Friday, September 17, 1999
Police supervisor accused in shootings
Plaintiffs' lawyer says coverup tried
BY PERRY BROTHERS and BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A Cincinnati police supervisor was accused Thursday of trying to cover up for officers in two police shootings, including that of Michael Carpenter.
The accusations came in a federal court document filed by Kenneth L. Lawson. Mr. Lawson is the attorney for the family of Mr. Carpenter, who was shot to death in a Northside confrontation, and for Ciro Alfonzo, who was not injured when Officer Cecilia Charron fired at him in a van where he was sleeping in Winton Place.
Mr. Lawson has filed federal lawsuits for Mr. Alfonzo and Mr. Carpenter's family against the city and police. The lawsuits allege police violated the civil rights of the two men and seek compensatory and punitive damages.
The allegations against Sgt. Jeffrey Butler were filed as an addendum to Mr. Alfonzo's lawsuit. They include:
• Filing false and conflicting reports about the location of Mr. Carpenter's body at the scene of the March 19 shooting.
• Trying to wrongfully coerce Mr. Alfonzo into accepting the blame for Officer Charron shooting at him Feb. 28.
Kent Ryan, Cincinnati's safety director, declined comment because he had not seen the court document. Lt. Ray Ruberg, spokesman for the Cincinnati police, said the division could not comment on pending litigation.
Sgt. Butler, a 12-year veteran and District 5 supervisor, could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Lawson said the city and police division encouraged Sgt. Butler's actions in the Carpenter case by failing to reprimand Sgt. Butler for his actions in the Alfonzo case.
“When they put people in position to ascertain the truth, then that's what they need to do as opposed to trying to cover up for other officers,” Mr. Lawson said Thursday.
“I just want to see the truth come out.”
Mr. Lawson provided The Cincinnati Enquirer with faxed copies of two “Police Officer's Notes,” reports from the Carpenter case, which the attorney said he obtained from Cincinnati's homicide division.
The reports typically are filed by the first supervisor on the scene to record initial observations. Both bear the signature “Sgt. Jeffrey Butler.”
However, the first report, filed at 3:38 a.m. March 19, says “occupant removed & placed face down on the ground.” The second, dated April 13, says when Sgt. Butler arrived on the scene he saw Officers Brent McCurley, Michael Miller and Thomas Slade “over Carpenter with hands on shoulders.”
Mr. Lawson said in the court document that Sgt. Butler filed the first report “to make it appear as if Carpenter was using the automobile as a weap on.”
Because “Carpenter was outside of the automobile and unarmed when Butler arrived,” Mr. Lawson said, “Butler felt that he would have to justify and protect his fellow officers in the wrongful shooting by covering up what actually occurred.”
The internal investigation report on the Carpenter shooting was released in August. The report says that Mr. Carpenter had left the car and lay face down on the street before he died.
Sgt. Butler's name is not included on the list of the police officers interviewed in the internal investigation.
Mr. Alfonzo's original complaint named only the city and OfficerCharron and her partner, Officer Darian Bookman.
In the documents filed Thursday, Mr. Lawson alleges that Sgt. Butler sought to undermine Mr. Alfonzo's civil rights suit by asking questions “designed to implicate the victim as being the person at fault for the shooting.”
As the immediate district supervisor, Sgt. Butler questioned Mr. Alfonzo, Officer Charron and Officer Bookman after the shooting on Feb. 28. Further, the attorney said, Sgt. Butler “failed to ask pertinent questions” of the two officers.
Sgt. Butler's interrogation technique demonstrated his “malicious intent and intent to cover up” both officers' missteps and to exonerate them, Mr. Lawson said.
No charges were filed against Mr. Alfonzo. A disciplinary hearing for Officer Charron is pending.
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