Opinion ID: 2321350
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Alleged Abuse of Power

Text: In February 2007, following concerns about a lack of leadership within the Bowie State University (the University) Police Department, Dr. Artie Travis, the University's Vice President of Student and Academic Affairs, offered to meet individually with University police officers to give them an opportunity to discuss the Department's strengths and weaknesses outside of the chain of command. Travis informed Department officers that he would not discuss the content of the individual meetings with the Department Chief unless there [was] something that [was] very clear that needed to be brought to the Chief's attention. Dr. Travis assured the officers that the meetings were not in violation of the chain of command rules of the Department's Code of Conduct. After receiving Dr. Travis's general invitation, Lawson attempted to set up a meeting to discuss his concerns about the Department. At first, Travis' secretary had difficulty accommodating Lawson's request to be one of the last [officers] to ... have a discussion with Dr. Travis. Later, Lawson spoke to Travis informally at a basketball game around February 25, 2008 and arranged to meet with him on March 6. Two days after the basketball game, but still before Lawson and Dr. Travis's scheduled meeting, Lawson learned of an arrest conducted by Department officers Corporal Marc Ducellier and Sergeant David Blue, where the officers took into custody a non-student during their foot patrol earlier in the day. Lawson was first alerted to the arrest when Police Department Chief Ernest Waiters sent out a Department-wide e-mail congratulating the officers. Waiters' e-mail explained that Ducellier and Blue had been on a proactive foot patrol[] of Christa McAuliffe Residence (CMRC), a University residence hall, when they found the suspect in a dormitory room with glass vials stored with marijuana and money packaged in a manner [indicating] `Possession With Intent to Distribute.' According to Lawson, he became concerned about the propriety of the arrest during a later discussion with Ducellier and Blue. [2] Lawson claimed that Ducellier told him that the officers had actually been doing an inspection of CMRC, and were turning the door knobs to our resident student rooms and pushing on the doors to see if the doors were unlocked or slightly ajar ... [and then] walk[ing] uninvited inside[.] Lawson alleged that Ducellier and Blue laughed and joked about waking up residents, and about how some of the female residents came out of their bedrooms and into the living room half dress[ed] and partially nude. Lawson claims that Ducellier explained to him that they had found the suspect in Suite 405 of CMRC after the door just came fully open in response to his knock, and that they smelled marijuana only after they entered the room. Following his conversation with the officers, Lawson conducted his own independent investigation of CMRC, and he discovered that the doors automatically shut on their own when residents left their rooms, such that it would be impossible for a door to be left ajar or to be opened by the force of a knock. Lawson also spoke with two other officers, Corporal Mike Milburn and Sergeant Anina Brown, about the arrest. According to Milburn and Brown, at the end of their shift on the morning of the arrest, they encountered Ducellier and Blue in a parking lot with a prisoner in their vehicle. Both would later testify that Ducellier and Blue did not respond when asked about what prompted the arrest, but sarcastically told them that, the guy was arrested for standing around and acting stupid. Milburn testified that he was surprised when he saw the prisoner, since normal procedure is to alert the Department dispatcher when an arrest has been made and Milburn had not heard of the arrest over the air[.] Likewise, Brown testified that officers would usually send out a request call for help before making an arrest at CMRC because of the building's size and history of violent incidents. Brown alleged that she was annoyed by Blue's sarcasm in the parking lot, and when she approached him about it later, he apologized and said that he just didn't want to say anything in front of [Milburn] because [Ducellier's probable cause related to the CMRC arrest] was weak.