Sat, Nov 21 2009
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Fired officer’s alleged drug use, poker acquaintances at issue He said employees have an obligation to disclose the use of controlled substances, even when they are prescribed by physicians.
Roberts testified that he called Jones into his office Feb. 5 to confront him about the matter, and his purported denial to the FBI during the polygraph exam of any knowledge of gambling and bookmaking in Joplin. Roberts said he specifically asked about a departmental memo concerning gambling and bookmaking that was believed to have been circulated by Jones. He said Jones told him that he thought his doctors had informed the city of the prescription drugs he was using. Jones also explained that he had not composed the memo but simply forwarded the information, obtained via an anonymous tip, to the rest of the Police Department, Roberts said. Roberts said Jones also acknowledged that he knew certain convicted felons through card-playing tournaments, and acknowledged getting an inmate with a connection to a friend of Jones’ wife out of a cell at Joplin City Jail on one occasion and allowing him to use his cell phone. But he told Roberts that he had discontinued relationships with any such people from card tournaments a year earlier, and he was “adamant” that he had not lied to the FBI, Roberts said. Roberts said he was satisfied with Jones’ explanation concerning the memo and had not yet decided to fire him, pending further inquiry. But, two days later, Roberts testified, he went to a local FBI office to see if agents still believed Jones had been dishonest with them and was engaging in some sort of criminal conduct. Roberts said: “They told me directly: ‘We think he has been dishonest. We believe he has engaged in criminal conduct.’” The police chief said he could not reveal what the FBI probe concerns because it is an ongoing, “sensitive” and “potentially dangerous” investigation. “I made no determination as to the truth of their suspicions, only that they in fact had those suspicions,” Roberts told the board. He said he came away convinced that he had no choice but to fire Jones because of the position in which he had put the Police Department. He said the lieutenant’s conduct reflected poorly on the department and was disruptive to “a harmonious relationship” with another law-enforcement agency, the FBI. Jones’ attorney, Ken Reynolds, objected to much of Roberts’ testimony as hearsay, the mere passing on of unproved accusations from unidentified FBI agents, JPD personnel and purported known criminals. Roberts acknowledged at several points of his testimony that he had no firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing on Jones’ part. “Are you aware that as of today,” Reynolds asked Roberts, “Geoff has no clue what he is being accused of by the FBI?” Reynolds went on to draw a comparison of his client’s situation to that of Richard Jewell, a falsely accused suspect of the FBI in the Centennial Park bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Roberts agreed under cross-examination that he was not present during the FBI polygraph exam. He agreed that Jones had promised in advance of his dismissal not to attend any more poker tournaments. He agreed that he had never seen Jones appear to be under the influence of any drugs or significantly impaired by any drugs. Reynolds also questioned the police chief closely about other Police Department members’ adherence to the policy regarding prescription-drug use. Roberts acknowledged that Jones’ firing had prompted a number of written notices of such use from other members of the department and counseling of their supervisors for not having passed such previous information on to the Human Resources Department. But the police chief maintained that there was a difference between employees who had made “good-faith efforts” to notify the city through their supervisors and a failure to notify anyone. 
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