Off-Duty Investigation

I'm not ready to start jumping up and down that this was illegal! Only point out a few things about the story.

1. The officer didn't use any judgment doing the investigation. It seems obvious that he should have requested a uniformed officer or an investigator that was "ON DUTY!"

2. The incident was reported to police about an abduction. It seems they didn't seem to be in any hurry to investigate the abduction, (so did supervisors already know this officer was involved? If not why didn't they respond?)

4. Effects of Leadership... If it's ok for the Mayor to illegally search or arrest people. Why would those under his leadership think or believe any different?

5. What record is the Mayor talking about? He is already on record with the Court System for Violating citizens constitutional rights! He has already cost the City of Flint 140,000.00 dollars for this, proving my point.

Officer under investigation in woman's abduction claim
FLINT
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Friday, August 25, 2006
By Kim Crawford
kcrawford@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6242
FLINT - The Flint Police Internal Affairs office is investigating a report that an officer inappropriately searched and abducted a 19-year-old woman while checking a tip about drug activity.

Chief Gary Hagler confirmed the incident involving Officer David Collardey is being investigated by Internal Affairs, but would not comment about the specifics.

Kursten M. Congdon, the woman involved, her boyfriend, Eugenio Molina, and her mother, Teri Henderson, said investigators from the Flint police and from the city Ombudsman's office have contacted them.

Collardey said Wednesday of Congdon's version of events, "It pretty much happened." He said he had to act quickly after a call from an informant, which came while he was off-duty, told him a crime was being committed.

"I got a call from a confidential source about a drug transaction," Collardey said.

He said he didn't know that the incident was under investigation by his own department. He has continued to work as a second-shift patrol officer since the Aug. 5 incident.

According to Congdon and police reports obtained by The Flint Journal, the incident unfolded this way:

As a crowd of witnesses looked on, Collardey, who was in uniform but off-duty and was driving his own Honda Civic, pulled up to Congdon's car and blocked it in at a S. Dort Highway parking lot at 11:35 p.m. Molina was in the car with Congdon.

Collardey searched them and their car and ordered Congdon to get into his vehicle.

"He was running his finger around in my back pocket and I didn't have anything in my pockets," Congdon said. "Then he said, 'Get in the car, now.'"

Congdon did. Collardey drove off as people attending a car cruise at Tom's Coney Cafe, 512 S. Dort Highway, shouted warnings, not sure if what they witnessed was an abduction by a man who may or may not have been a police officer. At least one witness made note of the license plate.

Congdon said she knew Collardey because he is a regular at the Coney restaurant, where she worked.

Collardey drove to the house a short distance away where Congdon lives with her mother, boyfriend and sisters, because he said he needed to search her garage for drugs, according to Congdon and police reports.

"He asked me if anybody was home, and I said yes," said Congdon. "He shined his flashlight around my garage and he asked me why I was going from one bad boyfriend to another."

Then the officer returned her to the car cruise and let her out of his car.

Police reports say phone calls had already come into the patrol desk and radio dispatchers about a man in a police uniform who had ordered a young woman to get into a Honda Civic. The reports also show Collardey called the police station to say he was the officer in the Honda.

"I was shaking the whole time this was going on," said Congdon.

Collardey said he didn't think there was anything wrong about the way he acted, and that he couldn't discuss the nature of the tip or his informant because he is obligated to protect the informant's identity.

The same night the incident occurred, Flint police reports show patrol sergeants took Congdon to the station to make a complaint against Collardey and filed an incident report, labeled "Alleged Officer Misconduct."

Henderson said she is furious about what happened; she says her daughter was abducted and their garage illegally searched for no reason.

Mayor Don Williamson and Fourth Ward City Councilman James Ananich both said they want more information.

"You have to wonder what kind of policy is being followed when an off-duty officer in his personal vehicle is conducting his own drug investigation without calling for Special Operations officers or anyone else," said Ananich. "I definitely want to know what was going on here."

"We're not going to tolerate misconduct on behalf of police officers," said Williamson. "We're on record as not accepting this kind of thing."

Collardey previously was an officer in Grand Blanc Township. In 1991, he was charged with felonious assault for allegedly pulling a gun on a man he'd arrested for drunken driving in May 1990, but that charge was dropped. In December 1993, he was suspended without pay for making what the then-acting police chief said was a warrantless search in violation of departmental procedures.

Collardey filed three grievances against the township. In response, the township agreed in 1995 to pay him $1.25 million in a buyout in exchange for the dropping of those grievances. While Collardey's attorney at the time called it a victory for him, the township's attorney said "we didn't want him to be our employee any more."

Collardey said he has been a Flint police officer for about a year.