THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996 TAG: 9603020240
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
City Attorney Ronald S. Hallman has met with Chesapeake Chief Judge Russell I. Townsend to see if the City Council could call for a special grand jury investigation into the performance of the Chesapeake Police Department, city officials said Friday.
One city official said Hallman went to Townsend at the behest of the City Council to ask if a special grand jury was ``a viable option'' for the council, which wants to examine whether the department acted properly in investigating the sons of three prominent citizens.
The council will decide Tuesday whether to ask Townsend to call for a grand jury, one of several options being considered, city officials said.
Hallman declined to comment on his meeting with the judge.
The options, city officials said, include:
Calling for a special grand jury.
Accepting Chief Ian M. Shipley Jr.'s reprimands of five officers involved in the investigations.
Asking the state police to investigate the matter a second time.
The state police this week re fused to conduct an independent re view of the case after being asked by the council.
State police officials wrote that, based on their knowledge of the case, it was an administrative matter, not a criminal one.
The Chesapeake Police Department came under fire this month after police Chief Shipley failed to fully answer the council's questions about an internal investigation surrounding the arrests of the sons of a longtime councilman, a sheriff's captain and a police captain.
Alan Keith Butt, 27, son of veteran Councilman John W. Butt, and William Jeremy Brickhouse, 20, son of Sheriff's Capt. William Brickhouse, are charged with receiving stolen property allegedly taken in the 1994 heist from Givens Honda in Chesapeake.
About $160,000 in motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, generators and boat motors were stolen from the dealership.
In a separate case, William Lawrence Spruill Jr., the 23-year-old son of police Capt. William L. Spruill, was charged with grand larceny and breaking and entering in the theft of an all-terrain vehicle from the home of Chesapeake Vice Mayor Robert T. Nance Jr.
An internal investigation into the handling of these three cases resulted in the reprimand of five Chesapeake police officers, including Capt. Spruill.
But Council members still have questions about some issues, and the offense report for the Nance theft is missing.
KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE CITY COUNCIL CHESAPEAKE POLICE DEPARTMENT
INVESTIGATION by CNB