http://www.local10.com/news/15856383/detail.html

Quote :

"Man To Sue Charlotte Sheriff Over Wife's Slaying POSTED: 11:32 am EDT April 11, 2008 PUNTA GORDA, Fla. -- The husband of a 21-year-old mother who was kidnapped, raped and killed plans to sue a southwest Florida sheriff's office that he said botched the investigation. Nathan Lee said Thursday that "severe incompetence" kept Charlotte County sheriff's officials from saving Denise Lee after she was abducted in January, even after a 911 call described the precise location of the car carrying her and the man accused of abducting her. Lee said the goal of his planned lawsuit is to ensure that 911 dispatchers have proper training. "I want to make sure that somebody else isn't going to have to tell their kids that that their mom could have been saved if the proper training was put in place," Lee told NBC's "Today" on Friday. Denise Lee was the daughter of a Charlotte County sheriff's sergeant. Nathan Lee claims the agency failed to dispatch a deputy to respond to an emergency call from motorist Jane Kowalski, who called 911 on her cell phone. Kowalski thought she might be witnessing a child abduction when she saw someone inside another car screaming and banging on the window. She was actually describing Lee with her alleged captor, Michael King, shortly before she was killed. King was arrested later and charged with murder. Three other 911 calls regarding the abduction, one from Lee herself, were routed to the Sarasota County emergency center. But because Kowalski had crossed the county line, her call was routed to Charlotte County authorities, who did not dispatch a deputy. After an internal investigation, Charlotte Sheriff John Davenport briefly suspended two 911 center workers and ordered remedial training. Lee's attorney gave the sheriff's office the six-month notice required by state law before suing a government agency. He said he will pursue a settlement. Sheriff's spokesman Bob Carpenter said Friday the agency has a policy against commenting on pending litigation. Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved."

[Edited on April 13, 2008 at 12:26 AM. Reason : h]

4/13/2008 12:26:05 AM

4/13/2008 12:40:35 AM

4/13/2008 12:55:30 AM

damn

4/13/2008 12:57:55 AM

all of the cops were dispatched to a 3 kegger at the time

4/13/2008 2:23:17 AM

That's fucked up. They seriously need to get their shit together if they aren't responding to calls like that.

4/13/2008 3:03:55 AM

i can guarantee it came down to someone saying "It ain't my job!"

piece of shit govt workers

4/13/2008 8:03:14 AM

^ yep.

4/13/2008 9:01:25 AM

Quote :

"all of the cops were dispatched to a 3 kegger at the time"

EXACTLY

or pulling someone because they were not wearing a seatbelt

4/13/2008 9:29:41 AM

Quote :

"all of the cops were dispatched to a 3 kegger at the time"

4/13/2008 10:41:32 AM

Quote :

"piece of shit govt workers"

so all govt workers are a piece of shit?

rather short-sighted of you. though in this particular instance, what happened was pretty shoddy.

4/13/2008 11:39:51 AM

This is why citizens shouldn't have guns. The cops will be there to protect us.

4/13/2008 11:58:12 AM

Quote :

"so all govt workers are a piece of shit? "

that's not what I said, sorry if you misinterpreted. i was saying that those govt workers were pieces of shit, if they indeed were the types that don't want to do anything if it's "not their job", etc. however, i think everyone will agree that the prevalence of lazy, unreliable, dismissive employees is significantly higher in govt institutions than most private enterprise.

it's pretty simple - if people don't have any true incentive to work hard, they won't. taxpayer money is as sure as the sun rising, so whether these people do their jobs well or not makes hardly any difference.

4/13/2008 12:40:25 PM

Quote :

"This is why citizens shouldn't have guns. The cops will be there to protect us."

I agree -- individual gun ownership is completely unneccessary

remember: when seconds count, police are only minutes away


^
well said

I've called for the privatization of law enforcement for a while now

of course, cops don't want that, because then all the lazy ones would actually have to work hard to stay competitive

4/13/2008 12:52:47 PM

they really just need to cut the police force in half. when there are cops that just sit on the side of the road waiting for speeders, there are too many.
also, not really on the subject but why are fire trucks respoding to every little thing. those things use a lot of deisel and when prices are the way they are now, thats a lot of our tax dollars going to waste.

4/13/2008 1:08:01 PM

^
right, but if they don't spend their whole budget, they might actually be given a smaller one next year

cops don't want crime to decrease

(nearly the entire public sector is a giant racket of one form or another)


in many respects, crime is to law, as hunger is to food

4/13/2008 1:28:04 PM

^ that is one of the arguments theorized as to the US gov't drug policy especially to rather benign drugs such as marijuana. A lot of people lost their job at the end of prohibition and needed a new target. Organizations like the DEA often release "research" on scheduled drugs which is little more than propaganda since they have a conflict of interest.

4/13/2008 1:48:56 PM

This creates a good argument for vigilanteism.

4/13/2008 3:01:28 PM

Quote :

"Three other 911 calls regarding the abduction, one from Lee herself, were routed to the Sarasota County emergency center. But because Kowalski had crossed the county line, her call was routed to Charlotte County authorities, who did not dispatch a deputy."

What

The

Fuck?


At first I was thinking this was some stupid suit from someone not satisfied with the police response, but here there WAS NO police response!!? If I lost a family member to that - I would want to see every person connected to that emergency laid off and a complete restructure.

I don't think I could have any faith in our democracy if that was not done.

And just god damn...

4/13/2008 3:03:41 PM

Yeah I mean this guy lost his wife, his kid has no mom now. There is no way to fix that.

4/13/2008 3:05:31 PM

For the record this appears to be a DISPATCH error and not a POLICE error. So the lazy cops not doing their job argument is really not gonna fly in this one

4/13/2008 6:13:20 PM

True, but it's still a failure by county employees. I don't think people are blaming the cops, they're blaming the 911 operators, who, it certainly seems, fucked up bigtime.

4/13/2008 6:20:35 PM

yes, and although we love them dearly, every cop occasionally gets annoyed by the dispatchers

4/13/2008 6:21:59 PM

Maybe 'cause it's guys like this:

4/13/2008 6:25:09 PM

Im kinda torn on the usefullness of 911...

friday the gf called 911 when she saw a car idling in our neighborhood (there have been numerous breakins as of late) and i told her to not call it in (it was 1am)

of course no police showed up, but the question is - what warrants a 911 call? Obviously this situation does, but do you call when you see suspicious behavior, etc?

4/13/2008 9:45:10 PM

911 is an emergency number, you don't call it when you think something might be going on. For a suspicious car call the local police not 911.

4/13/2008 10:33:23 PM

I've only ever called 911 for actual emergencies, when I needed an ambulance for myself or others, when I was in a serious car accident, etc. Like the man said, 911 is for when shit is actually going down, not when maybe there's something possibly happening or might happen at some obscure point in the future.

4/13/2008 10:57:28 PM

Quote :

""Three other 911 calls regarding the abduction, one from Lee herself, were routed to the Sarasota County emergency center. But because Kowalski had crossed the county line, her call was routed to Charlotte County authorities, who did not dispatch a deputy.""

this is why raleigh kicks charlotte in the face

[Edited on April 14, 2008 at 12:28 AM. Reason : ]]

4/14/2008 12:27:49 AM

in my experience, charlotte law enforcement is terribly incompetent.

edit: guess this kind of goes without saying when considering this story.

[Edited on April 14, 2008 at 12:34 AM. Reason : add]

4/14/2008 12:33:51 AM

Quote :

"Im kinda torn on the usefullness of 911... friday the gf called 911 when she saw a car idling in our neighborhood (there have been numerous breakins as of late) and i told her to not call it in (it was 1am) of course no police showed up, but the question is - what warrants a 911 call? Obviously this situation does, but do you call when you see suspicious behavior, etc?"

People like you really piss me the fuck off. You don't call 911 because you see a car idling and THINK something might be going on. I don't blame the cops for not showing up, they were more than likely out doing actualy policing. Stop being an annoying ass nosy neighbor. You sound like some old woman who calls the cops on everyone over everyday bullshit.

"911 Whats your emergency?"

"Yeah, there are some kids in my neighborhood riding bikes, I think one of them might be black, but either way, they aren't wearing helmets, and they are being to loud out in the street."


[Edited on April 14, 2008 at 1:05 AM. Reason : .]

4/14/2008 1:03:27 AM

^The portion of the quote you bolded was clearly referring to the original situation in this thread, not his girlfriend's.

But way to fail at reading comprehension and look like a douchebag at the same time!

[Edited on April 14, 2008 at 5:22 AM. Reason : 2]

4/14/2008 5:20:37 AM

Quote :

"this is why raleigh kicks charlotte in the face"

Try reading. Charlotte County, Florida. Charlotte, NC is in Mecklenburg County. (Also try Geography.)

4/14/2008 8:43:11 AM

Quote :

"in my experience, charlotte law enforcement is terribly incompetent. edit: guess this kind of goes without saying when considering this story."

On the contrary, I'd love to see how these two things are related.

4/14/2008 8:56:21 AM

yeah... ignore that. i definitely failed at my reading comprehension. i too thought this was about charlotte, nc

i'm dumb.

^but to fill you in on what i meant. i think that if 3 people call reporting the same suspicion, then obviously something is amiss and maybe the police should have investigated. apparently i am mistaken about the purpose of 911. (which is just a misunderstanding on my part) so pretty much what i said is irrelevant.

4/15/2008 8:17:18 AM

Quote :

"911 is an emergency number, you don't call it when you think something might be going on. For a suspicious car call the local police not 911."

You try calling the local police at one in the morning.

I was in Durham ~7PM one day and tried to call three different numbers which 411 gave me for Durham PD and Durham County Sheriff. All I got was a recorded message saying the normal office hours, and that if I needed immediate assistance to call 911.

4/15/2008 9:12:45 AM

Whatever number you call, it can be a load of bs. I got in a wreck on a street that was literally like 2 feet away from Raleigh city limits. 911 forwarded me to city police and then they told me that it wasn't their jurisdiction and forwarded me to highway/county patrol. Highway told me it wasn't theirs. About an hour later a cop finally showed up on what I think was pure accident.

Praise the heavens if someone was actually in danger of dying.

4/15/2008 11:39:06 AM

ive only ever had to call local police (some drunk guy came up to my door and then lied down on my doorstep)....

but anyways, i was just trying to think what i would do if i was driving and i saw someone freaking out like that in the back of a van. i mean the people that called 911 shouldn't have had to do anything more than that, but i think i'd probably follow the van and keep calling 911 (whichever county they forward me to) until someone showed up. i dont know the entire story though, so who knows.

4/15/2008 8:43:13 PM

Quote :

"all of the cops were dispatched to a 3 root beer kegger at the time"

Anybody know if the dispatchers will have to pay in this kind of lawsuit? I know some agencies completely cover almost anything their employees do on the clock... Seems like the dispatchers themselves should pay dearly.

4/15/2008 10:00:07 PM