Agents of outrage

A State Bureau of Investigation agent producing a verbose confession of murder from a severely retarded man in Anson County. Another SBI agent ignoring evidence that pointed to the innocence of a man who was wrongfully convicted of murder in Bertie County. Those cases underscore the need for Attorney General Roy Cooper to enact policies that quickly oust agents who bully the innocent while the guilty go free.

Friday on this page, we explored the myriad problems that an audit requested by Cooper uncovered in the SBI lab. We called for that lab to be placed under another state agency so that its scientists can work independently without influence, and not feel pressure as sworn law-enforcement agents.

Law enforcement is the job of the SBI's investigative agents, and their work is crucial. They investigate political and corporate corruption, and assist local law-enforcement agencies.

There are many good SBI agents in this state. Their work has not come under question to the extent that the lab has. But as a recent series in the Raleigh News & Observer made clear, the work of two field agents illustrates the inability of Cooper and SBI leaders to confront and fire agents with little regard for justice. Better supervision of agents is needed as well.

Cooper, who oversees the SBI, has initiated reforms in the wake of that series and the audit. But in the case of field agents, as with the lab, we wonder why he didn't call for that reform sooner. Instead, agents involved in two miscarriages of justice that brought the state costly lawsuits faced no consequences for their actions. One was promoted. Another retired with full benefits.

Back in 1993 in Anson County, SBI Agent Mark Isley zeroed in on Floyd Brown for beating retired schoolteacher Katherine Lynch to death. He claimed that Brown dictated a six-page confession to him.

Brown was arrested and held at Dorothea Dix psychiatric hospital in Raleigh, far away from his family, until doctors could determine whether he was mentally competent to stand trial. Brown's lawyer finally persuaded a judge to free Brown after he'd spent 14 years in the hospital.

They proved to the judge that there was no way that Brown, with an extremely low IQ, could have ever dictated the statement that Isley claimed he did. He couldn't get past the letter K in the alphabet. Isley said he didn't know Brown was mentally impaired, even though many people in Brown's hometown of Wadesboro knew.

In 2007, The Charlotte Observer and national media pushed Cooper in vain for answers about the case. Neither his office nor SBI leadership re-investigated it. Finally, last year, with a lawsuit looming that could cost taxpayers millions of dollars, Cooper ordered a special review. No conclusions or results have been released.

Isley now supervises a team of SBI agents who investigate Medicaid fraud and is paid more than $85,000 annually. Robin Pendergraft, whom Cooper moved out of the SBI director's spot last month as problems surfaced in the agency, oversees the unit in which Isley works. She told the Raleigh paper she had no reason to move Isley from his position. "We work with facts and with facts we can substantiate … I know of no reason to change that."

SBI Agent Dwight Ransome also continued to work after bungling a case. According to a case summary by Ransome's own attorney, he decided early in the investigation of the 1995 murder of Allen Ray Jenkins of Bertie County that Alan Gell was guilty, despite having statements from 17 independent witnesses who saw Jenkins alive after Gell was jailed on unrelated charges.

Ransome didn't inform the prosecutor of those statements or of other evidence favorable to Gell. Gell, who was on death row at one point, was acquitted in a second trial after spending nine years in prison. The SBI settled the case for almost $4 million.

In another case, the investigation of the drowning death of Stacey Pollard in Greenville, Ransome didn't follow leads and failed to use independent evidence such as phone records or insurance policies to corroborate witness interviews, the Raleigh newspaper reported.

Ransome, who was a supervisory agent until he was assigned to a desk job after the Gell settlement last year, retired in May with a full pension.

Cooper should initiate audits of agents' testimony and require field agents to record all interviews with witnesses and suspects. And above all, agents whose misbehavior erodes justice and costs the state money should be quickly expelled.

Incompetent SBI agents cast a bad light on all the good ones. And they cost the state dearly, both in terms of dollars and faith in the justice system.

Sooner or later, crime will touch many of us, whether we're the victim, the defendant, or their loved ones. We should be able to expect fair and just treatment from law enforcement. Anything less than that standard is unacceptable.