Oversight panel drafts bylaws
Group wants to be able to review old complaints
While fleshing out and solidifying its bylaws Thursday evening, the Boulder police oversight panel created policies that give it the ability to circle back and review old cases with the intent of eventually re-examining a complaint against late Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley.
“We wrote in aspects about how we would potentially review legacy cases in the bylaws, but they have to go under the review of the attorney,” said committee member Martha Wilson.
During the police oversight panel meeting Thursday evening, committee members continued defining byways, which it will need to write in a way that will allow it to review cases that already have been reviewed and closed.
Wilson said after the oversight panel has completed its bylaws, it will meet with an attorney who will review them and help the committee add its final touches. Once that it is compete, she hopes it will be
able to circle back and review old cases such as the complaint against Talley or at least have the policies in place for future issues.
“Ideally that was more designed for future policy making,” she said. “I don’t know if they (the attorney) will allow us the latitude to turn anything around. They will let us know what is and isn’t allowed.”
The complaint against Talley was filed in 2014 by a Black man who said Talley pulled him over while off duty and held him at gunpoint for unsafe driving.
But a police investigation could not substantiate the allegations on two rule violations, and the complaint was closed.
The NAACP this year requested an independent review of the investigation by Joseph Lipari, the city’s independent police monitor. He concluded that Talley could have been exonerated on one of the rule violations, and also concluded that the other could not be substantiated.
During an August oversight panel meeting, Darren O’connor with the NAACP and Annett James, the organization’s president, said the NAACP pushed for the creation of the police oversight panel.
James said that if the panel did not take up the case, it would “change the NAACP’S perspective” on the panel and cause the organization to push for a “restructure” or a liaison, according to past reporting.
The NAACP’S request, which was originally reported by the Boulder Weekly, was made in a letter from the NAACP to the police oversight panel and in the public comment portion of the oversight panel’s public virtual meeting in August.
The NAACP’S request came as a result of the organization’s concerns about a pending bill from Rep. Joe Neguse that would rename the downtown Boulder post office after Talley.
Lipari in August stood by his review of the initial police investigation, and told O’connor, “The assumptions that you have implied both in your letter and in your presentation just now are contradicted by the evidentiary record.”
During that meeting, some members of the panel asked that the case be put on the agenda for later review and wanted more time to examine the case. But how to essentially review a review of a review for a case that is seven years old, or if the committee had the jurisdiction, did raise some procedural concerns for a panel that has yet to even define its bylaws.
On Thursday, Lipari said the committee would continue working through bylaws and would schedule a special bylaw meeting soon.
“I think just in general they are trying to be diligent whether or not this case had been brought forward by the NAACP,” he said. “They feel the pressure, and they want to get these done and out to the public for public comment.”
Lipari said it is still unclear how reviewing the complaint will unfold.
“It will depend on what they put in their bylaw,” he said. “It can’t violate the union contract. They just have to work through it and get some legal advice and then it’s a matter of applying that policy to the case.”
Talley, 51, was killed when he was the first police officer to respond to a shooting at King Soopers on March 22 at 3600 Table Mesa. In addition to Talley, Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Teri Leiker, 51; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62 ; and Jody Waters, 65, were killed in the shooting.