Review board demands all records from Greenville police when reviewing cases

Members of Greenville's Public Safety Citizen Review Board postponed an appeal hearing Monday night and told Police Chief Howie Thompson they want more information when reviewing internal affairs investigations.

The action comes after The Greenville News, in an exclusive report, found that portions of a full internal-affairs investigative synopsis of an armed-robbery case were left out of the board's version of the file. The News also found that recommendations from the police command staff, ones that called for the arresting officer to face disciplinary action for a lack of competency, were also not given to board members for their consideration.

Thompson, the police chief, said it's customary to give the review board only condensed versions of investigative reports, and he said it's typical to withhold the recommendations from command staff.

Under scrutiny:Greenville police chief chose not to discipline officers despite recommendation

The board is also looking to set a new standard for the information they want in review cases.

Athena Miller, a city employee who oversees the board, said the request among members to receive full investigative reports when considering appeal cases will be added to the agenda for the board's October meeting.

She encouraged members to come to her if they have a concern that they aren't given complete information.

"The goal is to give you a complete picture," Miller said to the board.

Handling of the armed-robbery case set to be examined

The discussion came during a regularly scheduled meeting when the handling of the armed-robbery case was set to be examined, but that appeal was deferred by the complainant, community activist Jack Logan.

Logan filed his appeal after Thompson exonerated the officers who were investigated over how they charged a man with felony armed robbery without more consideration of video evidence that indicated a misdemeanor charge of shoplifting would've been appropriate, according to a report from the Greenville Police Department's internal affairs division.

Timothy Boykin, 33, spent nearly three months in jail on the felony charge before it was amended to the misdemeanor, which carried a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail.

Logan told The News earlier Monday that he wanted to give the board, and himself, more time to review all the records.

Thompson told The News Monday night that the process of condensing the investigation into a version more suited for the board is a collective process among internal affairs personnel rather than solely his handling or anyone else individually.

"The gap between the information that's left out and the information that makes it to us, who determines that? What's that process like?" board member Carlo White asked Thompson during the board meeting Monday night.

"It just depends," Thompson replied.

"I'm asking for clarification as to why the command staff recommendation wasn't included," board member Angela Rodriguez said to Thompson at a different point in the meeting.

"I'm the ultimate decider," Thompson replied. "That's the way we normally present it."

Thompson said the information the board got in Boykin's case is a summarized version of the raw and complete documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by The News and previously by Logan.

After hearing the concerns of board members, Thompson said he would be happy to provide more full investigative reports and command staff recommendations for the Boykin case and others in the future.

He said the condensing of reports to the review board has been mostly a matter of formatting rather than omitting pertinent information that would better inform board members' decisions.

"If there's more you want, maybe it's a formatting thing, maybe we can format it in such a way so you can see things you want to see," Thompson told the board.

He said the media attention on the appeal case has been "one-sided" in response to several board members referencing Friday's article from The News.

In an interview before Friday's report, Thompson had declined to offer his perspective on the case or why he chose not to discipline the officers.

Board member Sam Zimmerman said he felt there were missing details in the report upon first glance.

"We need to look a little deeper in how the decision was made," said Zimmerman.

Investigative reports obtained by The News detail how responding officers pursued an armed-robbery charge for Boykin based on the owner of a liquor store stating that he believed he saw Boykin put his hand in his pocket to indicate he had a weapon before exiting the store with stolen liquor.

The officers were later interviewed by internal affairs and did not have an answer as to why they did not consider the video evidence from inside the store when securing the armed robbery warrant, according to the internal affairs report. That footage contradicted the store owner's statement.

Phone-call recordings obtained by The News also showed how internal affairs officers called Boykin twice to see if he wanted to withdraw the complaint that was filed by Logan on his behalf.

Daniel J. Gross is an investigative watchdog reporter focusing on public safety and law enforcement for The Greenville News. Reach him at dgross@greenvillenews.com or on Twitter @danieljgross. Subscribe to The Greenville News at greenvillenews.com/subscribe.