Top PD official faces cover-up accusations
Council committee looking into concerns of sergeants, captains
By Bill Donovan
Special to the Times
WINDOW ROCK, Dec. 15, 2011
This is part of a series of events that now has led to the Navajo Nation Council's Law and Order Committee looking at what is going on within the public safety division.
Robert Platero, a supervisor in the Crownpoint Criminal Investigations Unit, was originally put on a five-day leave on Dec. 7 but police officials said Wednesday that the leave has been extended until after the first of the year.
In a memo to Platero, Harry Sombrero, director of the Criminal Investigations Unit, said that the leave was put in place after Ronald Silversmith, director of Internal Affairs, said that Platero falsified a report.
The report in question centered on allegations that the public safety division's director, John Billison, had pulled out a gun during a poker game in 2009 and threatened one of the players, Patrick Willie, saying that he would kill him.
A police report was written about the incident and an investigation was begun, according to the memo, by Platero.
The report indicates Herbert Goodluck challenged Willie's allegation by stating "John did not act in such described matter, specifically becoming upset with Pat (Willie), that he (Billison) was cool throughout the entire evening."
The report with the conflicting stories was given to Platero to investigate even though Goodluck mentioned that Platero had an "ill working relationship" with Billison.
Sombrero said in the memo that he heard that Platero had tried to contact a third person who was at the poker game but wasn't able to locate him.
At that point, Sombrero said, Platero "stopped the investigation and made no attempt to contact Billison regarding the allegation against him or report the allegation to internal affairs."
Instead, Sombrero said, Platero closed out the investigation by stating "Because of the sensitiveness of the allegation, I documented the incident for official purposes only."
This, however, was a violation of police policy, according to Sombrero, who wrote, "Your neglect to follow proper reporting protocol and statement provided to Internal Affairs suggests a deliberate misinformation and conflict implication."
A high-ranking police official, who commented only on background because of what he called possible retaliation by Billison and others in the department, said the story of the poker game and the allegations against Billison were known by many in the department.
"There was no way Bob would have come out of this situation without being harmed," the source said.
If he had carried through with the investigation, he would have faced Billison's wrath and a way would have been found to force him out of the department, the source said.
As a result of the investigation, Billison and others viewed Platero as someone opposed to the new director and the source said it was only a matter of time before some reason was given to ease him out of the department.
The source added that there is a feeling among many high-ranking officials within the division that any kind of behavior that is deemed to be against Billison or any of his policies could get that person in deep trouble, possibly leading to termination.
But as this was going on, Platero's attorney, David Jordan, reported that it appears Billison was taking an unethical approach to deal with the allegations against him.
Jordan said he talked to Willie who now claims that Billison has been in contact with him in an effort to get him to recant his story about what happened at the poker game.
Willie, a retired police officer, was informed by Billison, according to Jordan, that if he recanted the allegation Billison "said he may be able to find a position for him in the police department."
Billson has declined to comment about the poker game or the bribery charges.
President Ben Shelly, in a statement released last week after the charges were initially made public, said he was aware of the accusations against Billison.
"Because of the situation such allegations can create, we hope the matter will be resolved prudently and with discretion to all who are involved," he said.
The situation has heated up in recent days with Billison tangling with members of the Council's Law and Order Committee.
Edmund Yazzie, head of the committee, said he has heard that Billison has filed an ethics violation against him because he and other members of the committee listened to complaints about the way the police department is being run.
The committee met, he said, on Oct. 24 with the captains and sergeants within the department to address some of their concerns about the way the department was being run.
Four days before that, however, Billison had sent out a memo to all police personnel to stay within the chain of command.
"Any employee who wishes to take part in the lobbying effort process shall contact, in writing, their supervisor through the chain of command. This shall also include any testimony before or at Navajo Nation oversight committee, Navajo Nation Council, federal states, counties or other political entities," the memo states.
Police personnel, said Yazzie, were told "not to talk to Council delegates" which Yazzie said caused him a lot of sleepless nights because he feels that as a Council delegate, it's his duty to listen to anyone who has a complaint or a concern.
"He (Billison) is complaining because I listened to the captains when they came to the meeting," he said.
The meeting was conducted in executive session since it concerned personnel matters and therefore nothing has been released publicly.
A memo of some of the topics and concerns about Billison that were supposed to be addressed included:
- abuse of power, which includes micromanaging;
- creating a hostile environment;
- reckless disregard of fiduciary responsibilities, which including allegedly allowing civilian personnel to use tribal vehicles;
- mismanagement of programs, which includes setting up internal investigations at the executive director's discretion, falsely directing investigations and influencing case dispositions.
- interfering with official investigations by intimidating reporting parties and interfering with or squashing investigative protocol;
- personal misconduct by abandoning or reassigning district criminal investigations;
- nepotism and favoritism;
- poor leadership.
Yazzie said the committee is still looking into the concerns brought up at that meeting. He added that this may lead to Billison receiving a vote of no confidence from the committee.
A vote of no confidence would not necessarily lead to Billison's removal since, as a division director, he serves at the pleasure of Shelly and it would have to be Shelly who would remove him.
Yazzie said the committee is only trying "to do what is right" and listen to people's concerns.