When Gwen Fleming ran for Solicitor General in 1998, the Field Director for her campaign was Dexter Porter. Porter later served as Barack Obama’s Georgia Political Director.
On September 20, 2007 Gwen Fleming contributed $500.00 to Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign and contributed another $500.00 on January 1, 2008. She also endorsed Obama. No surprise there.
Adora Andy served as Gwen Fleming's Public Information Officer in the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office and reported directly to Gwen Fleming. Adora Andy also served as Obama's Press Secretary in Georgia during the campaign. Now Adora Andy is listed as a Press Secretary in the Obama Administration at EPA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
On July 20, 2009 the day Officers Route and Wright ran the President’s name through N.C.I.C./G.C.I.C, Gwen Fleming was a speaker at the Black Prosecutors Conference in Memphis Tennessee. One of the seminars at the conference was “How to Get a Federal Job”.
On August 18, 2009 District Attorney Fleming announces a formal criminal investigation into the actions of Officers Route and Wright. This, just one day before The U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Georgia issued a press release announcing David Nahmias' resignation effective August 23, 2009. Nahmias was tapped by Governor Sonny Perdue to serve on the Georgia Supreme Court.
Public Safety Director W.Z. Miller, a former employee of District Attorney Fleming, places Officers Route and Wright on administrative leave pending the outcome of the criminal investigation.
Everyone knew Nahmias was going to resign before hand. The question to many was when. It is common practice, at least at this level of government and political arena, that phone calls are made a day or two before a press release is issued. So Nahamias would have notified his “chain of command” of the pending press release.
Now President Obama gets to nominate a replacement of Nahmias.
More than likely, Gwen Fleming was tipped off that Nahmias was going to resign and makes her move. It is easy to conclude Gwen Fleming launched her formal criminal investigation to get the Obama Administration’s attention. Her name has surfaced as a possible candidate to replace Nahmias.
This has all the makings of another sad day in DeKalb County politics. But this time two police officers are pawns in the game. They stand to have their reputation destroyed and their freedom lost.
As for the City of Philadelphia, PA officer who ran Obama through N.C.I.C., Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said the officer could face discipline for performing the check. Ramsey says he wants to know what the officer has to say for himself. Police didn't release the officer's name, but he remains on duty.
A stark contrast to the way DeKalb County is handling it, don’t you think?
The madness continues.
Monday, September 7, 2009
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28 comments:
I am no fan of Gwen Fleming but I strongly disagree with this. It's common knowledge that abuse of the GCIC system is a FELONY and the state of GA does not look lightly upon such actions at all. Considering how traceable GCIC requests are I'm not surprised at all this would happen for such a high profile GCIC lookup.
Perhaps PA is more lenient on NCIC abuse but in GA they make it clear that abuse is a no-no and what the ramifications are. There have (sadly) been more than a few officers statewide that have abused this system and had the same result so I don't think politics plays into this.
For more good info on this :
http://www.georgiapacking.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=33836
Having been a legal secretary for 35 years before retirement, I can think of many people much more qualified than Gwen Fleming for U.S. Attorney
The entire premise of this post is incorrect since Gwen is not now nor has she ever been a candidate to be the next U.S. Attorney. The mere fact that she supported Obama really means nothing since, the last time I checked, so did the majority of voters in 2008 (that's why he's President). GCIC abuse is illegal and the matter needs to be looked into. It's as simple as that.
Maybe Wright and Route can get jobs with the Philly Police Department. I'm with what I think Jeff is implying...overlooking violations of law and department policy is what got us where we are today.
If the past is an indication of what will happen, Wright and Route will be fired....brought back with a clean slate, and given take home cars as members of ICP aka....I Can't Police. From there, they'll take the Sgt's test and finish in "A" band.
More likely than not, they be made supervisors in South Precinct.
Two words that seem to show how this may be politically motivated Don Frank. Have we heard of equal treatment under the law?
Here's one of the major problems with this blog. You want it all cafeteria style.
What the officers did was illegal. That is not a gray area. Given, there are more important battles to fight but you can't have it both ways.
If it had been Bolton or Vernon, you'd be calling for them to fry for the same offense.
The problem here is the selective enforcement of the law.
Gwen is going to have to explain why she wants to prosecute these two officers when she FAILED to prosecute other people people for doing the exact same thing! Either the LAWS apply to all, or they apply to none. Picking and choosing who gets to break the law sends a very bad message.
The President may be a more high profile person to illegally run, but the law doesn't differentiate between running average citizens ILLEGALLY and running politicians or celebrities ILLEGALLY.
So what's the deal Gwen? Why do some people get prosecuted while others skate?
So, without bringing down the entire department and creating an uproar by talking about the 300 pound gorilla in the corner, how does one go about telling officers that "from this day forward, all infractions (little and big) will not be tolerated or condoned"?
No more cover ups and no more looking the other way.
Steal....done!
Drive Drunk....done!
Lie...done!
Use GCIC/NCIC for personal purposes....done!
Violate someone's rights....done!
Publicly embarrass the dept...done!
Break the law ....done!
Leave the county on duty...done!
How do they put officers, both Dekalb and outside agencies, on notice that the "boys will be boys" attitude is over in Dekalb County. Break the law in Dekalb, you will be fired if you work for Dekalb, arrested and/or cited.
Something like that would surely start a firestorm in the media. They would be all over that sort of tacit admission of our shortcomings.
Did you see where the Gwinnett officer got a DUI after totaling a civilian's car?
Sure glad it happened outside Dekalb. Holding an officer responsible for bad decisions is not popular in Dekalb.
I'd hate for one of our officers to be put in that situation - do I do my sworn duty and become held in scorn by fellow officers? Or do I look the other way because he's "one of us"?
Either way, the responding officer will also pay for the off duty officer did.
It seems like the DA if she were truly going after corrupt employees would be looking at investigating: Vern,Louis,Tebo and all their loyal minions who were only following possibly illegal orders. There seems to be a possibility of perjury charges in the dekalb Parks lawsuit ,never mind that would cost the co even millions more.Its good her corruptions investigator is going after high level corruption. Gooday
I think a lot of people, including the admin of this blog, sometimes sleep with a tin foil hat on their heads to prevent people from reading their minds.
I agree that Gwen sucks as a DA and it is odd that she has chosen to prosecute some people for violating the laws of NCIC/GCIC. But Gwen Keyes as a US Attorney?? Give me a break! This is nonsense from the same idiots who suggested Vernon Jones was looking at a sweet, cushy job in Washington once Obama got elected. But then the Obama/Vernon Photoshop incident occurred and then we found out the only thing Obama knew about Vernon Jones was that Vernon bragged about voting for Bush twice!
Hey Anonymous #2
The Atlanta Business Chronicle previously ran an article reporting that Gwen Keyes Fleming was a potential canditate for U.S. Attorney.
Do some fact finding instead of guessing.
You people need to have a reality check. Those who have been prosecuted for GCIC/NCIC abuse did it for some sort of person gain (usually selling the information, seeking revenge on someone, or stalking somebody) and most of those cases involved criminal history information.
Where was the intent to disclose the information to another party in this case or to use it for personal gain for that matter?
In DeKalb County there have been some who have used GCIC/NCIC for personal gain and the DA's office decided not to investigate or prosecute. We all have seen the news reports.
Placing the two officers on admin leave sounds like it is clearly out of line with the practice of the DeKalb County Police Department when compared to other matters of similar conduct. Sure it might be against policy but what is the Department's practice in handling these type's of situtations.
Thus one most look at what is different about this case.
The people running this site seem to have gone way beyond that and even looked into the possible ulterior motives as to why this is being handled in a manner different from the regular practice of the Department.
If you look at the news reports on the Philly incident it appears that the Secret Service blocked the President's information from even returning through NCIC after the DeKalb incident. Thus making the DeKalb incident even more difficult to present to a jury.
I saw an article that listed two other people as the top candidates. The other article listed her as a potential candidate.
Saying she is a "potential candidate" is quite different from an official statement saying that the president is seriously considering her. That is merely saying "it's possible."
What these officers did was wrong, and they deserve to be punished. However, the DeKalb police (and many other departments) have had NCIC/GCIC violations in the past, and officers were not fired. In some cases, the violation was ignored and the officers were promoted (see a certain former Deputy Chief, currently a Lieutenant). In another case, the NCIC information was used maliciously and the detective was suspended.
Two young officers made a very stupid mistake and deserve to be punished, but their careers shouldn't be over because of this.
My question is this... why is it now a crime to run Pres Obama's name, but no one said a word about people running Former Pres Bush's name while he was in office? Yes all those type query's are illegal.... so why make a big deal of it now? Sounds like someone is gunning for attention or being overly protective of their new President.
I agree with the post that they deserve punishment but not prosecution. It seems that some of these post are more concerned that Gwennie is being outed as a potential candidate for the US atty slot. I do imagine she is a candidate and she certainly is not the best candidate but this is a political appointment job which is sad no matter who is the President.
I hate to see the careers of two young officers tossed in the trash, but where do you start?
When do we say, "It all stops here!"
How does O'Brien go about doing that without making an example of someone.
These two just made a mistake at the wrong time.
It will be interesting to see how all this plays out.
For what its worth...How will this play out before the jury when these two officers get up on the stand to testify in a serious case?
Anon15. Hear, Hear! I couldn't of said it better. I haven't used a GCIC transaction in 20 years, but we played loose with the rules back then, no harm was meant, and it usually involved a pretty girl in a sharp car. About 20 years ago GCIC tightened supervision and all that became a thing of the past. We started seeing news stories reporting some poor jerk getting suspended or fired over unauthorized GCIC use and got the message.
These two DeKalb cops didn't and should be suspended for being stupid enough to run Obama through GCIC/NCIC and not expecting anyone to notice. Rut Roh!
I think Gwen must have a dim understanding that she is not a popular DA. Yes, she would probably love being a federal prosecutor and do a lousy job of it, just as she has as DeKalb Solicitor and DA. Gwen is in the running, but probably want get it.
Vernon is probably angling for a state appointment. I saw a news article that he was now somehow a gang expert. That's a hoot! Vernon knows gangs alright, especially the gang he installed in DeKalb County government. Gwen's as useless as teats on a bull.
Do you have proof someone from DKPD ran Bush? If that did happen, I'm sure the Secret Service would have notified the department and IA like they did in this case. It's kind of hard to not do anything when the Secret Service contacts you.
It would appear that our new Chief and Director are making examples of wrongdoers these days.
Well they have to start from somwhere, all I can say is that if you got away with misdeeds in the pastbe grateful.
They did wrong. Just punish them and be done with it. Delakb has a lousey history of consistant and fair discipline. Do something right for a change will ya Geeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzz !!!!
This is not the Chief or the Director but Gwen Fleming either going for recognition or votes. Her office is doing an awful job at going after career criminals but she has time for this trifling crap, give me a break. Career criminals are routinely getting probation for armed robberies reduced to robbery,burglaries,rapes and other crimes. WHY WAKE UP citizens. She is the worst DA in thirty years!
The two officers had no malicious intent by using NCIC. Its as easy as typing a name/dob and pressing send on your laptop in under 5 seconds. You people that compare this to anything that Bolton or Vernon did with the years of questionable, morally wrong and crooked actions they did, you disgust me to even make such a comparison.
These two officers did not make a "mistake". They made a "bad decision". There is a difference.
Bad Decisions.
You hit the nail on the head.
Decisions have consequences. We all have to make them and we all have to live with those consequences.
Shoot...don't shoot.
Be professional...throw caution to the wind.
Obey the laws we are sworn to uphold....obey just the ones that will make the news.
It's hard to feel sorry for someone who knew the consequences and STILL exercised their God given FREE WILL to do that which they knew was the WRONG thing.
Choosing to rationalize breaking the law is the same as choosing to continue down the path that led to this department's fall from honor and respectability.
Let's just be glad that their poor decision making didn't lead to their death or the death of one of us.
Ok just so I'm clear at what point do we start holding people responsible for their actions without going back to Franks days. We all know what he was accused of doing and nothing was done about it. That was a different time, different CEO, Chief, and no Director. I mean we sit around and say we want people punished for what they have done and stop allowing people to get away with stuff. So when do we start where every one is happy with it.I'm not a big fan of Franks but we can't go back and change that. It's a new day cause we asked for it. So let these big boys that violated the law deal with what ever comes their way. As for as Bush, I never heard of or knew any officer that ran his name.
If you get caught, key word "caught" running GCIC/NCIC illegaly, then you should get punished. We all go through the stupid class every 2-3 years and are told about the consequences. If these two detectives are that stupid to run Obama, we don't need them here anyways. Did they think there was going to be a felony warrant or something? Are you kidding me?????
If Jones, Tebo, and others could get prosecuted, don't ya'll think they would do it? Apparently, they were much smarter than the detectives and knew how to cover their tracks.
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