Author Topic: Officer's misconduct caught on tape (Read 352 times)

RXL · « **on:** March 28, 2006, 04:01:15 PM »

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/dfw/news/14181145.htm?source=rss&channel=dfw_news

Officer's misconduct caught on tape
By DEANNA BOYD
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

FORT WORTH — A Fort Worth police officer has been fired after he was unknowingly captured on his patrol car’s video and audio recorder using obscene language and racial slurs, racing another officer and neglecting his duties to tend to personal business, according to documents obtained by the Star-Telegram on Friday.

Officer Trini Feggett, who was with the department two years, was indefinitely suspended effective March 10, according to a letter filed with the Civil Service Commission last week by Police Chief Ralph Mendoza.

Feggett has appealed.

His attorney, Richard Carter, of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, said his client is a “very likeable individual” who should not be judged before his administrative hearing.

Carter said the alleged violations for which Feggett was fired do not represent his abilities and how he performed his duties.

“Few, if any, law enforcement officers are perfect, and just about all of them have a bad day occasionally,” Carter said in a written statement to the Star-Telegram. “At Officer Feggett’s appeal hearing, he will welcome the opportunity to answer why all of his ‘bad days’ appear to have occurred in one tour of duty.”

The tape was made during 3½ hours late Sept. 16 and early Sept. 17.

Spokesman Lt. Dean Sullivan said officers found out about the tape when an officer who used the same patrol car after Feggett’s shift alerted his supervisors that the recorder had apparently malfunctioned during a pursuit.

Sullivan said supervisors determined that the recorder had not malfunctioned but that the tape was full after having been inadvertently activated by Feggett or the officer who had used the car before him. Sullivan said an internal investigation began after the tape was viewed.

“It’s concerning when you discover this degree of obvious and egregious misconduct on the part of one of our officers, even stumbling onto it as we did in this case,” Sullivan said.

According to the letter filed with the commission, the tape documented the following violations:

■ Ten minutes after beginning his shift, Feggett drove to the Handley football field for personal business, running a stop sign en route. Feggett radioed that he was going to the city garage but remained at the field and watched a football game.

■ Afterward, Feggett left his assigned eastside district and drove to the west division, where he met a friend at a restaurant despite not getting permission from a supervisor or notifying the dispatcher.

■ At 11:20 p.m., while driving west in the 5700 block of Ramey Avenue, Feggett yelled to a man sitting in the bed of a truck, “Why you selling weed from the truck, n-----?”, ending the question with a racial slur. The letter states that Feggett, who is African-American, later told investigators that the man he was yelling to was a friend.

■ Later, while leaving the parking lot of a restaurant in the 2700 block of East Lancaster Avenue, Feggett challenged officer A.M. Colter to a race. A traffic investigator later estimated Feggett’s top speed during the race at 102 mph, the letter states. Colter was suspended for a week without pay.

■ Feggett also sped in three other locations during his shift, including Southwest and Southeast Loop 820, where he reached an estimated 117 mph, according to the letter.

■ When dispatched to assist a stranded female motorist at 12:48 a.m., Feggett did not get out of his patrol car but rolled down his window, told the woman to lock her vehicle and said he would be back. He then left the scene to conduct personal business, including checking on a cousin who had been detained by Fort Worth officers.

The letter states that Feggett later admitted to the internal affairs sergeant that he never went back to specifically check on the stranded motorist but returned to the location several hours later and found that the woman was no longer there.

■ Driving through the Caville housing project in the 5000 block of Rosedale Street at 1:29 a.m., Feggett became involved in an argument with an unknown African-American man who had accused the officer of towing his car. During the argument, the officer used racial slurs, threats and sexually explicit remarks, the letter states.

“Officer Feggett demonstrated an appalling lack of professionalism when he was disrespectful by making racial slurs and using profane language when talking with the public,” Mendoza’s letter to the commission states. “Officer Feggett left his assigned area to conduct personal business, and he was negligent in his care of assigned equipment when he drove the patrol vehicle at high rates of speed with total disregard for the safety of himself and others on the roadway.”

In addition, the letter states, Feggett put unnecessary wear and tear on his car by routinely accelerating excessively and failed to serve residents by being absent from his beat.

“His absence from his assigned area also needlessly jeopardized the safety of his fellow officer,” the letter states.

In his statement to the Star-Telegram, Carter wrote that “Trini has expressed to me, and he would like his co-workers and friends to know that his indefinite suspension has brought him closer to his God, and that he is doing well with what he has learned from this bump in life’s road.”

Sikotic™ · « **Reply #1 on:** March 28, 2006, 05:08:42 PM »

Poor officer, Her last name is Feggett. Can you imagine how many people made fun of her for having that name? No wonder she's so angry lol.

But hey, people act so surprised by these things, it's nothing new. I'm just happy the department took care of the situation properly. Officer Faggott is stupid if she thought she would get away with using racial slurs anyways.