Continued.
Internal Affairs Sergeant, Keith Gray, recommended that Magrino be immediately discharged and prosecuted, all of his previous cases reopened for investigation, and the judges and attorneys of those convicted be immediately notified. Gray believed there were hundreds of false arrests in the system by the group of officers, historically over a thousand.
However, at this point, our sources and the documents confirm the investigation was shut down, and the files ordered “buried” by Police Chief, John White, and District Attorney, Doug Valeska.
The original group of officers were dismayed that the investigation was covered up. Even more disturbing, the officers responsible were then promoted in the department. They allege the practice of planting drugs continued for years on black men by those who were part of the group.
On November 9th an unsigned letter by the officers was put on Dothan City Commissioner Don Clement’s desk. In the letter, officers detail how the investigation was covered up and they used officer Magrino as an example, referencing stolen guns and drugs in his patrol car.
They refer to the issue that Magrino, like the other dozen officers had, executed hundreds of arrests that should be questioned in light of the results of the internal affairs investigation.
The letter indicates that federal law enforcement authorities were not notified as required by the department’s and state’s policies.
The letter directly implicates the top management of the Dothan Police Department as being complicit in a cover up of hundreds of felonies. Chief John White responded two weeks later in a letter to Dothan City Manager Jerry Gwaltney copied below.
Note carefully that White stated in writing:
“AT NO TIME PREVIOUS, DURING OR SINCE, HAS ANY INDIVIDUAL MADE AN ALLEGATION THAT THIS OFFICER PLANTED OR MANUFACTURED EVIDENCE OR TESTIMONY IN ANY CASE.”
White completely misrepresents the ongoing internal affairs investigation, that is evidenced in a letter to him by Sgt Keith Gray where he found that the officer in question, Michael Magrino, should be discharged.
Further, White seems to have forgotten the previous multiple written complaints by fellow officers implicating a dozen officers who were witnessed planting drugs and guns on black men dating back to 1998, or the fact that he ordered the cases turned over to internal affairs in the first place.
White’s own words, as early as Nov 99, are clear evidence of an illegal cover up.
Police Chief John White was then deposed in an unrelated lawsuit where in June of 2001 he gave the following sworn deposition. Again, note that White misleads and gives multiple false statements under oath. At this point, he should have had his APOST certification stripped and been prosecuted.
In the deposition, it is clear that Police Chief, John White, now a lawyer and Troy University criminal justice professor, is being misleading. With the leaked internal affairs investigation now made public, it’s obvious his sworn testimony is at odds with his written words to city officials, and it appears he lied under oath.
The larger issue is no less than hundreds of wrongly convicted black men and tens of millions of dollars in potential damages as well as potential prison terms for himself and the district attorney and those who assisted them.
The original group of police officers responsible for the written complaints were in disbelief and for years afterward attempted to get federal assistance to help those wrongly convicted and continued to warn of the practice of the narcotics team of planting drugs on young black men. The officers who were responsible for the narcotics team, Steve Parrish and Andy Hughes, continued to be advanced in rank and were richly rewarded for their complicity in hiding the truth.
For two decades District Attorney, Doug Valeska, having full knowledge of the situation, proceeded to earn a reputation across the Wiregrass as a tough prosecutor while knowingly prosecuting black men whom he knew the evidence was planted on them in their cases. The district attorney’s office took in millions of dollars in court fees and their pre-trial diversion program.
The group of police officers who chose to notify federal authorities and the US Attorney in a series of constructed letters to protect their own safety documented is below as many had their lives threatened by fellow officers.
By coming forward almost a decade later after these letters, this group of officers who witnessed drugs and weapons being planted and had the moral courage to bravely do the right thing are hoping the United States Department of Justice will intervene. The want a specially appointed federal prosecutor, from outside the state of Alabama to hold District Attorney, Doug Valeska, former Chief, John White, current Chief, Steve Parrish, Homeland Security Director, Andy Hughes, and Capt Carleton Ott responsible. But most importantly, attempt to make those hundreds of young black men’s lives whole again who have been victims of the Dothan Police Department. They believe the time for justice has come.
Link to the official court documents.
http://henrycountyreport.com/blog/2015/12/01/leaked-documents-reveal-dothan-police-department-planted-drugs-on-young-black-men-for-years-district-attorney-doug-valeska-complicit/