Complaints Spur Conversation, Recommended Policy Investigations at June ELIPOC Meeting

A complaint stemming from a dispute over parking tickets led the East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission (ELIPOC) to recommend at the Wednesday (June 7) meeting that the East Lansing Police Department (ELPD) look into policies about retaliation and use of force.

The commission had another long conversation about a complaint stemming from an incident that took place more than 20 years ago and whether ELPD should apologize.

There were three new faces at the ELIPOC meeting, as new commissioners Rasha Thomas and Stephanie Horton made their debuts. Additionally, Lieutenant Adam Park attended the meeting alongside Captain Chad Pride. Park will soon take over for Pride as the sole ELPD representative at ELIPOC meetings.

The commission questioned policies on use of force and retaliation after “concerning” actions by a PACE officer.

A complaint about parking tickets led the commission to ask ELPD to look into policies surrounding retaliation and use of force, after a PACE officer was exonerated by ELPD administration despite displaying behavior that Pride admitted was problematic.

The complaint was filed in December 2022 by Davion Gaskin, who believes he was discriminated against because he is Black. Commissioner Kath Edsall recused herself from the discussion because she was a foster parent to Gaskin.

The complaint investigation report, which included a review of body camera footage, explains that Gaskin’s vehicle was stopped halfway between a parking spot and a no-parking spot near the intersection of MAC Avenue and Albert Street with the headlights on. A PACE officer identified as Kobe Rochester places a ticket on the car’s windshield.

Shortly after Rochester gets back in his vehicle, according to the complaint investigation report, Gaskin approaches him to ask about the ticket and to explain he wasn’t parked but was waiting to pick someone up. When Gaskin says he can’t be ticketed when he is still in his vehicle, Rochester says, “I just did” and rolls up his window.

Gaskin rips up the ticket and Rochester exits his vehicle and says, “You’re going to get another one now.”

Rochester takes photos of the vehicle’s location and issues a second, separate, citation. Rochester places the ticket on Gaskin’s car, with Gaskin inside.

Gaskin exits the car and throws the ticket to the ground. A confrontation ensues.

Gaskin walks close to Rochester and Rochester asks him to step back. Gaskin responds, “Make me step back” a couple times and Rochester unholsters his OC spray (pepper spray).

Gaskin continues his confrontation with Rochester, telling him he will lose his job if he pepper sprays him. Gaskin’s girlfriend tells the officer he is not violent and Gaskin eventually returns to his car and drives away.

Rochester returns to his vehicle and turns off his body camera. However, a PACE officer that was with him, Officer Gormick, does not. On Gormick’s camera, the report states Rochester says he would “have maced” Gaskin.

In a follow up interview, Gaskin states he was waiting for his girlfriend while she got medicine. After the confrontation, he was going back to the same spot to take a picture of where he was parked and saw a PACE officer approach a truck that was stopped in a similar manner to how Gaskin was. However, instead of ticketing the driver, the PACE officer asked them to park correctly and left.

Pride said he could not verify this because Rochester’s body camera turned off after the confrontation with Gaskin and he could not locate footage of the second incident Gaskin described. He also said both officers involved have since left ELPD.

One issue that commissioners took away from the incident is that it did not appear on the use-of-force report, despite Rochester unholstering his OC spray. Pride said this is because the officer did not have the spray in the “low ready” position or point it at Gaskin.

Commissioner Ernest Conerly was concerned that Rochester’s behavior did not count as a violation of policy.

“It sounds very much like this PACE officer did not treat this person with any respect or any dignity,” he said. “Maybe he didn’t violate a policy, but isn’t that concerning that maybe the PACE officer’s engagements were not right in this matter?”

Pride said he does have concerns about the incident. He said from an administrative standpoint, it appears Rochester would benefit from training and mentoring and has some growing up to do. But Pride did not identify ELPD policies that would hold the officer accountable for their behavior.

Conerly said the second ticket was a clear example of retaliation. He said there needs to be a way to prevent this type of behavior in the future.

“We’ve got to have something more than a training that says retaliation is not OK and is not acceptable and it is a violation,’” Conerly said.

The Commission passed motions requesting that ELPD explore policies regarding use of force reporting when an officer unholsters OC spray and regarding retaliatory law enforcement.

Commissioners urged ELPD to apologize for an alleged 1999 incident.

A second complaint about an incident that apparently occurred more than 20 years ago led ELIPOC members to urge ELPD to apologize to the complainant.

A woman filed the complaint and said she grew up in a household that was mentally and physically abusive. (ELi is choosing not to name the woman because of her stated history and because it is unclear if she understood her name would be part of a public meeting.) She said after one instance of physical abuse, she was handcuffed to a chair and her father called the police to have an officer tell her to “listen to her parents.”

The woman, who was 16 at the time of the incident, said the officer did what her father requested and then shook his hand before leaving without reporting the abuse. She said the officer’s failure to do their duty left her in an unsafe home, and she was too unstable to go to school, experienced poverty, and fell into a cycle of drug and alcohol abuse as a result.

The complainant, who was not at the meeting, said she is doing much better today, but requested an apology and consequences for the officer, if they were still working for ELPD.

In Pride’s investigation, he writes that there are only six current ELPD employees who were on staff at the time of the incident. None met the woman’s description of the officer she encountered.

She described the officer as a heavy-set white male, shorter than 6 feet, with grayish hair, no facial hair, glasses or visible tattoos. Pride showed her composite pictures of the officers staffed by ELPD in 1995 and 1999. She identified a lieutenant she was “90% sure” was the officer that responded. However, the officer, a lieutenant whose name is redacted, retired in 1998–before the incident described.

Pride’s report said the complainant described the officer as wearing a black uniform, but ELPD wore French blue uniforms at the time. He could not find a call history mentioning the woman’s name or her address on the date listed on her complaint. However, in her interview with Pride, the woman clarified she doesn’t remember the exact date of the incident.

Due to a lack of leads, ELPD found the complaint unfounded.

Former commissioner Ron Fink previously asked ELPD to send a letter to the complainant explaining policy changes that have occurred that would not allow a situation like hers to happen again. Multiple commissioners also urged an apology, even though it doesn’t appear anyone currently on the force was responsible.

Pride said before issuing an apology ELPD wanted to establish if they were at fault for the incident. He said ELPD Chief Kim Johnson asked him to draft a letter acknowledging the harm caused by the incident and that it was not acceptable. He said it’s standard to write a letter to people that submit complaints.

Pride also said he was not a member of ELPD at the time of the incident and would have to dig up old policies to show changes.

Commissioners urged Pride to write an apology and said stating policy changes isn’t necessary. Rather, he could just write the existing policies that would protect someone in a position similar today.

Commissioner Amanda Morgan, who is a social worker, explained that she is sometimes put in a similar position of needing to apologize for things that are not her fault in her work.

“The agency that I work for is an institution and often, just like the police, has a really bad rep,” she said. “If somebody comes through the door and they say ‘I’ve had a really shitty experience here,’ I actually apologize.”

Morgan said she then explains how she will work to ensure the same missteps are not repeated.

ELIPOC Vice Chair Chris Root said she was “struck” by a woman who was willing to reach out about a bad experience she had as a teenager decades ago. She said it’s an opportunity to help the woman today.

“It could be a statement to the community as well,” Root said.

Root said she understands the giant hurdles ELPD would have to overcome to reach definitive conclusions in an investigation. Root and Morgan said the goal may have to be simply helping the woman rather than finding answers in an investigation.

“I think when you come forward 20 years later, you’re looking for some healing but it seems you’re also looking for some change,” Morgan said. “I think that’s what the police can offer. ‘This isn’t going to happen on our watch.’ ‘This would not be handled this way now.’ ‘We’re sorry that your life was impacted.’”

Two of three ELIPOC vacancies have been filled, and a new ELPD representative is attending meetings.

ELIPOC welcomed two new commissioners to the meeting in Horton and Thomas.

Additionally, Park attended his first meeting, as he will soon take over for Pride as the lone ELPD representative at ELIPOC meetings. Pride praised his successor in an email response to ELi following the meeting.

“Lt. Park is a highly respected and competent supervisor to his peers and community members with several years of service to the City of East Lansing community,” Pride wrote. “Lt. Park serves as a Field Training Officer Commander [FTO], which [is] overseeing our FTO process for new police officer hires. Lt. Park has a vast knowledge of ELPD’s Policy and Procedures, our Mission, Vision, and Values, and our Community Engagement direction. Lt. Park’s ability to problem solve, make decisions, and have empathy towards others makes Lt. Park the right supervisor for this position. I have full faith and trust that Lt. Park will excel in this new role.”