OH BOY, HERE WE GO AGAIN!
dmt...@enter.net
Hi All,
Here's the latest on the Vinton Saga. It appears that they are
getting ready to take this thing to trial. The Chief of Police and
his assistand (both since discharged) are suing the town for some
astronomica sum.
They want the Grand Jury Report on the police department released.
Rumor has it that there are some very prominent names in the report,
and the courts are trying to expung those names to protect them. From
what is not clear.
In the end, we may see the full 24 page report with nothing crossed
out.
Read on:
Judge cuts part of grand jury report on Vinton police
The town's lawyers want the report released, to help defend against
two officers' lawsuits.
By JEN McCAFFERY
The Roanoke Times
A judge has ruled that a small fraction of the
sealed special grand jury report that implicated
former Vinton police officials should be deleted
from the state court file, according to an attorney who was part of
proceedings closed to the press.
Roanoke Circuit Court Judge Diane Strickland ruled Friday on a
motion made by attorneys for former Vinton police chief Ricky Foutz
and his former lieutenant, Bill Brown. They were seeking to expunge
or delete the entire contents of the report, which resulted from a
three-month investigation of the department.
The 24-page report, which Strickland unsealed for only three
hours in February 2000, said Foutz and Brown were not "qualified
nor suitable to hold positions of authority" and said the department
had mishandled guns, drugs and money. Philip Coulter, who
represents Foutz, has pointed out that the report is one-sided and
argued that special grand jury materials should be kept secret.
Foutz and Brown, who both left the department in the fall of 1999
during the investigation, have since sued the town of Vinton and
various town officials in federal court. Foutz says he was defamed,
and Brown claims he was denied due process . Attorneys for town
officials have argued that they need the report to defend their
clients
against Foutz's and Brown's federal lawsuits.
Agnis Chakravorty, who is representing the town of Vinton along
with Jim Guynn, said after the hearing that Strickland ruled that
"more
than 98 percent of it is not going to be expunged," or deleted. The
portion that is going to be deleted, Chakravorty said, is not going to
affect the town's case in federal court. Strickland will enter an
order
in the case shortly.
A copy of the order will go to U.S. District Court Judge James
Turk, who has a complete copy of the report. Turk could still decide
to release the entire contents of the report, Guynn said. Turk
indicated in a hearing in April that he thought the report was
relevant
and that "at some time or other it will have to be released."
Strickland has already ordered that the attorneys representing the
town officials have the chance to read the entire report.
"We still have to go before Judge Turk and find out how we can
use the report " in the federal cases, Chakravorty said. Foutz is
seeking $10.4 million and Brown more than $1 million in damages .
Prior to barring the press from the proceedings, Strickland ruled
that "there appears to be no procedure that allows for the complete
expungement of the report." But she added it was also the court's
responsibility to determine when a special grand jury it had charged
to investigate had overstepped its bounds.
She told the press to leave when she heard arguments over
specifics in the report. Strickland said she would enter an order in
the
case shortly, Guynn said.
No dates have been set for the federal trials.
Happydog
Grand Jury report should be a public record. If she is afraid to reveal
her friends faults and foibles, as well as their sins and crimes, they
should bring in an outside judge. Foutz and Brown were not just
incompetent, but were also crooks of the first water. They had to have
the blessings of other officials to operate for so long. Who are these
crooks. Until we find out we must assume that they are all crooks, which
very well may be the case. Maybe that is what is being hidden.
Happydog:)