John Scatchell was a police officer for the Village of Melrose Park in Illinois. In late 2017, he went on paid sick leave to recuperate from an injury to his neck, back, and arm he suffered while on duty, which left him with pain and numbness. Shortly after Scatchell went on leave, however, someone tipped…
James MacColl, a police officer with Wilmington, Delaware, shot a fleeing carjacking suspect in 2019. During the resulting deadly force investigation, MacColl turned in his Department-issued gun for testing. The ballistics results showed a mismatch between the grooves on the test rounds and the grooves on the bullets recovered from the scene. Closer inspection revealed…
Charles Hoffman worked as a police officer for the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office in Utah. In May 2018, Hoffman learned that a neighboring law enforcement agency had been tasked with investigating an incident involving one of his fellow officers. Hoffman was not on good terms with the officer involved and, despite being prohibited from…
From New Jersey:Question: What impact issues are negotiable in regards to body worn cameras? Answer: The answer varies a bit from state to state, but the following “impacts” or “effects” are generally thought to be negotiable: (1) Pre-statement review of video; (2) whether supervisors can routinely review videos for evidence of misconduct (sometimes referred to as…
The rule in Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493 (1967), is fairly straightforward. If a governmental employer compels one of its employees to answer questions or provide a written statement upon threat of possible job loss, then neither the employee’s answers or statement nor the fruits of the answers or statement can be used…
In March of 2016, the Alaska Department of Corrections (DOC) received a complaint from one of Sergeant David Wilson’s subordinates alleging, among other grievances, that Wilson had pressured a second subordinate to provide him with her prescribed narcotic medications. When interviewed, the second subordinate confirmed she provided Wilson with Oxycodone and Methadone on seven or…
Christopher Kober was a trooper with the Nebraska State Patrol. Kober was criminally charged on June 1, 2017, with theft by receiving stolen property valued at more than $5,000, a Class IIA felony under Nebraska law. The criminal investigation began when the Bellevue Police Department informed the Patrol that, acting on a tip from Kober’s…
In 2016, the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) initiated an investigation into allegations of corruption within its Narcotics Bureau. In an effort to ascertain the identity of the purportedly corrupt law enforcement officers, the Criminal Conspiracy Section of the Department’s Professional Compliance Bureau orchestrated a clandestine sting operation. Investigators rented a motel room and designated an…
Armando Noguiera was a Sheriff’s Officer with the Essex County Sheriff’s Office in New Jersey. On October 5, 2012, John Warnock, a fellow Essex County Sheriff’s Officer, allegedly restrained and threatened to sexually assault a woman. Warnock’s trial began in September 2014. Both the State and Warnock called Noguiera as a witness at trial. On…
Anthony Scott was a trooper with the Georgia State Patrol (GSP). Scott was indicted by a grand jury for misdemeanor reckless driving and speeding. The indictment charged that on September 26, 2015, Scott was on duty in his patrol car when he collided with another vehicle; two of the four people in the other car…
From Iowa Question: Do Garrity rights apply during an internal investigation (administrative investigation) for police officers who are not the subject of the investigation but may merely be witnesses? For instance, I sat in on a series of interviews today, and for the first one, the sergeant stated that he understood Garrity only applied to…
Craig Ziecina, a trooper with the Michigan State Police (MSP), was a member of the Home Security Team. On December 23 and 24, 2014, the Team executed two search warrants in Leoni Township, Michigan. Shortly afterwards, the MSP began investigating whether the theft of personal property had occurred during the exercise of the warrants. During…
Most cases under Garrity v. New Jersey arise in the course of a criminal prosecution, where the question is whether the statements of a public employee are immunized because the statements were compelled as a condition of employment. Occasionally, a court will consider a case – as put recently by a Maryland appeals court –…
Police Officer Kirk Homoky was under investigation by the Hobart, Indiana Police Department for misconduct. As part of the investigation, he was ordered to submit to a voice stress test. A letter to Homoky from a deputy chief stated that the investigation was an administrative investigation, not a criminal one, and that Homoky was “afforded…
Michael Smith was a lieutenant at the Ventress Correctional Facility in Alabama. Though built for 650 inmates, Ventress housed over 1,600 prisoners. On August 4, 2010, an inmate by the name of Rocrast Mack got into a physical altercation with Officer Melissa Brown after she found him masturbating in his bunk in what is known…
Courts rarely change their minds in the middle of a case. But so it was in the criminal prosecution of New York City corrections officer Gregory Grabowski, who had been indicted for assault in the third degree, offering a false instrument for filing in the first and second degree, falsifying business records in the first…
From Illinois Question: I represent (mostly unionized) police officers in Illinois and am dealing with Garrity situations on a daily basis. I represent one small organization of railway police officers who are organized under the National Railway Labor Act (RLA). This set of laws is often quite different from NLRB/IPLRA cases (including no ULP/Weingarten charge…
From Illinois Question: I represent (mostly unionized) police officers in Illinois and am dealing with Garrity situations on a daily basis. I represent one small organization of railway police officers who are organized under the National Railway Labor Act (RLA). This set of laws is often quite different from NLRB/IPLRA cases (including no ULP/Weingarten charge…
In July 2009, the Internal Affairs Division (IAD) of the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) was investigating allegations of misbehavior against a PSP member. As part of that investigation, IAD interviewed Corporal Edmund Fret. At the outset of the interview, the IAD representative gave Fret a “reverse-Garrity” warning. In the warning, PSP ordered Fret to answer…
In recent years, one of the hottest areas of public safety labor law has been the continuing developing of the Garrity rule. As the Garrity rule, first announced by the Supreme Court more than 40 years ago in Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493 (1967), has been interpreted over the years, the Garrity rule…
A Georgia police officer’s indictment for murder has produced an important decision on whether a seemingly voluntary statement can be considered to be “coerced” for purposes of Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493 (1967). At approximately 3:15 a.m. on September 12, 2006, the DeKalb County, Georgia Police Department received a 911 call reporting a…
A recent decision from the Ohio Supreme Court addresses some important questions under the rule of Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493 (1967). The Garrity rule states that if a public employee is compelled to answer questions as part of a disciplinary interview, neither the employee’s answers nor the “fruits” of the answers can…
Duane Winchell was a deputy sheriff employed by Riverside County, California. Winchell was involved in a romantic relationship with a woman referred to in the Court’s opinion only as “Ms. Keegan.” Early in 2002, Ms. Keegan wanted to break off the relationship; Winchell disagreed and became upset that Keegan was seeing another man. Winchell went…
The California Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Spielbauer v. County of Santa Clara. The first major interpretation of the rule on Garrity v. New Jersey by the California Supreme Court in many years, Spielbauer reverses a lower court decision that had held that a formal grant of immunity is necessary before a public…
The rules arising out of Garrity v. New Jersey, 395 U.S. 493 (1967), have largely been a matter of court-made law. Under Garrity, when a public employer orders employees to answer questions, the employee’s statements and the fruits of the statements cannot be used in a subsequent criminal prosecution of the employee. With a law…
