Pubdate: Wed, 25 Aug 1999
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA)
Copyright: 1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Contact:  http://www.seattle-pi.com/
Website: http://www.post-intelligencer.com/
Author: Kimberly A.C. Wilson, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter

POLICE DETECTIVE QUITS UNDER FIRE 

Allegations Of Drug Use Made Against City Veteran

A veteran Seattle police detective who served in an elite investigations
unit resigned yesterday amid allegations that he had used cocaine and
methadone, a drug used to treat heroin addiction.

The detective's resignation comes less than a week after an independent
panel found major flaws in the way the Seattle Police Department
investigates itself.

The detective said he wanted to pursue other interests and stepped down
from the six-member Special Investigations Unit yesterday morning. The unit
investigates crimes on the Internet, gambling and child pornography.

No charges have been filed against the detective, who has been on the force
for more than 12 years. His name is being withheld.

He could not be reached yesterday for comment.

It was not immediately clear whether an investigation of his case had been
completed or was continuing, or whether the allegations involved drug use
while on duty.

Police Department officials declined to comment on the detective's sudden
resignation.

"I can say that an officer has resigned. . . . I can't go any further than
that," said Lisa Ross, spokeswoman for Police Chief Norm Stamper.

The resignation came after an internal investigation that spanned several
weeks, according to several sources within the department.

Those sources also did not know what prompted the investigation by the
Internal Investigations Section.

But the sources said the investigation focused on a two-year period.

Methadone, a long-acting synthetic narcotic, is a controlled substance that
is dispensed in special clinics.

It is prescribed to lessen the symptoms of heroin withdrawal.

According to the Lindesmith Center in New York, when used in proper doses
for addiction treatment, methadone does not create euphoria or sedation and
has no adverse effects on motor skills or mental capacity.

Yesterday's resignation shook colleagues, who considered the detective a
thorough investigator. They called him a "cop's cop."

But they said working so closely with criminals can take its toll.

"It really works on you," said one officer. "You wonder if you've really
become a part of them -- some people turn to the bottle. This is not an
easy lifestyle."

The detective won the respect of fellow officers when he helped solve a
missing-persons case last fall, bringing closure to the family of
13-year-old Kavita Babber.

A 20-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador reportedly confessed to
police that he killed the teen in September and dumped her body in a North
End storm drain where he led detectives two months later.

And in 1997, the detective was part of an investigation that resulted in
the arrests of three alleged child pornographers suspected of luring
teenagers to appear in sex movies.

The Special Investigations Unit, where the detective has been assigned for
more than three years, is one of three squads that fall under the Vice
Section, along with the General Investigations Unit and Street Team Unit.

During its three-month investigation, the four-member citizens review panel
found no evidence of widespread corruption in the department.

Since this spring, individual cases of misconduct by police officers have
surfaced.

In April, the department acknowledged that at least eight officers,
including an internal investigations sergeant, failed to report allegations
that a police detective stole $10,000 from the home of a city resident who
was killed in a shootout with police in October 1996.

Detective Earl "Sonny" Davis, who reportedly returned the money a day after
taking it, retired in the wake of the scandal. He goes on trial Sept. 7 for
first-degree theft.

Last week, patrolman Brett S. Smith was arraigned on two counts of
second-degree assault with sexual motivation. A two-year member of the
force, Smith is charged with fondling two women in their beds after he and
a friend had drinks with them at a Pioneer Square tavern.

A member on the panel said yesterday that, although the panel was made
aware of the Smith case and the investigation into the officer's drug use,
it did not examine either case closely because they were ongoing.

The panel, which recommended that a civilian run a new office to pursue
allegations of police misconduct, called on Stamper last week to adopt a
"Bright Line Policy" to discourage lying, cheating and stealing in the
department.

As of yesterday, Stamper had not responded specifically to that
recommendation or the 22 others outlined in the panel's report, including
suggestions to increase ethics training for all officers and begin to
conduct face-to-face interviews between accused officers and internal
investigators.

Currently, officers respond to written questions. Seattle is one of the few
cities that doesn't conduct direct interviews with accused officers.

Stamper and Mayor Paul Schell pledged to respond to the panel's report by
Sept. 17 with a plan for implementing some or all of the suggestions.

Schell said his response will show which recommendations can immediately go
into effect and which would require police union approvals.
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