Pubdate: Thu, 08 Aug 2013
Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2013 Star Tribune
Contact: http://www.startribunecompany.com/143
Website: http://www.startribune.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/266
Author: Eric Roper
Page: B1

COP ADMITTED GIVING DRUGS

Prosecutors Will Not File Criminal Charges Because the Hutchinson
Officer Made the Disclosure With Immunity From Prosecution.

A Hutchinson police officer admitted to superiors last fall that he
gave people marijuana as part of a state training exercise in
Minneapolis, a month after prosecutors declared they lacked sufficient
evidence to charge him.

The officer, Karl Willers, also told his department that between 30
and 40 percent of his training class distributed narcotics in order to
perform observations, and that a coordinator of the program told them
to get rid of the drugs after the allegations went public, according
to a Hutchinson investigative report obtained through an open records
request.

The Hennepin County attorney's office said this week that it will not
charge Willers in light of his admission to giving people drugs
because he made the disclosure with immunity from prosecution.

Controversy arose last year when a YouTube video was posted by Occupy
Minnesota activists who said outstate police gave them marijuana as
part of the Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE) program. Practiced
nationally, the program typically involves police studying the
symptoms of people who are already intoxicated so they can spot
similar people in the field.

A series of documents, released late Wednesday, show that in addition
to his statement during an internal investigation, Willers said he
provided drugs in a memo to police department superiors the day the
YouTube video was publicized. Hennepin County attorneys could not be
reached for comment on that memo Wednesday night. The documents also
show that another Hutchinson officer admitted to providing people with
drugs.

Responding to the allegation that up to 40 percent of the training
class distributed drugs to test subjects, Department of Public Safety
spokesman Bruce Gordon said in an e-mail that "there was not enough
evidence to support charges." The DRE program, which is overseen by
the Department of Public Safety, resumed this June after being
suspended for about a year. Officers will now go to California to
study intoxicated people.

Willers was one of six officers who declined to speak with state
investigators conducting a probe in response to the controversy. His
partner from the training did talk, telling investigators that Willers
offered marijuana to an activist in downtown Minneapolis' Peavey Plaza
and that two people later smoked it in the back seat of their squad
car near the training site in Richfield.

In September 2012, the Hennepin County attorney's office declined to
charge Willers - or any other officers - because of conflicting
witness statements, a lack of drug evidence and the possibility that
only a petty misdemeanor was committed since Willers was not reimbursed.

Disciplinary documents obtained from the Hutchinson Police Department
show that in October 2012, during that department's internal
investigation, Willers admitted to providing the marijuana. Willers
received a four week unpaid suspension, half of which was stayed if he
completed an ethics training course and made a subsequent ethics
presentation to the department. His suspension was to be followed by
two months of probation.

Willers told an internal investigator that he obtained the marijuana
from a Farmington police officer in the training program who
confiscated it from what the report said were "some kids" who had
agreed to be evaluated. Regarding the Peavey Plaza incident, Willers
said both he and his partner gave out the marijuana. Willers estimated
he gave it to a total of four people during the training.

The report also describes other troubling activity in the program,
which involved outstate officers roaming the area looking for test
subjects as they apparently felt pressure to perform evaluations.
Willers said his partner twice gave someone money to buy crack, which
was smoked in the back of a squad car. Willers said he called a
friend's "pot head" brother and told him to get high with others so
the officers could perform evaluations.

No training instructors told them to distribute marijuana, but past
participants in the class said or implied that it was OK, according to
Willers' statement. He said he agreed with statements made by others
during the criminal investigation that the program's instructions were
vague on how to find test subjects. When the YouTube video was
released, Willers and his partner reported it to a coordinator of the
program, who "told them to make the marijuana disappear," according to
the report.

In an interview, Hutchinson Police Chief Dan Hatten called Willers "a
fine officer" and said he is doing "what he's been asked to do" as
discipline.

Gordon, of the Department of Public Safety, did not address an
allegation that a program coordinator said the marijuana should
"disappear," adding that the coordinator is on leave unrelated to the
DRE program.

State Trooper Nick Otterson was placed on paid leave last year after
one test subject accused him of being present while another officer
"handed me a bag of pot." Otterson has since returned to regular duty
and state officials said no discipline was imposed.

'Same rights as Joe Blow'

Prosecutors cannot use Willers' October admission because he gave it
after receiving a "Garrity Warning," which prevents compelled public
employee statements from being used in criminal proceedings. Garrity
Warnings are commonly used in internal affairs investigations, since
officers risk being fired if they do not make a statement.

"What prevents us from being able to take a second look at this and
potentially bring charges is that the Garrity Warning and the Garrity
protections prohibit us from using any of that information," said
Chuck Laszewski, a spokesman for the Hennepin County attorney's
office, before Hutchinson released Willers' more detailed statements
about the program Wednesday afternoon.

Prosecutors were unaware of Willers' admission until the Star Tribune
inquired on Tuesday.

Fred Bruno, an attorney who often defends police officers, notes that
members of the public have similar protections against compelled
testimony. "It protects the public from having a bad cop," Bruno said.
"But it also protects a cop, and gives him or her the same rights as
Joe Blow."

Willers' admission could have implications for an ongoing civil suit.
Several Occupy activists have filed a federal lawsuit against police
officers and departments across the state; the plaintiffs allege that
they were subjects of an experiment that violated their constitutional
rights by participating in the DRE program.

The government defendants seeking to dismiss the case have so far made
legal arguments under the assumption the drugs were provided, without
formally conceding that fact. Nathan Hansen, an attorney for the
activists, said Willers' admission could be important if a judge
decides the case can proceed.

"I think that it's pretty significant because it's an admission,"
Hansen said. "They've admitted at least that that happened."
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MAP posted-by: Matt