Police Officer Ethics, Abuse of Authority, and Influential Positions

Last summer I have experienced a very unfortunate situation where a Police officer abused his authority to scare me from investigating my daughters principle who also abused his position.

It all started when my daughter was having a real hard time in class due to the size of her 1st grade class (33 students). My daughter was crying every day and having to call me to inform her it was alright.

One morning she was crying in the hallway standing right next to Walt Davenport, the Principle of Central Point Elementary school, and he ignored her crying. When addressing this issue with Walt Davenport and requesting for two options be attempted; allow my daughter to sit in her class before the bell rang (to feel more comfortable with teacher and environment), or change of classroom and teacher (two other classes had less children). He made it clear that he was not going to assist; no transfer to another class etc. But at the same time he flat out lied to me by saying that due to the contract with the Teachers Union, children were "not allowed to be in classrooms before class starts" explaining that the Union requires that the school make this time available for teachers to prepare for class and that they "are not allowed to allow students access to the class". Part of this was correct, the part about having a contract with the Union, EXCEPT the fact the teachers have the right to grant access to students if they choose to. And that the School only has to give the teacher this amount of time and had nothing to do with teachers or the school granting students access to the classroom. This was confirmed by the Superintendent of the district and he stated "That is simply not true" when I told him what Walt Davenport stated.

So now I have caught him in a lie, and discovered that he is not willing to work with Parents or their children in hopes for a better chance of uninterrupted schooling. This on top of his lack in judgement as to addressing my daughters emotional breakdown right in front of him.

Walt even told my daughter that she could no longer call home when she felt scared and insecure. This was told to us by Laurel's teacher on her own will because she "thought we should be aware of Walt Davenports decision".

Naturally, this situation and my experience with Walt led me to investigate myself who this Walt Davenport is... Why should I keep my daughter in his care for approx. 8 hrs of the day? Is this someone my wife and I must be prepared to deal with regarding future situations? Can we and will we support a school who is lead by such a person? Remember his public position allows any citizen the right to review his public record.

I'm going to skip forward to where the abuse picked up again...

I had found out that he was also a reserve police officer for the town of Shady Cove. So I called the court house and stated "I am investigating Walt Davenports public history and would like someone to call me back" on the message machine. When I did get that call back, I spoke to the court clerk, Paula Stroop, and told her again that I was investigating Walt Davenports public history to see if he had been reprimanded for any bad judgement or anything alike. This court clerk decided to call Walt Davenport and inform him that I was researching his background. The court clerk was very resistant in telling me anything and my questions were clearly frustrating her. I actually apologized for her impression because I have been taught in field interviews and to clarify that I was not an investigator and that I was on the path to becoming one. I finally asked "for someone who only had to volunteer approx. 16 hours of service in a months time why would Walt give up such a position?" She responded with "I think it was because Walt just didn't like how things were being done around here". I asked one more time, "Was he let go due to any disciplinary reasons?" and again she stated "not that I am aware of". Ok, so no big deal right? I moved on to my next interview. (Shady Cove Police department was dissolved and is now patrolled by Sheriff deputies)

This is where it got disgusting...

Walt Davenport and the Paula Stroop took it upon themselves to accuse me of impersonating a "State (police) Investigator". Written in the police report states that Officer Griffin "stopped and began a conversation with" Walt Davenport in the parking lot. Walt had discussed with the officer of his and the court clerks story about my pursuit to examine Walt's public past telling the officer that I claimed to be a "State Police Investigator". Officer Griffin took it upon himself to investigate, now note that there was no formal complaint called into the police department. Officer Griffin decided to write me a felony arrest citation (This means it shows on your record that you have been arrested and we all know what a felony can do to anyone!) for Criminal Impersonation after lying about a "recording" of me stating I was a "State investigator". Then also threatened me with a No Stalking Order... Yes a No Stalking Order (I have it on video). And if one knew the law in which a person could be cited with a no stalking order you would understand that my communication with Walt Davenport was lawful. Walt Davenport is responsible for my daughter 8 hrs of the day 5 days a week. This fact justifies my lawful right to contact Walt Davenport as much as it is necessary to address anything situation having to do with my daughter.

I called Officer Griffin back and asked him how he justified threatening me with a No Stalking Order? Officer Griffin stated "There is no No Stalking Order, it does not exist, it never happened". Then threatened me by saying he could give me one if he decided to read the emails between Walt and I. So here we have Officer Griffin who admitted he NEVER read the email conversations between Walt and I, who clearly does not know the Law regarding a No Stalking Order once again belittling me because I am calling him out on his abuse. The conversation ended shortly when Officer Griffin hung up on me after asking him to advise me as to how I am to speak to Walt about my daughter if he is to continue being her Principal. Not very professional at all! By the way, this entire phone conversation I had with him (right after he left my house) never made it to his police report... hmmmmm.....

So an entire year goes by and my wife is stressed out, I am stressed because Officer Griffin, Walt Davenport, and Paula Stroop's actions could jeopardize my job and have long term affects. It is the day before my court date 10/28/2010 and I have not received any formal charges in the mail from the DA. I call the court house and they said the case has been dropped and advised me to confirm it with the DA's office. I was happy and giddy because I told Officer Griffin that there is no way he can prove I impersonated a "State Investigator" just because Paula Stroop said so. The police report was also not approved by Officer Griffin's Sgt. before filing it. So why did he not get it approved? Maybe because he didn't want to hear that he had no case and that maybe doing Mr. Davenport a favor is not good community policing and can be considered abusive?

Of course, the DA had not even filed the case due to no concrete evidence that I ever claimed to be a State Police Investigator. The case had to be dropped and they did.

I have yet filed a formal complaint and choose not to because we know the department will just protect one of their own.

I have an Attorney and since the case was dropped, we are now looking to see if there are or will be any other police abuse of authority.