chastised the chief just five hours earlier.

"I will tell you, we have a good police chief," said James Kelly, president and CEO of the Urban League.

"I will be damned to allow a draft report, an incomplete investigation, to ruin the five-year relationship we have established on behalf of African Americans and the Police Department," he said.

The dueling remarks came after a report drafted by the Office of Professional Accountability Review Board found that Kerlikowske unduly influenced an investigation and took extraordinary measures to gain cooperation from a dubious witness whose statements helped exonerate Officers Greg Neubert and Mike Tietjen.

Bible also again called for the officers to resign.

An alleged drug dealer accused the officers of excessive force and planting evidence after he was arrested Jan. 2. A store surveillance camera caught the arrest on tape. While Chief Kerlikowske said the footage cleared the officers of serious misconduct, it revealed several discrepancies in their reports.

Charges were dropped against the man, an African American. A King County Superior Court judge hearing the case questioned the officers' accuracy and the Police Department's civilian auditor, a former federal prosecutor, said the chief had enough evidence to rule that the officers had lied. A forensic expert also challenged the officers' accounts, based on the video.

"We're here because of a video, a forensics expert and a judge. But what about somebody who just walks in with the truth?" Bible said Friday.

That scandal prompted the NAACP to seek records on another case involving a man who was charged in April 2005 with obstructing officers, resisting arrest and misdemeanor assault, Bible said.

A Municipal Court judge dismissed the 2005 case against Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes, 29, when, after the fifth day of trial, the Police Department produced video from a patrol car dashboard that had taped the incident. An internal report said police were first unaware of the video, but the judge ruled it was not given to the defense in a timely manner.

Alley-Barnes has since filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, accusing Sgt. Greg Sackman and Officers Brian Hunt, Kevin Jones, John Smithies and Courtney Harris of using excessive force and violating his civil rights and alleging the department withheld evidence that would have supported Alley-Barnes' case.

The complaint also names Kerlikowske as a defendant, alleging he neglected to follow recommendations that officers be further trained in how to prevent minor incidents from escalating.

The Police Department's internal report said the video shows little useful information, although a male voice can be heard saying: "Stop kicking me, man."

Alley-Barnes was arrested April 13, 2005, after a friend was cited for a litter violation outside the War Room, a Capitol Hill club. His friend had tossed something on the ground but picked it up and apologized when Sackman saw him, court documents say.

Alley-Barnes asked why Sackman was citing his friend and Sackman called for backup, fearing he was outnumbered. He then ordered Alley-Barnes' friend to put his hands on the patrol car and directed another officer to detain Alley-Barnes.

Alley-Barnes tried to pull away, and the officer wrestled him to the ground. Other officers joined to help, and Alley-Barnes was punched and kicked as he flailed on the ground, resulting in injuries to his face, according to court documents.

An internal investigation initially found that Sackman overreacted in issuing a citation for littering. It also found he didn't properly supervise the officers and that Hunt and Jones used excessive force. The investigation found that the other officers were not at fault because they arrived to find a colleague struggling with a suspect, according to department records.

The chief moved to discipline Sackman, but the finding was reversed because the inquiry outlasted a 180-day window on internal investigations that the Police Officers' Guild labor contract requires, said Mark McCarty, the department's employment legal adviser.

The OPA recommended supervisory intervention for Hunt, but the chief later decided the officer hadn't engaged in misconduct, McCarty said. The OPA recommended exonerating Jones of misconduct, while Kerlikowske was considering disciplinary action, McCarty said.

McCarty said there's no comparison between the Alley-Barnes case and the one involving Officers Neubert and Tietjen, other than the fact that there was video.

The NAACP also is pushing for Mayor Greg Nickels to install a more independent police accountability system to replace one that the Review Board's report shows is still influenced by the department pressure, he said.

Mack, the former NAACP president, said the call for the police chief's resignation was "absolutely asinine." He said the recent criticism of Kerlikowske "broke his heart."

"The chief is a good man, an absolutely good man. That's not to say there aren't dirty cops," said Mack, who now runs an organization in Virginia.