Posted on 05/12/2008 8:53:45 PM PDT by hiho hiho
City wants charges dropped against Kecia Powell, who's back on the job
Culver Police Chief Kecia Powell, the city's only officer, is back to patroling the streets and writing tickets in the small Jefferson County community.
But she's hoping Jefferson County District Attorney Peter Deuel will honor a request to drop the official misconduct charges against her.
Powell and her lawyer said Wednesday they plan to file a motion to dismiss the case because of civil compromise.
She's accused of paying the bill on her work/personal cell phone with a Culver city credit card.
It allegedly happened in February, when her phone died while at a police chief's conference on the Oregon coast.
At a pre-trial conference Wednesday in Madras, Powell told NewsChannel 21 the phone company told her it would be about $32. But when the city got the bill, the amount had mistakenly blown up to $326. Powell later called and cleared up the error.
"The city did not pay anything," defense attorney Foster Glass told me outside of the courtroom. "When Kecia reported she had reinstated her phone service, there was an issue of how much the phone bill was going to be. When the city got the phone bill, she paid it."
But since then, city commissioners have found Powell did nothing wrong. Commissioner Shawna Clanton says Powell was given the credit card legally, and she was up front with the city that she was putting money on it for the bill.
"(Commissioners) made the determination that Kecia did not commit any kind of fraudulent or criminal act and they also authorized writing a letter to the district attorney asking him to dismiss the case," Glass said.
In the letter to Deuel, Culver commissioners write: "...the Commissioners do not believe Kecia Powell intended to obtain a non-reimbursed benefit to herself or to commit theft from the City. (We find) that her conduct was neither fraudulent or criminal, and request the District Attorney to dismiss pending criminal charges..."
But even though the victim in this case, the city, wants to drop the case, it's up to the DA.
"The DA takes the position that a police officer can not civilly compromise a case," Glass said.
Glass has until June 1 to file the motion to dismiss the case on civil compromise, but says he must find legal archives to show that can apply to a police officer.
If the district attorney denies the motion to dismiss, the trial date is set for Sept. 24.
As of Tuesday night, Powell is now back to her full duties, with the exception of not driving her patrol car outside Culver city limits and not responding to criminal calls until her criminal case is resolved.
Because she is the sole police officer, Commissioner Clanton says Powell must use her best judgement when hearing a 911 criminal call, of whether it's severe enough to respond to without violating her orders.
Prosecutors are all about publicity.
Was he alias Smith or Jones?
This is silly.
If the story being told is true(you can never be sure with the media these days.)
She paid the bill, informed the city about it and the city lost nothing as a result.
The DA (which I’ve always assumed was shorthand for Dumb A**) needs to stop grandstanding and find something worthwhile to prosecute.
I’m sure there’s some overdue library books he could pursue.
A former prosecutor I know really well says, "Just because you CAN prosecute someone doesn't mean you SHOULD."
really, it’s only taxpayer money. she paid the city back because of the publicity. there’s too much abuse of taxpayer funded credit cards.
well? somebody HAD to say it;-)
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