Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2001 16:32:42 -0400 From: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor) Subject: Michigan Cops Tap Database To Harass, Intimidate To: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
[Note from Matthew Gaylor: Don is an environmental attorney in Athens, Ohio and owner of the Ohio Hempery http://www.hempery.com/ ]
From: "Don E Wirtshafter" <don@hempery.com> To: <freematt@coil.com> Subject: Fw: Cops tap database to harass, intimidate I Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 21:13:20 -0400
> Animal Farm...
>
> Cops tap database to harass, intimidate
>
> Misuse among police frequent, say some, but punishments rare
> July 31, 2001
>
> First of two parts.
>
> BY M. L. ELRICK
> FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
>
> Police throughout Michigan, entrusted with the personal and
> confidential information in a state law enforcement database, have used
> it to stalk women, threaten motorists and settle scores.
>
> To report abuse
> If you suspect you have been improperly checked through the Law
> Enforcement Information Network or LEIN, write to Kathy Rector,
> executive director of the Criminal Justice Information Services Policy
> Council, c/o Michigan State Police, 7150 Harris, Lansing, 48913, or
> e-mail her at rectork@state.mi.us.
>
> Include your name, date of birth, driver's license number, license
> plate number and any details that caused you to suspect a LEIN abuse.
> Also include the date you suspect the violation occurred, who may have
> misused the LEIN and your telephone number.
>
> Over the past five years, more than 90 Michigan police officers,
> dispatchers, federal agents and security guards have abused the Law
> Enforcement Information Network (LEIN), according to a Free Press
> examination of hundreds of pages of LEIN records and police reports.
>
> In many cases, abusers turned a valuable crime-fighting tool into a
> personal search engine for home addresses, for driving records and for
> criminal files of love interests, colleagues, bosses or rivals.
>
> Even police are vulnerable to having their privacy violated. Former
> Center Line Police Chief Adam Garcia's name was run through the LEIN by
> one of his own officers when he took the job in June 1998. Garcia said
> his record was clean and he had nothing to hide.
>
> "It was meant to harass and intimidate me," Garcia said. "And to let
> me know that they knew all about me when they weren't supposed to
> know."
>
> Police said they think the system, which is used to make about 3
> million background checks each month, is more widely abused than anyone
> knows.
>
> "I wouldn't doubt that it happens very often," said Lawrence Carey,
> who retired this month as Plymouth Township's police chief. "A lot of
> them are taken care of internally."
>
> Since 1967, the LEIN has been a powerful weapon in the fight against
> crime.
>
> Using the FBI's National Crime Information Center, Michigan Secretary
> of State vehicle registrations and driving histories, and other
> databases, the LEIN can tell police whether someone is wanted on an
> arrest warrant, is a sex offender, was reported missing, or is deemed
> dangerous.
>
> Police can find out where someone lives as well as confidential
> information such as whether the person applied for a concealed weapon
> permit or has a suppressed juvenile record.
>
> All it takes to access someone's detailed personal information is
> their name or license plate number. Sometimes, one officer will have
> another officer run a questionable LEIN check for them, possibly as a
> way of avoiding detection. Despite rules limiting LEIN use to law
> enforcement purposes, police told the Free Press their colleagues use
> LEIN to check out attractive people they spot on the road.
>
> "I'm not going to be so naive as to say an officer hasn't seen a
> pretty girl and run her plate," said Carey, who also was once chief in
> Troy.
>
> Former Memphis Police Chief Phillip Ludos said the practice is so
> common it is known simply as "Running a plate for a date."
>
> Unwanted interest
>
> Part-time Memphis police officer Scott Woods -- also known by his
> Internet nom de plume, BRN 2B NAKED -- used the LEIN to find out
> personal information about a woman he met on the Internet around March
> 1999, according to Memphis police reports.
>
> Woods, who was also working as a Macomb County Jail guard, asked a
> friend in Detroit's 9th (Gratiot) Precinct to get information on a St.
> Clair Shores woman, according to a Memphis police incident report and
> Macomb County sheriff's ivestigation report.
>
> Woods began corresponding with the woman, and over the course of two
> months told her he was a widower raising a baby daughter. The woman
> told the Free Press she was afraid to talk about the case and did not
> want her name used.
>
> According to police records, the woman gave Woods her phone number and
> arranged to meet him after work one night.
>
> But instead of going on a date, Woods sat outside her workplace in his
> sport-utility vehicle, the woman told police. She said she waved Woods
> in, but he just sat there.
>
> Woods later told the woman he had followed her home the night before,
> according to police records. He called her by her middle name, which
> she had not told him. He described her height and weight. And he went
> on to call her at home and work up to three times a day, according to
> police and sheriff's records.
>
> Woods declined to discuss the case. "It's something from my past," he
> said. "That was all blown out of proportion."
>
> Ludos, who was Memphis chief at the time, said Woods confirmed the
> woman's account when confronted.
>
> Ludos said he fired Woods from the Memphis force for conduct
> unbecoming an officer in 1999. He resigned from the Sheriff's
> Department.
>
> Sharing LEIN information is a misdemeanor in Michigan, punishable by
> up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine, upon conviction.
>
> As is often the case, the Detroit officers accused of abusing the
> system to help Woods were not prosecuted. Both are facing a hearing on
> possible departmental discipline, but it has not been scheduled.
>
> LEIN for leverage
>
> Sometimes the LEIN is used as a weapon in domestic disputes.
>
> Former Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Cathy McGuigan said she
> should not have been surprised when her ex-husband, John Knechtges, ran
> her new husband's information through the LEIN.
>
> "When you start getting into the romantic entanglement department, I
> think that's when the cops abuse it a lot," she said. "Anybody who's
> ever been involved with a police officer should be concerned about it
> happening to them."
>
> Knechtges, then a Troy police lieutenant, and a friendly FBI agent ran
> McGuigan's husband through LEIN. Armed with information, Knechtges took
> McGuigan to court and attempted to gain custody of their son.
>
> McGuigan said Knechtges was unsuccessful, but his power play helped
> end her new marriage.
>
> Knechtges was reprimanded and suspended for a week without pay.
>
> FBI agent James Triano, who ran McGuigans husband through LEIN,
> received a letter of censure and was put on probation for six months,
> said Detroit FBI Special-Agent-In-Charge John Bell Jr.
>
> Bell called the incident "very serious -- you're talking about our
> bread and butter, controlling information." But, he said, the agent
> acted out of concern for the couple's child.
>
> Triano did not respond to requests for an interview. Knechtges, who
> now works for a glass manufacturer, declined to comment.
>
> Friends helping friends
>
> It's not uncommon for police to help friends get information through
> LEIN.
>
> One hour after Carl Daisy exchanged heated words with another motorist
> in Northville on Aug. 7, 1998, Highland Park Public Safety Officer Eric
> Hollowell -- who was not involved in the altercation -- asked a
> dispatcher to run Daisy's license plate number through the LEIN system,
> state records show.
>
> Less than an hour later, Daisy received the first of many ominous
> calls. "You're talking to God. I know everything about you," the man
> told Daisy.
>
> On at least one occasion, Daisy said the caller told him he "had a
> beautiful wife and that it would be a shame if anything happened to
> her."
>
> The caller was never identified.
>
> Hollowell is not suspected of calling Daisy -- and he denies abusing
> the LEIN system. But Ronald Parham, who was Highland Park Police Chief
> at the time, said he concluded that Hollowell used the LEIN to help an
> acquaintance locate Daisy.
>
> Parham said he reprimanded Hollowell, and Wayne County prosecutors
> declined to prosecute.
>
> That outrages Daisy.
>
> "What would happen if I accessed that information?" he asked. "There
> are stalking laws. I'd be creamed."
>
> Hollowell's explanation for being linked to the LEIN check on Daisy: a
> bookkeeping error or another officer requesting a LEIN check under his
> name.
>
> "I honestly don't remember running that plate," Hollowell said. "If I
> did run it, it was legitimate. It wasn't for any bull."
>
> Investigations exposed
>
> In 1996, police running license plates through LEIN exposed a secret
> surveillance operation, according to state records.
>
> St. Clair Police were investigating a major seller of illegal cable
> boxes when a Detroit police detective and a Michigan State Police
> trooper separately ran LEIN checks on their undercover vehicles, St.
> Clair Police Chief Donald Barnum said. Records don't show why the
> checks were made.
>
> St. Clair police didn't learn they had been exposed until they
> searched the suspect's home and found LEIN printouts, Barnum said.
> "That information was very, very classified and very, very difficult to
> obtain," he said. "That information could have been very detrimental to
> the outcome of our case."
>
> Investigators were unable to determine which trooper tapped into the
> database, but records show that the Detroit detective was suspended for
> two days.
>
> Political trouble
>
> Sometimes LEIN abuse becomes a part of political campaigns.
>
> Genesee County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Chuck Melki blames LEIN abuse
> for undermining his campaign against incumbent Sheriff Robert Pickell
> in the 2000 Democratic primary.
>
> On June 21, 2000, Genesee County Jail Administrator Kenneth Emigh, a
> Pickell appointee, had deputies run the license plates of three cars
> with pro-Melki bumper stickers.
>
> State police investigated after an anonymous letter writer reported
> the incident. As word spread within the department, Melki said his
> supporters became intimidated.
>
> "A lot of my support shrunk up, went underground when they found out
> they were running people's plates," Melki said.
>
> Pickell suspended Emigh for three days. Emigh said he used bad
> judgment, but was not trying to help Pickell.
>
> "I really regret doing it," Emigh said. "I have not run one since.
> It's not worth the trouble."
>
> Said Melki: "The public can't use it for personal gain, why can a
> police officer? ...If yu'd have done that, we'd have been getting a
> warrant on you."
>
> Tomorrow: When police break the LEIN law, punishment varies -- or
> doesn't happen at all.
>
> Contact M.L. ELRICK at 313-223-3327 or elrick@freepress.com.
> http://www.freep.com/news/mich/lein31_20010731.htm
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