An independent panel will review how the Winston-Salem Police Department investigated the 1995 attack on Jill Marker at the Silk Plant Forest store, members of the Winston-Salem City Council's public-safety committee agreed yesterday.
Their vote to use an independent panel, a departure from what City Manager Lee Garrity had recommended, was meant to send a message that the city wants to get to the bottom of what happened in the Marker investigation.
"For the city, the thing that we're out to see is what was messed up so we can fix it," Council Member Dan Besse said after the meeting.
Kalvin Michael Smith was convicted in December 1997 of the assault on Marker. He is serving a minimum of 22 years and 10 months in prison.
Garrity had recommended that the Winston-Salem Citizen Police Review Board conduct the review, but that proposal was rejected after committee members brought up potential problems.
They said that they were concerned that members of the review board never signed on for such a big task. Their role generally is to review minor complaints against police officers.
In addition, they said, some board members might have been privy to personnel files of police officers, and that could lead to bias.
"I think there's still too much of a connection," Council Member Wanda Merschel said. "I understand the need to have this done at arm's length."
The makeup of the review panel has not been decided. Garrity was asked to make a recommendation on that at the next committee meeting in a few weeks.
The Marker case had been reviewed over the last few months by the police department, and the report was released on Aug. 14.
"Subsequently, information was uncovered that brought into question the thoroughness and objectivity of that report," Garrity told the committee members.
Garrity had found out that the investigator in charge of the internal review, Lt. Ted Best, supervised the lead detective during the Marker case. He also was given documents that should have been included in the administrative review.
Council Member Nelson Malloy questioned Garrity as to whether he and Police Chief Pat Norris would find out what happened to cause a lack of thoroughness and objectivity. To which Garrity said that he has started the process.
"It just disturbs me . and frankly it's unacceptable," Malloy said.
In other business, the public-safety committee delayed discussions of a proposed law that would give the city more power to regulate nightclubs. They voted to have the issue sent back to the committee in December.
Before that, they plan to ask nightclub owners voluntarily to participate in a two-hour class taught by the police department on violence reduction.
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