ATLANTA POLICE DEPARTMENT HARBORS MORE ROGUE COPS THAN INITIALLY THOUGHT, ATLANTA POLICE CHIEF PENNING MAKES MORE EXCUSES...

Atlanta Police Chief Denies Widespread Atlanta Police Misconduct
Attorney says unreleased FBI report identifies more officers who cut corners
By Tim Eberly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The day after three of his former officers were sentenced to federal prison in the death of an elderly woman, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington denied accusations of widespread corruption and arrest quotas in his department. At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Bill McKenney, the attorney for one of the convicted officers, talked about misconduct inside the Atlanta department being more pervasive and not isolated to the narcotics unit that was responsible for the shooting death of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston in November 2006.

“I don’t believe that, and I’ve worked in corrupt police departments before,” Pennington said. McKenney also said an FBI report, now in the custody of the Atlanta Police Department, found officers in some units were expected to get nine arrests and two search warrants each month. “We have no quota system in the police department,” Pennington said. “And I know that for a fact.” When asked why neither he nor other high-ranking officers knew about misconduct in the narcotics unit, Pennington described the rogue officers’ behavior as isolated.

U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes sentenced former officers Gregg Junnier, Jason R. Smith and Arthur Bruce Tesler to prison terms for the illegal drug raid that resulted in Johnston’s death. Smith was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while Junnier got six and Tesler received five.

“It was very tough to see,” Pennington said. “We’ve gone through a lot of pain in the Atlanta Police Department.”

The FBI’s report, according to McKenney, also identifies at least three other officers who cut corners and might have broken the law, though they have not been charged with crimes. Both the FBI and the Atlanta Police Department have refused to release the report. Atlanta police in November denied an Open Records Act request from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
seeking the report.

The FBI has deferred to Atlanta police. On Wednesday, when asked for the report, Pennington deferred to the FBI.

“Can’t you get it from the FBI, too?” he asked. When pressed further, he said he would “probably release it real soon.”