View Documents Related to Chief's Firing
Here is testimony from the Richard Lucas vs. Braswell case and the sheriff's investigation into the sale of police vehicles L. Rick Richardson allegedly authorized.
Pdfs
With former Powder Springs police chief L. Rick Richardson joining the mayoral race against Paul Moore and incumbent Pat Vaughn, a debate has swirled on Patch about what is within documents related to his firing in February.
He was first put on paid leave late last November, when Vaughn was questioned in district court in the case of Robert Lucas vs. the City of Braswell. The case related to Lucas, a former employee of the Braswell Police Department, helping purchase one of three police vehicles from Powder Springs in 2007 out of pocket, thinking he would eventually be paid back.
But he wasn't by the city, and upon quitting the department, he took the car home and was arrested.
A legal battle would follow, which resulted in the testimony seen above. Last December, a $1 million settlement for malicious prosecution between Lucas and Braswell was reached, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported.
The documents show the other two vehicles went to the city of Rockmart, and Cobb County police's Mike Bowman and his company, Code Seven Police Supplies.
The City Council declared the vehicles as surplus on March 5, 2007, and they were scheduled to be auctioned five days later instead of being directly sold. Richardson was fired for allegedly authorizing the direct sale of the vehicles for undervalued amounts.
Here are the documents that are attached:
- Vaughn's testimony in Robert Lucas vs. the City of Braswell
- Richardson's testimony
- Lucas's testimony
- The testimony of Trey Williams, who worked for both Powder Springs police and Braswell police
- A transcript of Richardson and two other Powder Springs police employees, Matt Boyd and Charles Spann, interviewing Williams
- Ken Davis with the Cobb County Sheriff's Office interviewing Mike Bowman
- The findings of the sheriff's office investigation into Richardson
- Richardson's termination letter
Jim Arnold
4:48 pm on Tuesday, September 27, 2011
If anyone can understand the contents of the transcript above I would like to have an explanation of it. I don't know how this could be grounds for firing anyone. There must be more than this for that action to have been taken or else somebody has made a mistake in terminating Chief Richardson.
John Q. Citizen
12:49 pm on Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Jim,
If the Sheriff's findings and the termination letter aren't a sufficient basis for termination, I don't know what would be.
The chief testified in federal court that he wasn't aware of any vehicles being held out of the auction until some time in mid, 2008, but then it turns out that he sold one to Code 7 in April 2007. The chief's signature is on the bill of sale for that one. He also told the Sheriff's investigator that Code 7 came to him about buying the car, but then the guy with Code seven says, no, that's not the way it was, the chief called me up and asked me if I wanted a car, and that the chief was the only one he dealt with on the car.
The chief also testified in court that he never authorized the donation of any equipment to the city of Braswell, but take a look at his own department's investigation report. It concludes the chief donated the camera system to Braswell.
The chief himself even admits that he screwed up. Just look at his own statements in the interview with Trey Williams. The chief said " some of it is serious stuff" " It's my neck, too" " none of this stuff is settled, it's gonna come right back to me" " it looks bad on me" .
What more grounds would you need to terminate someone if you were on the council? If you need more, though, just keep reading the reports and statements. There's plenty more there.
ilovethelord
2:41 pm on Wednesday, September 28, 2011
After reading the above articles I agree with Jim. Also the documents to me do not indicate any criminal actvity but poor record keeping. I see where the money was turned into finace, bills of sale were issued, titles we signed. The only thing I see wrong if anything is that they are quilty of poor record keeping. With the poor record keeping when this issue came up many years later, they had to rely on memory. I see no reason why the Chief would have been terminated especialy after almost 30 years of service. If anything, maybe disciplinary action for poor record keeping and being responsible for Williams actions who was one of his employees, but termination no. These documents indicate to me that the Mayor and Finance Deparmment had knowledge of this as well so why is it all being placed on the shoulders of the Chief? I
John Q. Citizen
10:44 pm on Wednesday, September 28, 2011
You need to study the records themselves. These are not "articles" or opinions. Most of it is testimony under oath.
The written auction report went straight to the finance department, and said ALL the cars were sold at a certain auction. Obviously at least 3 of them weren't, because they never made it to the auction.
The bill of sale for the car sold to Code 7 had the chief's signature on it, not the mayor's, not the council's, not even the finance director's, just the chief's and the buyer's . Don't you think if all this were "known" to the mayor, the council, etc., the chief would have gotten somebody to sign off on it?
Do you honestly believe the mayor or any council member, after passing an official written resolution authorizing the cars to be sold at auction, would turn around a week later and OK private sales of three of the same cars?
If you were a mayor or council member, would you not have a problem with your police chief telling his investigator one thing, a federal judge and jury something different, and then something else again to a sheriff's investigator?
You just can't have public employees at any level going around giving away city owned property, and disregarding direction given to them by their superiors ( in this case the mayor and council). That's why there are state laws, city charters and city ordinances that spell out how the public's property is supposed to be managed.
FightingForTheTruth
5:44 pm on Monday, October 3, 2011
Intersting how the testimony questions are one sided. I do not see how termination was the answer. Except to place blame. Make sure you vote Nov 8 for who you know in your heart is the correct person for Mayor and will work for you and your city. I know without a shadow of a doubt...