Apex Police, above and beyond the law

[johnb]

http://www.wral.com/news/3770265/detail.html

Wake DA Declines To Seek Charges Against Former Apex Officer

POSTED: 1:08 pm EDT September 29, 2004

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Wake County District Attorney's Office will not seek charges against a former Apex police officer for sexual assault.

The State Bureau of Investigation accused Jonathon Penny of assaulting a teenager after driving her home from a party last year.

District Attorney Colon Willoughby will not say why he declined to prosecute the case.

The young woman involved in the situation has also filed a civil lawsuit against Penny which is not affected by the criminal case.


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That poor girl and her family are going to have to seek justice in the civil courts since the DA, the APD, and the State Police are attempting to cover up the incident. The APD acknowledges he is guilty because they fired him. Sad but expected.

If that had been a teacher, for instance, he'd be prosecuted and incarcerated. There have been several teachers handled in just that fashion here in Wake County in recent years.

Having a badge does have it's privileges I suppose, although I don't believe most of us like the badge being used as a "Don't go to jail" card.

[kellyc]

Sometimes John, there is more to the story than what we all know. However there is certainly quite a hint of impropriety and with that he deserves to pay if he is guilty.

[johnb]

Kelly,

He would not have been fired if the accusation was baseless. They would have ignored it the way Windy Hunter ignores complaints about his officers violating traffic control laws.

The APD fired him because there is cause for the smoke. Prosecuting him would have been an embarassment for the DA and the APD with no positive to come from it.

You are right, there is a hint of impropriety. If he didn't molest that young girl why was he fired? If he did, why isn't he being prosecuted? Futhermore, if he did molest that girl, as seems to be the case, why were the two cops who tried to cover it over not fired? And will they be prosecuted for obstructing justice? If he was prosecuted it would lead to the other two being prosecuted as well. Can't have that occuring now can we?

It'll be interesting to see how this civil case ends up. The APD has already given the family plenty of evidence that the cop did in fact molest their daughter. Cops don't get fired for nothing.

[kellyc]

You may very well be right. However I will say this...when I was in college, one of my professors confided in me about the number of times he was propositioned by female students in exchange for grades. It was pretty much every quarter. He never took them up on it. However suppose in this case that young girl placed her hand on the cops groin trying to get out of trouble, and he being stupid didnt right remove it right away or at all. Is that molestation? Doesnt that qualify for being fired? (absolutely) but not for going to jail? Im not at all saying that is what happened. I have no idea what did happen...its just a possibility.