An Alabama attorney representing two Columbus Parks and Recreation Department employees in an investigation of wrongdoing in the department said police are attempting to intimidate people being interviewed in connection with the probe.
“It is quite clear that the Mayor’s office and city police are engaging in a criminal investigation and attempting to deny these interviewees and the targets of the investigation their constitutional protections,” said Don Jackson of The Sports Group Inc., based in Montgomery.
Jackson is representing Parks and Recreation Director Tony Adams and one of his employees, Herman Porter. Adams is coach of an elite AAU basketball team that is part of a city-funded youth program and sponsored by Nike.
Mayor Jim Wetherington referred all questions about the police investigation to Chief Ricky Boren.
Early this morning, all Boren would say is, “the investigation is continuing.”
As many as nine members of the Parks and Recreation Department have been represented by attorneys in recent days.
Police and Wetherington have called the nearly four-week inquiry an administrative investigation and not a criminal investigation.
Jackson, in a series of text messages to the Ledger-Enquirer late Wednesday, took exception with that, saying the police had illegally obtained private bank records.
“This illegally secured information included private bank records of individuals that was entirely unrelated to this investigation,” Jackson said. “The police department had no legal right to have access to the information and the information was apparently secured through illegal means.”
It was not clear from Jackson’s text messages who the bank records belong to and he could not be reached by phone.
A number of Parks and Recreation Department employees were interviewed Wednesday, two days after the mayor ordered them to cooperate or face disciplinary action.
Wetherington called for the police investigation into Parks and Recreation on May 28, less than two weeks after an internal audit of the department was made public.
The audit, though it did not find any criminal wrongdoing, raised serious questions about the way money was handled and some programs were operated.
One of the areas of biggest concern was the Innovative Sports Program, which fields travel teams in boys and girls basketball, track and field and boxing. The program spent nearly $130,000 in fiscal year 2009 and has spent more than $56,000 this year. A majority of that money is for out-of-town travel.
Jackson asserted police were using other tactics to intimidate witnesses.
“In one interview, the interviewers implied that the wife of an interviewee was engaged in an affair,” Jackson wrote. “This was an effort to secure emotional and false testimony from the interviewee. Another was threatened with harsh treatment in an unrelated criminal case if he refused to cooperate in this investigation. It is quite clear from the actions in recent interviews that the entire purpose is to secure some basis to secure criminal charges.”
Adams and Porter are also being represented by Columbus attorney Stacey Jackson, who was hired shortly after the police investigation began.
Stacey Jackson is also representing Parks and Rec employees Margaret Brown, the manager of the department’s division responsible for travel basketball, track and field and boxing teams, and Shelley Stephens, the track coach, as well as East Marietta Basketball Inc. director of basketball operations William Fox. East Marietta Basketball Inc. is handling a Nike sponsorship for an elite boys basketball team that Adams coaches.
Stacey Jackson did represent but is no longer associated with five more Parks and Recreation employees — Gary Freeman, Tim Marshall, Eric Allen, Jonathan Lawrence and Bryant Thomas.
Before Wetherington ordered City Manager Isaiah Hugley to have Parks and Recreation employees cooperate with police, some employees had refused interview requests. Adams did not present an audit response to Columbus Council June 8 on advice of his attorney. That response was handled by the city manager’s office.
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