06-09-2006, 11:55 AM
This article was in the Post today. The plot just keeps thickening. Yet there are those that think the SO doesn't need to come in and feel that Dowdell has done nothing wrong. Amazing!
Belle Glade police office target of morning raid
By Dwayne Robinson
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 09, 2006
BELLE GLADE — The State Attorney's Office raided the city's police department Thursday morning, hours before the commission's first scheduled meeting on the possible takeover of the department by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
The State Attorney's Office is investigating the Belle Glade Police Department and its former chief, Albert Dowdell, who has been suspended.
According to a recently released grand jury report, Dowdell is suspected of corruption and botching an October shooting investigation.
Prosecutors showed up unannounced at the police department Thursday morning — subpoena in hand. They asked for recovered weapons and to view the boxes where guns stolen in a burglary earlier this year were stored, Acting Chief Calipto Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said an anonymous caller alleged the police department had recovered guns from Dowdell's patrol vehicle.
"That's not true," Gonzalez said. "I told them at no time did we recover guns from Chief Dowdell."
He said he was asked by the prosecutors if he had seen Dowdell take any weapons out of the department. He told them "no," he said. At last count, Gonzalez said, about 120 weapons were lost in the burglary.
Belle Glade Prosecutor Rob Shepherd declined to comment on the motivation for the visit, citing the ongoing grand jury investigation.
"I will say this: I think we've reached another level here in the last 24 hours. We'll see what happens. It may come to nothing and it may come to fruition," Shepherd said.
Some evidence was not properly logged, some was either not in their proper containers or missing, Gonzalez said.
This could threaten the prosecution of some cases.
The raid and questionable storage of evidence became the topic of heated discussion later in the day by the three city commissioners pushing for the county takeover.
"I can't believe a law enforcement agency has something that important as far as evidence in an unsecure place," Commissioner Shelly Miller said Thursday. "Have we not learned from our past mistakes?"
The State Attorney's Office served the subpoena at 10 a.m., and spent 90 to 105 minutes taking photos and copying evidence receipts, Gonzalez said.
"It's in disarray, but it's being put in order," Gonzalez said of the storage area.
Public Safety Director Ken Holley said most of the evidence was from old cases that have already been adjudicated.
Following the theft in February of evidence from a previous and now vacant police station, the department transferred its evidence to four, 30-by-30 foot cargo containers outside its new base of operations, the old Lake Shore Civic Center. In 2004, Hurricane Frances put the original station out of commission, and voters did not approve a referendum allowing the city to build a new one last year.
The police department began reorganizing the evidence after the hasty transfer, Gonzalez said. After his appointment Friday, Gonzalez said he ordered the installation of a surveillance camera and security system.
Commissioner Gwendolyn Asia-Williams, who sat in the audience, said it was unfair to criticize the police department's procedure for storing evidence at the same time officials were trying to make improvements.
"When you're in the process, you can't judge the end result," she said. "There was an error. They recognized it and were addressing it."
Still, commissioners insisted problems with the department and policing have gone on for too long. Mayor Ray Torres Sanchez, Vice Mayor Don Garrett and commissioner Miller selected a three-member panel to start talks with the sheriff no later than Monday.
Commissioner Mary Kendall was not present at Thursday's meeting.
Sheriff Ric Bradshaw declined a request to attend.
"Why would you want to turn your city over to a sheriff who can't be present?" asked Belle Glade resident Nicole Patterson. "He can be present when he wants to be elected."
The panel of the city attorney, city finance director and Gonzalez does not include the two officials in charge of the police department: Holley and City Manager Houston Tate, who both oppose a county takeover.
At the meeting, Garrett blamed Tate for problems in the department.
On Monday, the city commission decided to begin the negotiations following a recommendation from a grand jury that concluded the police department's investigation into the Oct. 7 shooting of Derrick Bryant outside a nightclub was substandard and fraught with inconsistencies. The grand jury recommended that criminal charges be considered against Dowdell and two investigating officers.
Dowdell and Sgt. Jeffers Walker are expected to be fired. No charges have been filed against them or Leo Davis, who was fired in March for misusing his police vehicle.
Dowdell, who sat mostly silent holding his granddaughter during the meeting, defended his department's performance following three hurricanes in two years.
"I made the best out of an impossible situation," Dowdell said.
Belle Glade police office target of morning raid
By Dwayne Robinson
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 09, 2006
BELLE GLADE — The State Attorney's Office raided the city's police department Thursday morning, hours before the commission's first scheduled meeting on the possible takeover of the department by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
The State Attorney's Office is investigating the Belle Glade Police Department and its former chief, Albert Dowdell, who has been suspended.
According to a recently released grand jury report, Dowdell is suspected of corruption and botching an October shooting investigation.
Prosecutors showed up unannounced at the police department Thursday morning — subpoena in hand. They asked for recovered weapons and to view the boxes where guns stolen in a burglary earlier this year were stored, Acting Chief Calipto Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said an anonymous caller alleged the police department had recovered guns from Dowdell's patrol vehicle.
"That's not true," Gonzalez said. "I told them at no time did we recover guns from Chief Dowdell."
He said he was asked by the prosecutors if he had seen Dowdell take any weapons out of the department. He told them "no," he said. At last count, Gonzalez said, about 120 weapons were lost in the burglary.
Belle Glade Prosecutor Rob Shepherd declined to comment on the motivation for the visit, citing the ongoing grand jury investigation.
"I will say this: I think we've reached another level here in the last 24 hours. We'll see what happens. It may come to nothing and it may come to fruition," Shepherd said.
Some evidence was not properly logged, some was either not in their proper containers or missing, Gonzalez said.
This could threaten the prosecution of some cases.
The raid and questionable storage of evidence became the topic of heated discussion later in the day by the three city commissioners pushing for the county takeover.
"I can't believe a law enforcement agency has something that important as far as evidence in an unsecure place," Commissioner Shelly Miller said Thursday. "Have we not learned from our past mistakes?"
The State Attorney's Office served the subpoena at 10 a.m., and spent 90 to 105 minutes taking photos and copying evidence receipts, Gonzalez said.
"It's in disarray, but it's being put in order," Gonzalez said of the storage area.
Public Safety Director Ken Holley said most of the evidence was from old cases that have already been adjudicated.
Following the theft in February of evidence from a previous and now vacant police station, the department transferred its evidence to four, 30-by-30 foot cargo containers outside its new base of operations, the old Lake Shore Civic Center. In 2004, Hurricane Frances put the original station out of commission, and voters did not approve a referendum allowing the city to build a new one last year.
The police department began reorganizing the evidence after the hasty transfer, Gonzalez said. After his appointment Friday, Gonzalez said he ordered the installation of a surveillance camera and security system.
Commissioner Gwendolyn Asia-Williams, who sat in the audience, said it was unfair to criticize the police department's procedure for storing evidence at the same time officials were trying to make improvements.
"When you're in the process, you can't judge the end result," she said. "There was an error. They recognized it and were addressing it."
Still, commissioners insisted problems with the department and policing have gone on for too long. Mayor Ray Torres Sanchez, Vice Mayor Don Garrett and commissioner Miller selected a three-member panel to start talks with the sheriff no later than Monday.
Commissioner Mary Kendall was not present at Thursday's meeting.
Sheriff Ric Bradshaw declined a request to attend.
"Why would you want to turn your city over to a sheriff who can't be present?" asked Belle Glade resident Nicole Patterson. "He can be present when he wants to be elected."
The panel of the city attorney, city finance director and Gonzalez does not include the two officials in charge of the police department: Holley and City Manager Houston Tate, who both oppose a county takeover.
At the meeting, Garrett blamed Tate for problems in the department.
On Monday, the city commission decided to begin the negotiations following a recommendation from a grand jury that concluded the police department's investigation into the Oct. 7 shooting of Derrick Bryant outside a nightclub was substandard and fraught with inconsistencies. The grand jury recommended that criminal charges be considered against Dowdell and two investigating officers.
Dowdell and Sgt. Jeffers Walker are expected to be fired. No charges have been filed against them or Leo Davis, who was fired in March for misusing his police vehicle.
Dowdell, who sat mostly silent holding his granddaughter during the meeting, defended his department's performance following three hurricanes in two years.
"I made the best out of an impossible situation," Dowdell said.