THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 24, 1996 TAG: 9602240021
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
Problems with criminal cases involving sons of three Chesapeake officials have already brought the disciplining of five city police officers, the result of an internal-affairs probe.
Police Chief Ian M. Shipley Jr. says there is no evidence that officers had intentionally delayed or hampered the investigations. But he offered little information on precisely what did happen.
So the City Council has asked the state police to check into the cases. One involves the arrest of William Lawrence Spruill Jr., 23, son of police Captain Spruill, in the 1994 theft of a vehicle owned by Vice Mayor Robert T. Nance. In the other, Alan Keith Butt, 27, son of Councilman John W. Butt, and William Jeremy Brickhouse, 20, son of sheriff's Capt. William Brickhouse, are charged with receiving some $160,000 in property stolen from Givens Honda.
One can understand the embarrassment of those involved and their families. One of the hazards of laboring in the public sector is that incidents that otherwise might attract little attention become more newsworthy.
But elected and other public officials work in an environment of eroding public confidence in government at every level. The American people have grown increasingly cynical about perceived failures in the performance of those paid with tax dollars. And inferences that citizens may draw from such sketchy reports in the Chesapeake cases will no doubt exacerbate people's concerns.
The questions Chesapeake officials have posed to the state police bespeak the whole situation's seriousness:
Did Captain Spruill, one of the officers disciplined, provide information to his son that could have undermined the investigation?
Did the disciplined officers, also including Capt. Edward W. White, Capt. J. E. Saunders, Detective Ira T. Galbreath and Lt. Kenneth R. Kumm, or any other city official hamper or hinder the investigations?
Was there a cover-up?
We can hope answers to these questions is ``No.'' We also hope that the Police Department's internal investigation has rooted out any and all potential wrongdoing? But the public no less than the council needs answers that are complete and detailed. If it takes a state police probe to supply them, so be it. by CNB