By John Dobberstein, Editor
The Broken Arrow Police Department said Wednesday that 4 of its officers have been placed on administrative leave due to a criminal investigation over alleged misconduct.
Police said the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) has taken over the probe, but would not elaborate on the allegations and did not identify the officers involved.
The department said that during a May 27 call for service, BAPD patrol officers discovered “alleged misconduct by fellow officers” that occurred on May 23. The alleged misconduct was related to the call for service, as well as the patrol officers’ investigation.
The patrol officers alerted BAPD supervisors, which resulted in an expedited review of the incident from Broken Arrow Police Chief Brandon Berryhill’s office.
After the review, four officers were put on administrative leave pending internal investigation. BAPD contacted OSBI and requested an independent investigation of the four officers’ actions. OSBI will submit its findings to the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office for review.
It has not been an easy stretch for the BAPD over the last several months. Earlier this year, officer William Golden, who was criminally charged by the district attorney after video surfaced of him tasing and pepper spraying a dog on his property, resigned from the department.
Last week, another officer was placed on administrative leave while the department investigates his handling of a traffic violation, which resulted in a confrontation and arrest of a resident — all of which was recorded on a fellow officer’s bodycam video.
In a statement, Berryhill — who announced recently he is retiring in October — said the department would, “continue to uphold our core values of professionalism, integrity, accountability, courage, and compassion, while promoting a spirit of transparency, as we honorably protect and serve our community. That commitment is the high standard that has been set by BAPD, and the expectation of Broken Arrow residents.”
Gary Bohr says
What is the alleged misconduct? Was it violent? Planting evidence? False arrest? Why even report this when the facts are not there?
John Dobberstein says
Gary: Because rumors will get around that the officers allegedly “did something” and then the police department will be accused of covering it up. Since it’s a personnel matter and under investigation, what details are released are at the department’s discretion, and now OSBI’s discretion since they took over the probe.
Aaron Moore says
They illegally entered a mans home and arrested him over a parking violation
James says
John,
Rumors didn’t get around. The body cam footage got around.
They didn’t release details because the details are all very very bad for the police department based on their actions. Conspiracy, deprivation of rights under the color of law, 4th amendment violations, excessive force, false imprisonment, falsifying sworn affidavits, and locking up his dog. Not sure if the last one is illegal.
There are several channels on YouTube with the entire body cam footage.
Gary, all great questions! To answer them the best I can basically the cops showed up to a neighborhood where the neighbor was being a jerk. But the only infraction he committed was illegal parking. By the time the police were on scene he was in his house. On the body cam footage the lead officer is heard saying his dislike for this guy several times to include “I hate macmahon”. He then tries to coerce someone to press assault charges against him which fails. (Mind you he tries to get someone else to press charges with only one persons side of the story). He then makes a phone call to a higher up trying to figure more things to charge him with but they cannot come up with any. He also states during this call again how much he dislikes this guy. By now three more officers have arrived on scene and one officer informs the lead officer that he can see the guy peeking out of his window by his front door. They then conspire to go up to the door to try and get him to answer to essentially see if they can instigate/ escalate the situation into something arrestable. They even talk about how their chances are low of him answering and they even say the lead officer should hang back some as a sort of CYA strategy. When they approach the door, of course the lead officer knocks and is the main one. The following all takes place within about 20 seconds. (And keep in mind they are writing a parking ticket. You don’t need to have any interaction with an individual to write a parking ticket. You write it and leave it on the car). They approach and demand his ID so they can write him a parking ticket (which they don’t need ID or a person, just a car). He then goes to close the door, not on them as they’re not in the doorway. The bum rushing him knocking him back into his own home tackling him and in his living room drawing blood and hurting his arm/ shoulder. They then lock his dog inside alone and take him to the patrol car. They charge him with resisting arrest and obstruction. Now this is very important on a macro level. There are two main types of resisting arrest. Resisting arrest without violence (or resisting without) for short. This is the kind that occurs 9 times out of 10. And there’s resisting arrest with violence. When police charge people with resisting arrest without violence and obstruction with no other charges, it means there was no crime. They use these two charges when they didn’t have anything else to charge someone with. This is also a CYA move because a civil law suit cannot begin until a criminal proceeding is complete. This ties people up for months if not years not to mention financially. Additionally, people will usually plead down to something else to get rid of these charges which then makes everything look okay on the surface. Since most people don’t have the time or money to deal with it. But this is treason and domestic terrorism.
They then all conspire and get their stories straight and talk on the body cams as if they did a text book job. But if you can read between the lines they know they screwed up. And they’re really just conspiring and making sure they all know the same lies to
Tell you if/when the time comes.
DeezNuts says
Morons