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Britt letter led to town retraction
Once more, documents have surfaced that add new questions to those already surrounding the Town of Kill Devil Hills and its police chief, Gary Britt.
On Jan. 9, 2011, Britt penned a letter on police department stationery to Director Wayne Woodard of the North Carolina Department of Justice’s Criminal Justice Standards Division.
The division oversees the Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission, which regulates standards for training and certification of law enforcement officers. The commission also hears cases of officers accused of violating those standards.
At the time of the letter, Britt’s predecessor, former Chief Ray Davis, was chair of the training and standards probable cause hearing committee, which was investigating an officer in the Kill Devil Hills Police Department.
Britt’s two-page letter to the director states his belief that Davis was “seeking revenge” and using the entire panel to “further (Davis’) agenda.”
Britt explains that he did not know Davis or the “entire story,” yet he tosses around phrases such as “corruption allegations” and “ethical misconduct” in reference to his predecessor.
Britt asks Woodard to investigate what he believes is a case of Davis “using his position on the probable cause hearing committee to harm this officer’s reputation and in turn the department’s standing in the community.”
Finally, Britt also notes that he contemplated sending his letter to the state Attorney General’s office but decided not to because, “it is my understanding that the law enforcement liaison from the A.G.’s office . . . is close friends with Davis so I am not sure how much standing I would have there.”
On March 28, 2011 Woodard responded in a sternly worded letter.
The director outlines the “clearly established” policies guiding the probable cause committee. He notes the committee took action on the KDH police officer as the result of a staff member reviewing a newspaper article, which mentioned the officer and an investigation by District Attorney Frank Parrish.
The case in turn was investigated by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, which referred its findings to the Criminal Justice Standards Division. In the end, the officer apparently was cleared.
Woodard, referring to Britt’s charge that Davis was using his position “to further his agenda,” informs Britt that the former chief “was not involved in bringing either of those cases (involving the KDHPD) to the committee’s attention.“
He goes on to tell Britt, “Once these matters were before the Committee, Chairman Davis properly recused himself from participating in any discussion of either case. In fact, he physically left the room while both cases were being reviewed by the committee.”
Finally, Woodard reminds Britt that the commission would not “allow any undue or improper influence by Commission members to affect the handling of any cases under consideration. To do so would be a clear violation of the Ethics Law and standards on behalf of all people involved.”
On April 1, 2011 Town Manager Debbie Diaz sent a letter to Woodard asking him to “please accept this letter as a complete and total retraction of any and all statements made in the Jan. 9, 2011 letter to you from Kill Devil Hills Police Chief Gary Britt regarding and pertaining to former Town Police Chief Ray Davis.”
Of more interest is Diaz’s next statement: “Chief Britt’s letter was written without the knowledge or endorsement of Town Management, the Town Attorney, or the Board of Commissioners. The insinuations contained in Chief Britt’s letter are regrettable . . .”
Britt also wrote a letter of apology to Davis.
If all of this sounds familiar, it should.
Britt, the town or their legal counsel have alleged conspiracies, cronyism and abuse of power stretching from the membership of the probable cause commission to the Attorney General’s office, to two Superior Court judges, a former town attorney and two members of the state bar.
The latest round of allegations followed the unexplained suspension of Britt in September of last year. A month after he returned in December, the town grudgingly issued a statement saying he had been suspended during an internal investigation in conjunction with the the North Carolina League of Municipalities, the town’s insurance underwriter.
What had prompted it was word that District Attorney Frank Parrish was ready to issue a petition to remove Britt, based largely on complaints about his personnel practices from two former and two current police officers. The internal investigation cleared Britt and the DA’s petition was never filed.
The officers, in the meantime, took their grievances to local Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillet, as state law allows.
Since then, published reports have shifted the focus to unproven allegations that Tillett and others were conspiring to seek revenge against Britt because of a confrontation between two police officers and the judge’s son two years ago.
There comes a point when it’s time to say enough is enough.
When we add other patterns of behavior, the entire situation in Kill Devil Hills begs further investigation.
The town and its attorneys have engaged in a pattern of keeping documents out of the public eye. The so-called “independent review” that “cleared” Britt is buried in the chief’s personnel file.
Copies of personnel files that are in the possession of the Superior Court are the subjects of legal actions to have them returned to the town, where the contents will never see the light of day.
While the town eagerly turned over billing records of their own town attorney when requested by the media, the billing records of the town’s counsel have been denied to the media since those attorneys are working for the League of Municipalities and therefore not subject to public records requests, according to league attorney Dan Hartzog.
And finally, with a police chief accused of falsifying documents by at least one of several officers seeking legal remedies, questions about how the chief, a Currituck County resident, enrolled his child in Dare County schools at taxpayer expense also emerged — adding more questions to the seemingly endless stream of revelations.
We note in that case the chief has chosen not to reveal the documentation used to enroll his child in Dare County schools, even though it is within his power to do so.
We think the time is long overdue for a truly independent board, perhaps even the aforementioned Training and Standards commission, to look into the affairs surrounding the officers’ charges and other information reported by the media in order to bring about closure.
Further, we call on the current town board to question the town manager about the exchange of letters and subsequent apologies issued by the town as a result of Britt’s poor judgment in making the accusations he enumerated.
Surely, a red flag regarding the chief should have been raised when the town administration learned of Britt’s actions, and if remedies had been taken then, the town might not have found itself in the legal situation in which it is now engaged.
To paraphrase Hillary Clinton and Samuel Coleridge, it’s time to cease “suspending disbelief” and get to the bottom of this whole affair.
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Frank Moore says:
I’m not surprised that the Britt mess keeps going on. There is a fire because most taxpayers in KDH, not including the town leaders(?) or Britt’s personal friends and cheerleaders, continue to smell and see the smoke. Stay tuned for the next round of denials from our town administration.
Jackie Harris says:
Sounds Like the Chief is getting his advice about blaming everybody else for his bad decisions from a person in High Places in DC.
NagsHead2 says:
Well written article Russ. Everything about this situation continues to raise red flags. I feel for the good men and women of the KDHPD, who have to endure the stress this situation puts upon them. As you state, a true independent investigation is long overdue.
As a Dare County taxpayer, the enrollment of Britt’s children, who are clearly residents of Currituck County, in our school system, is an outrage.
Here we go again says:
As usual, only covering one side of the issue. No mention that the School Board cleared the Police Chief of any wrongdoing. No mention of a judge already ruling on one of the complaints of the officers, where she found no merit to their case. No mention of Tillet ordering the sealing of his order for the personnel records that the town wants returned because it was done without a hearing, which is improper. And please don’t say you didn’t mention these things because you have covered them in other articles. Your whole commentary has been covered before. Please court system move faster so we can put all of this to rest.
Russ Lay says:
The school board never used the word “cleared” in reference to this story. Their letter to us merely stated they were satisfied the residency requirements were met, in part based on documents they cannot release. Their letter pointed out those documents can be released by the parents. As our article clearly states, we want to see those documents. As to your other point, “improper” makes no sense. From our reading of the sequence of events, the District Attorney sent notice he was about to remove a sitting police chief. One of the reasons for that removal mentioned in his un-filed draft were allegations he had altered personnel files. It appears the judge then ordered some of those files sent to his office, to be copied and returned to the town in order to preserve that evidence. Every single day judges order the seizure of evidence without public hearings. They do so at the request of District Attorney’s, ADA’s, and even law enforcement. If there were public hearings every time evidence was seized based on a judge’s order, there would be a lot of evidence “disappeared.”
Bleached Whale says:
Seems it wasnt that long ago that KDh had a chief scandal involving Davis and some high ranking officers. Of course the Voice wasn’t around back then to cover that story and maybe I’m not remembering things right. Since there seems to be some bad blood was Britt part of that too? Could we get a little history lesson to go along with our current events or is that all hidden under government secrecy acts too?
Broken Record says:
Play, Scratch, Repeat………..
Same story, different day. Why is Judge Tillett’s tantrum not repeated over and over?
I mean, another person’s word started this fiasco about Chief Britt. Why cannot another person’s word about Judge Tillett (his vague threat of removing people from Office while he complains about his son’s interaction with Police) be repeated, regurgitated and repeated again?
Be fair. Not biased. Please.
Here we go again says:
Cleared, they were satisfied, it’s more about what things were left out that are needed to tell the whole story. The slant becomes more and more obvious with every article or commentary
Russ Lay says:
The only “evidence” so far of Judge Tillet’s response to the altercation with his son has come from a hearsay affidavit filed by the town’s assistant manager who did not attend the meeting he describes. So, whose word are you wanting us to take in regards to that matter? We have used actual documents in each of our stories , not hearsay.
On the other hand, we printed that affidavit in full on this news site and have repeated in several stories the same allegations made by the assistant town manager. If we were biased as you say, we would never have run that story, nor the stories under headlines such as “Expert Panel Clears Police Chief”, nor would we have reported the school board’s response to our inquiries.
The fact that editorially we come to different conclusions, is what it is.
Russ Lay says:
On that we may agree, Here we go, but perhaps for different reasons. Then again, I sign my name to what I write here, and anyone who knows me knows my relationships to ALL the parties involved. I wonder if you can make the same claim? And for the record, I invite you to look at the two of the links at the end of the article and then tell us we’re not covering all sides of the story..the one about the D.A.’s findings and the other about the school board. If there is an ax grinding here, I think it’s on someone else’s end.
Russ Lay says:
Bleached Whale: Chief Britt was not in the area during the previous issues with the KDHPD, so was not a part of those events.
Frank Moore says:
Russ you have done an excellent job of reporting and commenting on this whole mess which started with Chief Britts actions and has been allowed to fester thru apparent mis-representation of the truth by our town leaders(?). They apparently felt that in the beginning of this mess that whatever they said would be accepted by the taxpayers because they said it. If this story didn’t smell so bad that would have probably been the case but as people asked questions, different spin came from town hall. Britt can end one issue by releasing the documentation that shows it is ok for his son to attend Dare County schools even though he does not live in Dare County. He just won’t do anything to help put the mess he started to rest. The continuation of this story rests soly on Britts and the town leaders(?) shoulders and until they all “man up” or “woman up” it will not go away. Again, excellent reporting Russ, keep it up.
Beach Bouy says:
The offenders must repent! Let them do community service and clean the freakin’ tennis courts at Meekin’s Field.
Stan Clough says:
As far as I know, the public has never been told what happened with the KDH police dept. when Davis and others left town employment a few years ago. Lots of rumors. That would seem to have some connection between the two situations since Britt mentions Davis in his letter to the N. C. Dept. of Justice’s Criminal Justice Standards Division. I think at this point the public deserves to know what has and is going on and have some closure on all this.
Russ Lay says:
As far as I know, all matters in the previous situation were settled by an agreement that the details not be made public, which is common in situations where litigation is avoided.
kdhgirl says:
So are the good people of my town ever going to get any questions answered without the run around from the town? I feel that all parties involved should step down from the positions they hold. Sounds like everyone in our town government is out for themselves and not running our town the way it should be. Thanks to Russ at least we know about this one, unlike all the stuff that was swept under the rug that the town employee stand on! I was under the assumption that they work for us, boy I was wrong.
disgusted says:
I am truly disgusted by the entire bunch of big wigs and chiefs in Dare County, especially in KDH. The drunk driver that killed Mr. Storie back in Oct.2011 had his bond reduced from over $100,000 down to $50,000 and the D.A. never objected to it, even though we all know that many of our “south of the border” natives will run right back across that border to avoid doing the time for the crime. I heard that Luis Alberto Rodriguez, the drunk driver charged with 1 count of felony death by vehicle, 2 counts of serious injury, and DWI, was a NO SHOW in court yesterday. What a surprise! Where is this story at in the news? Nowhere. KDH just wants it all to go away while Mr. Storie’s family still grieves his death and now they have been slapped down by a justice system that does not care.
ekim says:
This guy is on the taxpayers ticket, KICK HIM TO THE CURB!
Stan Clough says:
I would like to give a chance for the truth to come out ! So, lets hear it !!!
Stan Clough says:
Be the voice, or get off the porch !
polysurfer says:
Hey Brian, russ, polysurfer, ekim, here we go again “broken records”…
When you smell smoke is usually results in fire. I think about the culmination of this issue. KDH has a bad reputation performing “routine police procedure”, which border grey.
As a result, the ruling authority for justice (judges, attorneys, town, county, and state officials) have spoken quite firmly.. Institutions are run by individuals and it is “those individuals” that are responsible for the conduct, culture, and direction within that “institute. “So there goes the institution”
“Dogs” and their “smell” started a cultural, political, satirical and judicial precedence. Tillet infers that kdh may be somewhat pushy in their approach to state and federal constitutional reproach. Thank our “great” state for common-sense, as recognizing and supporting (quietly) judicial review and political neutrality.
Again, honesty usually prevails. Good luck kdh