Few things frost me more than a dirty cop.
An especially dirty cop stank up the ranks of the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department several years ago. His name is Bob Lane. Formerly, Detective Bob Lane. Three years ago, Lane was exposed as a bum (more about that in a minute), but it was only this week that the fullness of his crookedness came to public light.
But first, the backdrop. On Tuesday, The Star carried a front-page story about a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent who beat up a Kansas City, Kan., man in 2003, seriously injuring him, in a road rage incident.
The DEA agent, Timothy McCue, thumped Barron Bowling after a minor mishap on North Tenth Street in KCK. Besides beating Bowling with his fist or the butt of his gun, McCue called Bowling an “inbred hillbilly” and “system-dodging white trash.”
It was a clear-cut case of abuse by the DEA agent, but who got charged? Not McCue. Oh, no, authorities closed ranks, and Bowling was charged with causing the wreck and leaving the scene of the accident. He later was acquitted of causing the wreck but convicted of leaving the scene. (And why wouldn’t he leave the scene? He was getting the crap beaten out of him.)
The tide eventually turned, however, and last week, a U.S. District Court judge awarded Bowling $833,250 for the beating, which, The Star said, left him with “severe brain damage and post-traumic stress.”
The Star’s story focused partly on former KCK Detective Max Seifert, who tried, at the time, to report honestly what happened on North Tenth Street on July 10, 2003. At the time, Seifert was overridden by other officers, who wanted to protect a fellow badge carrier. The worst was yet to come: Judge Julie Robinson, who awarded Bowling $833,000, said that as a result of his honesty Seifert was forced into retirement before he was eligible for full retirement benefits.
In her ruling, Robinson praised Seifert for his honest work, which, she said, got him “castigated by his superiors, by the prosecutor, by the DEA.” She called his treatment “shameful.”
Lane
Now, enter Bob Lane. An editorial in The Star on Wednesday said he was the first officer to arrive on the scene that fateful day. The editorial goes on to say that Lane told Seifert that DEA agents were helpful to police and the department should “cover for them.”
“Seifert rejected that warped advice and filed a thorough and honest report,” the editorial said.
But The Star failed to tie together all the elements of this sordid tale. Several years ago, Lane, while simultaneously serving on the Edwardsville City Council and the KCK Police Department helped quash two DUI tickets and related traffic tickets in exchange for carpets and a steak-house gift certificate.
To be specific: The attorney general’s office alleged that on Aug. 8, 2005, Lane received $1,200 to $1,400 worth of carpet to conceal and suppress records related to the 2004 arrest of a carpet company owner. In December 2004, Lane allegedly got a $100 gift certificate to Ruth’s Chris Steak House to hide evidence against a car dealer.
In 2006, Lane was charged with three felonies — two counts of bribery and one of aggravated intimidation of a witness. He also was charged with four misdemeanor counts. (The Edwardsville police chief, Steve Vaughan, also was charged in connection with the ticket fixing, but those charges were later dismissed.)
In a 2007 deal with prosecutors, Lane pleaded no contest to the four misdemeanors, including two counts of compounding a crime.
He was sentenced to 10 days in jail and a year of probation. And, oh, yes, he resigned from the police force. (He had been placed on unpaid leave when the charges were filed.)
It’s clear, then, that Lane was running wild — in the most perverted sense — in 2003, 2004 and 2005. It’s too bad, isn’t it, that Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman chose to drop those felony charges against Lane in 2007?
Lane is probably thanking his lucky stars he’s not behind bars, where he fully deserves to be, in my opinion.
I have another thought on this situation:
Why in the world would the KCK Police Department allow officers to serve in any kind of political post, not to mention an elected post? It seems to me that the potential for conflict of interest or abuse of power would be pronounced.
On Thursday, I spoke with KCK Police Chief Rick Armstrong, who was appointed chief in July. He said he didn’t think that, in general, allowing KCK officers to serve in political posts other than the Wyandotte County Unified Government posed a significant problem. Armstrong, whom I got to know when I was The Star’s KCK bureau chief from 1995-2004, is a good man, and I believe will be a great chief; but I disagree with him on this point.
Armstrong also took issue with Judge Robinson’s conclusion that Seifert was drummed out of the force for writing a report that put the blame on McCue. Armstrong defended the integrity of police force operations under recent police chiefs, including James Swofford; Ron Miller, who was chief in 2003; and Sam Breshears, whom Armstrong succeeded.
Armstrong said that earlier Thursday he had met with 21 police recruits and had talked to them about the importance of ethics, professionalism and accountability.
Let’s hope they get the message…and also that there’s not a Bob Lane among them.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Jim:
Fascinating story!
Laura
Excellent piece.
Bottom line is that Lane is on the force after launching a cover-up that just cost us close to a million dollars and an honest cop was drummed out of the department for trying to do his job. Yeah, that seems fair. That’s why we pay the taxes we do in WYCO. Why was Lane even let back on the force to begin with given his track record?
If the chief has an ounce of integrity, Lane will be shown the door and Seifert will be brought back with back pay.
Oops, my error. Lane is not on the PD anymore; this event predates his conviction. Still, a great job of tying everything together, Fitz.
Jim,
Thanks for the well written article. I know no one involved in this case so I believe I can be somewhat objective. I also believe that any trusted public servants who abuse the power we give them are the lowest of the low.
There needs to be checks and balances to prevent these things from happening. City councils certainly do not do this. Maybe a citizens organization with power to investigate and correst these abuses is a consideration. Today it came out that the Kansas City, MO, prosecuter’ office is just another example of abuse of power.
Maybe, as you say,the present KCK police chief is a good man. Who am I to believe — the 48-page federal judge’s ruling or the chief, who obviously perpetrated this shameful activity at several levels? The DEA, KCK police and the KCK prosecuters office involved in this case all would make a good case study of abuse of power.
Thanks
David
Thanks for the comments, Laura, John and David.
David — One clarification. The current chief, Rick Armstrong, had nothing to do with this case. He was working in a completely different division at the time. The chief at the time was Ron Miller. I have no idea what role he played, but almost certainly it was brought to his attention. This would have been a very sensitive matter. Why else would you have two detectives — Lane and Seifert — on the scene of a minor wreck?
Story goes national, but so far Fitz (and The Kansan following up on Fitz) is the only one covering this very important sideline to the story.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/barron-bowling-motorist-beaten-by-dea-agent-timothy-mccue-is-awarded-833250/19644821
Jim,
Thanks for your reply to my comments.
I would like to clairify what I meant before, about Chief Armstrong. I fully understood the McCue/Bowling incident did not happen on Chief Armstrong’s watch. My concern is that Chief Armstrong is now defending how the police department handled the case. In your article you said Chief Armstrong said that Seifert was not drummed out of the force. This case was tried in Federal Court over several weeks, with many witnesses, that all pointed to a laundry list of abuses of the KCK police department. This included that Seifert was forced out of the KCK police department. I say this because I read the 48 page ruling by the judge. If Chief Armstrong claims that KCK police acted properly, then it is apparent that business as usual will continue in KCK. I believe, as the federal judge does, that Seifert was forced out while they kept, for several more years, officer Lane. I would think the good, honorable officers in the force would hate it that bad cops are allowed to continue without any retribution.
In any organization, integrity filters down from the top. I hope Chief Armstrong is as good as you say and the chief’s integrity flows through the entire force. I am not anti-police. They have a very hard job dealing with today’s problems. The abuse that unfairly harms undeserving citizens needs to stop. That starts by acknowledging there is a problem and then having the guts and integrity to correct it.
Thanks again for providing a place to express my opinion.
David
Excellent points, David, especially about integrity filtering down. I believe the KCK police department is much better than it was 20, even 10, years ago. Armstrong said he would demand “100 percent accountability,” and I believe him. Look for this force to make even bigger strides over the next decade or so.
I was a police officer in Kansas City, Kan., serving under Chief Swafford and Chief Ron Miller, and I worked with Det. Seifert on and off duty.
With Rick Armstrong now chief, it will be politics as uaual. Armstrong is no better then the men before him when it comes to cover-ups and lies.
Det. Seifert is a very honest man and always has been. He was railroaded by the police department, as many good officers are, because they don’t fall into the “good ol’ boy” practices.
If you only knew half the things that really go on within the department it would blow your mind. The FBI should conduct its own investigation of the Kansas City Kansas Police Department. It’s shameful that the department allows this kind of conduct.
Joe Lambe at The Star did an excellent follow-up on this issue, including a where-are-they-now section and it is extremely depressing. Two of the culprits in the KCKPD have advanced to pollute even bigger cesspools and the thug who beat the guy up is still with the DEA (and probably even worse, still in KC). This is infuriating to say the least, but unfortunately is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to overly brutal police tactics that have become the norm.
Again, kudos to Fitz for keeping this issue alive and expanding our knowledge base regarding Bobbie Lane (and also, I suspect for motivating The Star to do Joe Lambe’s excellent summary piece.
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/25/2250584/exposing-agent-costs-kck-detective.html
I don’t know if you noticed, John, but Joe incorrectly stated in his story that Lane “left the force and became an Edwardsville councilman.” The fact is, of course, he stayed on the force and became a councilman and probably used his influence in both posts to fix the DUI tickets. The Star ran a correction on Monday.
I guess neither Joe nor his editors read my piece or, if they did, they didn’t read it very carefully…It’s hell not getting any respect out here in the blog world, isn’t it, John?
Jim
I don’t think you give yourself enough credit. They were done with this topic after the editorial and it wasn’t until you wrote this piece and posted it here and on Hearne’s blog that they tried to pull everything together in Joe’s piece.
You are absolutely correct. Bobbie was a KCK detective and an Edwardsville city councilman after this event. That said, I thought Joe did a good job of pulling all of the various threads together in a nice summary piece.
I particularly thought the where-are-they-now section and the litany of no comments spoke volumes about just how arrogant the law enforcement community is in this face of criticism. I’m hoping to get some time to write something up on some structural elements of current law enforcement practice that might be contributing to the culture of brutality and calloused indifference that seems to be so dominant these days. Don’t have a blog, so not sure what I’d do with it if I did write it.
PS, you also just demonstrated the importance of the institutional memory that The Star has squandered with all of its layoffs.
You’re right, John; Joe put together an interesting piece, and the elements you mentioned were particularly intriguing…I am surprised, nevertheless, at how no one involved in Lambe’s first story put together the Bob Lane connection. The Edwardsville ticket-fixing scandal was a big, big story, and it wasn’t that long ago.
Maybe the cause of the oversight (thinking charitably here) was something so small as the fact that the judge referred to him as “Robert Lane,” and it just didn’t ring a bell with anyone.
I want to point out to our readers that you’re a Wyandotte County resident and know all the ins and outs of the Unified Government, including the police department. A case like this has got to be particularly galling to you, with it being your hometown police department. At the same time, I think you would acknowledge that Wyandotte County is headed in the right direction and that there is a very good chance we’ll be seeing fewer and fewer embarrassing incidents like this in the future.
(By the way, I really appreciate the compliments!)
Jim
You’re absolutely correct that there is much to be proud of in the direction the county is taking. I was shopping at the Sun Fresh in the new shopping center at 18th and I-70 and was noticing the quality of the merchandise was as good as anything you’d find anywhere – better in some cases.
The developments out west continue to grow and add merchants and amenities that benefit the entire metro area, not just the immediate neighborhood. Cabelas, for instance, is the largest tourist destination in Kansas while NFM is dominating furniture sales throughout the area.
Even in the inner city, houses are being spruced up and there is clearly a new aura of pride that our citizens feel toward their county.
That said, incidents like this are a black eye for our community and it is a continuing embarrassment that neither the DEA, nor the KCKPD has said one thing that would give us hope that things have changed. Even now McCue still has a job with the DEA and the UG has done nothing to make amends to Seifert. That’s just wrong on both counts. If our image is to continue to improve we cannot allow these dinosaurs to drag us down again.
Thanks for piecing it all together, Fitz!
Jim,
Can’t you use Rufus in the name R. Crosby Kemper on your own blog? Do Kansas Citians have to vote on this?