Wednesday night (March 25th) Scotty addressed the Wayne County Community College Board of Trustees on the topic of Public Safety. The meeting started at 6:45 PM. Held in the Charles E. Morton Board of Trustees Conference Room. 801 West Fort St. Detroit, MI 48226. These are his comments.
Honorable board members:
I bring these matters before you because they involve the actions of people within the administration, and only people of your rank are in a position to take corrective action.
This college has been my home away from home for twelve years, so it pains me when, I become aware of acute systemic problems within the institution that affect public safety. What I have found is a culture of concealment and misinformation, rather than one of transparency, and self-correction. Here I will identify some areas in need of improvement, and how these problems have affected me personally.
- The security cameras are either unreliable, or employees deleted video on purpose. Crime victims should be able to refer back to these videos as evidence.
- Complaints involving workplace violence have, in at least my own case, been ignored and the response was to promote the perpetrator and prosecute the victim.
- Incident reports were falsified and at least one officer perjured herself to secure a conviction of the victim.
- The campus went through considerable expense and hired a PR firm, to make up a fictitious scenario of my conduct on the date of an incident.
Here are specifics about my own experience, and remedies that should be implemented as we move forward.
- When I thought my rights might be violated, cameras gave me a false sense of security. I assumed the video would prove my innocence and bring my assailant to justice. When I made an FOIA request, I was informed that the videos “Did not exist.” Since the college attorney Derick Johnson wouldn’t tell me if they were deleted or never recorded, I’m left wondering how defective the system is. I will forward the emails of our correspondence to any board member who requests them. Furthermore, my own camera was taken, and exculpatory videos were deleted from the memory card when it was in the police authority’s possession. I have printed evidence of the deleted files and can provide additional information about the recovery process upon request.
My remedy is that all security camera video be streamed to a secure location that is inaccessible to the officers on duty, and be saved for a reasonable amount of time in case complaints are made. Deletions should be witnessed, and a record should be kept of who performed them.
Also, the college needs to have a policy that strictly prohibits police from interfering with people who are recording or taking pictures of officer interactions or illegal activity in the public areas of the campus.
- When I sought justice, Chief Mohammed and Sheriff deputies both told me that it would be a conflict of interest for them to follow up on my complaint. The Detroit Police said it was an internal matter for the WCCCD Police Authority. This run around continued for over a year. Meanwhile the perpetrator was promoted from Officer to Sargent, and I was eventually forced to stand trial on bogus trespassing charges.
My remedy is to have an independent victim’s advocates at each campus while it is open. Advocates should be independent of the Police Authority, and be trained in helping victims navigate the bureaucracy to see that perpetrators are brought to justice.
- About two weeks after making an FOIA request for the officer’s incident report, I received the document, along with voluntary statements. I can prove this timing by forwarding the pertinent email to any trustee who requests it. About 18 months later a revised incident report was presented at my trial. Sargent Moss-Fort testified that the revision was composed within a day of the original incident, and had replaced the original report. She dated the replacement report to match the date of the original. This timing proves that she perjured herself, and that the incident report on record at this college is fraudulent. The faux report contained additional fabricated events pertaining to my injuries.
My Remedy is to have all reports emailed to an address that is not accessible to the officers writing the reports, at the time they are written. This way all reports and revisions will have a time and date on them. Furthermore, said email should have the email addresses (if available) of all persons mentioned in the reports included on the CC line. All persons mentioned on reports should be alerted when revisions are made.
- When Examiner reporter Donna Gundle-Krieg, attempted to get the college’s side of the story, Basset & Basset President, Tina Basset acted as a college spokesperson and claimed I was taking pictures of “students” and falsely claimed that I was not prevented from handing out campaign literature. The fact is that I only photographed signs, and recorded video of an election inspector who approached me, and the officers on the scene. Perhaps, one of them was taking a class, but either way some official at the college saw fit to spend taxpayers money to present a deceptive picture of events to the public.
The college needs to adopt a culture of self-criticism and transparency, so that such efforts to gloss over the truth no longer happen.
Thank you for your time. I have provided some supporting documents, and can email additional evidence if you contact me.
Yours truly,
Scott A. Boman