I'm sorry for this tardy reply to your query. Here are some stories related
to this case.
Sincerely,
Pam Coffman
JACKSON'S LAWSUIT DISMISSED
POLICE CHIEF'S CLAIMS TOO VAGUE, JUDGE RULES
Date: Wednesday, July 29, 1998
Section: NEWS
Page: 01A
Illustration: Photo
Byline: By Robert Ruth
Dispatch Staff Reporter
A federal judge yesterday dismissed Columbus Police Chief James G.
Jackson's defamation lawsuit against Mayor Greg Lashutka and Safety
Director Tom Rice.
Jackson said he was stunned by the decision.
''You mean he is saying none of my constitutional rights were violated?''
the chief said. ''That's hard to believe. I'm extremely surprised.''
U.S. District Judge James L. Graham issued a 56-page opinion yesterday
saying that Jackson's claims of discrimination and violations of his
constitutional rights were too vague.
City Attorney Janet Jackson, who is not related to Chief Jackson, was
elated by the judge's ruling.
''We're very pleased,'' said Janet Jackson. ''This is certainly the result
we wanted.''
She said she hopes Graham's decision will end litigation by the chief.
''It's time for us to move forward for the good of the Police Division,''
she said.
Lashutka agreed.
''This is very good news for Director Rice and myself,'' the mayor said.
''Let's now put this behind us and get on with the business of the day,
shaping the Columbus Division of Police into the best in the country.''
Chief Jackson said he will have to consult with his attorneys before
deciding whether to appeal Graham's decision to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court
of Appeals in Cincinnati.
The chief's lawsuit, filed Oct. 7, stemmed from administrative actions
Lashutka and Rice took against him in 1996 and 1997. The dispute
stemmed from the chief's handling of an internal investigation of Police
Cmdr. Walter J. Burns.
Burns was accused of bungling a probe by vice officers into a high-priced
prostitution ring. In June 1996, Chief Jackson issued Burns a written
reprimand, which Rice considered an insignificant penalty. The chief was
relieved of his duties in October 1996. Other police officers,
considered allies of the chief, were transferred out of highly sensitive
bureaus within the Police Division.
After a seven-week internal investigation, Chief Jackson was suspended and
five administrative charges of misconduct were filed against him.
The Columbus Civil Service Commission in December 1996 found Jackson guilty
of two of the allegations - that he used favoritism in handling
the Burns case and that the chief improperly ordered the destruction of a
police document. The chief was acquitted of the other charges.
The confidential police document, written by a civilian police employee,
theorized that millionaire businessmen in Columbus and Youngstown
might have been involved in the 1985 slaying of attorney Arthur Shapiro.
Both sides in the Chief Jackson-Lashutka dispute have acknowledged
that the document is highly speculative and is based on no hard evidence.
The Civil Service Commission ordered the chief suspended for five days, but
he returned to work immediately after forfeiting five days of
unused sick leave.
Chief Jackson's October suit alleges that Lashutka and Rice conspired to
ruin his reputation with ''false and reckless rumors.'' The suit also
accused the mayor and Rice of imposing a ''racially discriminatory gag
order'' on Jackson, the city's first black police chief. Lashutka and Rice
are white.
They also were guilty of ''conspiring and orchestrating a scheme'' to
deprive Chief Jackson of his constitutional rights of freedom of speech and
due process of law, the suit alleged. The mayor and safety director
intentionally inflicted serious emotional distress on Chief Jackson, the
suit
claimed.
Attorneys for Lashutka and Rice filed motions Jan. 8 asking that Chief
Jackson's suit be dismissed. The motions argued that the chief's claims of
discrimination and constitutional violations were too vague.
Also, city officials generally are immune from lawsuits for actions they
take on behalf of governments, the motions said. In addition, the motions
contended many of Chief Jackson's claims were of a ''trivial nature.''
Graham agreed with the defense motions.
The chief's assertions that his First Amendment rights of speech were
violated are too vague and therefore Lashutka and Rice have ''qualified
immunity'' against lawsuits, Graham ruled.
Rice imposed a gag order on Chief Jackson because the safety director ''was
concerned that plaintiff would attempt to undermine and jeopardize
the integrity of the investigation by making unwarranted accusations of
racism,'' Graham wrote. Rice's actions ''do not patently demonstrate the
existence of unlawful discrimination,'' the judge added.
The two city officials also did not deprive Chief Jackson of due process,
the judge found. The chief was able to plead his case before the Civil
Service Commission, Graham said. The commission's decision did not result
in the chief losing his job, losing any pay or being demoted,
Graham added.
On the issue of emotional distress, Graham wrote, ''The plaintiff has
failed to sufficiently (prove) that he is debilitated or suffers from a
mental
condition sufficient to constitute serious emotional distress.''
Graham said Chief Jackson might eventually be able to prove Lashutka and
Rice were guilty of defaming his character. However, the
defamation-of-character issue claimed by the chief is not strong enough to
be considered in federal court, Graham said.
The judge's decision left open Chief Jackson's right to file a
defamation-of-character suit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
Such suits have been filed by Burns, his wife, two other police commanders
and four police sergeants in Common Pleas Court. Burns' wife,
Kathleen F., is Chief Jackson's secretary. Like Chief Jackson's suit, those
lawsuits base their claims on the results of the Lashutka-Rice probes
in 1996.
As of mid-July, Janet Jackson's office has spent $600,000 on private
attorneys to defend Lashutka, Rice and others in suits filed by Chief
Jackson and the other police employees.
----------
ANALYSIS OF LAWYER'S 1985 DEATH WENT TOO FAR, SAYS
COMMANDER
Date: Tuesday, March 18, 1997
Section: NEWS LOCAL & NATIONAL
Page: 02C
Byline: By Jodi Nirode
Dispatch Staff Reporter
Among the civilian analysts who have worked for the Columbus Division of
Police, there is one who stands out.
Last year, criminal intelligence analyst Elizabeth A. Leupp's controversial
report on slain Columbus attorney Arthur L. Shapiro was
highlighted during the investigation of Police Chief James G. Jackson.
Leupp suggested that Shapiro may have been killed in a Mafia hit involving
local ''business organizations.''
Jackson ordered the destruction of the 82-page report, saying it was a
liability to the city.
The report, which linked prominent people to the unsolved March 6, 1985,
slaying, ''went far beyond'' the job of a civilian intelligence
analyst, said Cmdr. Curtis Marcum, who supervised the intelligence bureau
in 1991 when the report was completed.
''This was a unique deal,'' Marcum said. ''It would not happen the same
today.''
Unlike the Shapiro report, crime analysts' reports rarely list specific
suspects unless they already were speculated on by other sources like the
victim, crime analysts and other officials said.
Before taking the department's sole intelligence analyst position Jan. 3,
1983, Leupp worked almost five years with Columbus' Department
of Community Services as a manpower placement officer - a supervisor for
the city's vocational counselors.
Part of the reason she was allowed to analyze to such lengths was due to a
string of factors, including a change in commanders and the
subjective nature of her job, Marcum said.
Leupp started the report in 1985 after then-detective bureau Cmdr. Antone
P. Lanata asked for a ''link analysis'' of the crime. The
investigation into Shapiro's slaying kept broadening. It was hoped that an
analysis could chart how all the suspected players were connected,
Lanata said.
A month before Leupp handed in the report, Marcum was transferred to
commander of the intelligence bureau. Marcum said he had never
heard of the report until it landed on his desk.
Though Leupp's supervisor, Lt. Paul Denton would not comment on her current
duties. He said that, under his command, much of her work
involves researching financial reports or aiding intelligence bureau officers.
Denton refused to allow the 53-year-old analyst to be interviewed.
-----------
1991 POLICE REPORT HINTED AT MAFIA SLAYING
Date: Thursday, December 5, 1996
Section: NEWS LOCAL & NATIONAL
Page: 02A
Byline: By Scott Powers
Dispatch Staff Reporter
Columbus attorney Arthur L. Shapiro may have been killed in a 1985 Mafia
hit involving local ''business organizations,'' suggests a report
that Police Chief James G. Jackson is accused of improperly ordering
destroyed in 1991.
At least one copy of the report was not destroyed and a heavily-censored
version was provided yesterday by the city's Department of Public
Safety to The Dispatch at the newspaper's request. City Attorney Ronald J.
O'Brien said the city did not have the original but obtained the
copy. He did not say where the city got the copy.
Shapiro was gunned down March 6, 1985, at a time when federal authorities
were investigating him and others in an alleged tax fraud
scheme. The slaying has never been solved.
Because it looked like a ''mob-style murder,'' Columbus homicide detectives
asked the police organized crime bureau to investigate ''Mafia,''
''L.C.N'' or ''La Cosa Nostra'' organizations known or suspected to be
active in central Ohio, the report says.
The organized crime bureau, now known as the intelligence bureau, produced
a report on the case June 6, 1991, written as a memo from
civilian police analyst Elizabeth A. Leupp to Cmdr. Curtis K. Marcum.
The mayoral investigation of Jackson alleges that he ordered Marcum, on or
about June 26, 1991, to destroy the report and all copies of it.
Such an order would have violated state and city records laws and policies.
The allegation is one of 17 brought against Jackson in suspension
proceedings that began this week before the Columbus Civil Service Commission.
On the first page, Leupp wrote, ''An analytical project was opened in 1985
as a result of the mob-style murder of Arthur Shapiro . . .
''Because of the strong similarities between this homicide and a Mafia
(L.C.N.) 'hit,' the analysis includes an in-depth study of major L.C.N.
groups having contact in/near the central Ohio area,'' it said.
''Over time, the analysis of the Shapiro homicide became greatly expanded
and more complex with the development of unusual interactive
relationships between the following business organizations:'' she wrote.
The next 7 1/2 pages were censored by the department before it released the
report.
Page nine of the report begins a 74-page background briefing on organized
crime organizations.
None of the background offers specific information about Shapiro, local
contacts or organized crime activities in central Ohio. Instead, it
details the makeup of Mafia families in the Midwest, on the East Coast and
in Canada.
Sources have told The Dispatch that some police supervisors considered the
report too speculative to be taken seriously, and that they believed
it might unfairly impugn the reputations of local companies.
The Dispatch obtained the censored copy of the report by using city and
state open record laws.
In a letter, O'Brien states that the city is withholding the censored pages
from public review because they are ''confidential law enforcement
investigatory records and/or trial preparation records and/or their release
is otherwise prohibited by . . . law.''
O'Brien said the city does not intend to use the entire document in the
commission hearing.
Jackson's attorney Bill Wilkinson said yesterday he could not discuss the
Shapiro report.
---------
>There was a young attorney murdered in 1985, name of Shapiro. Recently
>his name came up when the Chief of Police attempted to destroy his
>files.
>
>Shapiro had connections to Condor Press, Robin Moore (who wrote the
>French Connection) ....my old friend knew Moore's sister, and shortly
>before Shapiro's death, he called upon me but I never got to talk to
>him....Sybil Leek, with whom I worked for 12 years, was worried about
>Moores sister as they were friends in Melbourne Beach, where a lot of
>stuff was going on.
>
>Anyway ou can E-Mail me story on Jackson about this file.....and
>Shapiro's story re connection to Condor Press out of Westport CT. My
>files were all stolen years ago when my home broken into along with
>other stuff....this was accidental I am sure, as it may have appeared to
>have valuables in the lock box.
>
>Thank you for our help if possible in advance. Working on something
>for a friend who is interested in connections here to other stuff.
>
>1394 Rose Hill Road
>Reynoldsburg, ohio 43068
--
[EMAIL PROTECTED] == Pam Coffman
Electronic Publishing Editor
