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Chief says he questioned officer trainee's stability
Stamper offers testimony for city in lawsuit, recalls man's 'reckless' behavior
Wednesday, January 26, 2000
By ELAINE PORTERFIELD
Seattle police Chief Norm Stamper testified yesterday that he had serious reservations about the stability of an officer trainee who is suing the department for wrongful termination.
"I was convinced, based on the information I had, that he had exhibited severe emotional instability," Stamper said.
Vang, now an officer in Appleton, Wis., says he was forced to quit when he refused to help cover up the beating.
City attorneys say Vang waited to report his concerns about the incident until after he received poor marks for a number of required policing exercises.
The alleged beating occurred while Vang was writing reports one night in the department's West Precinct.
The trainee said he heard a scuffle break out in a nearby holding cell. When he ran over, he claims he saw three officers punching and kicking 17-year-old Demetrius Fisher, who was lying motionless and bloody on the ground.
The officers said Fisher threw a punch at one of them and it took three of them to restrain him. Fisher wound up being convicted of assault.
Stamper, who retires in March, was questioned by lawyers for several hours yesterday in King County Superior Court.
Attorneys for the city have tried to portray Vang as a struggling trainee overwhelmed by the stress of police work and the responsibility of being the department's first officer of Hmong descent.
Stamper said many of his reservations about Vang's ability to be a police officer were confirmed by the abrupt and "reckless" manner in which he quit.
"What I had heard was that he had reached for his service weapon and placed it on the desk of his sergeant . . . and said that he quit," Stamper said. "To remove a firearm from a holster under those circumstances is extremely reckless and dangerous."
Vang was lucky that other officers did not draw on him when he did that, Stamper added. "Workplace violence is a reality."
Although Stamper called what Vang did the most "egregious" safety violation he had seen in his career, he conceded during cross-examination that there have been similar problems within Seattle police ranks.
Scott Blankenship, Vang's attorney, pointed to the case of a police officer who, frustrated by his workload, threatened to "go postal" in an internal computer message.
Another officer, who was later fired, took out his service weapon and brandished it in a threatening manner while on the job, Blankenship said.
Stamper conceded the incidents. But neither rose to the level of what Vang did, he said.
The trial before Judge Larry Jordan started in November. It is expected to continue through the end of the month.
P-I reporter Elaine Porterfield can be reached at 206-467-5942 or elaineporterfield@seattle-pi.com
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Stamper was testifying in defense of the city in the lawsuit brought by Paul Vang, 35, who claims he was pressured to lie to internal-affairs investigators after witnessing officers beating a black teenager in a holding cell in September 1996.
Police Chief Norm Stamper is cross-examined by Scott Blankenship, Paul Vang's attorney, regarding Stamper's reservations about Vang's ability to be a police officer.
Dan DeLong/P-I
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