Five police officers accused of lying or destroying evidence related to the botched Atlanta Eagle gay bar raid avoided being fired because the allegations against them were based only on circumstantial evidence, according to Atlanta Police Chief George Turner.
Turner sat down with the Atlanta Police Department’s LGBT Advisory Board on July 27, at his office at Public Safety Headquarters. With the chief were City Attorney Cathy Hampton, senior assistant city attorney Amber Robinson, APD spokesperson Carlos Campos, Atlanta Chief Operating Officer Peter Aman, LGBT liaisons Officers Brian Sharp and Patricia Powell, Major Erica Shields and Deputy Chief Renee Propes, who is openly gay.
LGBT advisory board members present were Glen Paul Freedman, Tracy Elliott, Philip Rafshoon, Ebonee Bradford-Barnes, Josh Noblitt, Molly Simmons and Terence McPhaul. Absent from the meeting were board members Betty Couvertier and Tracee McDaniel.
The Atlanta Police LGBT Advisory Board will meet with the mayor and police chief in private meetings this week to discuss the board's role as well as disciplinary actions taken against officers involved in the controversial Eagle raid.
Frustration and anger with the mayor and police chief were expressed by several citizens at the Atlanta Police LGBT advisory group's community meeting on Wednesday as they discussed the 2009 Atlanta Eagle raid and the seemingly unending fallout from it.
About 30 people, including several police officers and representatives of Mayor Kasim Reed's staff, attended the meeting held at St. Mark United Methodist Church in Midtown. No formal action was taken by the police LGBT advisory board other than to state they are requesting separate meetings with Mayor Kasim Reed and Chief George Turner, to be held within the next two weeks.
The citizen board also plans to send a letter to each seeking answers to questions including why more officers were not fired after scathing investigations showed officers did not follow procedures when they raided the gay bar on Sept. 10, 2009.
All the people — citizens and LGBT advisory group members — who spoke at the community meeting expressed dismay that the city has taken nearly two years to take any action against the officers who lied, destroyed evidence, and violated the civil rights of the roughly 62 patrons in the bar the night it was raided.
Police LGBT advisory board: Atlanta mayor, police chief need to fire more officers in Eagle raid
A member of the Atlanta Police LGBT Advisory group is demanding fellow members ask Mayor Kasim Reed and Chief George Turner to fire officers involved in the raid on the Atlanta Eagle after the department was slammed in reports released last week.
Betty Couvertier, who also hosts and produces “Alternative Perspectives,” an LGBT radio show on WRFG 89.3 FM every Tuesday, sent a letter to other board members on Wednesday expressing her dismay with Reed's revelation that he was “shocked” when he read the reports from the APD's Office of Professional Standards and an independent report by high-profile law firm Greenberg Traurig. The reports state officers lied, destroyed evidence and also showed outright anti-gay prejudices related to the 2009 raid on the gay bar.
“I find it offensive and disturbing that the mayor would be shocked, after all the Civilian Review Board [Atlanta Citizen Review Board] came to similar conclusions a year ago but they were rejected [by Chief Turner],” she said in a letter to the advisory group members Glen Paul Freedman, chair; Josh Noblitt; Tracee McDaniel; Ebonee Bradford Barnes, Tracy Elliott, Molly Simmons, Philip Rafshoon and Terence McPhaul.