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The DeLeon City Council met in regular
session Thursday, September 17, 2007, and addressed a rather lengthy
agenda.
All Council members – Mayor Danny Owen,
Howard Gifford, Norma Locke, Roy Dale Freeman and Gayle Stroud -- were
present for the 6 p.m. meeting. Also present were City Secretary Karen
Wilkerson, Police Chief Ralph Dickey, and Ray Helberg, emergency
management coordinator. There were no participants in the “Citizen’s
Presentation” portion of the meeting.
Kathy Linderholm was on the agenda to
discuss recent incidents regarding Chief Dickey.
“Two months ago, on July 18, I was the
victim of domestic violence here in DeLeon,” Linderholm said. “I was
held prisoner for hours. He (her unamed boyfriend) broke my finger,
and I was in a cast for six weeks. Although I filed a formal
statement, and Judge Lewis wanted to issue a warrant, Chief Dickey
never gave him my information.” Linderholm said that over the next few
weeks, she approached Chief Dickey several times.
“Just some of the things the Chief said
to me,” Linderholm said, “were, ‘if you’d been hit in the face, and
had a black eye, then you’d have a case.’ He told me that on three
separate occasions. It didn’t discourage me. He also told me that
nothing could be done because our stories did not match. I don’t think
in any court of law that the stories are going to match. He also told
me, ‘Since your ex-boyfriend was drinking, it was just an accident.’ I
pointed out that if my ex-boyfriend had been drinking and driving, and
had hit somebody, it would have been an accident, but he would still
be responsible.”
Linderholm said there were other,
similar, statements made to her by Chief Dickey.
“Finally, six weeks after I filed a
statement,” Linderholm said, “he stood up shaking in anger, his face
was beet red, and he said, ‘I will not pursue any warrants that Judge
Lewis issues.’”
Linderholm said that at that time, Chief
Dickey told her to get out of the station and never return. She then
asked if anyone had any questions for her.
Councilman Gifford asked her if she had
any information or affidavits from Judge Lewis.
“No,” Linderholm said, “but he suggested
I talk to the county attorney, and that I get on the (city council)
agenda tonight. And I’ve done both.”
“Was there anyone else in his office when
you were there?” Gifford asked.
“The first time, Karen (Wilkerson) was in
the office and heard the story,” Linderholm said, “and he (Lewis) said
he would issue a warrant when he heard it. But at that time, I thought
the Chief had done everything he could do.” (So she didn’t pursue it
with the judge.)
Mayor Owen then asked Wilkerson if a
warrant was ever issued.
“No, we can’t issue a warrant without a
probable cause and complaint,” Wilkerson said.
Chief Dickey was asked if he had any
response. He said he would like to provide a little background on the
case, although he couldn’t go into too much detail.
“She told me that her boyfriend threw her
around the house for hours,” Dickey said. “He thought she stole one of
his cigarettes, and they got into an argument, and he twisted her
fingers.”
Chief Dickey said since he’d been in
police work for almost 15 years, that even though Linderholm told him
that she didn’t want to file any charges, he thought he should
investigate things further.
“She didn’t want to file any charges, she
told me so repeatedly in my office,” Dickey said. “But it was obvious
she had a broken finger and she had a few minor bruises. She told me
she got them from moving, that he did not do that. And I thought,
well, I’d better check into this a little further. So I took her down
to the house, where her boyfriend was, and he and I went outside and
talked. And he told me the same thing about the bruises, that she got
them when moving. And the gist of it is that she grabbed his
cigarettes, and wouldn’t let go of them, and he tried to pry her
fingers off of them. Like I was trying to tell her the other day, if a
child runs out in front of you, and you run over that child, it’s an
accident – there’s no intent. I can see no intent in him hurting her.
She had no other physical bruises – that’s what I was trying to get at
with her – if he would have hit you, that shows intent. With any
crime, you’ve got to show intent. But I went down there anyway, and
she said she didn’t want to file any charges, and I said, OK, have a
nice day.”
Chief Dickey said that while he was
there, inside the house, he saw no signs of a struggle. “There was
nothing turned over, nothing in the floor, and I was investigating
this scene,” Dickey said, “even though she did not want to file any
charges. While I was talking to her boyfriend, her daughter showed up
and took her to the doctor. I got to thinking about it, and I couldn’t
see any intent or any way to get a warrant. And I talked to another
officer about it, and I talked to Judge Lewis. I told him both sides
of the story, and I told him I didn’t think I had enough for a
warrant, and he agreed, he said, quote, “You don’t have enough for a
warrant, don’t worry about it. If I can’t get a judge to sign a
warrant, then the case is dead in the water, you can’t go any
further.”
Chief Dickey said that Linderholm came
back several more times.
“I told her that I was not going to
pursue a warrant on her boyfriend,” Dickey said. “I did not say I
would not execute a warrant signed by Judge Lewis. If I have a
warrant, and I see them, I have to execute it. But I was not going to
proceed in trying to get a warrant for him, when I saw no intent. And
yes, she started screaming at me, and questioning my integrity, and I
told her to get out of my office – several times – and she did not
leave, she kept on. So I did tell her to get out of my office, and not
come back. Well then she said this is a public building, and I said,
‘yes it is, and if you have a different problem you can come back.’ So
then she did go talk to Judge Lewis, and she ended up going to talk to
the county attorney…he called me and said, you don’t have a case. I
already knew we didn’t have a case. I don’t write the laws, I can’t
change the laws – it is what it is. And without any intent, I cannot
proceed with the case, and I did not.”
“It seems to me that we’re caught in the
middle,” Councilman Gifford said, “because the key player in all this
is Judge Lewis. And nobody has any signed affidavits from him, saying
who spoke to him when and what took place, and what his opinion was of
the case."
Councilman Roy Dale Freeman then asked
Karen Wilkerson (who also works in the courtroom with Judge Lewis) if
she had anything to contribute.
“I was only there the first time she came
in and told her story,” Wilkerson said, “and we told her at that time,
like we do anybody else, that she could file a complaint, from
herself, against him, with the court. And at that time, she did not
want to file a complaint.”
“I had already filed it two days after
(the event),” Linderholm said. “And I saw you two weeks later.”
“But you didn’t file a complaint with the
court,” Wilkerson said, “what you did was file an affidavit with Chief
Dickey, a statement, and a complaint in the courtroom is an actual
document where it charges the defendant, which would be your
boyfriend, with assault.”
“Can I still do that?” Linderholm asked.
“Yes, but the only thing you can file on
him in our court is assault,” Wilkerson. “Domestic violence would have
gone to the county, which is why the county attorney was called in.”
After several more minutes of discussion,
with several council members and Dickey and Linderholm trying
(primarily in vain) to clarify things, Linderholm said she would be in
the next day to visit with Judge Lewis.
In other business, Council members:
• Approved the second and final reading
of Ordinance #010-07; regarding the increase in water and sewer rates.
• Approved the second and final reading
of Ordinance #011-07; regarding the increase in the solid waste
disposal rates.
• Approved a request by Catarina Morgan
to rent the City Hall auditorium on September 29, 2007.
• Took no action on a request by Lisa
Walker to discuss the Masonic Lodge building, due to Ms. Walker’s
failure to appear.
• Approved a request by Carissa Barrett
to rent the City Hall auditorium September 15, 2007.
• Approved the Tax Statement for August
2007.
• Approved Resolution # 009-04;
authorizing signatories (Owen, Gifford and Wilkerson) for the City of
DeLeon road maintenance account.
• Encouraged Festival Committee members
to meet with various civic groups and businesses to discuss vendor
booths for the new park grounds.
• Accepted, after a brief executive
session, Cpl. Robert Kluge’s resignation from the DeLeon Police
Department. Gifford, Freeman and Stroud voted in favor of accepting
the resignation, with Locke voting against. Kluge resigned September
8.
During the open discussion between city
employees and city officials, Mayor Owen noted that work was
progressing on the new park. Owen also mentioned that there was a
fundraiser tractor/pick up pull scheduled for Saturday, September 29,
beginning at 6:30 p.m.
“Proceeds from that will go towards
developing the tractor pull arena,” Owen said. “This particular group
is looking to work on the fencing that goes around the main part of
the arena. That is a six foot high chain link fence, and I believe it
has three of the barbed wire strands on the top.”
Owen also mentioned that he’d started a
campaign to solicit funds to help pay for the “light poles” for that
area. “There’s supposed to be six of them,” he said. “Three on each
side, and they cost approximately $1,300 each. We’re buying them at
cost from Comanche County Co-op.”
Neither Gayle Stroud nor Roy Dale Freeman
had any items for discussion, but Norma Locke wanted to know why the
city water had looked so cloudy and milky recently. She was quickly
assured by several other council members that it was just “air” in the
water and that it was harmless. “They assure us it’s safe to drink,”
Owen said.
Howard Gifford had two things to discuss.
“I just found out today that Mr. (Hiram) Smith is continuing to pursue
a renovation, or repairs, to the depot,” he said. “One of the problems
they are running into is water drainage going under the depot. My
understanding was that when the Department of Transportation did the
sidewalk, that they were going to put adequate drainage in.”
Gifford then noted, “That’s something we
need to look into, and see if that’s a city problem or a state
problem” adding that it could have a direct bearing on what was done
with the depot.
Gifford next reported that he had
received credible information that patrol officer Waverly Inman was
making an “exceptional” recovery and would be released from a
healthcare facility next Friday. Inman was injured in a motorcycle
accident on July 4 of this year.
Karen Wilkerson informed council members
that she’d been busy sending out various code violation letters. “And
I spoke to the (city) attorney,” Wilkerson said, “and she wants, if
it’s all right with you all, to look at the junk vehicle, dangerous
building and nuisance ordinances, and revise all those and then
present them at the first meeting in November, so we can have those in
place next year.”
Wilkerson also told council members that
the City must continue to send out disconnect notices for water bills.
“Since we supply utilities,” she said, “we have to, by law, give
sufficient notice before we cut them off.” Council members had voted
last month to dispense with the second notice to reduce postage costs.
Ray Helberg, emergency management
coordinator, reported on his most recent training, which included
trips to Abilene and College Station. |
