Rachel Hoffman investigations released Part 1

The Tallahassee Democrat has released portions of the Tallahassee Police Report today.  The delayed Release was to give all parties concerned time “Redact” (Blackout) certain portions of the report.

All reports combined include over 500+/- pages.  We are going to slog through them and will post what we feel are significant to the police actions in the case leaving out wherever possible all the if's and's and but's. However in so doing what is posted here will not be the WHOLE story and no guarantee can be made that any bias I may have will not influence what I do or do not choose to post,
I will try and save my bias for comments later. Although we will bold and highlight items of particular interest.

Our contention is this case is extremely important for reasons we have already mentioned and if you read just this page you can see why, I hope.

Those wishing to slog through it all with me can got Talgov.com where it is also posted in PDF form.



"In this case, we are talking about good police officers who made mistakes, but we have to be held accountable for our mistakes and we have to make immediate changes," Tallahassee City Manager Anita Favors Thompson said.

12:20pm

Tallahassee Police Chief Dennis Jones has announced that one officer has been terminated and others suspended without pay as a result of violation of policies in the Rachel Hoffman case.

Jones said he has also reprimanded the deputy chief and has been reprimanded himself by City Manager Anita Favors Thompson.

The chief said he himself will have more supervision, as will the vice unit that was in charge of the case.

"I accept this discipline as constructive and accept that the responsibility of managing this department starts with me," Jones said.

Jones says as a result of the case, policies and procedures will be changed.

12:28pm

The City of Tallahassee today released its 199-page Internal Affairs Report into the Hoffman confidential informant case and provided details on the disciplinary action that is being taken within the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD). In addition, the city released a report from the Attorney General’s (AG) Office, which had been requested by City Manager Anita Favors Thompson and Police Chief Dennis Jones. The AG’s report reviewed the policies of the Tallahassee Police Department in regard to this case and TPD’s adherence to the policies



Both the TPD Internal Affairs Report and the AG’s report found that TPD overall had well-established policies, however the policies were not always adhered to at the required level. Violations of policy were found in areas including: confidential information documentation and control, supervision, drug buy/bust operations, officer conduct and use of flash funds Disciplinary action has been taken by Police Chief Dennis Jones as follows:

Deputy Chief John Proctor, reprimand
Captain Chris Connell, two-week suspension without pay
Lieutenant Taltha White, two-week suspension without pay
Sergeant David Odom, two-week suspension without pay
Sergeant Rod Looney, two-week suspension without pay
Investigator Ryan Pender, employment terminated

City Manager has also taken disciplinary action by issuing a reprimand to the police chief to require a more stringent level of supervision from the top down.

Chief Jones is making reassignments of Connell, White and Odom within the department.

“While we cannot change the events of May 7, we can make the type of changes within the department to help ensure our future actions are consistent with policy,” Jones added.


12:45pm

Tallahassee police Investigator Ryan Pender lost track of slain informant Rachel Hoffman when he turned into the Meridian Sports Complex instead of following her to Forest Meadows, according to a report released by police and the city of Tallahassee today. He didn't try to get someone else to tail her.

Pender was fired after an internal-affairs investigation into the botched drug sting in May that led to Hoffman’s death.

Pender was aware that Hoffman had met with a potential suspect outside his control and against direction, the report says. He also knew she set up a deal with a suspect without consulting him and that she had disclosed her confidential informant status to a suspect.

He also allowed her to go alone in her car to meet two men for the drug deal, the report says. He let her decided where to put the listening device, recording device and money.

3:02pm

Tallahassee police vice investigators didn’t know the “full identity” of one of the suspects from whom slain informant Rachel Hoffman was to buy drugs and a gun May 7, according to a report released by city officials today.

Andrea Green, 25, and Deneilo Bradshaw, 23, have been charged with Hoffman's murder. The report doesn’t say who was unknown to police

Forestmeadows was not the original location for the drug deal, the report from an internal-affairs investigation says. Bradshaw and Green called Hoffman and told her to meet them at Forestmeadows minutes before the arranged time of the deal. From there, she followed them down Gardner Road.

According to the report, the officers should have considered several factors in making this change of location. Traffic was bad northbound on two-lane North Meridian Road after 5 p.m. The road is also lined with tall, shady trees that made aircraft surveillance “useless,” the report says. Hoffman was not familiar with the area. Also, Forestmeadows is a public park with citizens present.


Tallahassee police Investigator Ryan Pender, whose firing was announced today, didn’t follow her to Forestmeadows and instead turned in at the Meridian Sports Complex. He didn’t arrange for anyone else to follow her, according to the report.

The money Pender gave Hoffman for the sting, $13,000 in recorded bills, was stolen and police haven’t recovered all of it, the report says

3:07 pm
AG (Attorney General) investigators found 32 potential violations of department policies and procedures.

They include: Officer Ryan Pender using Hoffman as a confidential informant 10 days before her paperwork was signed off on by his supervisor; having an informant without the required experience providing information to the police; and keeping her on even after Pender knew she had told someone she was planning to bust that she was working for the policeAdd to Technorati Favorites.

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