Cronyism permeates THP, Bredesen says
Civil service tribunal part of expanded investigation
Gov. Phil Bredesen, left, and TBI Director Mark Gwyn head into a news conference at the state Capitol, where the governor announced an expanded THP probe. JAE S. LEE / STAFF
By BRAD SCHRADE
Staff Writer
Published: Friday, 12/09/05
The Tennessee Highway Patrol is rife with cronyism and a pattern of overlooking officers’ criminal backgrounds that has made it likely that felons are in uniform and patrolling the state’s highways, Gov. Phil Bredesen said yesterday.
Bredesen vowed for the second time in a week to clean up the state police agency, and he announced a widening TBI probe of the patrol that will include a special civil service tribunal to handle the workload.
Documents released yesterday showed that officers had been accused of such crimes as assault, grand larceny, drunken driving, drug possession, burglary and child abuse, according to the TBI’s review of criminal and traffic offense histories of 41 officers and noncommissioned THP workers who were flagged in background checks.
The investigation found 14 other officers and one noncommissioned employee with criminal charges in their pasts, including assault, resisting arrest, drug possession and defrauding an innkeeper. Those records were wiped clean by expungement and legally can be hidden from the public.
In many cases, the charges occurred out of state and happened years ago, when the troopers were young, and long before they joined the Highway Patrol.
The sweeping review of the agency follows a months-long investigation of the THP by The Tennessean. The newspaper’s reporting has shown that the patrol, which the state budget allots more than $70 million a year, has a culture of political influence and favors for campaign donors and a pattern of turning a blind eye when its own officers get in trouble.
Bredesen’s statements yesterday seemed to confirm this reality.
“It is not a pretty picture,” the governor said. “There is a pattern of cronyism evident in this that clearly is wrong and needs rooting out. A lot of the stuff goes back a long way — ’64, I think, is the earliest issue that we dealt with in this.
“It didn’t start on my watch, but it’s going to end on my watch, and we’re going to start that process, going to start that process today.”
The list includes Trooper Gregory Badacour, who was charged last year in Nashville with filming a couple engaging in sexual activity. He was found guilty and is on probation until January, according to documents released by the governor’s office.
It also includes Trooper Ronald W. Hughes, who made an “abrupt” U-turn at a police roadblock in Marion County in 2001, according to the governor’s office. He was arrested and charged with offenses, including evading arrest and drunken driving, that were later dropped; he retired 10 days ago, on the same day the governor ordered TBI background checks of the entire THP.
The governor suggested that some of the troopers flagged in the TBI review could lose their jobs. He said he planned to convene a three-member panel that will review those with troubled pasts and would recommend to the safety commissioner that he “take actions in regard to these people.”
“It is entirely possible people will get fired as a result of this,” Bredesen said.
The governor’s request that the TBI perform background checks came after questions from The Tennessean about an Oct. 12 memo from THP commander Lynn Pitts. It suggested that troopers with felonies on their records needed to get them expunged soon, as the patrol prepared to give troopers access to a federal criminal-records database.
Bredesen emphasized that the report the TBI provided him yesterday was an initial review, an incomplete one, and that the outcomes of many of the troopers’ criminal cases were not known. In the coming days and weeks, the review could turn up other officers with problems in their past, he said.
“I think there is clearly a lack of confidence in the internal processes of the Safety Department,” the governor said.
Part of the TBI’s review will include combing through THP internal affairs files and personnel files of all officers to determine problems that may not show up in criminal history checks. Bredesen said the state Personnel Department had reviewed 937 personnel files that make reference to the existence of 236 internal affairs investigations. Of those, 43 cases definitely will need further review, Bredesen said.
Other problems Bredesen listed that have emerged in the review of the department include:
• Evidence that some officers may have been driving state vehicles without valid driver’s licenses.
• A pattern of officers being suspended or forced to quit for misbehavior or illegal activity and then being rehired. The governor said he was “troubled by this pattern of (forced resignations) followed by rehirings — that something gets going and the person is suspended, and then two or three years later, is rehired in the process.”
• The possibility that officers may have been illegally purchasing confiscated property from the state. Pitts, after making a purchase of confiscated property, was forced to resign on Tuesday.
• One example of cronyism that the governor detailed was a case in which a THP officer, whom he did not identify, “was recommended against by the research” and by the THP’s plainclothes detective unit, but in which the man “was hired anyway.” The governor didn’t mention a name, but a memo distributed by his office last night identified a Trooper Leo Green as having been rehired by the THP after retiring following a DUI charge. He was rehired even though two THP supervisors recommended against it.
• The Safety Department has been keeping personnel records scattered throughout its offices, in a way that may have hidden from public view documents about the officers’ wrongdoing. Bredesen said the department may have been violating the state’s public records laws by not providing full disclosure of these personnel records. That will be fixed, he said.
A TBI criminal investigation was launched this week into Pitts’ attempt to buy the aluminum fishing boat from the state via GovDeals.com. The bureau and the state General Services Department also have begun a probe into whether other Safety Department employees have bought items that Safety seized, the governor said.
The widening probe also has left questions about who will run the Safety Department. Safety Commissioner Fred Phillips was absent from the room as Bredesen made his comments at an early-evening news conference in his executive conference room at the Capitol.
As Bredesen spoke about the officers who might be fired, he twice said the state’s civil service rules give that authority only to the commissioner — or the acting commissioner.
The three-member civil service panel’s recommendations will be delivered in roughly the next 10 days to the Safety commissioner, the governor said. He said its work, and any punishments it doles out, would be made public.
The TBI’s involvement in the probe of the THP has brought with it questions of whether the investigation will be done in public view, as the TBI has broad exemptions from the state open records law.
Bredesen spoke broadly about trying to make the recommendations and actions in the current probe “completely available and completely transparent.”
“The recommendations that are made, and the actions that are taken, will be completely public,” he said.
By the numbers
Preliminary results released by governor show dozens of troopers were accused of crimes.
DUI/DWI: 14
ASSAULT: 7
DRUGS: 5
LARCENY: 2
SUSPENDED LICENSE: 17
Those charged?
TROOPERS: 28
SUPERVISORS: 8
DISPATCHERS: 4
DETECTIVE: 1
UNKNOWN: 2
Verdict?
GUILTY: 8
ACQUITTED: 2
DISMISSED/
DROPPED: 26
DIVERSION: 3
UNKNOWN: 35
Seriousness of charges?
FELONIES: 10
MISDEMEANORS: 60
UNKNOWN: 4
When were they charged?
PRE-HIRE: 27
POST-HIRE: 7
UNKNOWN: 9
http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20051209&Category=NEWS0201&ArtNo=51209003&SectionCat=&Template=printart
Civil service tribunal part of expanded investigation
Gov. Phil Bredesen, left, and TBI Director Mark Gwyn head into a news conference at the state Capitol, where the governor announced an expanded THP probe. JAE S. LEE / STAFF
By BRAD SCHRADE
Staff Writer
Published: Friday, 12/09/05
The Tennessee Highway Patrol is rife with cronyism and a pattern of overlooking officers’ criminal backgrounds that has made it likely that felons are in uniform and patrolling the state’s highways, Gov. Phil Bredesen said yesterday.
Bredesen vowed for the second time in a week to clean up the state police agency, and he announced a widening TBI probe of the patrol that will include a special civil service tribunal to handle the workload.
Documents released yesterday showed that officers had been accused of such crimes as assault, grand larceny, drunken driving, drug possession, burglary and child abuse, according to the TBI’s review of criminal and traffic offense histories of 41 officers and noncommissioned THP workers who were flagged in background checks.
The investigation found 14 other officers and one noncommissioned employee with criminal charges in their pasts, including assault, resisting arrest, drug possession and defrauding an innkeeper. Those records were wiped clean by expungement and legally can be hidden from the public.
In many cases, the charges occurred out of state and happened years ago, when the troopers were young, and long before they joined the Highway Patrol.
The sweeping review of the agency follows a months-long investigation of the THP by The Tennessean. The newspaper’s reporting has shown that the patrol, which the state budget allots more than $70 million a year, has a culture of political influence and favors for campaign donors and a pattern of turning a blind eye when its own officers get in trouble.
Bredesen’s statements yesterday seemed to confirm this reality.
“It is not a pretty picture,” the governor said. “There is a pattern of cronyism evident in this that clearly is wrong and needs rooting out. A lot of the stuff goes back a long way — ’64, I think, is the earliest issue that we dealt with in this.
“It didn’t start on my watch, but it’s going to end on my watch, and we’re going to start that process, going to start that process today.”
The list includes Trooper Gregory Badacour, who was charged last year in Nashville with filming a couple engaging in sexual activity. He was found guilty and is on probation until January, according to documents released by the governor’s office.
It also includes Trooper Ronald W. Hughes, who made an “abrupt” U-turn at a police roadblock in Marion County in 2001, according to the governor’s office. He was arrested and charged with offenses, including evading arrest and drunken driving, that were later dropped; he retired 10 days ago, on the same day the governor ordered TBI background checks of the entire THP.
The governor suggested that some of the troopers flagged in the TBI review could lose their jobs. He said he planned to convene a three-member panel that will review those with troubled pasts and would recommend to the safety commissioner that he “take actions in regard to these people.”
“It is entirely possible people will get fired as a result of this,” Bredesen said.
The governor’s request that the TBI perform background checks came after questions from The Tennessean about an Oct. 12 memo from THP commander Lynn Pitts. It suggested that troopers with felonies on their records needed to get them expunged soon, as the patrol prepared to give troopers access to a federal criminal-records database.
Bredesen emphasized that the report the TBI provided him yesterday was an initial review, an incomplete one, and that the outcomes of many of the troopers’ criminal cases were not known. In the coming days and weeks, the review could turn up other officers with problems in their past, he said.
“I think there is clearly a lack of confidence in the internal processes of the Safety Department,” the governor said.
Part of the TBI’s review will include combing through THP internal affairs files and personnel files of all officers to determine problems that may not show up in criminal history checks. Bredesen said the state Personnel Department had reviewed 937 personnel files that make reference to the existence of 236 internal affairs investigations. Of those, 43 cases definitely will need further review, Bredesen said.
Other problems Bredesen listed that have emerged in the review of the department include:
• Evidence that some officers may have been driving state vehicles without valid driver’s licenses.
• A pattern of officers being suspended or forced to quit for misbehavior or illegal activity and then being rehired. The governor said he was “troubled by this pattern of (forced resignations) followed by rehirings — that something gets going and the person is suspended, and then two or three years later, is rehired in the process.”
• The possibility that officers may have been illegally purchasing confiscated property from the state. Pitts, after making a purchase of confiscated property, was forced to resign on Tuesday.
• One example of cronyism that the governor detailed was a case in which a THP officer, whom he did not identify, “was recommended against by the research” and by the THP’s plainclothes detective unit, but in which the man “was hired anyway.” The governor didn’t mention a name, but a memo distributed by his office last night identified a Trooper Leo Green as having been rehired by the THP after retiring following a DUI charge. He was rehired even though two THP supervisors recommended against it.
• The Safety Department has been keeping personnel records scattered throughout its offices, in a way that may have hidden from public view documents about the officers’ wrongdoing. Bredesen said the department may have been violating the state’s public records laws by not providing full disclosure of these personnel records. That will be fixed, he said.
A TBI criminal investigation was launched this week into Pitts’ attempt to buy the aluminum fishing boat from the state via GovDeals.com. The bureau and the state General Services Department also have begun a probe into whether other Safety Department employees have bought items that Safety seized, the governor said.
The widening probe also has left questions about who will run the Safety Department. Safety Commissioner Fred Phillips was absent from the room as Bredesen made his comments at an early-evening news conference in his executive conference room at the Capitol.
As Bredesen spoke about the officers who might be fired, he twice said the state’s civil service rules give that authority only to the commissioner — or the acting commissioner.
The three-member civil service panel’s recommendations will be delivered in roughly the next 10 days to the Safety commissioner, the governor said. He said its work, and any punishments it doles out, would be made public.
The TBI’s involvement in the probe of the THP has brought with it questions of whether the investigation will be done in public view, as the TBI has broad exemptions from the state open records law.
Bredesen spoke broadly about trying to make the recommendations and actions in the current probe “completely available and completely transparent.”
“The recommendations that are made, and the actions that are taken, will be completely public,” he said.
By the numbers
Preliminary results released by governor show dozens of troopers were accused of crimes.
DUI/DWI: 14
ASSAULT: 7
DRUGS: 5
LARCENY: 2
SUSPENDED LICENSE: 17
Those charged?
TROOPERS: 28
SUPERVISORS: 8
DISPATCHERS: 4
DETECTIVE: 1
UNKNOWN: 2
Verdict?
GUILTY: 8
ACQUITTED: 2
DISMISSED/
DROPPED: 26
DIVERSION: 3
UNKNOWN: 35
Seriousness of charges?
FELONIES: 10
MISDEMEANORS: 60
UNKNOWN: 4
When were they charged?
PRE-HIRE: 27
POST-HIRE: 7
UNKNOWN: 9
http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20051209&Category=NEWS0201&ArtNo=51209003&SectionCat=&Template=printart
