Austin Police Department Assistant Chief Jimmy Chapman admitted under oath Aug. 28 that an official letter he signed last fall contained false information about the reasons for the suspension of Detective Robert Bowers, reports the Austin Police News Web site. Bowers was suspended for three days after Internal Affairs investigators determined that he inappropriately gained “confidential” information from a federal probation officer about a local drug dealer. According to the APN report, Bowers had told probation officer Martha Davis last fall he was planning to begin surveillance on Antoine Patton after other officers identified the convicted dealer during a methamphetamine lab bust in Southeast Austin in August. But IA detectives concluded that Bowers’ true intent was to help out his friend, former Officer Timothy Enlow, who had been fired for (among other alleged policy violations) inappropriately taking police action while off-duty by arresting several people — including Antoine Patton, whom he arrested in 2001 during a crack deal behind the officer’s apartment complex on East Oltorf.
According to APN, Chapman signed off on a letter outlining Bowers’ infractions and authorizing a three-day suspension for the detective. The letter said not only that Bowers used his position to gain confidential information about Patton, but that after his call Davis was “fearful that officers … may be retaliating” against Patton; Chapman said this led to a charge that Bowers had brought “discredit” to the department. However, in her sworn testimony Davis said that neither allegation was entirely true; she never provided any “confidential” information to Bowers, and her views of APD were influenced in part by input from Patton and in part after calls from Assistant City Attorney Mike Cronig — who represented the department in the subsequent wrongful-termination case filed by Tim Enlow. According to APN, Chapman admitted that the suspension letter he signed should have said that Bowers “attempted” to gain confidential information — not that he actually had. Still, Chapman said, though Davis testified that Bowers’ call didn’t disturb her, he and other supervisors still “felt like it did.”
Chapman’s admission came just hours before Chief Stan Knee announced an independent investigation to determine whether the assistant chief lied under oath during a July deposition in the whistle-blower lawsuit filed by Detective Jeff White. Ironically, part of that inquiry concerns whether Chapman sought to remove confidential information from an Internal Affairs file — a charge similar to the one he sustained against Bowers. For more on White’s case, see p.28.
This article appears in September 5 • 2003.