August 9th marked the 20th anniversary of the murder of nine monks at the Wat Promkunaram Buddhist Temple just outside Goodyear.
After a monthlong investigation, Maricopa County Sheriff's detectives arrested five Tucson men after receiving information from a mental hospital patient. Following hours of interrogation and being fed information about the murders, four of the men confessed and were charged with murder.
During this time, evidence linking the real killers to the crimes was in sheriff's office custody. Charges were later dropped against the five Tucson men, and the actual killers - who almost got away with murder - were arrested following an examination of the evidence by the Department of Public Safety crime lab.
Former Maricopa County sheriff's detective Russell Kimball, who participated in the investigation, told the Arizona Republic in a recent story: "Among the mistakes made by interrogators, they fed information about the case to the suspects. A trained homicide investigator would not do that."
Twenty years after the Temple murders, we have also learned that MCSO has failed to properly investigate over 400 violent crimes, including sex offenses and homicide, since 2005.
However, flawed criminal investigations don't occur just at MCSO.
In June, during the murder trial of suspected Baseline serial killer Mark Goudeau, Tempe police detective Susan Schoville tearfully testified how she bungled the September 2005 investigation of Georgia Thompson, a 19-year-old Tempe woman who was Goudeau's first known murder victim.
During an interrogation, Schoville provided details of the murder to a Kentucky jail inmate who'd never been to Arizona. He confessed in hopes of doing his life behind bars in Arizona and not Kentucky. The inmate's only knowledge of the murder was what he saw on the "Maury Povich Show" and what Schoville told him.
Schoville was hungry for a confession and she got it.
The false confession sent Tempe detectives on a wild goose chase and caused county prosecutors to bring charges, all while Goudeau continued his almost year-long crime spree that totaled nine murders and 15 rapes before Phoenix police captured him and solved the Tempe murder.
The problem of incompetent investigations into violent crimes goes beyond interrogations.
Last week, an independent audit revealed that the Pinal County Sheriff's Office failed to send evidence from over 200 rape cases to the DPS crime lab for analysis. Violent crimes are often linked and solved with evidence only available after a crime lab scientific examination.
PCSO admitted that its investigators just assumed that once they booked the kits into evidence, technicians would send them to the lab. So they never followed up.
Proper procedure is for detectives to complete the request for scientific examination and work with the state crime lab. That shouldn't fall on the department or evidence property custodian.
Changes are reportedly in the works for PCSO. In 2009 and 2010, PCSO reported 169 rapes in its jurisdiction.
Failure to properly follow up on investigations - as done by Maricopa and Pinal County detectives - is as egregious as feeding information to a suspect during an interrogation.
California and Illinois require law enforcement officers assigned to homicide and sex crimes investigations to receive special training and meet a state standard to conduct investigations. In Arizona any officer can investigate a murder or rape.
But not in Phoenix.
At the Phoenix Police Department, applicants to the homicide unit must complete an 18-week detective training program and have previous detective experience before applying. Once assigned, all detectives must complete advanced training in death investigation to maintain their assignment.
With the recent reports about past and present failures by city and county law enforcement agencies, has the time come for state lawmakers to pass legislation like other states have done to ensure Arizona police officers are properly trained and do professional criminal investigations?
There are fundamental mistakes being made by law enforcement officers in a job that has no room for error.
Not all criminals are caught for the crimes they commit. But they should never get away with a crime because the police didn't do their job right.
• Retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson lives in the East Valley and can be reached at bill.richardson@cox.net
fez posted at 7:45 am on Fri, Aug 19, 2011.
Why don't you tell us all about the indictment process at the Grand Jury? Anyone ever exposed to that fiasco can tell us how a "ham sandwich" can be indicted! There is no justice in that.............. just sayin
Absolute power corrupts ABSOLUTELY
chatmandu002 posted at 11:48 am on Fri, Aug 19, 2011.
Seems Bill has a bone to pick with Republican law enforcement officials and not Democrat ones. Is that right Bill? Are you politicizing law enforcement? Nothing is perfect and nothing will ever be perfect. In a state that has a significant amount of illegal persons that give false information there will be many unsolved cases of criminality. You seem to imply that this is a political problem and not an illegal problem. Not so.
Now the president has opened our borders to allow for more illegals to enter and remain if they don't break a "serious" law. The president's administration will even give them work permits. Now how much more will our law enforcement be encumbered
Retiree2000 posted at 1:34 pm on Fri, Aug 19, 2011.
The key is, and always has been, proper training for investigators. There are many classes available through state, local and federal agencies on topics such as interrogation techniques, blood spatter analysis, homicide investigation, sexual assault investigation, child sex crimes, etc. In addition, there are some for-profit groups that also offer advance training in investigative skills. That is what Bill is talking about, not about Republicans or Democrats. Besides, the primary positions where politics are injected into law enforcement is with elected county sheriffs who run partisan campaigns to gain their positions. Poor quality police-work and investigations can generally be blamed on faulty policies, a lack of training, poor supervision, and employees who try to take short cuts or focus on a single suspect to the exclusion of other evidence!
Brothers N Blu posted at 4:10 pm on Fri, Aug 19, 2011.
Bill Richardson -
You profess to be an expert in law enforcement, so I'd like to ask for your opinion and help.
A Tempe Police Detective has terminal cancer. He is truly a "cops Cop". Kind of like what you profess to be. He is only 40 yrs old, and shows up to work to catch bad guys, in between his chemo sessions. His wife is pregnant with twins and recently she lost her job because she needed time off to care for him.
Tempe Police are organizing a BBQ fund raiser on Aug 25 th from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm at the Apache Blvd police sub station to help this brother in need through this most difficult time.
Any help you can offer Mr. Richardson would be really appreciated by all members of the Tempe Police Department. When you look at life as a cop, it's easy to constantly sit back and throw barbs, ridicule and find fault. But, in the end......we Brothers in Blu need to put aside our hard feelings. Instead of crying tears of venom, cry tears of love for great cops like this Tempe Police Detective.
Det. Schoville cried tears of love because she felt she let down HER Brothers N Blu, of which you Mr. Richardson are a member!. She will soon cry like the rest of us Brothers N Blu when God calls home this great Tempe Police Detective.
Until then, any help you can officer this family in need would be greatly appreciated. When this detective answers his "final call", you will have plenty of time god willing to spew venom from your pen and cast condemnation and ridicule towards others whom have made mistakes or crossed you.
May god bless you Mr. Richardson, and may peace come to your heart.
With Respect,
Brothers N Blu
PS.... Please respond to this post and let us "Brothers N Blu" know if you are willing to help with this fund raiser.
Your Brothers N Blu
billrichardson posted at 5:06 pm on Fri, Aug 19, 2011.
Brothers N Blu,
Email me at the address above so we can talk.
I'll do what I can to help.
billrichardson posted at 5:12 pm on Sat, Aug 20, 2011.
Brothers N Blu,
If you want me to help you need to get in contact with me. It takes time to help.
Brothers N Blu posted at 7:13 pm on Sat, Aug 20, 2011.
Thank You Mr. Richardson , your willingness to help is great. The fund raiser will take place this Thursday, Aug 25 from 11:00 am to 5:00 PM at the Tempe Police sub-station located at 1855 E. Apache Blvd, Tempe.
You are welcome to attend any portion of the BBQ, visit show your support, and even make a small donation if you so desire. If you could help spread the word through your many contacts, that would be great as well. Tax deductible donations for this brother in need can also be made to the Tempe Police Foundation.
This is a sad time for many members of Tempe PD. Thanks for being a caring brother....
billrichardson posted at 8:03 pm on Sat, Aug 20, 2011.
Is there a mailing address for the TPF and the name of the officer would be helpful. Drop me an email if you choose not to display the info online.
billrichardson posted at 12:27 pm on Sun, Aug 21, 2011.
Brothers N Blu,
I've posted a Blog and contacted 300 of my closest friends. Lets hope it helps.
http://forums.evtrib.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=649
billrichardson posted at 6:24 pm on Mon, Aug 22, 2011.
fez,
The grand just system is completely dependent on the integrity of the prosecutor and the police. Without that, it's a process designed for abuse.
Bill