Columbus police close Montravious Thomas investigation after 19 months

The Columbus Police Department has closed its investigation into the Montravious Thomas case and said it found no crime was committed when a contracted behavior specialist allegedly body-slammed the teenager five times, allegedly resulting in his right leg being amputated.

The announcement came a few hours after Montravious’ lawyers called Tuesday for the CPD to replace the lead investigator in the case, contending that Lt. Consuelo Askew has a conflict of interest. Askew is a part-time security officer for the Muscogee County School District and was on duty at the alternative school where the incident occurred Sept. 12, 2016, and led to a $25 million personal injury civil lawsuit pending in state court.

Jim Clark, a lawyer with the Columbus firm Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford, emailed this news release late Tuesday afternoon in response to the Ledger-Enquirer’s query.

Clark said the CPD became aware of a motion seeking to add Askew as a defendant in the case.

“That motion is without merit and will be responded to formally in the litigation,” the statement said. “The attorneys for Mr. Thomas have indicated that it is their belief that the investigation into the case involving Montravious Thomas is still ongoing. That is incorrect. The Columbus Police Department’s investigation into that matter was completed on April 2, 2018.”

Clark, on behalf of the city officials, accused Montravious’ lawyers of impeding the investigation by not allowing police to interview the teen.

“After a thorough investigation the Columbus Police Department found no evidence of criminal misconduct and, therefore, this case was closed on April 2, 2018 with no charges being filed,” the statement said. “The Columbus Police Department considers this case closed and will not pursue any further investigation into this matter unless and until new information becomes available which would necessitate re-opening the investigation.”

After reading the news release, the L-E asked Clark and the city officials copied in the email — Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, Columbus Police Chief Ricky Boren, City Attorney Clifton Fay and Assistant City Attorney Lucy Sheftall — why the CPD told the Ledger-Enquirer as recently as Monday that the Montravious case was still open but now it says it actually was closed last week.

Sheftall replied in an email Friday to the Ledger-Enquirer: “When you contacted CPD Open Records on the 9^th, the RMS system had not been updated to reflect the closing of the investigation. It has now been updated.”

Now that the investigation is finished, the L-E is waiting for the CPD to process the open records request for any and all documents, including video, available to be released from the Montravious case file.

This story was originally published April 10, 2018 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Columbus police close Montravious Thomas investigation after 19 months."