ABI helping county in probe of police chief and city attorney

An agent with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation has been assisting the Houston County Sheriff’s Office in their investigation of a complaint alleging criminal behavior by the Dothan police chief and city attorney.

Houston County Sheriff Andy Hughes said the joint investigation between the ABI and the county should be completed by the end of next week. Hughes said his office contacted the ABI because of the city officials involved in the report filed with his office.

Related:

Attorney General Request:
Read a letter from City Manager Mike West asking the Attorny General’s Office to take over the investigation of Police Chief John Powell and City Attorney Len White.

 

“Currently there is an ABI agent working hand in hand with the (Houston County) Sheriff’s Office on this case,” Hughes said.

Dothan Police Officer RaeMonica Carney filed a criminal incident report with the sheriff’s office last week against Police Chief John Powell and Dothan City Attorney Len White, alleging witness intimidation and criminal coercion.

Dothan City Manager Mike West sent a letter to Alabama Attorney General Troy King two days after Carney filed the report with the sheriff, asking King’s office to take over the county’s investigation. In the letter dated June 12, West asked for King’s office to take over because Hughes worked under Powell as a sergeant at the Dothan Police Department before he was elected sheriff.

Chris Bence, chief of staff for Alabama Attorney General Troy King, said late Thursday that King had made a determination on whether his office would get involved, but declined to release any details of that determination until West had been notified. Bence said a return letter will be faxed and mailed to West Friday morning.

Bence previously said there would have to be a legal basis for the state Attorney General’s Office to get involved.

Hughes, who also received a copy of West’s letter in the mail, said he thought it questioned the integrity of the sheriff’s office and its employees.

“I don’t think the city manager has any authority to ask anyone to intervene in a criminal investigation,” Hughes said. “I take it very personal.”

The investigation stems from the complaint in which Carney said White singled her out, and then yelled and screamed at her during an interview about a pending wrongful death lawsuit filed against the City of Dothan and the Dothan Police Department.

Carney was questioned by White about her participation in a traffic crash investigation involving Tabitha Farmer in January 2007. A short time after being released from the first crash scene by police, Farmer was involved in a traffic fatality that left Larry Downing dead after he was crushed against the Southern Family Market building by Farmer’s vehicle. Farmer pleaded guilty earlier this year to murder in the fatality, and was sentenced to serve 25 years in prison.

Carney said the interview boiled down to a difference of opinion between her and the other officers at the first crash scene. Carney said she did not feel Farmer was safe to continue driving after the first crash, but other officers allowed her to continue driving.

“Investigators don’t decide guilt or innocence in a case, they uncover facts,” Hughes said. “We may not even have crime, but we won’t know until we investigate.”

At the conclusion of the investigation, Hughes said it will be turned over to Houston County District Attorney Doug Valeska.