Saturday, February 25, 2012

Off Duty CMPD Officers Provided Security for Gambling Operation

WCNC's Stuart Watson discovered that CMPD Officers were working as a security detail for an apparently illegal gambling operation.

“This job was presented as a charitable organization,” said Captain Andy Kornberg, who supervises off-duty, secondary employment for CMPD. “I can't say that (the officers) never went inside because I wasn't there but the specification for the job is that they were working outside.”

Kornberg says the officers were outside in the parking lot while the poker game went on – first at the Ramada Inn on Woodlawn Road, and then in an office park at 9635 Southern Pines Boulevard, off of Arrowood Road in south Charlotte.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police took the operator’s word when he said he was raising money for charity. There’s just one problem: “Charity Games” was a for-profit corporation – not a charity.

Capt. Kornberg said, “I can say with great certainty had they observed criminal activity they would have brought it to our attention and we would have ceased the job.”

According to Watson's report: "It’s hard to know whether officers “observed criminal activity". The question is how hard they looked."

WCNC Stuart Watson's full report is here.

Cedar's Take: It just never seems to stop.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

It never ceases to amaze me. The Apostle Rodney Monroe (peace and blessings be upon him) has made the most dramatic crime reduction in the history of the planet since his divine arrival from the heavens in 2008. He has singlehandedly made this ungrateful, whiney, open sewer of a town SAFE!
Now if the little card game was the scene of a, let’s say masked men entered with guns and stole some of the charitable organizations money from the players, then it would have to be reported as a larceny (for starters), which would show an increase in crime. Now the off duty officers working there would prevent this. Genius, absolutely genius!! It never ceases to amaze me how the mind of The Apostle Rodney Monroe (peace and blessings be upon him) works. It is like a steel trap, ready to crush evildoers.

Anonymous said...

Just another exemplary example of the "leadership" of rodney.

Trickle down corruption.

Anonymous said...

Uh, was this a minority owned and operated "charity" with minority officers working the door??

Anonymous said...

hey 2:06, get your stupid racist head out of your backside

Crime and corruption are not isolated by race.

Further, when you say something stupid like this, it lends power to the FEAR of all politicians and all law enforcement and all public in general to call out CRIME AND CORRUPTION when someone who happens not to be white is involved.

In this case, if you bothered to watch the report (which you didn't even have to read--bonus for you) the guy running the poker games and calling it a charity is white.

Every time this blog makes progress in calling out corrupt actions by someone, racism drags it back. If everyone were smart, the only focus on race would be when it is used illegally and/or to throw up a wall to say "don't ask me any questions or I will imply that you are a racist."

Focus on the crimes. There are plenty.

Good Job, SW at WCNC. But please don't stop with this report.

Anonymous said...

Anon 2:35
Well said and 100% correct !

Anonymous said...

Im curious if the chief's daughters, baby daddy, was coordinating this off duty gig too. Seems that since the department went to this new, FAIR way of signing up for off duty (sarc), this rookie gets all of the good jobs. He gives away more off duty than veteran officers can find!! I wonder who can explain this? Oh and lets not forget how he landed the posh DNC assignment. Experience and knowledge used to mean something. Oh yeah, this is the same rookie officer that was given the 350z to drive while in the academy with the city gas card!!

Anonymous said...

I think Marion Barry would be a good mayor here. I wonder what he is up too?

Anonymous said...

I'm so ashamed. People look at us so differently now when we are out in public in uniform. We are quickly turning into the next Detroit. Thank you Chief....

Anonymous said...

Well, Baby Daddy better get while the getting is good.....when rodney goes down, i have a feeling his freebies, good assignments and "special" jobs will cease!!!!

What a scam rodney is running on Charlotte.

Such a shame what he has done to cmpd.

Anonymous said...

9:48
Don't feel ashamed. It's not your shame.

People appreciate the sacrifices and heroism of the honest officers risking themselves to protect us.

The thing you need to do is speak up together and put an end to all the shameful things some in the CMPD are doing.

Police officers should already understand how abusive relationships start and are groomed and end disasterously without outside intervention.

The abuser often starts small, isolates the abused from others they used to be able to trust, pits them against each other, keeps them from contacting people that could help, blames the abused for what the abusers do, behaves in a paranoid way, escalates,

Officers need to document.
Officers need to send out the documentation.
Officers need to ask for help.
Officers need to stand firm in charges against the one(s) causing the problem.

Don't take on someone else's shame. But don't stay silent either.

Anonymous said...

And the hits, they just keep coming!

Jeff A. Taylor said...

Here's two questions I already know the answers to, but can ask because I am far beyond the reach of retribution:

1) When will Anne Tompkins get off her sweet little ass and do something to restore the rule of law in Mecklenburg County? Tompkins probably has had fun playing house in Myers Park with her girlfriend and landscaper to CLT's megarich (and the town of Davidson) while prosecuting goldbugs in Asheville, but that federal judgeship ain't gonna happen by itself. Then again, maybe it will if the DNC confab comes off without a hitch and Obama cruises to a second term.

2) What does candidate Pat McCrory have to say about Rodney Monroe's performance? The performance of city manager Curt Walton?

Anonymous said...

10:55,

The problem is the public does assign us the blame and shame for everything bad someone in the department does.

The other problem is that most of the line officers only hear the rumors about what is going on since nothing is stated directly and nothing is written down. It's hard to do anything about it when you have no proof.

Anonymous said...

10:39
I do understand both of your comments back. But send in details of whatever you do know and have. Send things you are legally allowed to send--public emails & other public records showing what's happening with policy and money-- You'd be surprised what can be put together.

If you are being given verbal orders that aren't correct, send back questions in writing to verify and documnet the source of the order and if that person told you it came from someone else, document that, too. Then save those emails because they are able to delete them. If your evaluations and assigments start going South as a result, you have the option suing.

Do not communicate about anything personal on your work equipment.

I urge the officers again to get the FOP to get an attorney to have available so that anything said would be covered under attorney-client priveledge. Also, they should try to work out a system like an ombudsman so that officers have anonymity in even contacting them, given the current environment. Is there a way for the FOP to do an anonymous survey concerning the issues going on?

Where the heck is the FOP? Maybe time for new management.

Jeff Taylor seems to be right that the state level people will do anything to avoid investigating and shutting down certain activiies.

Jeff, what is Andrew Murray's excuse? Curious why you didn't mention him--he could do or call for outside investigation. There's plenty of proof.

And I would also like to hear from Pat McCrory, who brought us Walton and Monroe.

Jeff A. Taylor said...

Anon 2:17

You know as well as I do that Murray is part of the problem -- just like almost every lawyer and damn near every judge in town. Watch that idiot in robes Donnie Hoover get re-elected and try to tell me otherwise.

Murray ran one up the flagpole in the Waka Flocka deal and noticed that no one in power -- local, state, federal -- much cared that CLT had an honest to God firefight in broad daylight that CMPD punted. Not only punted, but then helpfully stood by while the state refused -- absolutely refused -- to investigate if state law was violated by armed, non-uniformed Waka "security" (answer, it was and until someone shows me otherwise, I think they were off-duty ATL PD.)

Murray understands that his job is to make things SEEM better than under Gilchrist, not to run a no-nonsense DA's office. That would cost too many guys and gals in town easy billable hours and break the unwritten power-sharing pact between white and black lawyers in Meck.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Jeff. And I do understand that Murray is part of the problem. Just wandered why he wasn't on you first list.

I know the way you mean it when you say "Murray understands his job is..." but we know part of his job is to investigate and shut down corruption of the type discussed on this blog. If he doesn't have the backbone for it, then he should step down.
"better than gilcrist" isn't mmuch of an endorsement.

Taylor, you need to write a book and start naming all names. Maybe a republican will finance it. If you hurry, you can sell it DNC2012 on our safe streets.