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Detective retires after keeping family violence cases at home

On Behalf of | Mar 3, 2012 | Domestic Violence

A police detective in another state has retired after an investigation revealed that he improperly housed family violence case files at his home, sometimes not even contacting victims who filed complaints.

The man, a 40-year veteran of the department, apparently only filed 217 of the cases with the department and entered just 16 of them in the internal system. He apparently had taken the files to his residence so that he could “work from home.” They were stored in his garage.

After an internal investigation in 2009, he was reassigned to the auto pound unit. He retired last month after the most recent news of his actions while investigating domestic violence cases. He will now be facing a disciplinary hearing.

It was determined that in over 500 of the family violence cases, there was “re-victimization,” meaning that the victims were hurt more than once by the same suspect. Unfortunately, due to the statute of limitations, most of the cases will not see any legal action. Officers did find four cases they can pursue.

The deputy sheriff says that she is disappointed with the man’s performance and insists that it is not representative of the department, which she notes has some very caring people.

How the detective’s strategy could have gone undetected for several years is baffling. The director of a nearby women’s shelter says that it’s a shame that so many victims who had the courage to speak up were simply ignored. It’s important for detectives to follow through with victims, she says.

Source: NBC DFW, “Dallas police detective quits after accusations of case mishandling,” Feb. 10, 2012

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