Sorting out the Quanell/Bradford/HPD/media confusion
Testimony in the Quanell X trial ended this week, with Quannel X's attorneys contending that he had a deal to bring in cop-shooter Derrick Forney and HPD brass contending there was no such deal in place.
Despite having plenty of time to work on this story, the local media hasn't been much help in sorting it out.
The Chronicle's Dale Lezon reports that Charles McClelland, acting police chief at the time of the incident, testified he was unaware of any such deal:
Executive Assistant Police Chief Charles McClelland, who was acting chief at the time of the arrests, said Thursday that he was unaware of any such deal.
But in another report that appeared two hours later on the Chron website, Lezon changes the story slightly:
On Thursday, a Houston police officer testified that the acting chief told the activist not to stop for squad cars as he was driving to police headquarters to turn in a fugitive.
But the chief testified that he told Quanell X he would try to "allow him to peacefully surrender" at the downtown office.
Quanell X, referred to in court papers as Quanell X Abdul Farrakhan, was charged with evading arrest June 11 after police said he refused to stop, even when surrounded by patrol cars using their sirens and emergency lights.
The state rested its case Thursday after three days of testimony. The trial was halted Wednesday after a man made "vague threats" in a phone call to one of Quanell X's defense attorneys. HPD took the man into custody, but he was released without charges.
Defense witness HPD Lt. Gregory Hunstman testified that Executive Assistant Police Chief Charles McClelland told him that he had instructed Quanell X to "keep going" after the activist had informed the chief that squad cars were following him.
But McClelland, who was acting chief June 11, testified he told the activist that "I would find out what officers were following him and give them instructions to allow him to peacefully surrender at 1200 Travis (police headquarters)."
He said he never was able to speak with the officers following the activist's black Hummer.
KHOU-11's report seems to confirm the second Chron blurb:
Prosecution witness HPD Assistant Chief Charles McClelland told jurors he got a call from Quanell X just as officers began following his Hummer.
McClellan said the first thing Quanell X said to him was "This wasn't part of the deal." McClelland then asked Quanell X, "What deal?"
Quanell X has maintained that the didn't stop for police because he thought they were escorting him to the police station to surrender fugitive Derrick Forney. Forney was wanted for shooting and injuring a Houston police officer.
During cross examination, defense attorney Robert Jones asked," Did you inform Quanell X that if he were in route, that you would inform your officers to allow that to happen?"
McClelland said he had done that.
Additionally, it appears that former Chief Bradford had allowed Quanell X to bring in suspects in the past. From KHOU:
Former Police Chief C.O. Bradford took the stand Thursday and acknowledged that beginning in 1997, he established a practice of allowing Quanell X to surrender suspects.
From the Chron:
Allen Baquet, a civilian manager in the office of the police chief, testified that former Chief C.O. Bradford established a protocol for Quanell X to accompany suspects willing to surrender to authorities.
It included ensuring that the suspects and Quanell X had no weapons and that they came to police headquarters, Baquet said. He said Quanell X had accompanied about 15 suspects as they surrendered to police in recent years.
Baquet testified that McClelland told him to work with the activist to bring in Forney.
Outside the presence of the jury, Bradford testified he had established the guidelines for Quanell X's efforts and that they had worked well.
Except that nobody really knew the policy because the former police chief didn't bother to formalize it, according to KTRK-13:
Former Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford talked about how he had given Quanell X permission to bring in fugitives as long as the surrender was voluntary and there were no weapons involved. During cross-examination, the chief said while he developed a policy, he never wrote it down, but that didn't mean it wasn't procedure.
It's nice to know that key HPD policies and procedures depend upon the abilities of former Chief Bradford's successors and cops in the field to read Bradford's mind!
As best I can piece it together from this underwhelming, patchwork coverage from local media, Quannel X assumed an informal, unwritten "policy" that prevailed under Chief Bradford was still in place. That "policy" was so ad-hoc that Bradford's successor didn't know the particulars, and at the very least had no effective way of communicating the loose "policy" to officers in the field, thereby endangering them and others. In the middle of the operation, Quannel X assumed the "policy" was still in place, and based on his conversation with McClelland, assumed the officers would be instructed to escort him to HPD. The officers in the field never received such instruction, and acted appropriately to arrest Quannel X for evading arrest. And in the absence of evidence of some written agreement with Quannel X and HPD (or evidence that a specific "deal" existed between HPD brass and Quannel X prior to the start of this operation), Quannel X seems guilty of the crime he's accused of committing.
In any case, this whole episode could have been avoided if former Chief Bradford had made this "policy" explicit, and communicated it to cops on the street. Chief Hurtt was wise to make changes to the "policy" almost immediately.
Note that I neglected to mention the testimony of KHOU-11 reporter Jeff McShan, which really shouldn't be regarded as more than hearsay, and certainly didn't deserve the media attention it was given by his colleagues around town (KHOU, KTRK, KPRC).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/13/04 12:59 PM | Print |
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