There has been many twist to this story thrown around without all the facts.
Personally I cannot and will not judge until I know the total truth but lets take the Daily Times article that I would assume is the closes to the facts.
POCOMOKE CITY -- A former Pocomoke police officer has been accused of lying about his investigation of a child sex abuse case after a state's attorney's probe showed he failed to press charges against a suspect even after months of prodding.
Sgt. Scott Mitchell was asked six times to charge a 15-year-old boy with the sexual assault of a minor, according to the report. Each time, the report says, Mitchell "failed or refused to charge" the boy, despite evidence that had been reviewed by the officer, Social Services and prosecutors.Who asked the officer to "to charge a 15-year-old boy" and after the charges were not filed why didn't they step up and charge them?
The internal report was obtained after The Daily Times invoked the Public Information Act in requesting it from the Office of the State's Attorney in Worcester County. Public court filings in another case mention the internal report in explaining why Mitchell will not be testifying in that case.
Mitchell resigned from the force at the beginning of November. In an interview, he said he doesn't agree with the report's conclusions.
"Mitchell resigned from the force at the beginning of November"Why did Mitchell resign if he committed insubordination and why was he not fired?
In an Aug. 8 meeting at the county's Child Advocacy Center, the report says, Mitchell was reminded that the victim, a 7-year-old girl, named her abuser in a taped interview and described the abuse, which prosecutors felt warranted second-degree rape charges. However, according to the report, Mitchell again failed to press charges.
In October, apparently fed up with the delay, investigator Shawn Sarver met with the suspect's mother, explaining that prosecutors would charge her son directly. The mother told the prosecutor that Mitchell had "promised her that (her son) would not be charged if he completed six months of probation and six months of counseling."
3 months later? This is not something that should be waiting on the books for 3 months, we are talking about a child sex offender being left to walk the streets. I ask, where were the superiors?
Later that day, Sarver wrote, he spoke to Mitchell by phone. Mitchell assured Sarver he had already charged the boy with rape. Prosecutors called the Department of Juvenile Justice to verify Mitchell's claim and were told that no such charging documents could be found anywhere in their files.
That afternoon, prosecutors went to the Pocomoke City Police Department and were allowed by Police Chief J.D. Ervin free reign to search for "evidence of the crime of rape or misconduct in office," the report states.
OK? And what did they find?
Mitchell met with Worcester County State's Attorney Joel Todd and the assistant prosecutor, Diane Cuilhe, who had been pressing him to make the arrest. He maintained that he had charged the boy, producing a police file showing that the suspect had been fingerprinted. But Sarver noted that the file did not go as far as indicating the filing of criminal charges.
If this person was fingerprinted he must have been arrested and charged with something, or at least been a suspect.
Prosecutors concluded that Mitchell had lied in police reports and other documentation when he claimed the Child Advocacy Center had decided not to take action on the boy's case.
More un-conclusive dribble, how do we know that the Child Advocacy Center had decided not to take action?
Mitchell, a 10-year veteran of the Pocomoke City Police Department, said that he did charge the boy in August.
"It's more an unfortunate set of circumstances and confusion," he said Friday. "I did charge him. I've always done my job professionally."
OK, lets see it. Who has this documentation?
He declined to say much more, having not seen the report.
"I've not quit or walked away from anything," Mitchell said. "I've had a good career, a long career. I'm satisfied."
I do believe that Mitchell has "quit" the reason is still un-answered.
Todd said there was no evidence that Mitchell had acted similarly on any other cases and said no charges would be filed against him.
WHOA!! "no charges would be filed against him"?? This is BIG, real BIG and if an officer of the law has disrespected the badge this deep (s)he is as guilty as the offender. This is the statement that makes me question this whole thing.
"He's not in a position where he is going to repeat this behavior," Todd said. "The fact he has left police work is the most that I can hope for, so I'm satisfied that justice has been done."
"justice has been done"? when/where? If Mitchell has done what he has been accused of, this is criminal, and just stepping down is not justice.
Todd said WCBI has filed charges against the 15-year-old boy, and the 7-year-old girl was placed into a safe environment by Social Services, Todd said.
Where are the charges against Mitchell? It's just too many variables to this story so far and that's why I'm not jumping the gun and throwing the blame game out.
The state will terminate cases in which Mitchell was to be the only testifying witness, Todd said, and the Pocomoke City Police Department has turned over the cases Mitchell was involved with to the Worcester County Bureau of Investigation.
To me this looks like "the State" does not want Mitchell to testify on some other cases and they have invented a reason to suppress his testimony. This makes me wonder.
Pocomoke police had been very cooperative with the investigation, Todd said.
"This was a police issue, not a mayor and council issue, and I think the police department has acted appropriately," he said.
Ervin could not be reached by phone late Friday. Mayor Michael McDermott said as far as he knew, Mitchell had been "a good employee" who had done a lot for the city. He said he could not release the reason for the officer's resignation, saying it was a confidential personnel issue, and added that he and the council knew little about the investigation.
"Nothing has been brought to our attention. This is something the state's attorney is involved in," McDermott said. "We were not aware this was going on."
It's very clear that "the people of Pocomoke" do not have anything to do with this and it's real clear they are tired of being blamed for every pot hole in Pocomoke. The "people" want justice and the real person(s) involved behind bars.
