Officer dismissed 4 months after grand jury indictment
An Austin police officer was fired Tuesday, four months after a federal grand jury indicted him on a charge of making a false statement to a U.S. agency in the midst of his wife’s Social Security fraud case.
Officer Roosevelt Granderson II was fired, not because of the charges, but for insubordination because he did not attend two separate Internal Affairs interviews, according to an Austin Police Department disciplinary memo.
On Feb. 13, Granderson’s indictment says, he knowingly made false statements about his wife’s eligibility to receive Supplemental Security Income benefits. Granderson’s wife, Selica, who was also indicted, is accused of stealing about $183,000 in Social Security funds, the indictment says.
Granderson falsely denied that he lived in the same home and shared a checking account with his wife, the indictment says.
Internal Affairs began an inquiry into Granderson back in February, when department officials first learned of the criminal investigation into Granderson’s wife, the memo says. In July, investigators told Grander- son to meet with them for an interview.
Granderson’s attorney initially said Granderson would not participate until after the criminal case was over, the memo says. Internal Affairs told the attorney that any statements given in the interview could not be used against Granderson in his criminal case.
The attorney agreed to let them interview Granderson, but neither he nor his attorney appeared for two scheduled interviews, the memo says.
Granderson has the opportunity to appeal his firing to Austin’s Civil Service Commission.
One new idea emerged Wednesday from the latest in a series of ongoing discussions about whether to move a controversial Confederate statue that stands outside the Williamson County Courthouse in Georgetown.
Keep it there but put up another monument on the courthouse grounds celebrating Juneteenth, said Robert Ranco, a Round Rock attorney.
A Juneteenth monument would convey the idea that “folks were slaves and then stopped being slaves,” he said. Juneteenth commemorates the day — on June 19, 1865 — when the abolition of slavery was announced in Texas.
The 21-foot Confederate statue was erected in 1916 by the Daughters of the Confederacy to honor Confederate veterans and does not mention slavery.
Ranco was part of a second panel discussion open to the public and held Wednesday by the Civil Rights Initiative. The initiative is a group started by Rabbi Jonathan Dade of the Messiah Echad congregation in Georgetown and Pastor Kurt Hein from the Light of Christ Anglican Church to reach a solution about what to do with the Confederate statue.
Dade, who is African-American, said at the discussion Wednesday that a compromise was needed that involved keeping the Confederate statue where it is. “A lot of other cities are not doing compromise solutions . ... They are just removing the statues in the middle of the night with military and armed guards, and I hate to see it handled like that for our town because I think we are better and smarter than that,” he said.
Brian Bolton, a retired psychologist who lives in Georgetown, spoke on the panel at the Georgetown Public Library. He agreed with Dade about the need for a compromise.
“We need to be realistic,” Bolton said. “The Confederate statue is not going to be moved. It’s not going to happen.”
But Michael Custer, a retired Army colonel who also was part of Wednesday’s discussion, said he wanted the monument to be removed. Leaving it on the courthouse grounds “implies somehow that the government endorses those lies and things people advocated saying the war wasn’t about slavery.”
Any request to put a new plaque or statue on the courthouse grounds must be submitted by Williamson County and approved by the Texas Historical Commission, said Leah Brown, a commission spokeswoman.
For about two years, several people have appeared at county Commissioners Court meetings supporting or opposing the statue. The commissioners have not taken any action on the issue.
Dade said the civil rights group wants to get more comments from the public about what should be done. It is planning to hold more meetings.