New Orleans, Louisiana, NOPD officer booked with theft, armed robbery In Quarter sting, he's filmed taking $500 from informant
Dr. Kardasz -
Read the following report and consider:
1. Which typology of unethical behavior was exhibited by the accused?a. Why did you choose that typology?
2. Which decision making process might have prevented the accused from making the wrong decision?
a.Why did you choose that decision making process?
Typologies of unethical behavior - http://kardasz.org/CorruptionTypologies.html
Decision making processes - http://kardasz.org/Decision_Making_Tools.html
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New Orleans, Louisiana, NOPD officer booked with theft, armed robbery In Quarter sting, he's filmed taking $500 from informant
October 07, 2006. The Times-Picayune, By Trymaine Lee - Staff writer
A nine-year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department was arrested early Friday morning and booked with theft, armed robbery and malfeasance in office after a tape showed him taking more than $500 from a police informant posing as a French Quarter drunk, police said.
Donald Battiste, 37, resigned from the NOPD's 8th District after he was booked.
NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley said the arrest was the result of an ongoing internal investigation launched by the Public Integrity Bureau after they'd received several complaints of theft against Battiste. Most complaints were from Hispanic laborers he had arrested in the Quarter during the past few months, Riley said.
"We take all citizen complaints seriously," Riley said Friday. "We will not hesitate to book or prosecute or seek prosecution for any police officer who is involved in any criminal activity."
Though Battiste never pulled his weapon on the man or threatened him, Riley said he is being charged with armed robbery because he was armed and in full uniform at the time of the incident.
Deputy Chief Marlon Defillo, commander of the Public Integrity Bureau, said that Battiste has been named in several complaints over the past 10 months. And there were others, Defillo said, in years before 2005, where investigators could not substantiate allegations that he had stolen money from suspects.
But according to internal police documents, Battiste was cited in 2003 after a Public Integrity Bureau investigation found that he and another officer acted improperly during a November 2001 arrest. According to the documents, investigators found that Battiste had "used unauthorized force," failed to document the use of force and stole $80 from a suspect's wallet. The document also stated that Battiste hurled expletives at the suspect and used unnecessary force while wrestling him to the ground.
No criminal charges were filed, but Battiste was given a letter of reprimand from the department. This time, authorities considered Battiste's offenses to be criminal. Battiste was arrested Friday about 4 a.m., shortly after he was sent on a call of public drunkenness. What he didn't know was that the call was a setup, an integrity check with investigators taping the entire episode.
Investigators had a Hispanic informant pose as a drunken migrant worker with broken English -- the profile of many of Battiste's complainants, police said. Battiste arrested the informant for public drunkenness, took the $500 he had on him and failed to report or return the money after jailing him, Riley said. Battiste simply ended his shift and went about his business, Riley said, without placing the cash on the books. After his arrest, Battiste confessed, police said.
His excuse, according to Riley: He was taking the money because he was trying to take care of his family, which relocated to Texas after Katrina. Battiste himself, police said, had weathered Katrina and served the city during the storm. Riley dismissed the former officer's pleas.
"We're certainly never, ever going to use anything like that as an excuse for (a lack of) integrity and for professionalism regardless of the circumstances," Riley said. "I really have very little sympathy for him. Our citizens have gone through the same things, and they certainly don't deserve that treatment. He's an embarrassment to the department."
Riley said investigators will continue to interview alleged victims of Battiste. It was unknown how many people were victimized by the officer or how much money was taken, police said. No other officers seem to have been involved in Battiste's capers. "What we're doing in PIB is looking at patterns and trends," Defillo said. "We're looking at officers that have a number of complaints, and we're focusing in on those officers."
In more than 180 covert investigations performed by the Public Integrity Bureau this year, Battiste is the first one that failed a criminal integrity check, Riley said. Others failed administrative checks, such as not responding to a call for service quickly enough or not searching a person properly. But none has been found to commit a crime.
Riley urged people with complaints against police officers to call the NOPD's Pubic Integrity Bureau at (504) 658-6800.
Staff writer Lauri Maggi contributed to this report.
Trymaine Lee can be reached at tlee@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3301.
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