Aurora – A group of church pastors and other community members on Tuesday characterized a recent police and citizen review of allegations against an off-duty officer as insufficient and called for changes in the process.
A city Internal Review Board last month found no wrongdoing or violation of policy by a veteran officer who wrestled a disabled woman and her daughter to the ground in a grocery-store parking lot near East Mississippi Avenue and South Chambers Road.
“We’re very concerned that the results, given by the (Aurora) police chief, was that nothing was wrong,” said the Rev. Thomas Mayes of Living Water Christian Center. “What they are telling us is this can happen again and again and again.”
Loree McCormick-Rice, 52, and her daughter, Cassidy, 13, claim Sgt. Charles DeShazer, who was working off-duty security in Aurora police uniform, hurled racial slurs at them during a June 17 dispute over a handicapped parking space. DeShazer is white; McCormick-Rice and her daughter are African-Americans.
The mother and daughter faced criminal charges stemming from the incident, but the charges were dropped by the city attorney.
Two-day hearing
The review board of four officers and four civilians met for two days last month to investigate the claims against DeShazer.
Police Chief Daniel Oates announced the panel’s findings Jan. 22 at police headquarters.
Mayes and others said they’d like to see the board’s facilitator – a police officer – switched to a citizen position.
“We’d like to see someone not paid by the Aurora Police Department” act as facilitator, said the Rev. Larry Brown, of the Lowry Christian Community Church.
Police spokesman Marcus Dudley said the department has met with community members and discussed the board’s findings.
“Our processes and the incident review board are constantly under review,” Dudley said. “We welcome the suggestions of the pastors as well as any other citizen to improve our processes.”
Changes to the review-board process would have to include the input of the City Council and other leaders, Dudley said.
McCormick-Rice spoke briefly Tuesday, saying the review board heard only from police officers and grocery-store security employees. She declined comment beyond the brief statement.
Woman didn’t testify
Based on advice of her attorney, David Lane, McCormick- Rice didn’t testify before the panel. Lane is pursuing a suit against the Police Department and the city on her behalf.
Instead of clearing DeShazer, the board should have released a statement saying it couldn’t reach a conclusion because McCormick-Rice didn’t testify, the group said.
“I don’t know how the board could make a decision on half the information,” said John Marshall, president of the Aurora branch of the NAACP. “There are always two sides to a story.”
