A Charlotte-Mecklenburg police captain said Tuesday that he did not immediately report that an assault victim had come to his home for help, in part, because he didn’t think he had enough information to be helpful to detectives.
Capt. Chuck Adkins testified for more than three hours before the Civil Service Board, which will decide whether to uphold a police department recommendation that he be terminated.
Adkins said the 19-year-old woman had rejected his earlier suggestion to call law enforcement, but promised to call for help later as she ran to get into a friend’s car.
Adkins said he wondered whether he should call police “as a backup,” but realized he hadn’t gathered some information, like her name. He said the encounter lasted two or three minutes, but that a sleeping pill he’d taken earlier left had him unable to quickly grasp all the woman said to him.
He didn’t call police that night, Adkins testified, because at the time he thought he had “nothing to tell them that is anything of value.”
The department has said Adkins broke CMPD policy by failing to immediately alert law enforcement about his Sept. 19 conversation with the woman, who had been kidnapped, handcuffed to a toilet and beaten. The policy dictates that officers report domestic violence when there are signs of physical injury.
On Tuesday, attorney Bob McDonnell, who is representing the police department, repeatedly asked Adkins whether anything the woman told him at his home signaled that he was dealing with a domestic violence incident.
Adkins said the woman told him she had been beaten up by her boyfriend, although at one point she denied they were in a relationship. He said he didn’t think the pair met the state statutory definition of a relationship, which would make it a domestic violence case.
The woman worked as a prostitute, according to previous testimony from CMPD, and was fleeing a pimp in September when she spotted Adkins at his house and asked to use his phone. She had suffered visible injuries, including facial swelling and marks on her wrists and dried blood.
But instead of calling police, Adkins let the woman use his cellphone to contact a friend for a ride.
Adkins said he did not immediately see the woman’s injuries, but they became visible when she stepped into his lit garage.
Adkins is a 22-year CMPD veteran who has worked a number of roles, including one in the department’s internal affairs bureau. He most recent was a watch commander overseeing police operations on nights or weekends.
A sleeping pill, a glass of wine
On Sept. 19, Adkins said he had gotten off his shift that morning before heading home, where he went to sleep. Later, he spent more than four hours in class at UNC Charlotte before getting home again at around 10:45 p.m.
Adkins said that when he returned home, he took a prescribed sleeping aid, along with a glass of wine, to try to get to sleep quickly because he had to get up early the next morning for a beach trip.
Adkins said he was in his garage when the woman came to his home. But he said that while he was able to talk with the woman and observe her injuries, the sleep aid had left him with diminished capacity.
McDonnell asked whether Adkins believed he no longer had obligations as a police officer to report the incident because he had consumed the sleep aid and wine.
“I’m telling you I couldn’t have acted in the capacity of a police officer that evening,” Adkins replied.
Cedar's Take:
15 comments:
WOW!! You were all right! The information about the Rotney machine is flying off the shelves at the Adkins hearing! Now people will see from the FBI/CIA/NEA/DEA/SBI/MOUSE investigation what is really going on there at CMPD!!
Looks like they are really trying hard to make a case, so why this officer? Let me guess the victim was black and he is white?
Anon 7:25
Your sarcasm is so helpful.
People can only answer what they are asked, and Adkin's attorney would have Adkin's welfare as his main objective.
Not the sorry ass state of CMPD under Rodney.
But if the members of this Board aren't getting that Adkins is being railroaded, maybe they are also in the BIG pocket of Rodney. (It must be getting really crowded in there!)
There will be other trials where the broader scope will encompass and expose the corrupt underbelly at CMPD.
I'm thinking the Homeland Security investigation mentioned in an earlier post might be the most interesting part of this story. Probably totally unrelated to the firing but why would HS be interviewing a prostitute in Charlotte. Could it have something to do with the events in Charlotte a couple of weeks before the Sept 19th incident?
The obvious question is missing. How difficult could have it been to pick up the radio or call 911 for a patrol officer to handle her allegation?
Adkins has already said he believed the person was not in immediate danger and had called for help from a friend.
And that he was officially on leave and had taken a sleeping
pill resulting in foggy thinking. He WAS NOT on duty.
Poor judgment? Probably..... But certainly
NOT a firable offense. Many, many people have
gotten away with REAL firable offenses under
Monroe, but they were either African American or
Ass Kissers, or both, under his "protection"....
Members of his inner circle..
A police officer putting dog poo in someones mailbox strongly suggests that he is mentally unstable.
Seems the Homeland Security "investigation"
was something IA and Selvey cooked up to make things seem worse than they are. I am told HS would NOT have been involved if not for IA bringing them in on it. Just another way they are out to get Adkins, instead of helping him with an honest, unbiased investigation.
IA under Monroe and Selvey is all about "got'cha" for those not in "favor".
Seriously, mentally unstable?
No, just freaking fed up with the thugs in his neighborhood, probably.
I would say breaking into your Wife's house, in uniform, and using your GUN to threaten her and another....now THAT is "unstable" AND criminal, and he was found guilty. Yet he is still receiving a paycheck from CMPD..
If he is found guilty it will be the result of a kangaroo
Court.
And I hope the people responsible for assigning him to
that hell hole of the Watch Commander: Katrina Graue,
Rodney Monroe, Medlock think about what they did and the life and career it has destroyed because if their inability to provide Effective Leadership to their people.
There are no true honest, ethical, smart leaders at CMPD any more. Seriously, it is every man/woman for themselves.
Watch your backs, because no one else is....
Charlotte Civil Sevice Board pushed the plunger ending Chuck Adkins 22 year CMPD career.
Cedar I hope you publish a list of the fu@ktards on the board. Spineless bastards.
Just read the Observer online story about this. What a shame! I am not excusing his behavior by any means but when another officer is convicted in court for domestic violence by pointing a gun and does not get the same internal punishment something definately isn't flying! Why doesn't an outside agency investigate how that crap happens. Mark Newbold stated "The message sent is that officers are held to a standard if they're in a situation where somebodys life may be in jeopardy" . Atkins did not put anyones life in jeopardy, Bratwaithe did, and he still has a job! What a freakin double standard!
Everyone seems really surprised by this. Brathwaite is black, Chuck is white. Looks like another reverse discrimination suit coming. I would have thought that CMPD would have learned from the last one.......
who filed the last one?
Yeah, thats it. Your black and your safe. Mark Newbold is spineless and shoveled the biggest line of BS. We would like to know why Brathwaite sorry ass hasn't been fired yet. Plus why he is not in jail, its giving them more time to cover it up because the color of his skin. CMPD is the shittest department ever.
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