Posted on 12/22/2003 6:21:27 AM PST by madprof98
He was reeking of alcohol and was abusive toward the Roswell police officers who arrested him and hauled him off to jail for underage drinking, according to police.
It took two corrections officers to get him out of the cruiser, into a cell and quieted down.
When he got out on bond a day later, he had a black eye -- and that, more than anything he had done, became the focus of his run-in with the police.
Before it was over, that shiner would effectively end three law enforcement careers, spark a recently filed lawsuit against the city and deliver a black eye to the Roswell Police Department.
It started with lies, then escalated into a cover-up, police said.
"What gets most people in trouble is not the act, but what they do after it," said Sgt. Jim McGee, who heads the department's Office of Professional Standards and conducted an internal probe of the incident. "They try to hide it. That's a mistake."
In this case, what McGee said jailers tried to hide was what caused that shiner: While being searched and calmed down inside his Roswell jail cell, 17-year-old Billy Watkins of Alpharetta was pushed against a concrete wall, face first.
The internal investigation found that Watkins wasn't beaten, or even hit. But jailers are not supposed to pin a prisoner against a wall unless it's necessary to contain him.
"Yes, the kid was loud and abusive, but we have to take that," McGee said. "Yelling and screaming and cursing -- we teach [officers] to let that roll off their backs. . . . That's why not everyone can do this job. We're human beings. We have frailties."
Watkins was arrested for underage possession of alcohol on July 22, 2002, a month after his 17th birthday. At the time, he and three friends were parked in a handicapped space at a gas station mini-mart in Roswell.
Arresting Officer Jeffery Payne called for backup and Officer Sylvia Browning responded. With Watkins yelling and cursing at her, Browning secured Watkins in the back of her cruiser.
As Browning drove to the jail, Watkins was so full of rage that Browning pulled over twice to make sure he was able to breathe, according to the internal review file. She radioed the jail that she would need two officers to get him inside.
Detention Officers Bobby Chambers and Yakov Zavulun were waiting when she arrived. They pulled Watkins from the police cruiser and took him, yelling and screaming, past booking and directly to a cell. Jail supervisor Ron Turek arrived soon after, and stayed until his officers completed their search of Watkins and left the cell.
When Barbara Watkins posted a $5,150 bond for her son the next day, he came out with a black eye and a list of complaints. He said his jailers cursed at him, beat him and threw him to the floor.
"I do not approve of Billy's behavior at your station," Barbara Watkins wrote to Roswell Police Chief Ed Williams. "Billy will be punished for his actions and I feel it is only right that [whoever injured him] be punished, too."
Conflicting stories
McGee's investigation took 40 days. Initially, Zavulun and Chambers denied that Watkins had been put up against a wall.
Turek conceded that Watkins had been pinned to the wall, but said he wasn't shoved and Turek didn't see the teen's head hit the wall.
All three jailers said Watkins had injuries to his face when he arrived at the jail.
In a subsequent interview with McGee, Chambers admitted that Zavulun had pushed Watkins' head against the wall, and said that Turek and Zavulun had told him to say Watkins had not touched the wall.
Zavulun, in a second interview, admitted he'd put his hand on Watkins' back and pushed him into the wall, but said he did not hit Watkins and did not try to get Chambers to change his testimony.
Turek, a 10-year veteran of the detention center, stuck to his story in a second interview with internal affairs: He conceded that Watkins had been pushed into the wall. "We put people against the wall every day," he told McGee -- but he said he never saw Chambers or Zavulun use excessive force. He denied trying to influence Chambers' testimony.
Chief Williams interviewed Chambers and Zavulun one-on-one, then fired each of them in October 2002.
Consequences
Zavulun was cited for excessive use of force, lying during an investigation, concealing a material fact, wrongly implicating innocent police officers and attempting to influence Chambers' statement.
Chambers was fired for lying during an investigation, concealing a material fact and colluding with others to implicate innocent people.
McGee found that Turek had committed rule violations regarding his cooperation with the internal investigation and his failure to intervene when Watkins was pushed against the cell wall. It was recommended that he be made to attend a supervisory training program. Instead, the 66-year-old Turek retired.
"Some people just see when it's time," McGee said.
Allowing Turek to retire without punishment is "shameful," said Watkins' attorney, Brandon Hornsby. "It makes firing those other two meaningless. It says you can beat someone and cover it up, but you have to be high enough in rank to get away with it."
Before he disciplines an officer, Williams said, he first interviews him and listens to his side. Turek retired before that happened.
"There was no deal with that guy whatsoever," Williams said. "He quit. He knew the best course of action and took himself out of the equation."
All the talk of a beating is bunk anyway, said Turek, who had been reprimanded for excessive force in June 2000.
"In a nutshell, this is all bull," he said. "You get a couple of these a week."
And the shiner?
"He got a black eye, yes, but where he got it was not addressed," Turek said.
Zavulun, a Russian immigrant, said he only did what he had to do to contain Watkins, and there was no reason to fire him. "I never touch people," he said, "never in my life."
He appealed the dismissal but it was upheld.
Chambers could not be reached. He was still a probationary employee at the time of the incident, so he could not appeal the firing.
All charges against Watkins subsequently were dropped except for possession of alcohol by a minor.
The offense will be cleared from his record after he completes his GED, probably early next year, Hornsby said.
Watkins and his mother, who declined to be interviewed, have sued the city and the three jailers for civil rights violations, mental distress and physical suffering. They are seeking actual and punitive damages in Fulton Superior Court. The case is pending.
The poor guy thought he was still in the mother country where these things are common place. /sarcasm
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