Friday, Sept. 12, 2003 | 11:10 a.m.
There has been an intriguing turn in the internal probe into why a Metro Police employee tailed City Councilwoman Janet Moncrief to a restaurant and summoned officers to give her a field sobriety test.
Detectives have uncovered ties between the 35-year-old employee, a 911 operator, and former two-term City Councilman Michael McDonald, who was unseated by Moncrief in June following a bitter campaign.
Police are trying to determine whether the officers called to the restaurant a month after the election were unwitting players in a political plot to set up Moncrief.
If investigators are able to prove that chicanery took place, there are sure to be far-reaching ramifications at the police department and, of course, outrage among the public, which has a right to expect the department to be free of outside influence.
Here's what we know so far.
On July 10 the 911 operator saw Moncrief drinking at the Ice House, a downtown hangout for City Hall insiders. When Moncrief left, the Metro employee followed her several miles away to Fellini's, a popular Italian restaurant on West Charleston Boulevard, and telephoned officers to test her for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Three officers arrived at Fellini's and did just that, but Moncrief passed the sobriety test. When word got back to Sheriff Bill Young the next day, he ordered the internal investigation.
The three officers were cleared of any misconduct, but questions remained about the motivation of the 911 operator, who has been working at Metro for only 16 months.
As investigators delved further into the operator's background, they discovered that she is married to a police officer who is good friends with McDonald. Between 1996 and 1999, the officer and McDonald worked together at the Southeast Area Command Center. At one point they teamed up on bike patrol there.
McDonald acknowledges being friends with the officer and also that the officer walked Ward 1 for him this past spring with other members of the police union, which endorsed his re-election bid.
But McDonald insists that he doesn't know the officer's wife very well, and he strongly denies any involvement in the Moncrief incident.
"I can guarantee 100 percent that I had nothing to do with any of this," he said. "I have no malice toward Janet Moncrief. She's my councilwoman, and I stand behind her."
It would not, however, be out of the realm of possibility to find McDonald's fingerprints here. He once secretly tape-recorded Mayor Oscar Goodman and played the conversation to reporters to embarrass the mayor when the two men were feuding.
The unusual path of the internal probe has put Young on a political hot seat. The sheriff shares common political ground with McDonald, having used the former councilman's campaign team to get elected in 2002. But Young also has to make sure that no one trampled on the rights of Moncrief, who has some influence over the department's purse strings.
Young's biggest concern, though, is the possibility that his department unknowingly became part of a dirty political trick.
"I don't believe in using the department to hurt people," he said. "It's completely out of line, and it's against the values we uphold at Metro."
Detectives still are looking to get a handle on why the 911 operator singled out Moncrief, whose past arrest for DUI was brought out during her race with McDonald.
Was this simply an inexperienced employee going overboard in what she perceived as her responsibilities to the department and to the public? Did the operator take it upon herself to exact political revenge on Moncrief to please her husband?
Or were her actions part of a conspiracy involving her husband, McDonald or both?
McDonald isn't in any mood to help detectives. He has declined to be interviewed by police upon the advice of his lawyer, and since he's no longer with the department, detectives can't force him to talk.
However the investigation turns out, whether it's a case of an overzealous employee or a more sinister political plot, something is amiss here.
Young will have to assure the public that he's not going to let his officers be used to single out elected officials or members of the public.
If it can happen to someone as well known as Janet Moncrief, it can happen to any of us.
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