NEW HAVEN, CONN. -- An eye-opening state police internal memorandum obtained by News 8 challenges state troopers in one barracks to out-perform their trooper colleagues by writing hundreds of tickets on Friday.
The memo, distributed at Troop I in Bethany and obtained exclusively by News 8, basically lays down the gauntlet and any driver on a state highway is fair game.
According to this document, starting tonight at midnight, patrols will be stepped up. The memo from Lt. Anthony Schirillo says in part;
"...we have to issue at least 60 infractions / Misdemeanors each shift for a total of 180 infractions in order to outperform both Troop F and Troop G.
"...One day Troop F issued 301 tickets. Troop G responded by issuing 345 in one day. We can do better...
"I am asking that everyone, myself included, contribute to this effort...
"NOTE if we happen to issue 350 tickets in one day that would be stellar."
News 8 spoke at length with Lt. Paul Vance, spokesman for the Connecticut state police. In response to the allegation that this is a quota system, which the state police union alleges, Lt. Vance said no one is given a quota, this is not a game, they don't do that, and have never done that.
Another memo obtained by News 8 says "The master sergeant and I will buy pizza for the shift with the highest total."
Update: More reaction from Lt. Vance and state police union president Andrew Matthews posted here.
State police: "This is not a quota" [because that would be a felony]
05 Apr 2012
Bob Wilson
WTNH TV
NEW HAVEN, CONN. -- Connecticut's state police union is angry over a memo, obtained by News 8, that encourages troopers in the Bethany barracks going on a ticketing spree Friday to beat other barracks and win pizza.
The email, from Lt. Anthony Schirillo, challenges troopers to write 350 tickets or more during a 24 hour window starting at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The shift with the most tickets gets pizza, another message said.
"This is not a joke or a game," State police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said. "It's a troop commanders' attempt to stimulate his personnel to enhance highway safety and this goes on all across the state. You will see enhanced enforcement as we continue along in the spring months."
"Troopers are expected to do their job," union president Andrew Matthews said. "We will do our job, but we don't need to be told we need a certain number of tickets within a specified period of time."
The state police union calls it ticket blitzing -- Connecticut trying to make money off of enforcement.
"And by definition under statute a quota is a specific number of infractions or summonses within a specified period of time and that is what the email said," said Matthews.
Which is illegal under that statute. Lt. Vance says it's not a quota. Rather, it's a way to motivate troopers to enhance highway safety. He says it's something state troopers do every Spring.
"Even last week we had a [Department of Transportation] worker killed on our highways just doing his job," Vance said. "We had troopers down in Bridgeport make two stops of people going over 100 mph. Not only were they motor vehicle stops for speeding, but they resulted in a convicted felon with a gun and another individual with narcotics and narcotics money."
Is the memo motivational or revenue?
"Whether it's motivational or a quota, it's disturbing to us because at a time when the taxpayers are out of work 'cause they're unemployed, or gas is $4 a gallon and unemployment is like around 9%, now is not the time to be just issuing tickets to generate revenue," Matthews said.
"This is not a quota. Troopers have discretion," Vance said.
"There is nothing more difficult for a Connecticut state trooper than to stop a family -- a husband, a wife, a couple of children in the back -- for a motor vehicle violation, and hand that family a $275 ticket for violation of the rules of the road. But we look at that family and hope that we have saved a life, hahaha."
WASHINGTON (AP) – Jailers may perform invasive strip searches on people arrested even for minor offenses, an ideologically divided Supreme Court ruled Monday, the conservative majority declaring that security trumps privacy in an often dangerous environment.
In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled against a New Jersey man who was strip searched in two county jails following his arrest on a warrant for an unpaid fine that he had, in reality, paid.
The decision resolved a conflict among lower courts about how to balance security and privacy. Prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, lower courts generally prohibited routine strip searches for minor offenses. In recent years, however, courts have allowed jailers more discretion to maintain security, and the high court ruling ratified those decisions.
In this case, Albert Florence's nightmare began when the sport utility vehicle driven by his pregnant wife was pulled over for speeding. He was a passenger; his 4-year-old son was in the backseat.
Justice Anthony Kennedy said the circumstances of the arrest were of little importance. Instead, Kennedy said, Florence's entry into the general jail population gave guards the authorization to force him to strip naked and expose his mouth, nose, ears and genitals to a visual search in case he was hiding anything.
"Courts must defer to the judgment of correctional officials unless the record contains substantial evidence showing their policies are an unnecessary or unjustified response to problems of jail security," Kennedy said.
In a dissenting opinion joined by the court's liberals, Justice Stephen Breyer said strip searches improperly "subject those arrested for minor offenses to serious invasions of their personal privacy." Breyer said jailers ought to have a reasonable suspicion someone may be hiding something before conducting a strip search.
Breyer said people like Florence "are often stopped and arrested unexpectedly. And they consequently will have had little opportunity to hide things in their body cavities."
Florence made the same point in his arguments: He said he was headed to dinner at his mother-in-law's house when he was stopped in March 2005. He also said that even if the warrant had been valid, failure to pay a fine is not a crime in New Jersey.
But Kennedy focused on the fact that Florence was held with other inmates in the general population. In concurring opinions, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito said the decision left open the possibility of an exception to the rule and might not apply to someone held apart from other inmates.
Kennedy gave three reasons to justify routine searches — detecting lice and contagious infections, looking for tattoos and other evidence of gang membership and preventing smuggling of drugs and weapons.
Kennedy also said people arrested for minor offenses can turn out to be "the most devious and dangerous criminals." Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh initially was stopped by a state trooper who noticed McVeigh was driving without a license plate, Kennedy said.
In his dissent, Breyer said inmates in the two New Jersey jails already have to submit to pat-down searches, pass through metal detectors, shower with delousing agents and have their clothing searched.
Many jails, several states and associations of corrections officials say strip searches should be done only when there is reasonable suspicion, which could include arrest on drug charges or for violent crimes, Breyer said.
Susan Chana Lask, Florence's lawyer, said, "The 5-4 decision was as close as we could get … in this political climate with recent law for indefinite detention of citizens without trial that shaves away our constitutional rights every day."
The first strip search of Florence took place in the Burlington County Jail in southern New Jersey. Six days later, Florence had not received a hearing and remained in custody. Transferred to another county jail in Newark, he was strip-searched again.
The next day, a judge dismissed all charges. Florence's lawsuit soon followed.
He still may pursue other claims, including that he never should have been arrested.
Florence, who is African-American, had been stopped several times before, and he carried a letter to the effect that the fine, for fleeing a traffic stop several years earlier, had been paid.
His protest was in vain, however, and the trooper handcuffed him and took him to jail. At the time, the State Police were operating under a court order, because of allegations of past racial discrimination, that provided federal monitors to assess stops of minority drivers. But the propriety of the stop is not at issue, and Florence is not alleging racial discrimination.
In 1979, the Supreme Court upheld a blanket policy of conducting body cavity searches of prisoners who had had contact with visitors on the basis that the interaction with outsiders created the possibility that some prisoners had obtained something they shouldn't have.
For the next 30 or so years, appeals courts applying the high court ruling held uniformly that strip searches without suspicion violated the Constitution.
But since 2008 — in the first appellate rulings on the issue since the Sept. 11 attacks — appeals courts in Atlanta, Philadelphia and San Francisco have decided that a need by authorities to maintain security justified a wide-ranging search policy, no matter the reason for someone's detention.
The high court upheld the ruling from the Philadelphia court, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"Now if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests. They've got a big target on there, ATF. Don't shoot at that, because they've got a vest on underneath that. Head shots, head shots.... Kill the sons of bitches. If the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms insists upon a firefight, give them a firefight. Just remember, they're wearing flak jackets and you're better off shooting for the head. I was talking about a situation in which law enforcement agents come smashing into a house, don't say who they are and their guns are out, they're shooting and they're in the wrong place. This has happened time and time again. The ATF has gone in and gotten the wrong person in the wrong place. The law is that if somebody is shooting at you, using deadly force, the mere fact that they are a law enforcement officer, if they are in the wrong, does not mean you are obliged to allow yourself to be killed so your kinfolk can have a wrongful death action. You are legally entitled to defend yourself and I was speaking of exactly those kind of situations. If you're going to do that, you should know that they're wearing body armor so you should use a head shot. Now all I'm doing is stating the law."
-FBI agent G Gordon Liddy, attorney at law and convicted felon Watergate burgler on his radio show
By Eric Bradner
Evansville Courier & Press
March 21, 2012
INDIANAPOLIS — Although he said it was a "close call" that took days of consideration, Gov. Mitch Daniels signed into law a measure that gives Hoosiers the right to use force to resist police officers who illegally enter their homes.
The new law is a reversal from last year's controversial Indiana Supreme Court decision. Advocates called it an effort to protect against rogue police – although Daniels acknowledged that the law might create perception problems.
"In the real world, there will almost never be a situation in which these extremely narrow conditions are met. So as a matter of law, law enforcement officers will be better protected than before, not less so," Daniels said.
"What is troubling to law enforcement officers, and to me, is the chance that citizens hearing reports of change will misunderstand what the law says."
It was the only bill the Indiana General Assembly passed during the 2012 legislative session that the Republican governor was seriously considering sending back with a veto. His signature means he rejected nothing lawmakers sent him this year.
The issue was sparked by the state high court's decision in the case of Richard Barnes, an Evansville man who fought a police officer who entered his house while responding to a call reporting a domestic dispute.
The court found that officers sometimes enter homes without warrants for reasons protected by the law, such as pursuing suspects or preventing the destruction of evidence.
"In these situations, we find it unwise to allow a homeowner to adjudge the legality of police conduct in the heat of the moment," the court said. "As we decline to recognize a right to resist unlawful police entry into a home, we decline to recognize a right to batter a police officer as a part of that resistance."
The new law only gives Hoosiers the right to resist officers who they believe are acting unlawfully. Using deadly force against an officer is only protected to prevent serious bodily injury.
Groups such as the Fraternal Order of Police and other law enforcement organizations had lobbied against the measure. Rep. Linda Lawson, the No. 2-ranking House Democrat and a former police officer, said it will create "open season on law enforcement."
In a statement announcing his decision to sign Senate Enrolled Act 1, Daniels sought to underscore that the law does not create what some opponents said would be an open season on law enforcement officers.
"Today is an important day to say: Indiana's outstanding law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every day to protect all Hoosiers. The right thing to do is cooperate with them in every way possible. This law is not an invitation to use violence or force against law enforcement officers," he said.
"In fact, it restricts when an individual can use force, specifically deadly force, on an officer, so don't try anything. Chances are overwhelming you will be breaking the law and wind up in far worse trouble as a result."
In the waning days of this year's session, lawmakers complained that the measure had become dramatized. House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said what lawmakers did was write a jury instruction.
Still, Daniels took meetings this week with advocates and opponents, and said the law's message is something to consider. "It's a close call," he said.
NEW ORLEANS -- Four New Orleans police officers were sentenced to 38 to 65 years in prison for convictions including violating the civil rights of two people killed a week after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005.
U.S. District Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt in New Orleans sentenced a fifth officer today to six years in prison for covering up the crimes.
A federal jury in August convicted officers Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Robert Faulcon and Anthony Villavaso of opening fire on unarmed black civilians on the city’s Danziger Bridge and conspiring with others to cover up their actions. The fifth, homicide detective Arthur “Archie” Kaufman, was convicted of conspiring to make the shootings appear justified.
“We hope that today’s sentences give a measure of peace and closure to the victims of this terrible shooting, who have suffered unspeakable pain and who have waited so patiently for justice to be done,” Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said in an e-mailed statement. “The officers who shot innocent people on the bridge and then went to great lengths to cover up their own crimes have finally been held accountable for their actions.”
The civil rights violations caused the deaths of James Brissette and Ronald Madison, the jury found, which meant that the four officers directly involved faced a maximum punishment of life in prison. Bowen was sentenced to 40 years, Faulcon to 65, Gisevius to 40, Villavaso to 38, and Kaufman to six.
After Katrina
The shootings took place on Sept. 4, 2005, one week after Katrina flooded most of New Orleans and one day after stranded evacuees were airlifted and bused to safety.
A July 2010 indictment accused Bowen, Gisevius, Faulcon and Villavaso of firing on a family on the east side of the Danziger Bridge, killing James Brissette, 17, and wounding four other people. The defendants said they were responding to a policewoman’s radio call of officers and rescue workers in danger.
The U.S. accused Faulcon of shooting Ronald Madison, a 40- year-old man with mental disabilities, on the other side of the bridge. The jury said Faulcon’s actions didn’t amount to murder.
Kaufman, the homicide detective, was charged with joining the officers in a conspiracy to conceal what happened at the bridge. Kaufman was convicted on 10 counts including obstruction of justice and fabrication of evidence.
‘See His Father’
Engelhardt said at the sentencing hearing today that he was restricted by federal guidelines or would have imposed shorter prison terms. He noted that Faulcon’s son was born after Katrina.
“He will never see his father outside a prison wall under this sentencing scheme,” Engelhardt said.
The judge said that five other police officers who pleaded guilty received much lower sentences. “One can only be astonished and deeply troubled by the plea bargains allowed in the Danziger Bridge matter,” he said.
“Using liars to convict liars is no way to pursue justice,” Engelhardt said, referring to cooperating officers who testified against the defendants.
Federal prosecutors wouldn’t have had a case without enlisting the help of cooperating witnesses, Perez, the assistant attorney general, said in a conference call with reporters today.
‘Prosecution Fell Apart’
“It’s important to understand where we were in the year 2008, which was three-plus years after the shooting and the state prosecution fell apart, frankly, and we had nothing,” Perez said. “We had to build a case from scratch and you don’t go to the witness store and pick out witnesses to build a case. You have to do your leg work and see where you can go.”
Attorneys for the four accused shooters depicted their clients at trial as dedicated officers who refused to abandon their posts, rescuing residents from Katrina’s floodwaters both before and after the shootings.
The defendants claimed they were responding to gunfire and that they believed the shooting victims were a danger to themselves and others. They also denied involvement in a cover- up.
The U.S. said at trial there was no evidence that any of the civilians had guns.
The judge said the “context of Katrina cannot be ignored” in the case. This included widespread looting and escalating fear of gunfire, Engelhardt said.
"If I wanted to kill YOU, all I'd have to do is don't let anybody see me do it, don't tell any body I did it, and hide the murder weapon!"
-Mike Nassios, Knox County homicide prosecutor, poking his finger at The Dragonater before his wife's client's team of assassins but a bullet hole in The Dragonater's car
MCEWEN, TN (WSMV) - Call it too close for comfort. A 10-year-old boy was nearly hit by a speeding police car, and now his mother and others are asking if the high-speed chase through a school zone was necessary.
A young man was seen speeding on a motorcycle Monday through downtown McEwen, so a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper wanted to issue a traffic ticket. But soon, it became a high-speed chase through a school zone, and several bus stops right as school was dismissing.
Marcus Crews had just gotten off the bus around 3:10 p.m. and did what always does. He went to the curb to grab the mail for his mom.
But then Marcus was looking at a trooper flying down the road, coming toward him at high speed.
"It was a big smash,"he said.
His mother, Chrissy Crews, was inside the house in her living room.
"It was very terrifying. The next thing I heard was a big crash, and my son screaming," she said.
The THP confirms the chase started when Trooper Jason Clarke saw a young man speeding and doing wheelies on a motorcycle.
The chase continued downtown in front of McEwen High School just minutes after dismissal, then it traveled along a road where a school bus was letting children off.
The trooper rear-ended and sideswiped one car, and then narrowly missed a head-on collision with another before spinning into a roadside ditch.
Five people were hospitalized in the crashes.
The whole thing was unacceptable for Chrissy Crews, who says she can't believe the trooper put so many people at risk to chase the speeding rider.
"The other children that were in the car were just leaving school. It was pretty much ping pong between them," Crews said. "It was very dangerous that he was flying down here at the time," she said.
THP officials are investigating the crash and told Channel 4 they would not defend or criticize the high-speed chase until the investigation was completed.
The THP released a statement Wednesday, saying: "The safety and welfare of the motoring public is our top priority. It appears the investigating trooper followed the department's policy regarding vehicle pursuits. The investigation is ongoing, and the circumstances and facts of this case will be reviewed thoroughly."
The family of the five people who went to the hospital said they are very upset and have hired a lawyer, saying the safety of the public was obviously not the first consideration in the chase.
MCEWEN, Tenn.- A Tennessee Highway Patrol officer was injured in a crash Monday afternoon, while attempting to pull over a dangerous motorcycle rider.
A spokesperson with THP said the crash happened just before 3 p.m. on Old Nashville Highway, north of McEwen.
A State Trooper attempted to make a traffic stop of a motorcycle rider who was popping wheelies while riding down Hwy 70. The rider refused to stop and upon topping a hill on Old Nashville Highway, went in between two cars. The following trooper came up the hill, and attempting to stop to miss the cars ending up sideswiping one of the vehicles.
Officials said the Trooper then lost control of his patrol car and hit another vehicle that was traveling southbound. The impact caused the patrol unit to spin into a ditch.
The Trooper suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene. Four other people also suffered minor injuries as a result of the crash and were transported to the Horizon Medical Center in Dickson.
Police said the motorcyclist who caused the accident remains at large.
It is rare that those employed by State Agencies, whose jobs focus on maintaining the safety of drivers, are the ones involved in the accidents that occur on Tennessee’s highways, but a recent collision in the Nashville area brings attention to this very real possibility.
On March 6th, a Tennessee State Trooper noticed a reckless motorcycle rider wreaking havoc by popping wheelies along Hwy 70 near McEwen. Once pursued by the Trooper, the reckless driver neglected to yield and was able to escape by dodging between two cars atop a hill on Old Nashville Highway.
The chase ended as the Trooper stopped abruptly to avoid colliding with the two cars that the motorcycle had slipped between. In doing so, the Trooper spun out of control and swiped the side of one of the vehicles, crashing into a second vehicle headed southbound.
While the State Trooper was treated for minor injuries at the scene of the car crash, four additional people involved in the wreck were taken to Horizon Medical Center in Dickson, Tennessee to be treated for minor injuries as well. The motorcycle rider’s fate remains undetermined, as he/she has not yet been identified.
While it seems that the Tennessee State Trooper didn’t exhibit any extreme negligence in this case, highways can be a dangerous place, where even those trying to maintain drivers’ safety can put others at risk for accident or injury.
A police officer who was named 'Trooper of the Year 2007' for making more than 200 DUI arrests could see her cases overturned after she admitted violating standard procedure.
Lisa Steed admitted in court this week that she had removed her microphone during a 2010 DUI stop so her superior wouldn't know what she was doing.
This is not the first time Steed's actions on DUI stops have got her into trouble.
In 2009, a shocking police car dashcam recording caught her tasering a terrified man after he refused to get out of his car asking to call his lawyer. The man was later found to have been sober.
A Facebook group has been set up calling on the police to fire Steed called; 'End Abusive Police: Fire UHP Officer Lisa Steed.' It has over 120 supporters
'The cumulative facts may well have a significant ripple effect across every case she's touched,' Salt Lake City attorney Joseph Jardine told ABCNews.com.
'This could become the basis for overturning multiple convictions in the past.'
Jardine is representing Theron Alexander, who said Steed violated procedure when she administered a breathalyzer test before a field sobriety test in March 2010.
'The credibility of an investigating officer is paramount. If you can't trust the cop at their word, there's very little left that you can trust with an investigation,' Jardine said.
Steed admitted that she had removed her microphone and left in in the patrol car during the incident so she could perform an unauthorized action, according to ABC News.
'She specifically stated [Tuesday] that she took the microphone off so her superior wouldn't know what she was doing,' Jardine said.
'We're concerned that she may have a tendency to stretch the truth when it suits her purposes. Our objective is to probe her credibility.'
Trooper Steed's statements came while she took the witness stand in the DUI court case.
Steed, pictured on Tuesday, was named 'Trooper of the Year 2007' for making more than 200 DUI arrests but now see her cases overturned
Steed's attorney Greg Skordas told ABC that the incident is not a reflection of his client's credibility.
'It doesn't affect her credibility. It affects the way she does things, her ability to follow instructions,' Skordas told ABC. 'It doesn't mean she's dishonest.'
Skordas claimed that Steed was simply trying to give the motorist that she had pulled over 'the benefit of the doubt' by skipping straight to the breathalyzer test and not having them get out of the car.
'It wasn't anyone she knew. I think she was just being overly sensitive,' Skordas said.
'There wasn't any bad intent. It was one of those, no good deed goes unpunished.'
A Facebook group has been set up calling on the police to fire Steed called; 'End Abusive Police: Fire UHP Officer Lisa Steed'.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said his office has been investigating several dozen pending DUI cases involving Steed after complaints arose.
The 2009 taser recording showed the officer shouting at Ryan Jones to get out of his car, when he asked to call his lawyer first.
She quickly threatens him with a taser saying: 'If you don't get out now, you're getting tasered in two second.'
She then threatens to get a police dog to 'rip him out of the car'.
Jones can be heard calmly saying, "Ma'am, please don't shoot me with a Taser,'.
However, Steed ignores his plea and zaps him as he is sitting in his car. He can be heard screaming in agony in the recording and then begging her not to do it again before he is zapped a second time.
When Jones was eventually tested, his blood alcohol level was a 0.03, well below the legal limit.
The case was settled in November 2011 when the state paid Jones $40,000 without admitting wrongdoing.
Of the case, Skordas said, she was reprimanded and had moved on.
Switching back to plastic valve caps, though in theory copper antiseize would work to prevent corrosion on steel/aluminum threads. Don't need steel caps with a 90-degree stem due to lack of centripetal force. Die grinder chewed up the threads a little while cutting off the cap. I'll replace the valve stem at the next tire change.
White chunks are barry corrosion that glued cap on like epoxy
Galvanic corrosion is an electrochemical process in which one metal corrodes preferentially to another when both metals are in electrical contact and immersed in an electrolyte. The same galvanic reaction is exploited in primary batteries to generate a voltage.
MARYVILLE, TENN. — A Blount County woman was killed when the motorcycle she was riding collided head-on with a pickup truck in Maryville today, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
Waynanne Suttles, 44, of Maryville was killed in the crash, according to a THP incident report.
She was riding a 1985 Honda CMX southbound along U.S. Highway 129 at approximately 11:45 a.m. when she crossed the double-yellow line on a curve near Old Railroad Bed Road and struck an oncoming 2005 Chevy SK1, the report states.
Suttles was wearing a helmet, the report notes. The driver of the pickup, Michael J. Anthony, 44, of Madisonville, was wearing a seat belt and was not injured.
There were no indications that either party was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and no citations or criminal charges are expected, the report states.
Beware defective "guardrails" at Deals Gap. Tennessee Guardrail chopped the leg off The Dragonater's co-driver at Knoxville's Group-10 Racing, after 70-feet of "guardrail" passed through his pickup truck and groin.
by State Integrity Investigation
November 09, 2011
Corruption news for Tennessee, from The Tennesseean:
Two Nashville courts have refused to overturn the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s decisions to suspend two guardrail contractors from bidding on state contracts.
The two contractors had been implicated in corruption investigations.
The contractors — Kingston Springs-based Lu Inc. and Knoxville-based Tennessee Guardrail — argued in lawsuits that their suspensions were improper.
The owner of a Tennessee Guardrail company is suing the Tennessee Department of Transportation for banning him and his companies from future projects.
Joey Cole's lawsuit agrees Lu Incorporated's suspension violates a 2006 agreement in a separate case. It also claims the suspension relies on protected testimony Cole gave to federal investigators about a former TDOT worker who pleaded guilty this year to soliciting and accepting $30,000 in bribes.
TDOT officials declined to comment. The suspension means Cole's companies can't work on state funded road projects for a least a year. The federal highway administration has also banned Lu Incorporated from federally funded projects.
In 2006, the state reached a settlement with Lu, after they were accused of installing shoddy guardrails on the Tennessee Roads. Lu agreed to pay more than $360,000 to TDOT to cover the inspection and replacement costs and to drop all suits against the state.
Two Nashville courts have refused to overturn the Tennessee Department of Transportation's decisions to suspend two guardrail contractors from bidding on state contracts, according to The Tennessean.
The two contractors had been implicated in corruption investigations. The contractors -- Kingston Springs-based Lu Inc. and Knoxville-based Tennessee Guardrail -- argued in lawsuits that their suspensions were improper. Davidson County Chancellor Russell T. Perkins and U.S. District Court Judge Kevin H. Sharp have so far refused, preserving TDOT's wide latitude to suspend contractors as it sees fit to protect the public's confidence that taxpayer dollars are being spent appropriately.
Lu Inc. owner and President Novice Cole has admitted to giving $30,000 to a TDOT project supervisor who oversaw his work on a 2005 Interstate 65 widening project, but claimed in a Davidson County Chancery Court lawsuit that the state's decision to suspend him earlier this year violated the terms of a 2006 settlement agreement he reached with the agency.
The settlement agreement ended a previous TDOT suspension of Lu that was based on allegations by a former employee that guardrails it installed were not embedded deep enough and were unsafe.
Lu was suspended again this year after former TDOT employee James Douglas Hagar was indicted in federal court on bribery charges. Hagar has admitted to accepting eight personal checks from Cole totaling $30,000 and was sentenced to six months in prison.
....Tennessee Guardrail Vice President Kevin Eugene Peel and company founder Allen Roy DeFoe are accused of destroying records requested by a federal grand jury in 2006. The grand jury had requested records of "anything of value obtained for or transferred for the direct or indirect benefit of any employee or former employee of" TDOT or other government agencies. The indictment alleges that, after receiving the subpoena, Peel and DeFoe took numerous boxes of documents to a commercial document-shredding business and had them destroyed.
TDOT decided to suspend Tennessee Guardrail because Peel is still an officer with the company and declined the company's request for an administrative hearing to dispute the charges.
"We believe this suspension violates Tennessee Guardrail's constitutional rights because its employee was indicted; Tennessee Guardrail was not," Nashville attorney Courtney Smith argued for Tennessee Guardrail at an Oct. 26 hearing.
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