HomeMy WebLinkAbout1984-03-02 - Special City Council (2)MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING
OF THE
CITY OF STEPHENVILLE, TEXAS, HELD ON
FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1984 - 9:30 A. M.
The Special Meeting of the City Council of the City of
Stephenville, Texas, was called to order by the Mayor with the
following memebers present:
Mayor Joe F. Cummings
Councilmembers: Floyd Gordon
John E. Pollan
William G. Brede
Charles Riggins
and with the following members absent:
G. A. Swindle
James L. McSwain
Ray Reynolds
David Clayton
None.
City Administrator Kurt J. Ackermann, City Secretary Joyce
Pemberton, City Attorney Joseph Chandler, Director of Finance
Charlene Young, Chief of Police Doug Conner, Administrative Clerk
of Planning & Inspections Betty Chew, Mr. & Mrs. Johnny Osborne,
Mr. & Mrs. Bobby Foster, Detective Ken Maltby, Attorney Marc
Richman, and Ron Jones were present.
:M I: A HEARING .
NY OSBORNE REGARDING
Mayor Cummings advised this was a hearing requested by
Johnny Osborne regarding personnel matters. The hearing was to
be as informal as possible. Both parties would make opening sta-
tements then there would be a question and answer session.
Mayor Cummings asked Chief of Police Conner to address the
Council outlining the events, as he remembered them, surrounding
this incident.
Mr. Marc Richman: It was his understanding, from the letter he
received, that the hearing would be limited to
whether or not Johnny Osborne took a polygraph
test and whether or not Johnny Osborne volun-
tarily- resigned his position as police officer
for the City of Stephenville.
Mayor Cummings: Yes, Mr. Richman, simply because that is the
only involvement the city has had. Any other
things that have been said have been made at
the courthouse or somewhere else. The city
has never made any allegations against Johnny
or anything else.
Mr. Marc Richman: Johnny was originally relieved of his duties
subject to a list of possible criminal allega-
tions against him. The Chief relieved him of
his duties before he was ever ordered to take a
polygraph test. There is in his file several,
3 or 4, affidavits of people who have alleged
that he has commited certain criminal offenses.
He was relieved of his duties for those and as
a result of those. That is what is in his
jacket and his other personnel papers also
indicate possible criminal charges against him
as the reason for his termination.
Mayor Cummings: He was placed on administrative leave with pay
at that point. He was not relieved of his
duties. Let's have Chief Conner make his sta-
tement and then we'll get into all of that.
Mr. Marc Richman: On August 27th there was a letter written to
Johnny and that was before he was ordered to
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take the polygraph testa In that letter the
Chief indicated there were allegations against
him that could very well constitute violation
of the code of conduct and state, local, and
federal laws and he was put on administrative
leave or relieved of his duties as a result of
those charges against him, not as a result of
failing to take the polygraph test. At that
time, he was not ordered to take the polygraph
test for two more days. That letter also
orders him to take the polygraph test. He was
relieved of his duties before he took the
polygraph test. The real harm to Johnny and
what we are here to redress is not whether or
not he took the polygraph test obviously, but
the criminal allegations made against him
which have never been layed to rest. The com-
munity at large still feels, and several of
the police agencies who have inquired about
maybe employing him, have come to believe that
he may be guilty of some kind of criminal act.
There some pretty serious acts made and that's
what really important to the man about pro -
tecting his reputation and his job and his
ability to get a job in some other place.
Mayor Cummings: Okay. Let's hear, so we'll all know from what
base we're dealing, let's hear Chief Conner
first then we'll have any comments from you or
any questions or anything you want to ask.
Mr. Marc Richman: I don't want to appear hard headed and as soon
as you tell me what you want, I won't bring it
up again. When I give my opening statement or
when I do my questioning of the Chief, if the
tribunal will allow me to do that, are we going
to limit it to whether or not he took the
polygraph test? Or are we going to limit .....
Mayor Cummings: We are going to limit it to the things the
city had anything to do with. We had nothing
to do with criminal charges. That's a
District Attorney matter. We have not made
any charges against Johnny then, now, or any
other time. How could we respond to allega-
tions of criminal charges when we haven't made
any?
Mr. Marc Richman: The Chief did make some. There is a letter
saying this is what you are charged with.
These are the complaints charged against you
and they are all criminal. The letter speci-
fically states there could be criminal
charges.
Mayor Cummings: Well, yes, he was aware of the charges that
had been made against him, but Chief Conner
has not made any formal criminal charges and
does not have the authority to.
Mr. Marc Richman : He was put on administrative leave before the
polygraph business ever came up because of
these allegations against him.
Mayor Cummings: That's correct. That's within the scope of
the 'Police Chief's responsibility.
Mr. Marc Richman: All I'm asking of this administrative tribunal
is breadth and depth of the question here. If
it is only going to be because he did not take
the polygraph test and you're not interested
in the criminal cases, I'll just ask the court
to consider and let me try to prove he's not
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guilty of any criminal offenses, but if you're
not going to consider that just tell me and I
won't keep bringing it up.
Mayor Cummings: We are going to consider anything within the
scope of the events that have occurred that
the city has any responsibility for which is
what we said in that letter.
Chief Conner: Mayor and Councilmen, I would like to cover
the period of time beginning August 22, 1983
through September 15, 1983. Myself and Lt.
Maltby attended a District Court hearing on
the 22nd of August at which time we learned of
a statement that had been given and in this
statement there was a real serious allegation
made against Johnny Osborne. This statement
was made by Danny Carden and we learned of it in
District Court hearing. I obtained a copy of
this statement the following day from the
District Clerk at the courthouse. I took a
copy of the statement to the police station.
I asked Johnny to come into the office. I
gave Johnny a copy of the statement. I asked
him to read it and give his response to this
statement as far as the allegation against
him. He did read the statement. He did tell
me, well not in so many words, he did not
exactly say that the allegations were not
true, but he did read the statement and I
asked him to respond to it. In response to
it, he asked how he could clear himself? The
answer to this question, I told him the only
way I knew that he could clear himself was
through a polygraph examination. At that time
he stated he would be happy to take a
polygraph test. That we could schedule one
for him and he would be perfectly willing to
take it and happy to. At the time he left the
office it seemed he was willing to and no
problem whatsoever. Later that same day the
dispatcher advised that he went home and
called her and advised that he was sick and
was not able to fill out the rest of his
shift.
The next morning, on 08/24/83, about 8:00
a.m., when I came to work, Lt. Maltby advised
that he had scheduled a polygraph test in the
Tarrant County Sheriff's office. He advised
me that he had tried to call Johnny's resi-
dence and received no answer on the phone. I
asked Lt. Maltby to go by Johnny's residence
in case something was wrong with the phone and
check to make sure he got the information that
we did have a polygraph examination set up and
would like for him to take it. Ken told me
that when he went to the residence, Johnny's
wife, Sherri, answered the door and she made
the statement that Johnny was not going to
take the polygraph examination and that he and
his attorney would be in my office that after-
noon. Around 5:00 p.m. of that same date
Johnny, his wife Sherri, Attorney Bobby Glasgow,
City Attorney Joseph Chandler, Lt. Maltby, and
myself did attend that meeting. That on
08/24/83 at 5:00 p.m. At that meeting, his
attorney, Glasgow, did most of the speaking as
far as what they had to say and, to me, what
his attorney Mr. Glasgow said was that Johnny
Osborne denies all allegations made in that
particular statement made by Danny Carden.
Bobby said that Johnny wasn't going to take
any polygraph test until after Danny Carden
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took one and if he did take one it would be
administered by a polygraph operator from
Austin, someone he knew personally. That was
basically what that meeting consisted of.
On Thursday, 08/25/83, Lt. Maltby took Danny
Carden to the Tarrant County Sheriff's office
and gave him a polygraph test in regard to the
statement. We did get the results of that
polygraph examination which, I think, each one
of you have a copy of that. After we got the
results of that test, on 08/29/83, well, first
of all, on 08/27/83 at 6:10 p.m. I gave
Johhny Osborne a letter. This is the letter I
suppose that Mr. Richman is speaking of. It
is dated 08 /27/83, addressed to Johnny
Osborne. You all have a copy of that as far
as the contents of it, but, basically, what
its saying is that allegations have been made
against him by Danny Carden. They are serious
allegations and I felt like something needed
to be cleared and that I did want him to take
this polygraph test which we had scheduled
giving the date, time, instructions on where
to go to take it and the fact that it was a
written request for him to take a polygraph
examination.
On 08/29/83 which was the date the polygraph
examination was set for, myself and Lt. Maltby
left the police station at 9:00 a.m. Now in
this letter it also stated that if he needs
transportation we will be glad to furnish it
to Fort Worth, if not we can meet him over
there. We left the station at 9:00 a.m. that
morning. We got almost to Bluff Dale about
9:15 a.m. and received a call from the
dispatcher that Johnny's wife had called in
and advised that Johnny was not going to take
that test because he wanted an attorney pre-
sent with him. As far as I'm concerned I
would have been happy to have his attorney go
with him if he liked to. This was on the 29th
when the test was scheduled. So therefore
that test was not administered due to refusal.
On September 2,1983 around 4:00 p.m., this was
a few days later after the test was refused, I
called Johnny and asked him to come by my
office because I felt at that time we were
getting nowhere as far as getting the allega-
tion cleared up. I did want to talk to him to
see what his plans were. Find out what he
planned on doing. At that particular meeting
Johnny Osborne did voluntarily resign his job.
He stated to me that he did wish to resign. I
did ask him for a letter to that affect and he
stated that he would go home, he had some per -
sonalized stationery, and he would type me out
a letter of resignation and bring it back to
me shortly. He never came back with that
letter and that is the last conversation I
have had with Johnny. Since that time, on the
15th of that month, which is the date the
paychecks come out for the first one -half of
the month, Johnny's check which was for the
1st and 2nd of September, was put into an
envelope along with a note which I attached to
the check asking him to return all city pro-
perty by the 16th which would have been the
following day.. I put his check in an envelope
which I do all the employees and put it in his
mail box which we do everybody in the
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department. Johnny's wife came and picked up
his check around 11:00 a.m. and left. That
afternoon around 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. she
brought the envelope, check and note back.
She advised Sgt. Don Miller that her attorney
advised her not to accept anything else from
the city. The check was taken to City Hall and
put in the vault. I believe you all have a
copy of it also. That is basically what did
actually take place. The time and events that
did take place.
Mayor Cummings: Let me ask you Chief Conner, it is not uncom-
mon that allegations of this type to be made
against policmen? Is this standard procedure
to require a polygraph test?
Chief Conner: Yes, sir, the city has a policy that any alle-
gation made against a city employee, police
officer or whatever, that it be put in
writing, in the form of a sworn statement,
then that allegation would be investigated
from that point. Of course thats what we have
as far as I'm concerned is a that statement
made by Danny Carden as an allegation.
Following Chief Conner's statement there was a very lengthy
interrogation: of Chief Conner by Mr. Richman.
Mr. Richman stated that the reason Johnny did not take the
polygraph tests when scheduled was that he wanted his attorney
present and to screen the questions. Mr. Richman said that a
polygraph test, depending on the way the questions are asked, can
be an excellent tool or absolutely worthless. No one who is
familiar with polygraph tests would subject himself to a
polygraph test with an unknown man giving the test and without
ever looking -.at the questions.
Mayor Cummings said he did not see any point in having a
court session as they cannot swear in witnesses and it would just
get down to one person against another. They (the council) has
no way of proving anything one way_or_ another.
There was a lengthy discussion regarding the type of
questions that should be asked on a polygraph test and whether or
not Mr. Osborne refused to take the tests when scheduled or if
his attorney advised_ against it because he did not have a chance
to review the questions.
Councilman Reynolds commented that the city set up an
opportunity for Mr. Osborne to take a polygraph and for whatever
reasons it was not acceptable, the city provided that, then does
it not become the responsibility of Mr. Osborne to make his own
arrangements for whatever polygraphs he wants and with whom he
wants as long as they are licensed by the state which we'll take
the results of?
Mayor Cummings commented that another point to be considered
was that the council is dealing with a resignation not a dismissal.
Mr. Richman said that a lot of the questions in the minds of
the council could be cleared up if Mr. Osborne were given the
chance to make a statement. He said a lot of the allegations in
Danny Carden.'s statement were true because Mr. Osborne was
working undercover for the police department. That he was
reporting to Chief Conner every day telling him about the dif-
ferent conversations he was having regarding robberies, drugs,
etc. That was his job and when you are undercover you talk about
the things they are interested in such as guns, drugs and
robberies.
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In reply to Councilman Swindle's question of how Mr. Osborne
was recruited, Chief Conner replied that Mr. Osborne called him
and told him that Roy Hayes' trucks had some marijuana bales
coming in on them and, as a Stephenville business man, a local
citizen, and having kids in the high school here, he wanted to
help the police catch and stop this marijuana traffic. This was
the first thing that got started. He wanted to know if he could
help us stop it, I did not ask him to do anything.
Councilman Swindle asked did you tell him to go work under-
cover? Did you tell him to bring any information he had to you?
Chief Conner replied that they started working on the mari-
juana, on the bales coming in on the trucks, he was going to try
to get information on when the trucks were coming in, where the
marijuana was coming from, information of this type in assisting
us in catching them. That's how it all got started and one thing
led to another.
Councilman Reynolds said the original question was about the
polygraph test, right? Now is that offer in terms of, not going
back to work, but in terms of clearing his name, is that offer
still available?
Mayor Cummings said, in trying to see down the road, if we
took the polygraph and it turned out negative, what would be the
results? If it turned out positive, what would be the results?
He is not on the police force, would that mean we would be
expected to hire him back? What is the point?
Councilman Swindle asked Mr. Richman how long it would take
to check and see if the Tarrant County polygraph operator, the
one we normally use, would be acceptable?
Mr. Richman said as far as he knew the Tarrant County
Sheriff's would probably be all right. He said he was not saying
he wouldn't be. He did not know anything about him and would
like to reserve the right to find out something about him and it
would not take very long to find out.
There was a long discourse by Mr. Richman about Mr.
Osborne's job as an undercover agent for the police department,
about why he did not take the polygraph tests when scheduled, etc.
Councilman Brede commented that, it seemed to him, that the
Council was about half -way into a court action. That the Council
had met this morning to hear that Mr. Osborne had refused the
polygraph test - - that he had verbally resigned - - now it seems
we are getting way off base by the type of questioning of our
Chief. The Council is not a court of law, therefore he suggested
they get back to the polygraph test and settle that. Let the
rest ride until we get into whatever action shall be taken.
Councilman McSwain asked Mr. Osborne if he told Chief Conner
that he would go home and use his personalized stationery to
write a letter of resignation?
Mr. Osborne said no he did not.
Councilman McSwain said then Chief Conner really did not
have a reason,as far as you are concerned to understand that you
were going to resign?
Mr. Osborne replied, yes sir, because he mentioned to me
that he wanted me to do that. It was to the effect of how bad it
looked on him and his department - - that the D.A.'s office was
not communicating with him and were down on his back and he
demanded and needed my resignation. I turned to Chief Conner and
I told him that if I resigned that it seemed like that would be
an admission of guilt. He said well, that's where we stand right
now. They are really putting a lot of pressure on me. I said
even if I considered resigning I have got to go home and talk to
the attorney I have employed to defend me through this and talk
to my wife before I do anything and I started to walk out the
door and he said come on and give me something on a piece of
scratch paper and I said I'm not going to do it. I said if its
done, it will be done legal and proper. I went directly home.
That's it.
Councilman Swindle asked if he had any objections to taking
a polygraph test concerning these allegations with one of the
questions being "Did you in fact resign ?" or whatever the proper
terminology would be?
Mr. Osborne said he had no objections.
After much more discussion, Mayor Cummings advised the
Council that it seemed they had 2 or 3 alternatives:
1. The action was appropriate.
2. The action was not appropriate.
3. Whose responsibility it is to take the polygraph or
whatever.
Councilman Brede commented that we have asked for a
polygraph test twice and it has not been completed and until that
is either completed or denied, I stand just right where we are
today.
There was more discussion regarding Johnny Osborne taking a
polygraph test, whose responsibility it would be if /when he did
take said test, who would administer said test, and the questions
asked if /when.he took said test.
Councilman Brede moved that the Council uphold the actions
of the Chief of Police up to this date and the Council take no
further action until such time as the Council receives results of
a polygraph test. That the responsibility for any future
polygraphs or any other evidence be the responsibility of Johnny
Osborne and his attorney. Councilman Swindle seconded the
motion. The motion carried by the following vote:
AYES: 8
NOES: 0
ABSTAINED: 1
There being no other business to come before the Council,
the Mayor adjourned the meeting at 11:30 a.m.
ATTEST:
i Secretary
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Wok Joe F. Cummings