According to the Tribune; the embattled APS Police Chief is also the subject of a previously unreported lawsuit alleging retaliation.
It is not surprising.
Gil Lovato is the chief of a private police force that is neither certified nor accredited by anyone other than the leadership of the APS. The police force is in every sense a praetorian guard.
During the decades that Gil Lovato ran the guard, the administration of the APS acquired what the Council of Great City Schools described as a “...culture of retribution and retaliation…”
In the article, APS, Modrall, and the Tribune pointed out that Lovato has not previously been the subject of a “lawsuit”. They pointed it out twice.
An effort has been made to create an impression; the false impression that Lovato has no similar previous complaints. It will be useful in his “legal” defense. The leadership of the APS, Modrall, and the Tribune are painting a sympathetic picture of Gil Lovato.
As the leaders of the APS, the lawyers of Modrall, and the editors of the Tribune well know; Gil Lovato is the subject of previous similar allegations of criminal misconduct and retaliation, allegations not yet resolved.
That part of the truth didn’t make it into the article, the portrait of Lovato, or I would bet, into the “full” disclosure made to the plaintiff’s lawyer.
UPDATE This morning the Journal joined the APS/Lovato defense team by repeating the "no lawsuit" deceit.
They need to keep the lid on until after the board elections. If they do, they win.
Bloggers,
I would sure feel a whole lot better if I wasn’t the only one writing about this.
It is easy to check. Ask APS’ Rigo Chavez if Gil Lovato is the subject of unresolved allegations of criminal misconduct and retaliation; yes or no.
If the answer is yes, then you have something to write about.
Monday, January 15, 2007
APS Leaders and the Tribune spread the “truth”
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2 comments:
Excellent comments, but APS guards do indeed have at least the authority of any security guard, plus the ones who are certified receive sheriffs' commissions from High Shire Reeve White. That agreement is as old as the Harrell Administration, when they still called it "APS Security-Police" instead of the misleading "APS Police". The agreement stated that APS Security Officers who were also sworn sheriff's special deputies could perform law enforcement duties on school grounds or as it related to school crime off campus. I have no idea if it has been updated since, it has been since the '90s since I worked there.
Part of the appeal of working at APS as a certified peace officer is that you can retain your law enforcement commission. The ranks are full of former police officers who have retired from other places. Not unusual for small departments, its the only way they don't keep losing recently trained recruits (in this case trained at APS expense) to other higher paying departments.
As to whether or not there was authorization, I can remember Administrative Procedural Directives being changed from "APS Security" to "APS Police" in the early 1990's; before that, I might agree that there was no official "buy in" from others in top administration that APS actually employed law enforcers with sheriff's commissions who can make lawful arrests or write tickets, etc.
The shaky part is that any Shire-Reeve who does not agree that APS needs its own Praetorian Guard can pull their commissions, leaving them with no arrest powers. It would be like cuasing himself more work though, his deputies and APD officers would have to write all the crime reports and make all the arrests that APS employees would have made. But it could be done by a strong willed Sheriff.
my understanding is that the rank and file are certified and go to the same academy and training.
their leadership and how they are used is the problem.
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