Lawyer Fernando Chacon, a member of the city’s Civil Service Commission, wants the commission to review the Police Department’s handling of the case of Officer Raul Ramirez who arrested two KVIA News 7 newsmen on the freeway in April.
Chacon said he has placed the matter on the commission’s agenda for this Thursday’s meeting.
Police Chief Greg Allen suspended Ramirez for 11 days last month after a six-member civilian disciplinary review board he appointed determined that Ramirez was guilty of unprofessional conduct for losing his temper in the course of arresting reporter Darren Hunt and photographer Ric Dupont when they failed to obey his orders to leave the emergency lane of I-10.
Chacon said he wants to explore whether Allen had to authority to let a hand-picked board review Ramirez’s conduct instead of the department’s Internal Affairs Division.
“It needs to be clarified,” Chacon said. “What criteria did (Allen) use for making the appointments. Is he going to stack it any way he wants and is it fair to the police officers?
“Did the union have any role in selecting who would be on there?”
Police Department spokesman Javier Sambrano could not be reached for comment Monday.
Chacon said his questions are just a starting point, but he doesn’t really expect to get very far.
“I’m sure the city attorney or the attorney for the Civil Service Commission will come to tell us we don’t have any authority. But I think it’s fair for the every-day policeman on the street out there to have some type of protection.”
Ramirez’s arrest of Hunt and Dupont on April 20 became a highly publicized and controversial story because Dupont recorded Hunt’s arrest by an angry Ramirez, and the video was seen by tens of thousands of people on the Internet when it was posted on the YouTube.
Hunt and Dupont lodged complaints against Ramirez with the department’s Internal Affairs Division alleging that the arrest was unwarranted and that Ramirez used excessive force.
In addition, Hunt filed a $450,000 claim against the city that may lead to a civil lawsuit.
Last week, the Police Department announced that Allen had taken the highly unusual step of appointing a civilian board to review evidence and statements gathered by Internal Affairs after the newsmen their complaints.
The board members were each given the evidence to study on their own for three weeks before meeting for the first and only time on Sept. 24.
At that meeting, they determined that Ramirez was justified in arresting Hunt and Dupont and that he had not used excessive force but did act unprofessionally.
On the basis of the board’s findings, Allen imposed an 11-day suspension of Ramirez without pay.
The Police Department did not explain how Allen had selected the six members of the board.
It was composed KDBC News Director Scott Pickey, KINT News Director Zoltan Csanyi, El Paso Times Publisher Ray Stafford, lawyers Jack T. Chapman and Kevin E. Shannon and former news reporter and Sheriff’s Department public information officer, Rick Glancey.
Chapman is the former attorney for El Paso’s National Center for Employment of the Disabled and was the personal lawyer of NCED’s CEO and president, Bob Jones, who pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and conspiracy related to NCED in July.
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To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or call (915) 351-0605, ext. 30, or 630-6622.
