Granby's former police chief, Lt., charged with wiretapping and get court dates

Three officers fired, one resigns, two remain after shakeup

By Newton E. Renfro
Editor, Newton County News

GRANBY -- Last week, after the sheriff arrested the police chief and the department's second-in-command for the then-unspecified alleged offenses, the two were officially charged by County Prosecutor Greg Bridges with illegal wiretapping and released on $2,500 bond each.

Police chief George Chandler, who had been on the job since January, and Lt. Trevor Keller, who had been on the job a year longer, were charged last week with illegal wiretapping, and both are due to appear for a preliminary hearing in Division II of Circuit Court on Monday, Sept 22.

Both had been fired at Tuesday night's City Council meeting following service of a search warrant at the police station by Newton County Sheriff Ron Doerge. Officer John Epperson, who had been hired to fill in during the Fourth-of-July weekend Old Mining Town Days celebration and still was on probation, was also fired that night, but Bridges did not file charges against him. Bridges said the sheriff made no allegations of wrongdoing against Epperson.

Bridges revealed on Wednesday that the sheriff had found an audio tape of a Sept. 4 closed session of the Police Personnel Board (PPB).

Since all these revelations, Epperson has reportedly asked for his job back, and the council has declined.

Also, Officer Jeanie Rees turned in two-week's notice following the three dismissals and then, according to city sources, was found to be taking items out of the department in violation of orders from both Doerge and Granby Mayor Craig Hopper. Even though the sheriff has seized the tape and the equipment used to record it, he was apparrently concerned that there might be some other evidence left there.

Upon the advice of City Attorney Kevin Selby, said Hopper, he placed Rees on two week's suspension and will just let her notice run out. The city has not informed this newspaper that it alleged she did anything illegal.

This leaves the department with two full-time officers, Acting Chief Thomas Craig and Officer Dennis Spence.

The apparrent purpose of the alleged taping was concern over Epperson's job in consequence of an altercation at a Granby home a couple of weeks before.

Already Granby residents were complaining to the mayor and to this newspaper of supposedly high-handed behavior by some police officers.

Epperson went to the home of Tim and Sandy Blanchard in response to a neighbor's complaint about the Blanchard's 14-year-old son. The complaint concerned an alleged misdeameanor. Epperson reportedly did not have a warrant and was initially invited into the home by Tim Blanchard.

The Blanchards later claimed that Epperson and Chief Chandler, called in as a backup, refused to leave when asked, and the episode escalated with hot tempers, a scuffle and charges of police wrongdoing by the Blanchards.

Hopper said when he was informed of the incident, he immediately ordered Epperson suspended with pay pending an investigation.

This and other incidents caused the City Council and the PPB to hold a number of closed meetings to discuss the charges. It was these meetings that Chandler supposedly wanted to hear.

In addition, the city auditor publicly if gently chastized the City Council for having gone $46,180 over the police budget by the end of the fiscal year. The council had budgeted $128,675 for the department and spent $174,855.

Part of this was authorized by the council. Chandler asked for and got a used car for $9,000 and then asked for and got $5,000 to fix up the police station. He also got two raises and was making $20,000 a year when fired.

This amounted to $14,000 of unbudgeted capital spending. The budget allowed $3,500 for capital improvements, and the department spent $31,433 -- an excess of $27,933.

Some of the money, said City Clerk JoAnn Lamp, was simply spent by Chandler without purchasing orders (PO) as required by all city departments.

Hopper said he had told Chandler after the auditor's report to stop spending. Chandler agreed, said Hopper, but continued to spend without authorization. Since then, more invoices have come in for which there are no POs, including some $700 for uniform shirts, decorations, badges and ribbons.

The whole thing came unravelled when someone (whose identity has not been revealed), overheard Chandler and Keller listening to a tape of the PPB meeting and reported to Selby, who called in the sheriff.

At press time Tuesday night, the PPB was holding a closed meeting.

The Newton County News -- Page 1, Thursday, Sept. 18, 1997
.


.

Notes:

1. .

--------------------------
.

.

--------------------------
.

.

--------------------------
.

.

--------------------------
.

.

--------------------------
.

.

--------------------------
.

--Martin Lindstedt

Posted on Sept. 27, 1998

.


.

Back to The Granby Police State? or
Patrick Henry On-Line?