What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Arizona
On October 7th, 2010. I was the victim of domestic violence. I am a male.
I never hit struck or threatened my girlfriend. A neighbor called the police and she was arrested. Being a male, I was initially treated as the aggressor by the police. I understand this to an extent because I also am in law enforcement. I happen to be a federal agent and so is my girlfriend.
Aside from the initally aggressive treatment from the police, I was never charged with any crime, or arrested. I followed all of my agency's reporting proceedures. Everybody at my agency agrees that I did everything right.
Since my girlfriend is also a federal agent, her service weapon had to be pulled while she took care of the court issues. Because of this, Internal Affairs of my agency opened an administrative investigation into the incident. This is where the real problem begins.
About a week after the incident, I went to the police department to talk to a supervisor, about my treatment and the light I was portrayed by the officer in his report. I told the supervisor that I didn't want to file paperwork because I wanted to extend professional courtesy, but the issue needed to be addressed. He told me not to worry, because I wasn't being charged with anything and that he would talk to the officers involved.
In the middle of December, I was served with a notice to appear by Internal Affairs to be a witness in the investigation into my girlfriend. IA's questions, that were pre-written, did not paint me as a witness. The majority of questions were in regards to my conduct, specifically if I asked for special treatment, lied to the cops to cover up the incident, etc. I never did any of those things. My supervisor at my agency concurs. I was told at the conclusion of the interview that I would be interviewed again.
January 4, 2011, my girlfriend was called in as the subject in the investigation. Then they made her a witness against me. They asked essentially the same questions.
January 20, 2011 I was called in as the subject of my own investigation for "Making False Statements" to the police at the incident. IA (whether or not they were lying) say that the cops are saying I lied, covered up, and came off like a total dick. I don't know if this is true or not, but having complained before, I don't necessarily doubt it.
Internal Affairs says that they have to investigate this, because if I lied to the cops, based on the Henthorne rule, that is discoverable and could be used to impeach me if I get called to testify.
As the victim, all of my information is redacted out of all copies of the report. It cannot be searched for. Somebody would have to know I was the victim on that day, on that report number. On top of that I never lied to the cops. However, now that I have been investigated, I have a permanent question to my credibility in my personnel file. This will not only impact my ability to testify in court for a career i've spent my whole life working, but also affect promotions and transfers.
I feel like I am being victimized twice. Once as the DV victim, and now by Internal Affairs. I make the following suggestions.
Based on my knowledge:
Internal Affairs failed to exercise due dilligence in recognizing that my off duty conduct, regardless of the outcome, had no nexus whatsoever to the job, and were negligent in investigating said conduct.
They created severe and long term damage to my career, my reputation and my emotional well being, by causing me embarassment and distress in having to defend myself against these accusations.
I have been double victimized because my life will be affected by something when I did nothing wrong.
And I believe my 14th amendment was violated because I was forced to disclose non-criminal conduct from my personal life, as a victim, as a condition of my employment.
Thank you so much in advance,
LM
On October 7th, 2010. I was the victim of domestic violence. I am a male.
I never hit struck or threatened my girlfriend. A neighbor called the police and she was arrested. Being a male, I was initially treated as the aggressor by the police. I understand this to an extent because I also am in law enforcement. I happen to be a federal agent and so is my girlfriend.
Aside from the initally aggressive treatment from the police, I was never charged with any crime, or arrested. I followed all of my agency's reporting proceedures. Everybody at my agency agrees that I did everything right.
Since my girlfriend is also a federal agent, her service weapon had to be pulled while she took care of the court issues. Because of this, Internal Affairs of my agency opened an administrative investigation into the incident. This is where the real problem begins.
About a week after the incident, I went to the police department to talk to a supervisor, about my treatment and the light I was portrayed by the officer in his report. I told the supervisor that I didn't want to file paperwork because I wanted to extend professional courtesy, but the issue needed to be addressed. He told me not to worry, because I wasn't being charged with anything and that he would talk to the officers involved.
In the middle of December, I was served with a notice to appear by Internal Affairs to be a witness in the investigation into my girlfriend. IA's questions, that were pre-written, did not paint me as a witness. The majority of questions were in regards to my conduct, specifically if I asked for special treatment, lied to the cops to cover up the incident, etc. I never did any of those things. My supervisor at my agency concurs. I was told at the conclusion of the interview that I would be interviewed again.
January 4, 2011, my girlfriend was called in as the subject in the investigation. Then they made her a witness against me. They asked essentially the same questions.
January 20, 2011 I was called in as the subject of my own investigation for "Making False Statements" to the police at the incident. IA (whether or not they were lying) say that the cops are saying I lied, covered up, and came off like a total dick. I don't know if this is true or not, but having complained before, I don't necessarily doubt it.
Internal Affairs says that they have to investigate this, because if I lied to the cops, based on the Henthorne rule, that is discoverable and could be used to impeach me if I get called to testify.
As the victim, all of my information is redacted out of all copies of the report. It cannot be searched for. Somebody would have to know I was the victim on that day, on that report number. On top of that I never lied to the cops. However, now that I have been investigated, I have a permanent question to my credibility in my personnel file. This will not only impact my ability to testify in court for a career i've spent my whole life working, but also affect promotions and transfers.
I feel like I am being victimized twice. Once as the DV victim, and now by Internal Affairs. I make the following suggestions.
Based on my knowledge:
Internal Affairs failed to exercise due dilligence in recognizing that my off duty conduct, regardless of the outcome, had no nexus whatsoever to the job, and were negligent in investigating said conduct.
They created severe and long term damage to my career, my reputation and my emotional well being, by causing me embarassment and distress in having to defend myself against these accusations.
I have been double victimized because my life will be affected by something when I did nothing wrong.
And I believe my 14th amendment was violated because I was forced to disclose non-criminal conduct from my personal life, as a victim, as a condition of my employment.
Thank you so much in advance,
LM
