Sunday, July 01, 2007

Cops: Nothing More on Dale Mallory


Kevin Osborne wrote a follow up piece on the Porkoplis blog.

Cops: Nothing More on Dale Mallory

In an interview with Lt. Col. Richard Janke, Janke asserted that the Cincinnati Police do not have any more in their files about Dale Mallory.

Because several West End residents who lodged the complaint against Mallory said police interviewed them in sessions that lasted an hour or longer and that the interviews were recorded, the paper asked whether any transcripts existed.


“There are no transcripts,” Janke said. “Oftentimes, when there was no real dispute over the facts, there are no transcripts made.”

Despite Janke’s remarks, Mallory contested at least one crucial fact during a June 14 interview with CityBeat. He alleged that a copy of a cancelled check for $1,119.19 containing his signature that community council members gave to police was a forgery. The check cleared out the group’s bank account months after Mallory had been impeached as the council’s president and removed from office.

“That thing was counterfeit, forged, faked,” said Mallory, who is brother of Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory. “I have no idea where they got that from.”


Janke claims that "there was no real dispute over the facts." In fact it would be hard to dispute the facts in the case. As Kevin Osborne aptly pointed out, Dale Mallory did dispute those facts.

There is no statement from Dale Mallory in the file that contains his version of events. That is a blessing for Dale, because I doubt his version would have read well in light of the facts. A complaint is filed by a community council; police investigated that complaint for 233 days, but did not yield a statement from the one man the complaint was filed against.

Janke replied today that the relevant facts in the case were that the money was taken and most of it — $1,000 — was given to the YMCA for an art project. The YMCA returned the money, and none of the funds were used for Mallory’s personal gain, the assistant chief added. (The remaining money was given to Marquicia Jones-Woods to buy boots for a local drill team and already was spent.)

“There was nothing in contention here,” Janke said. “There’s no doubt that the money ended up with the YMCA and was subsequently returned.”

Once the investigation was launched, police saw that it was a fairly straightforward case, Janke said.

“It’s not a particularly complex matter,” he said. “Criminal culpability was decidedly lacking.”


In Janke’s view, the main thing is that the money was returned (even though it wasn't returned by Dale Mallory). The WECC had to do the legwork to get the money back. That sets quite a disturbing precedent in law enforcement, to say the least.

But if Janke is correct, it doesn't appear that the police have been fair to anyone. If this case is a fairly straightforward, open and shut case where both the facts are not disputed and criminal culpability is decidedly lacking, why in the hell would it take 7 months and all the man-hours to investigate. Janke is basically admitting that they knew right off the bat that this case was going nowhere. What a waste of resources and taxpayer dollars.

Even the Mallory camp can complain about that. Dale was investigated for seven months and in the middle of a political campaign. Now Lt. Col. Richard Janke is coming out saying that they knew the facts early on, they were never in dispute, and there was no criminal culpability. I am sure Dale would have liked to hear that last July.

It isn't fair to the people who filed the complaint either. If Janke is correct in that this case had "no real dispute over the facts", why did it take 233 days? Why did they have policemen doing lengthy interviews? Why did they tell the press and members of the West End Community that the investigation was "complex" and ongoing, with no apparent end in sight? It would have been better off had everyone heard that last July. What a waste of time and money.

Want another waste of time and $$? Why did they give this case to the FBI? Mind you, no documentation really exists that they DID handover the case to the FBI, but they claimed that they did. Why would they do this if they knew the case had no merit?

I continue to support the position that the whole affair was just a slow bleed strategy to let it die on the vine.

Anyone that wanted to talk to the police was allowed to submit to a lengthy interview by two officers on tape. They never did anything with those tapes. It was simply to placate people and buy some time. Those officers told citizens that they were humping on the case, and they had the tape recorders to prove it. What a waste of time, because Janke says it was clear early on their was no case. Those tapes don't even exist today.

The most critical piece of evidence in the case was a court document where Dale Mallory stated that he was dropping his lawsuit. He admitted to the court that he is no longer the WECC President. Weeks later, he cleaned out and closed down the community bank account. That document is the one document that you can't explain away if you want to make this a tale of a "he said, she said" neighborhood political pissing match. Since they couldn't explain that document, they threw it away. It is not in the file of the investigation, even though it was given to the police on more than one occasion. That also means that the CPD didn't forward it on the prosecutors with the case.

I am ignorant of police process, and this question might reflect that: Why was this case even forwarded on to the prosecutors if it was open and shut and police found nothing criminal (as Janke contends)? Do all complaints get forwarded on regardless of merit? And if you are going to forward it on, why not include all of the evidence (like Dale's statement to the court)?

In the end of the June, 2007 (over a year after Dale had shut down the WECC account) Lt. Col. Richard Janke is basically admitting that their never was much of an investigation. Without Osborne following up on the investigation, those facts would have never seen the light of day. Even when Kevin called them after the investigation had already concluded the police told him it was still ongoing, “complex”, and with no end in sight. They were still buying time and lying to the press and the public until the very end (the request for public records).

Now the official record is that it was not complex, never in dispute, and thus never really investigated. I can’t say it makes the CPD look good. It makes them look like deceptive politicians instead of policemen, who say things to comfort and placate people while pursuing a completely different agenda.

You can have timelines, court documents, copies of the checks and witnesses. It doesn’t matter one bit if you are well connected. On the other side you have a liar who sold out his own community. He continues to lie about even writing the checks (which even the police concede is not in doubt). He never even produced the historical records of the WECC to give to the current community administration. Five years of his administration, and not one single financial or historical record to show for it.

They say you can’t beat City Hall, and I say they are right.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

They destroyed documents.

7:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You guys got your money back and you are still bitching. The matter cost more to investigate than the money involved.

9:46 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Dallory,
First, I want to thank you for your excellent work.
I think one key fact has been glossed over.....
it's not the $1,119.19 it's the fact that Dale CLOSED THE BANK ACCOUNT months after he was impeached!!!
West End officers have been unable to get these bank records covering the 5 years Dale was in office.
What is in these records that scares Dale so much?
That's were the drama is. If Dale has nothing to hide, he could give the bank authorization to release these records. He won't.
Stay tuned folks. My bet is that the WECC will find a way to get the bank to release these records.

12:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Talked with a person with judicial power this morning about this slippery business involving the CPD & Jail Mallory. The individual summed it up succinctly:

POLITICS.

I happen to agree. The smell is still lingering. Look to Papa Bill for starters. Then look to Mayor Zero.

6:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I tried to pose the question; "If as Dale says, the check is a forgery: why hasn't he asked the CPD to investigate, and clear his name by arresting the person responsible for framing him". n8 refuses to post it. Seems like n8 and dale are both afraid of the truth.

11:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

New from Porkopolis:

When the world feels its better for us to be quiet and go away.
One more piece of the onion skin gets lifted.
Perhaps KO needs to dig deeper in the D4$, Tennbosch, CEC connection?
WJr


July 07, 2007
What's Joe Deters Hiding?

Maybe it's time to call in Sherlock Holmes or, at the very least, Nancy Drew.

After initially being told that the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office didn’t have any documents connected to the Cincinnati Police Department’s seven-month investigation of Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory's brother, a written public records request yielded a different response — but still no release of records.

Meanwhile, several West End residents who filed the complaint that initiated the probe of State Rep. Dale Mallory said they turned over far more records to Cincinnati Police than the department released to CityBeat as part of a previous public records request.

The reluctance of law enforcement agencies to be more forthcoming about the investigation has members of the West End Community Council doubting the probe's credibility and prompted broader questions about whether such requests are fully complied with in other cases.

CityBeat filed a public records request with the prosecutor’s office June 29. In a response Friday sent via facsimile, Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney William E. Breyer wrote, “We have no material which would be available under (state law) ORC 149.43. In particular, the ‘uncharged suspect’ and ‘work product’ exceptions apply.”

This is different, of course, from what CityBeat was told in a telephone interview with prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Jennifer Irey last month, who said the office had no such records at all. In a follow-up interview about two weeks later, Cincinnati Police Lt. Col. Richard Janke reaffirmed Irey’s comment, stating no documents were forwarded to the prosecutor’s office to base its decision to decline prosecution.

“As you surmised, it was just a verbal presentation,” Janke said.

If the prosecutor’s office has no records in the case, then why does Breyer specifically state “which would be available” under two allowed exceptions under state law?

The first exception cited in Breyer’s letter refers to this exemption in the Ohio Public Records Act: “the identity of a suspect who has not been charged with the offense to which the record pertains or of an information source or witness to whom confidentiality has been reasonably promised.”

The other exception refers to a provision excluding “specific confidential investigatory techniques or procedures or specific investigatory work product.”

Because the names of the investigation’s targets are already public knowledge — Dale Mallory and former community council treasurer, Esther Williams — does this mean the prosecutor’s office actually is protecting confidential sources in the case? It’s difficult to believe that the local office uses any other “specific confidential investigatory techniques” that aren’t already well known to the public.

Media advocates have criticized the “work product” exception as overly broad and complained that the Republican-controlled Ohio Legislature in recent years has been too interested in tightening — rather than expanding — public records access.

Regardless, County Prosecutor Joseph Deters routinely releases detailed investigative records in other cases in which he seeks out publicity. The name Marcus Fiesel is merely the first of many that pop to mind.

Across town at the Cincinnati Police Department, the only public records that supervisors had stated they had in the 233-day-long investigation was a two-page incident closure report and 12 pages that contained a photocopy of a bank employee’s business card and several cancelled checks.

But West End Community Council members replied that they handed over several documents to police when they filed the complaint and were later interviewed by officers. They include receipts that police gave the members for turning over sign-in sheets and agenda for the group’s April 2006 meeting, minutes for the April 2006 meeting and minutes for the May 2006 meeting. The documents were used to prove Williams was impeached and that the community council was taking steps to gain control of its bank accounts from Williams and Mallory.

Also, Mallory last year eventually dropped a lawsuit against the community council seeking his reinstatement as president rather than submit to a deposition under oath in the case. Court documents filed by Mallory’s attorney at the time stated Mallory “has no intention of remaining president of the West End Community Council.”

Those documents should be part of the official case file and subject to the public records law, members said.

Begun in June 2006, the police investigation was part of a rocky year for Mallory that also saw his impeachment as community council president amid revelations about his secret lobbying for City Link, a controversial project proposed for the West End, after he initially told the council he wasn’t connected to the project.

A month earlier, in May 2006, Mallory wrote checks totaling $1,119 that emptied the West End Community Council’s bank account, more than three months after his impeachment and a few weeks after his lawsuit seeking reinstatement was dropped. Mallory had said the money was for projects the council authorized earlier, but group leaders said no vote was ever taken and alleged Mallory acted in retaliation for his ouster.

The police investigation took seven months to complete, and at one time two lieutenants and a sergeant were assigned to the case. During that time, Mallory was elected as the 32nd District’s state representative, a seat once held by his father and brother.

Despite whether one believes Dale Mallory acted improperly or not, the conduct of Cincinnati Police and the stonewalling of the prosecutor’s office in the case raises troubling questions and are at odds with the uniquely American values of equal protection under the law and transparency in government.

— Kevin Osborne
(Photo: Frontier.cincinnati.com)

Posted at 02:01 PM | Permalink

5:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lawson is going down for the count. Now he's being foreclosed on. Once the IRS, mortgage company, city tax department, and clients he's screwed over divide up the sorry mess, he'll have to move into the crack shack with the Drama Dwarf.

6:57 AM  

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