Published: May 14, 2008 05:35 pm            

Clarksville Police investigating leaked evidence photos

Family alleges CPD officers shared humiliating photos of boy caught in air duct

An internal investigation at the Clarksville Police Department is looking into how “humiliating” evidence photos of a 17-year-old boy trapped in an air duct were leaked to the public.

The investigation centers around an incident that took place in March, in which the boy got stuck in the air duct while allegedly trying to burglarize the Clarksville Golden Corral over Easter weekend.

The boy, whose name is not being released because of his age, was stuck in the vent for about two hours, eventually passing out, said Clarksville Assistant Police Chief David Ross. He was rescued from the vent by Clarksville firefighters. Police also were on the scene to make an arrest.

“An officer on the scene took pictures and somehow they got out to the public,” said Assistant Police Chief David Ross.

He confirmed details of the incident, but declined to comment much on what is still an ongoing investigation.

“This is a very serious matter to us and we will leave no stone unturned in finding out how these got out into the public,” Ross said.

Meanwhile, the boy’s family has filed what’s known as a notice of tort claim with the town. The legal filing essentially informs the town that the family believes wrongdoing has occurred, said Stephen Voelker, an attorney representing the family. Such a claim has to be filed before a public entity can be taken to court, he said.

Voelker said the boy has had problems with drugs and was on probation for burglarizing Clarksville Police Department officer Mike Fitzgerald’s home when he was about 16 years old.

He had gotten clean for a while, after spending time at Kingsfield Children’s Home in Sellersburg. However, he had recently come into contact with a new drug supplier and began using again, Voelker said.

The tort claim says that the photos taken during the break-in were posted at Archie’s Barber Shop in Sellersburg. The barber shop’s owner, who declined to give a reporter his last name, said that the photos were never posted on his shop’s bulletin board, as had been alleged.

He did say he was given a copy of the photo and showed it to other people. He said he was not sure if the person who gave him the photo was a Clarksville police officer or an employee of Golden Corral.

Ross was asked about the barber shop incident, but declined to comment because it was still an open investigation.

Harold Frame, the boy’s grandfather, believes that the burglary of officer Fitzgerald’s home is directly related to what happened with the photos.

“That’s where all this vendetta came from,” he said.

Both Frame and the tort allege that police officers told the boy that they hated him at the time of the arrest.

“The distribution of the pictures was clearly a malicious act,” Voelker said in the tort claim. “It was also a violation of (the boy’s) civil rights.”

Clark County Prosecutor Steve Stewart wrote a letter to Clarksville Police Chief Dwight Ingle about a month after the incident. In the letter, Stewart told Ingle to take whatever steps necessary to prevent any release of information or evidence in the case. Stewart did not return phone calls left in reference to his letter to Ingle.

The Evening News and The Tribune was unable to confirm exactly what was contained in the photo of the boy.

        

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