Fired homicide detective wants job back
The ex-partner of fired homicide detective Ryan Chandler admitted to a dysfunctional working relationship that he believes contributed to a lack of diligence.
His ex-partner testifies dysfunctional working relationship led to mishandling of cases
By James Pinkerton and Mike Tolson
The ex-partner of fired Houston homicide detective Ryan Chandler admitted to a dysfunctional working relationship that he believes contributed to a lack of diligence in investigating a number of murder cases they were assigned.
The testimony from HPD officer Kevin Carr was part of an appeals hearing that began Tuesday as Chandler attempts to convince an independent arbitrator to return him to the force after he was accused of mishandling more than a dozen murder investigations, some of which were all but ignored for years.
In April, Chief Charles McClelland fired Chandler and disciplined several lieutenants and detectives for shoddy work in almost two dozen homicide cases.
Carr, who has been in HPD’s homicide unit for 17 years, testified he and Chandler had a severe communication problem that got in the way of deciding how to pursue murder investigations. Carr, who was given a 10day suspension for poor work in six cases, testified he went to his
lieutenant and asked for help.
“I wish I had done more,” Carr testified. “There were a lot of things that should have been done, that could have been done. I became bitter. But because I didn’t, all this happened.”
Chandler’s union defense attorney contends that while the fired detective made mistakes, he said HPD was overlooking “systemic” problems in the homicide division. “His supervisors were asleep at the switch,” said attorney Bob Armbruster, who vigorously cross-examined several witnesses against his client. Chandler, 38, told HPD investigators he was overworked and burdened with a heavy caseload.
Failure to perform
His termination letter said the detective failed to show up at a crime scene, failed to interview witnesses, misrepresented his progress in several cases to supervisors, and waited years to add his investigatory notes to case files.
Chandler caused a “rift in the relationship” between police and residents they served, an officer said during the arbitration hearing. Lt. Bradley Morefield told the arbitrator if Chandler got his job back after mishandling so many cases the rift would widen into a chasm.
The hearing is expected to last for at least three days. HPD legal staff will call internal affair investigators and members of the command staff to testify Wednesday.
Lt. Rory Lakin, the hearing’s first witness, said he noticed Chandler was often absent from the office and gradually began to uncover a lack of work in cases that were later given to internal affairs to investigate.
Lakin, who acknowledged he transferred into the homicide division with no prior experience in murder investigations, testified he at first thought Chandler and Carr would be able to complete the cases that he discovered had not been worked.
“I didn’t see him in the office as much as other people,” Lakin testified, adding he had Chandler move his desk in front of his office so he could monitor his activities.
Homicide division
Lakin said he didn’t document his concerns about Chandler in the first job performance report he completed because it was due shortly after Lakin joined the division. Instead, he borrowed from Chandler’s previous evaluation and “unfortunately” gave him a near perfect rating in Aug. 31, 2012. A subsequent evaluation was much harsher.
Chandler’s previous supervisor, Lt. John McGalin, said he asked Chandler and Carr to draw on their experience and help the new lieutenant find his way in the new job.
McGalin testified he asked Carr to let him know if Chandler had any “issues,” but said he wasn’t told of any.
Carr disputed McGalin’s testimony, saying he went to him to complain about his communication problems with the younger detective.
When Lakin became aware of poor work in cases assigned to Chandler and Carr, he asked both to “look into their hearts” and decide if they had the dedication to work in homicide, a division with often long and irregular hours. Both officers transferred out of the department.
HPD began examining the homicide division in October after Chandler’s transfer when Lakin said he could not locate a number of files from cases assigned to him. That search opened an investigation that eventually revealed a host of deficiencies in the division, including lax controls over case files, sloppy evidence handling, ineffective supervision and a broken computer tracking system that allowed cases to linger.
Reduced punishment
A Houston Chronicle review of the homicide division showed that in all but one of almost two dozen cases that were not properly investigated, the victim was either an African-American or Hispanic living mostly in poor sections of the city.
Arbitrator Lynne Gomez, an attorney from Bellaire, is not expected to immediately issue an opinion on Chandler’s firing.
Since McClelland took office in early 2010, the HPD officers he has disciplined have been successful in getting their punishments lessened more than half of the time.
Officers who appealed to the Civil Service Commission had their punishments reduced or overturned 59 percent of the time from January 2010 to June 2014, while 53 percent of HPD officers whose discipline was reviewed by an independent arbitrator won a reduction or had their cases overturned, according to HPD statistics released to the Chronicle.