Pubdate: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 Source: Jackson Sun News (TN) Copyright: 2003 The Jackson Sun Contact: http://www.jacksonsun.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1482 Author: Richard Schneider WOODALL SHOULD COME CLEAN ABOUT TASK FORCE WOES This morning, I'd like to go back to a story that hit our news pages two weeks ago. It involved a Jackson police officer, Sgt. Leslee Hallenback, a member of the gang task force. Now, Sgt. Hallenback isn't a well-known name outside of the law enforcement community. And those who have read the story of Sgt. Hallenback, unless they were in the immediate family of Jackson law enforcement, probably found it hard to follow. The short version is that our District Attorney, Jerry Woodall, wrote a letter to Jackson Police Chief Rick Staples saying that he would no longer use Sgt. Hallenback as a witness in state court cases. In short, she no longer had credibility with the D.A. The story then wove through charges and counter-charges: a drug case involving Sgt. Hallenback as an investigating officer that was tossed out for the lack of a search warrant; public records requests to see the letters between Woodall and Staples, filed by a Jackson officer who has a discrimination lawsuit against the police department; union activities; an FBI investigation of anonymous charges. Even the short version takes time to explain. To link them together, well, we'd be here all day. The story did expose a rather unseemly side of law enforcement, but that is a profession that will have its moments of unseemliness. It's just part of the job, considering whom the clientele, so to speak, are. But beyond all of the charges and counter-charges between the police, the D.A. and police officers, there are three reasons why you should care why Sgt. Leslee Hallenback has become a ping-pong ball between the D.A. and the Jackson police. Reason No. 1: Court documents indicate that Sgt. Hallenback testified in a drug trial that was dismissed because police went into a house several hours before a search warrant was obtained. One learns in fifth grade that that's a big No-No. One of the attorneys in the case even charged that the police lied in court about the search warrant. You should be concerned because we apparently have some police officers who do not understand that you can't just break down the door, then apologize, with no consequences. If Woodall were really concerned, he would order an investigation of the gang task force to let the people who pay the bills - you - know if they are breaking the law, or not. We have the right to know that police are following the law as they pursue those who might be breaking it. If criminal charges are warranted, so be it. It's for the good of the police department that it has the public trust. Simply saying one officer can't testify doesn't clear up anything. Reason No. 2: This silence by the D.A. is disturbing. He won't even tell Chief Staples why he's freezing Sgt. Hallenback from testifying. Staples says she's OK. The U.S. Attorney's office, apparently, says she's OK. Woodall's failure to explain himself, to Staples and the public, is an arrogant act by someone who thinks you don't have the right, or need, to know. You should be concerned because if the D.A. and the Jackson police chief can't, and apparently don't, talk, how can their crime fighting be effective? Reason No. 3: This ties with reasons No. 1 and No. 2. Those of us who stay in tune with such things wonder why these law enforcement "task forces'' sometimes seem to breed cowboys, of a sort. Let me take you back about 10 years or so ago, when the drug task force was so messed up, and the evidence room at the sheriff's department so compromised, that even the TBI had to admit that it would be impossible to investigate. Now comes the gang task force and charges against one of its key members that the D.A. apparently believes, and a court case that was thrown out because the task force either botched or ignored the search warrant process. Both the city police and the D.A. need to explain what is going on here, at the least for the integrity of the good officers. Exactly what is going on here? Some in power do have the answer. But they're not going to tell it to you. - --- Richard Schneider is The Jackson Sun's executive editor. - --- MAP posted-by: Perry Stripling