Officials with the city of Vian, Oklahoma, have issued a lengthy statement surrounding the circumstances leading up to the resignation of their only female police officer and the chief of police a week ago, accusing the officer and police chief of falsifying the official police report to countermand accusations of favoritism towards the son of a town council member.
Officer Lindsey Green, operating on information provided to her by a fellow officer that Joshua Smith was illegally operating a motor vehicle on suspended license, placed Smith under arrest last week.
Green claims she was yelled at by the city attorney who later dismissed charges against Smith, who is the son of E.O. Junior Smith, a member of the Vian City Council.
The incident mirrors a situation that occurred in 2006 when the same Joshua Smith was stopped by a Vian Police officer who was later fired, and James Smith, brother to E.O and uncle to Josh, wound up arrested for interfering with official police business after he attempted to keep the younger Smith’s car from being impounded.
The incident led to the resignation of just about the entire police force.
City attorney Larry Vickers contends, and the City of Vian seems to concur, that Green’s knowledge of the status of Josh Smith license did not meet the standard of probable cause because she was acting o the basis of what the fellow officer told her.
However, a Supreme Court ruling from 1949 would seem to inidcate that officer Green was justified in making the stop based on the information she was provided.
In Brinegar vs, the United State (1949) the Supreme Court found an arrest to be constitutional when the arrested party challenged the arrest on the basis of “probable cause” and stated that the officer had probable cause to stop the defendant’s car.
The Court emphasized that “probable cause” was the standard for conducting the arrest, not “guilt beyond a reasonable doubt” as is required for criminal convictions.
The Court stressed that if the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard were used in ordinary arrests, officers rarely could take “effective” action in protecting the public good because the standard would be too high to meet.
The Court noted that to require more than probable cause would harm law enforcement, while to allow less than probable cause would “leave law-abiding citizens at the mercy of the officers’ whim or caprice”.
Nonetheless, the Court cautioned, probable cause still requires “a reasonable ground for belief of guilt.”
Also, precedence for an officer having probable cause is also addressed in two other Supreme Court rulings” U.S. vs. Cortez and Adams vs. Williams which says being told by another officer of a crime being committed meets the standard of “probable cause”.
Green’s “probable cause” — having been told by a fellow officer that Smith was operating a vehicle on a suspended license — would meet the standard of probable cause under the Supreme Court ruling, according to several attorney’s consulted for an opinion.
Vickers and mayor Dennis Fletcher assert that the report of the stop and arrest was altered after the fact to show Green had stopped Smith after seeing him cross the center line and failing to use his turn signal. Vickers contends those accusations were added after the fact.
Green said in her initial conversation with Vickers she did mention the traffic violations but did not put it in the written report because “the violations were secondary to the stop”.
“I was told I had to have more’ to make it a valid stop,” said Green. “I amended — not falsified — the report after the fact, but the information I added was known to Larry (Vickers) from the beginning.”
The city states the line about stopping Smith was added two hours after the original support was submitted based on a confirmation by the “Biometrics Systems Manager for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol” and also disputes that Green contacted a district judge, who said the stop and arrest was justified.
However, anything that happened after the arrest was made and the charges were dropped seems to be a moot point base on the Supreme Court ruling in Brinegar vs. The United States and should have no beating on the original arrest.
In addition, Inside Fort Smith has learned of a Facebook post made by Vian mayor Dennis Fletcher in response to a post made by Vian City clerk Cayla Corneilus on Saturday afternoon that may or may not be connected to the controversy.
Corneilus, who also posted a copy of the lengthy statement by the city and a copy of the original incident report on her Facebook page on Monday posted on Saturday :
“So much I would like to say about this whole situation but I will just continue to bite a hole through my tongue… It’s all getting a little carried away and out of hand. All these keyboard cowboys, gossipers, & cowards really just make me sick.”
Mayor Dennis Fletcher responded to that post:
“To the cowards that vandalized my truck last night I call you out. Grow a pair and come see me if you have a problem. We can talk about it or we can go to fist city but don’t be a coward! I will let you know in advance it is a $357.00 ticket so bring your checkbook.
-Dennis”
Whether or not the vandalization of the mayor’s vehicle is related to the officer’s resignations is not known at this time.
Dennis W. McCaslin
Dennis McCaslin has been a longtime news and sports reporter for several media outlets in the Fort Smith area. He has also been a well known radio personality and play-by-play announcer for several years prior to joining InsideFortSmith.Com. He is the voice of the ArklahomaSports High School Game of the Week. E-mail: [email protected]
Randall Hall
May 16, 2017 at 1:03 pm
As a retired officer and with knowledge of Ms. Greens character I can tell you straight up she was honest in giving her report.
Unanimous
May 16, 2017 at 4:36 pm
How is him making a post about his truck getting vandalized a response to what a city worker posted. He simply stated it was a coward thing to do to his truck. Just because she used the word coward in her post doesn’t his post a response to hers.