See?
The dentists got small problems compared to Smokey the Bear! Good
thing dentists do not make house calls either!
***
Posted on Wed, Nov. 12, 2003
Trooper sex cases costly for Pa.
By Mario F. Cattabiani and Chris Gray
Inquirer Staff Writer
Michael K. Evans
Three years after he went to jail on sexual misconduct charges, former
State Trooper Michael K. Evans will cost Pennsylvania taxpayers at
least $1.3 million - with more expenses likely to come.
Two settlements in civil rights lawsuits brought against the state by
Evans' victims have reached $800,000 - including the largest award the
agency has paid out in a decade. A judge last week ruled that another
case could proceed, which leaves the state open to an expensive jury
verdict if it does not negotiate a settlement.
"They [state officials] can drag the case out, but they are going to
have to pay sooner or later," said Penny Harrington, founder of the
National Center for Women and Policing. "The juries are going to look
at this cop and say, 'What were you thinking?' They are going to sock
it to them."
To prevent cases like Evans' from happening again, the state recently
agreed to a costly contract with an international security firm to
monitor the state police and make systematic changes.
Gov. Rendell announced in September that he was hiring Kroll
Associates amid growing allegations of widespread sexual misconduct.
The yearlong contract with the company was finalized last week, and
its terms were made public yesterday.
The contract calls for the state to pay Kroll $250 an hour, or up to
$500,000 through June 30, the end of the fiscal year. The parties will
then renegotiate new terms for the remaining four months. The overall
cost remains unclear.
William Nugent, who heads Kroll's Pennsylvania office in Philadelphia,
described the state police as "an effective and highly professional
force."
"But obviously, there are problems when it comes to sexual harassment
and sexual misconduct," Nugent said. "The end goal is to see... that
this isn't just window dressing."
Kroll has assigned four consultants to work with the state: Nugent,
Sheryl Robinson, Ann Flannery and Michael Pavlick.
Pavlick is a former agent with the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration, and Nugent, Flannery and Robinson are former federal
prosecutors. Robinson also was recently appointed as the independent
monitor to the Detroit Police Department.
Having two women on the team was not an accident, one Rendell
administration source said.
The administration wanted to have women play a significant role
because of the gender issue surrounding the sexual misconduct
complaints.
"This couldn't be approached from a male perspective only," the source
said.
Evans touched it all off.
The civil cases brought against Evans - who is serving a 5-to-10-year
state prison term after pleading guilty to incidents involving six
females in the late 1990s - have already netted the largest
settlements made by the state police in the last decade, records show.
In September 2002, the department agreed to pay $550,000 to a woman
whom Evans assaulted when she was a 15-year-old runaway. Evans had
been assigned to pick her up at a friend's house and bring her to the
Skippack barracks to wait for her father. Instead, he took her to a
garage, where he sexually assaulted her.
The state also has paid $250,000 to "Mary Doe," a woman who
encountered Evans after he responded to an emergency call at her
house. After the incident, Evans allegedly went by her house
repeatedly, demanding sex from her.
The amount of money that Evans has cost the state will almost
certainly go higher, as a consolidated lawsuit involving three women
and another lawsuit from a woman who was a minor when Evans made
sexual advances to her are still pending.
All of the women have named Evans' supervisors and other high-ranking
state police officials in the lawsuits, maintaining that their
management failures allowed the trooper to continue his assaults.
On Friday, a federal judge ruled that the consolidated case could go
forward, as there was enough evidence that officials "encouraged,
condoned, tolerated and approved of Evans' pattern of sexual
misconduct" to let the case move toward trial.
Under such circumstances, the state is more likely to settle than face
a jury, which have often made multimillion-dollar awards in cases with
less volatile and explicit charges, Harrington said.
"You are looking at big money," she said. Juries are particularly
angered by rogue members of law enforcement, she said.
Thomas Sheridan, the attorney in the case, said that representatives
from the state have not contacted him for negotiations since a failed
mediation earlier this fall.
The extent of the misconduct cases surfaced in May as part of the
civil suits against Evans. A subsequent internal review found 68
substantiated allegations of misconduct against 75 troopers and four
other police employees from 1995 to 2001.
Three months later, Inspector General Donald Patterson issued a
critical report that found the department "fails to respect and
recognize the importance of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct
issues."
He made 41 recommendations, ranging from establishing a toll-free
phone misconduct hotline to stiffer discipline for wayward troopers.
Kroll's main role is to see that the state police have begun some of
the changes and to determine for sure whether others can be done,
Nugent said.
Kate Philips, Rendell's press secretary, said the governor chose Kroll
because of its national reputation. The company was picked to monitor
the Los Angeles and Detroit Police Departments as part of federal
court decrees involving those two cities over the last several years.
Pennsylvania's contract with Kroll is costing far less than what those
cities are paying. Los Angeles is paying Kroll about $2 million a
year; Detroit, $1.25 million.
"By all standards," Philips said, "Kroll is the best, and we are
certain they will do a good job not only for the state police but for
the people who look to them for protection."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact staff writer Mario Cattabiani at 717-787-5990 or
[email hidden].
--
Joel M. Eichen, .
Philadelphia PA
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