WCSO-How to Grind a Good Man Down

It’s hard to let go of something that’s caused us so much stress for the last five years. I hope
you’ll allow me the grace to add more to my last letter. When Paul read my letter on Scribd, he
immediately pointed out that the events came to a head with Cooley and Kristen on the night of her 20th
birthday and not her 21st birthday (hence the corrected version). I knew that fact at one point in time
and it makes what happened even more damming but I was looking at it through the lenses of a wife
and mother.

You see, when Kristen became an explorer with the Sheriff’s office, Paul took Cooley aside and
asked him to be especially careful with Kristen. He explained to Cooley that Kristen was being raised by
her grandmother and that she didn’t have many male role models in her life. Her father had passed
away when she was very young and her mother was unable to take care of her. I first met her
grandmother at the Meridian Middle School picnic to welcome the new sixth graders. Kristen’s
grandmother was already 70 years old and a real sweet lady. One of her biggest concerns was that
she’d pass away before Kristen grew up. She was teaching Kristen things like how to cook so she’d be
able to take care of herself if that happened. Fortunately she did live to see Kristen grow up. She
witnessed the change in Kristen and Cooley’s relationship and was troubled by it, but powerless to
intervene. Interestingly, Kristen’s grandmother wasn’t even contacted by the law enforcement agency
who conducted the investigation about the allegations against Cooley.

Before Kristen told Paul about what had happened with Cooley, Paul liked the man. A few
weeks before we learned about what had happened, he’d been in our house with his two young sons,
dropping off his car for Paul to fix. He presented himself as a good, solid family man. What a schmuck.

Can you really trust someone who takes a young woman under his wing, befriends her, mentors
her and then becomes her boyfriend when he’s a married man with two young sons? It’s outrageous.
We expect the members of our law enforcement community to be honest, to be the good guys/gals. I’m
sorry but it’s just more offensive when one of the “good” guys behaves immorally. When a cop proves
to have such low moral character as to take advantage of a young woman, that man has no business
being in law enforcement. What really happened when Kristen was passed out? Why did she pass out
after drinking a glass of wine (the other alcoholic beverage had been consumed much earlier in the
evening)? If nothing happened, why did Cooley try to get her into trouble with her base commander?
Why was he trying to discredit her?

Now, why oh why didn’t the Sheriff fire him? Other people have been run out of the
department for doing far, far less than what Cooley did. Not only did he escape being fired but after his
punishment he got promoted to lieutenant and now to Chief. Meanwhile Paul gets discredited. He’s
not sure what message was spread around, but he could tell it was something by how others treated
him. At the time that he turned in the memo he was working in detectives and doing a good job.
Because there were still some things that he wanted to get done, he asked for a continuation of his
position. He was denied and put back on patrol. If you know how the sheriff’s office works then you
know that specialty positions are handed out as rewards, treats for good behavior. It’s not based on
merit but on who the Sheriff favors. Not to say that the people in those positions are without merit
(well, maybe a few) but that no one stays in those positions if they lose favor with the Sheriff. So, by
mid-January 2008 Paul was back on Patrol with Cooley as the Patrol Lieutenant. By July Paul was the
subject of an internal investigation.

This is an account of what happened. Paul was patrolling the birch bay area, on the lookout for
things amiss. He noticed some trails cut through the brush off of the dead end of gulf road. He was in
charge that night and decided to check the trails out with one of the K-9 units because it’s an area
known for drug trafficking. No evidence was found for either suspicious or unauthorized activity, it was
just unexplained. A couple of nights later Paul was patrolling the same area and encountered one of the
security guards for the refinery and conversation ensued, casual, unofficial conversation. The security
guard told Paul that he had noticed the trails, along with some others and had passed the information
along to the appropriate channels: the coast guard and homeland security. Paul called Sgt. Mede, the
supervisor that night to advise him of the observations that he had made and his discussion with
refinery security. Sgt. Mede said, “OK.”

The next day Paul checked his e-mail before getting ready for work. One of the e-mails, with a
cc to everyone was from Chief Parks, both chastising Paul for not writing a report on his observations
and commending him for making the observations and telling him to pull a case number and file a
report. Paul replied, “OK Chief, will do.” About an hour after signing into duty that’s exactly what Paul
did. Later in the shift, Sgt. Mede requested a meeting with Paul. He handed Paul a letter of reprimand
that he’d been ordered to give him by Chief Parks and Lt. Cooley for the failure to report “possible
terrorist activity.” Paul was understandably upset and complicating the issue was that Paul couldn’t
explain to Mede about the situation with Cooley. You see, people involved in an investigation aren’t
allowed to talk about it and nothing was ever said about the decision against Cooley, for all Paul knew
the entire matter had been dropped. The whole thing was shrouded in secrecy. In fact Cooley’s days
off without pay were put into the schedule as his “vacation” so his fellow deputies weren’t even aware
that he’d done something worthy of discipline.

When Paul got off work that night he fired off an e-mail to Chief Parks saying that he’d be
contesting the letter of reprimand. Chief Parks fired one back and then Lt. Cooley jumped in with an e-
mail of his own:

I was very disheartened to hear about your reaction to Sgt. Mede's

recent counseling and then to read your electronic mail to Chief
Parks. Your actions in both were inappropriate, and your e-mail to
Chief Parks is tantamount to insubordination.

Paul, of course could not help but to respond to that with something like…. “You have some
nerve talking to me about propriety and a lack of respect is not tantamount to insubordination.” All of
which landed Paul under a Class 1 internal administrative investigation for making written and oral
comments to Chief Parks, Lt. Cooley and Sgt. Mede which were considered to be insolent, discourteous
and disrespectful of the rank they hold. The charges were found to be “sustained with good cause” and
for punishment Paul was suspended from work for one, ten hour day.
 Sorry, I really don’t mean to be bringing before you the minutiae of the inner workings of the
Sheriff’s office but it just grates on my soul. It’s about justice and the lack of it. Cooley was docked 80
hours for supplying alcohol to a minor, for abusing his position of trust and authority, and for failing to
keep his private life unsullied (i.e. cheating on his wife.) Paul was docked 10 hours for being
discourteous to Cooley and two other supervisors. Justice? Really?

Again, this all comes back to the man in charge, Sheriff Elfo. He came into office, riding on a
theme of “integrity.” His actions are not those of a man with integrity but he sure puts on a nice front.
If you’ve noticed, he makes sure that he’s seen in his uniform when he’s campaigning even though that
is against election law. Notice how the rules don’t apply to some people? Actually, now that I think of it,
when Paul confronted him about the situation with Cooley, the sheriff explained his decision for keeping
and promoting Cooley: “He (Cooley) was very remorseful for his actions.”

Morale within the department is low, practically non-existent. Talk to the deputies and the
word that you’ll get from the majority is that the “rat’s nest” at the top needs to go. In fact, the sheriff’s
office is top heavy, which means the county is paying out more money for those higher ranks but not
getting more law enforcement enacted. The whole structure needs to be reorganized. The deputies out
on patrol everyday are putting their lives on the line for each of us, so please take part in making sure
that the people backing them are good, honest and trustworthy. It’s in your hands.

With thanks,

A deputy’s wife, Lori K. Murphy