Credit: Photo by John Anderson

What’s that old saying about the cover-up being punished worse than the action? The City of Austin has confirmed that APD Internal Affairs Det. Chris Dunn has been placed on indefinite suspension over emails he sent during the investigation into the May 11 fatal shooting of Nathaniel Smith II and serious wounding of Sir Smith by Officer Leonardo Quintana.

This follows from yesterday’s disciplinary decision by Chief Art Acevedo in which Quintana received a 15 day suspension, and fellow officer Moham­mad Siddiqui a three day suspension, for failing to turn on their video cameras during the search that lead to Sanders’ death.

A report by Keypoint Government Services revealed emails sent by Dunn in which he pushed to use the two men’s records against them by searching for any criminal history that could “make him/them a causation of the entire event.” At the time, Keypoint said that this lead to bias in the internal affairs report on the shooting.

This article appears in swine flu.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.