How Did Marcus Jackson Slip Past Charlotte's Civil Service Board?

On the morning of August 5, 2008 the only thing standing between Marcus Jackson's acceptance into the CMPD training class was the Charlotte Civil Service Board Meeting that would convene that afternoon.

Board Members attending the 4 o'clock meeting were; Chair Rion Choate, Retired CMPD Major Norris Anderson, Mary Hopper, Brenda Johnson, Mark Joyce, Fasion Kuester and Mike Todd.

Marcus Jackson along with 35 other applicants were presented by CMPD Sergeant Mark Davis. After a brief discussion in closed session all 36 CMPD applicants including Marcus Jackson were approved with the exception of Tyrone Maurice Ruff.

Mr. Ruff was then subjected to separate vote that resulted in six board members voting in favor and only attorney Mike Todd voting against.

The entire process including other discussions and votes to approve several Charlotte Fire Department applicants for two training classes and a brief discussion regarding Chief Monroe lasted less than 53 minutes.

Sources tell Cedar Posts that Jackson told CMPD's Mark Davis about the first 50 B order as well as the second one.

Apparently already at CMPD were copies of both 50-B orders. North Carolina law requires that court provide a copy of each 50-B order to both CMPD and Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s office. “A copy of the order shall be issued promptly to and retained by the police department of the city of the victim's residence”

Someone within CMPD other than Jackson knew about both the first and second offense, as it is doubtful Jackson would have failed to disclose both orders knowing that CMPD would have copies of each.

But the Civil Service Board only receives background summaries. In other words they don’t see the whole file only what CMPD wants them to see.

I think it is fair to say that had Jackson’s summary shown even a slight infraction the record would have shown Jackson the subject of a special vote as with Tyrone Maurice Ruff.

According John Offerdahl a former member of the Charlotte Civil Service board, In the past “candidate information presented to (the board) was remarkable in its depth and thoroughness.” Adding: “We often commended the departments and their investigators for their efforts”.

When Offerdahl was on the board the actual files were presented, but now due to the number of new hires only a summary is presented.

Offerdahl also stated that in the past the board was told that only about 10 percent of initial candidates even reached this stage of evaluation.

CMPD used to have more applications than they had opennings that to has changed and led to a "get them in" approach.

It is clear that Jackson’s file was presented to the board as “clean” with no concerns pointed out by Sergeant Mark Davis.

So was Jackson’s file cleaned at the chief’s request? Was there someone at the academy that directed Jackson’s summary be presented as clean?

Remember Chief Monroe has already stated that CMPD knew about the 2003 50-B, yet even that order we can assume was not presented.

We can be fairly certain that the police investigator told the recruiter about Jackson’s background and that someone in the upper ranks decided to remove it from the summary.

Question:

If the entire board saw whole Jackson file and approved it without discussion then how bad is Tyrone Ruff’s file, that he was culled out for a separate vote?

One thing is for sure the facts clearly refute Chief Monroe's statement that Jackson was hired before he became Chief. It's also clear the Charlotte's Civil Service Board failed their fellow citizens.