By Angie Leventis
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
06/29/2008

EAST ST. LOUIS — After swearing in 10 police hires this month, Mayor Alvin Parks proudly told the audience “you are as safe as anybody now, in this city, in this room.”

He praised a city committee for choosing the officers from a pool of 29 candidates and for performing background checks.

But documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch revealed that two of these new officers had criminal histories, and one of the two even took the oath of office with an outstanding arrest warrant for domestic battery.

The top recruit — the son of Police Chief Michael Baxton — had been released from the Army for misconduct. The records of several new hires are marred by arrests for misdemeanors, extensive traffic citations and multiple bankruptcies.
This was the largest group of new police hires in this high-crime city since 1994; they come at a cost of roughly $500,000 a year, funded in part by the East St. Louis School District.

Now, city officials admit they rushed the process to try to get as many officers into the police academy as possible by July 1.

The city relied on its own investigations instead of waiting for Illinois State Police background checks, which the city received this past week. City Manager Robert Betts said Friday he found some information of concern in a cursory review of those reports but would not go into detail.

Isadore Chambers, chairman of the city’s Police and Fire Board and a former East St. Louis police chief, said, “We should have waited until we got the background checks done, not by East St. Louis, but by an outside source.”

Betts said one of the new hires has already been dismissed, and the city will get rid of any other officers during the one-year probation period if troubling information surfaces. City officials say it can be difficult, though, to get qualified candidates in this impoverished area. The city had assembled the existing Police and Fire Board in October, and its main priority was expanding the police force.

Chambers said the city has learned from some of its mistakes and won’t rely solely on its own investigations in the future.

“This is only going to help us on the next hiring list,” he said.

The new recruits include officer Larry D. Greenlee, 36, who served 15 days in jail in 1993 in Texas’ Bell County for assault that caused the victim “bodily harm,” according to court documents. He said on his application that he had been fined for fighting there, Betts said, but did not mention the assault conviction. The city did not investigate the incident.

Greenlee was arrested for aggravated assault in St. Clair County in 1996; the case was dismissed in 1997. He also has been cited for operating an uninsured vehicle. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Officer Lawrence Wood, 41, gave the city an alias on his application; he had an outstanding warrant for a domestic battery on Feb. 9, 1997, under the name Lawrence Johnson.

Wood has since been let go from the department; he declined to comment.

A criminal records search in St. Clair County revealed that, as Lawrence Wood, he also was found guilty of battery and criminal damage to property in 1992, as well as two instances of criminal trespassing in 1993 and 1994. Wood has been cited twice for driving on a suspended license and four times for operating an uninsured vehicle.

His wife, Debra Wood, also an East St. Louis police officer, swore him in at the June 16 ceremony. She declined to comment.

Officer Michael Baxton Jr., 23, was released from the Army in 2005 without completing his term of service because of misconduct and left with a general discharge under honorable conditions. His discharge papers say he failed to show up for formation, failed to comply with corrective training, was disrespectful to a noncommissioned officer, provided improper identification and failed to hand over his license when asked.

On Sept. 15, 2007, his former employer, the Brooklyn Police Department, caught him driving one of its police cars. He took the car without permission after he was no longer employed there, according to a police officer’s report. Brooklyn police did not return calls for comment on that case.

Michael Baxton Jr. did not respond to multiple requests for comment at the police department and his home.

Police Chief Michael Baxton would not comment on any of the cases, citing personnel issues.

Three new hires have filed for bankruptcy at least once; one had filed three times and has several small-claims judgments in his financial record. The city has not performed any financial checks.

Illinois law requires police departments to perform background checks on candidates, who are automatically disqualified for felonies such as murder or rape, and some misdemeanors. Lesser crimes often fall into a “gray area,” at the discretion of the departments, said Laimutis Nargelenas, deputy director of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.

Nargelenas said criminal behavior is the most important part of the check; financial records can help determine if applicants are responsible, honest and less inclined to accept a bribe.

Nargelenas previously was a colonel with the Illinois State Police, which generally dismisses applicants with any criminal history — even arrests without conviction — because the agency receives thousands of applications a year. He said smaller cities might have different standards, especially if they have difficulty recruiting.

“That’s left up to the community,” he said.

Other East St. Louis police officers have been caught on the wrong side of the law recently.

In May, East St. Louis police Officer Debra Simpkins was charged with obstruction for allegedly trying to block Belleville police from dispersing a crowd of teens and investigating a fight. The case is pending.

In September, Belleville police found East St. Louis Detective Ricky Perry allegedly drunk, asleep and armed in his unmarked police vehicle. The detective was released to other East St. Louis employees and not arrested.

Source: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/4B8A79B3C992F93D86257476001AC37B?OpenDocument