Minnesota - Chief Finney says he'll cooperate but not with sheriff
By Howie Padilla, 03/09/07
In a letter about an unresolved 1981 homicide case, the former St. Paul police chief delivers scathing criticisms of Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.
Finney says he'll cooperate but not with sheriff. In a defiant letter laced with accusations of misconduct, former St. Paul Police Chief Bill Finney told Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher that he has no problems cooperating with an investigation of a 1981 death. He just won’t be cooperating with Fletcher’s investigators.
“I cannot in good conscience work with your office because I believe you lack the integrity, professionalism and ethical conduct required of a Minnesota county sheriff,” Finney wrote Fletcher, in a letter delivered Friday.
Finney wrote the letter in response to repeated requests by Fletcher — the latest on Monday — that the former police chief agree to be interviewed as part of the Barbara Winn death investigation.
Winn, a 35-year-old Maplewood mother, was shot to death in 1981 after a domestic dispute with her boyfriend. He was arrested but never charged, despite investigations in 1981 and again in 2002.
Finney, who was a St. Paul police sergeant at the time of the shooting, was an acquaintance of both Winn and her boyfriend.
In an interview, Finney said that he looks forward to the day when Anoka County prosecutors decide whether or not to pursue charges in the case. He said that he would never have protected Winn’s boyfriend.
“If they would have charged him in either of the last times, I would have been the one to take him to jail,” he said.
Finney, who challenged Fletcher for sheriff in the November election and narrowly lost, reiterated his belief in his three-page letter that Fletcher’s renewed interest in the Winn case last year was a political ploy intended to defame him.
Finney accused Fletcher of “bullying” and using the Winn investigation to divert attention from recent revelations about his own department, including an ongoing FBI probe into the actions of Mark Naylon, the sheriff’s public information officer.
Fletcher said that he was surprised by the letter’s tone, calling it “a campaign letter that’s six months too late.” But he said that he let Anoka authorities know of Finney’s willingness to cooperate with them.
Anoka County prosecutors, who were asked to review the case during the election to avoid a conflict of interest, said it will be at least three weeks before a decision on what, if any, charges should be brought against Winn’s boyfriend.
Patty Bruce, Winn’s sister-in-law, said that she is angry that the death has been made a political issue. She said that Winn’s relatives are “cautiously optimistic” that prosecutors will charge the boyfriend in connection with the shooting. “The hardest part is the waiting,” she said.
Howie Padilla - 651-298-1551
Retrieved March 10, 2007 fromhttp://www.startribune.com/462/story/1044667.html