Mayflower chief resigns amid allegations
Mayflower Police Chief Richard Shaw has resigned amid allegations that he allowed a convicted felon on probation for felony hot check charges and with pending felony charges of credit card fraud and theft to carry a gun and police equipment.
Mayflower Mayor Randy Holland put Shaw on paid leave last month, after FCSO investigators arrested 33-year-old John A. Brinkley of 10320 Jacksonville-Conway Road, North Little Rock at the scene of a Mayflower Police Department traffic stop. At the time of his arrest, Brinkley was wearing a police-type uniform and duty belt with a Glock handgun and driving a vehicle outfitted with flashing blue lights, according to FCSO investigators.
Brinkley has been charged with possession of a firearm by a felon, criminal impersonation of a police officer, illegal blue lights and driving on a license suspended for DUI.
Holland accepted Shaw’s resignation Monday, saying he has received five applications for the position — including that of interim chief Sgt. Robert Alcon — and that he will select a new chief by Dec. 22.
Maj. Andy Shock of FCSO said on Tuesday that investigators had also found Brinkley in possession of a police radio and body armor, apparently “issued to him by Mayflower PD.”
Holland said that Shaw would have been required to “send that past my desk,” referring to Brinkley’s allocation of police equipment, but that if Shaw had knowingly issued Brinkley these items, he did so without the mayor’s knowledge.
“I didn’t even know the name John Brinkley until (he was arrested),” Holland said, adding Brinkley was never included on the department’s roster and that the only recorded city expenditure of money relating to Brinkley’s involvement with the department was “a couple tanks of gas” from the city’s fuel tank behind city hall. Holland said that Shaw personally reimbursed the city for this cost prior to his resignation.
Holland said that it was his understanding that Brinkley paid for the blue lights, and that the blue lights were shipped to Brinkley’s home address, which was also listed as the billing address for the lights on a document Holland said he’d reviewed while being briefed by investigators on Monday.
“Because it was not approved through here, the city has not done anything wrong,” Holland said.
According to Shock, “there has to be something from a chief or someone at the administrative level from a law enforcement agency” before blue lights can be sent to an individual but wouldn’t comment on whether such authorization from Shaw was uncovered in the investigation.
20th Judicial Prosecuting Attorney Marcus Vaden was given had the results FCSO investigation into Brinkley’s involvement with Mayflower PD early last week. Vaden said late Tuesday afternoon that he had not yet reached a conclusion as to whether the evidence given to him by FCSO supports any criminal charges against Shaw.
The questions to be answered, Vaden said, are whether Shaw knew of Brinkley’s criminal background and, if so, if he knowingly allowed Brinkley to carry a weapon in some support capacity involving his department or acted to furnish him with other prohibited items, such as the police radio or the blue lights.
“Based on the information given to me, I am trying to make a determination as to whether there was an intentional act to break the laws of the state of Arkansas or whether it was just incredible, gross mismanagement — which is not necessarily a criminal act,” Vaden said. “It may be really a bad thing for another number of things relating to liability or something like that, but that doesn’t necessarily make it criminal.”
Brinkley was arrested in September of 2002 for a felony hot check warrant, and again for a felony hot check violation in November 2007. In December 2007 he was ordered to complete 60 months probation for the more recent hot check charge. Brinkley was being held at Faulkner County Detention Center on Tuesday awaiting trial for the charges involving the alleged criminal impersonation as well as the pre-existing theft of property and credit card fraud charges. Deputy Prosecutor Charles Finkenbinder said on Tuesday that Brinkley had been scheduled for a jury trial today on the theft and fraud charges, but the trial was changed to a later date due to a scheduling conflict.
(Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached at 505-1238 or by E-mail at joe.lamb@thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit.)
Comments (20)
Add commentThe Mayor Should Go Also
It's time for this to happen but Mayor Holland should be held accountable right along with Richard Shaw. Holland had several good applicants for the Chiefs position when Chief Paul Curtis resigned. There was a committee put togather to select the most quailified candidate for the job and Richard Shaw was not among them. Mayor Holland wanted someone in the position that he could control so he went against the committees recommendations and hired Shaw, who only had 18 months out of the police acadamy of experience, and controlled his every move. Holland seems to think that he is Gods gift to Mayflower, but all he has done is caused chaos and destruction since he has been in office. Maybe some one should investigate him as well. At the very least the Mayflower City Councel should step up to the plate and demand for Hollands resignation as well.
holland needs to go. when
holland needs to go. when shaw was made chief, mayflower lost 2 good cops that had been on the force for several years. how come one of these guys was not offered the chiefs position.
the mayor and some of the people that think they own mayflower, like the satterfields dont wont any new business to open . look at greenbrier, vilonia, their growing and we get a car wash ,wow. and the water bill in mayflower is high as hell
Time for a town meeting?
I love your comments chevy92 and MPD Watcher. I couldn't have said it better myself. Since the investigation is still underway why not investigate the Mayflower Water department, I would like to know why my bill is so high. I have have bills that said I used more than 10,000 gallons of water in one month, is that even possible?That would be equivent to a tanker truck wouldn't it? Did anyone hear about the water department losing a tank of water they were hauling on a trailer? The tank came off the trailer because it was not strapped down and hit a car that was traveling the same direction behind the trailer. The whole department was drug tested along with all the officers.
And check out the comments on the first article regarding Mr Brinkley and Chief Shaw...
http://thecabin.net/news/2009-11-23/fireman-arrested-imitating-officer-m...
here is a copy of one of the newest comments on that article:
Accountability (subject)
By mayflowerdad | 11/29/09 - 11:16 (user name)
I am just wondering if anyone has asked the Mayor if this was the same officer that assisted in the search of the middle school a few weeks ago. The school was put on lock down for a couple of hours while “officers” looked for drugs, to the best of my knowledge Mayflower does not have a K-9 unit. My concern is that there was a felon with an unlicensed and I am assuming untrained dog in my child’s school. I would also like to know if this was something that the school asked to be done or was this Shaw and this other officer’s idea. I would think that the Mayor would have these same questions since both of his daughters go to this school.
My other concern is that Mayor put Shaw in the position of Chief. Most people in Mayflower have a story about Richard Shaw. Whether it is the woman he pulled over and ticketed for a cracked (not broken) brake light or someone pulling on the right hand shoulder of the road to make right hand turn off 365 and being ticketed. I am sure a fair share of people have heard about the amount of tickets Officer Shaw wrote compared to every other officer in Mayflower or the stories involving Officer Shaw past in another state. I think the Mayor would have thought twice about putting the safety of Mayflower’s citizens in the hands of man with a questionable past and a dubious present. I agree with an earlier poster, I heard no mention of Shaw’s promotion being temporary until this incident came up. I think someone is trying covering their own backside and claiming ignorance. There is no way that the Mayor couldn’t have known about this so called officer, everyone in Mayflower has seen him assisting with Arrest around town. Several weeks before this incident I noticed him “helping’ with a stop on the Mayflower exit and asked my wife when Mayflower cops started wearing t-shirts with “POLICE” printed on them. The amount of stops in the last month where you saw cars being searched also has been more noticeable, I too saw the search of the SUV of car lot of women and babies at the Crackerbox.
I think it is high time the Mayor gives us some answers or it might be time for him to throw out those shirts he has that have Mayor stitched on them.
End Copy
I cannot believe that the town of Mayflower is putting up with this, I read another comment on one of the many articles that are now online that said that Mr. Brinkley has applied for a position previously and was denied by previous Chief Curtis due to the results of his background check and once Curtis left Shaw brought Brinkley in.
There have been illegal searches in peoples homes, cars, etc. by a convicted felon carring a gun, and now Brinkley's wife is stating that Shaw told Brinkley to carry a gun. Shaw should be sharing the cell with him and they should both have to face the community and admit to their lies and be held accountable for all their wrong doings. As well as the Mayor who knew nothing, if that is true than we need to look at that as well. Maybe we need a Mayor that will actually be in office to "SEE" what his town is doing. Where is he anyway? He can't be at work in his office or he would have seen that something is a miss?
The prosecuting attorney should read all these comments because it sounds to me he is leaning towards "no criminal charges" for Shaw. I say shut down the whole department and let Faulkner County handle it, at least they have all been trained in the law enforcement field, Any one hear about the Mayflower Dog catcher that was promoted to deputy? This was as recent as last summer, he drove a little green truck with a cage in the back one day and the next a black police car, so is that all you need on your resume for Mayflower to hire you as an Officer of the Law, experience catching and locking up lost dogs? OMG I could go on forever ...
Another new comment of previous mentioned article:
New Info
By Avon Calling | 12/07/09 - 10:50
Turns out now that the felon/policeman first started trying to be a policeman when Chief Curtis was still in place. During the background investigation the Chief found that he felony charges pending and denied him. Seems that Shaw just went ahead and gave him a badge anyway when Chief Curtis left.
OMG Really, and Mayor had no knowledge of this? I say Nay Nay!!
@ Karrysangel - I agree, no
@ Karrysangel - I agree, no way the mayor didn't know about this guy.
I'd love to know for sure if this guy was involved in the Mayflower School search, I'd just about bet money he was. It sounds like that entire city government needs to be removed and replaced from the mayor on down.
I think any person that this
I think any person that this guy had dealings with while he was "helping" MPD should get a good lawyer and see about a civil rights suit. If this guy made any traffic stops, searches or anything of that sort, they would all have been illegal. It seems to me that the city of Mayflower could be looking at literally millions of dollars in law suits.
no comment
What happened to this town!?
Real vs Fake
If I ever get stopped her. I'm going to ask is that a real badge or are you just playing cop today.
Well folks, this is really
Well folks, this is really nothing new for Mayflower....
Once everyone stops laughing, they will remember all the past escapades of the MPD.
I agree that the mayor should be asked to resign. The chain of command ends with him and he carries the ultimate responsibility for every employee in every dept. If he was active and involved with the city he would have never allowed this travesty to occur. He obviously doesn't care what happens to this city or the citizens of it.
He isn't from here so he really has nothing to lose. I don't live in the city limits, thank goodness, so maybe the voters will look a lot harder at the person they elect next time.
Maybe the decision process to hire the next chief should be made public so that the citizens can be involved. Doesn't look like the mayor or city council have the ability to make sound decisions.
we want chief curtis back.
we want chief curtis back. this man was a good cop and was good for mayflower. if any of you did not get the chance to meet chief curtis, you missed meeting a fine gentleman.former patrolman vaughn needs to get back on the force along with sgt chase.i personally knew mr. vaughn and he was a good cop, fair.i live in mayflower and we used to have officers patrol our neighbor hood. not any more, i just love the dummy they put in the patrol car and sit it around town, not you shaw.
Oh, REALLY?
C'mon, Randy -- who do you imagine you're possibly fooling?
This is another example of control issues run amok. A Mayor's job is to run the city, but Mayor H decided that he could run the Police Department better than the previous Chiefs could, and began a systematic emasculation of the Police force upon assuming office. This presumption was based upon what? His years of experience in managing city services? Try again! The Mayor got to pull the strings for his own amusement and to his own ends, and the city suffered for it. What was once a respectable Police force for a town that size was subsequently ground down under the Mayor's thumb.
Those who know Randy know that he's out of his depth as Mayor even in a town as small as Mayflower. But let's not put all the blame on the Mayor, because he didn't vote himself into office alone. The city of Mayflower has one of the most unusually diverse collection of demographics of any city its size. You have the "old guard" who cling to the hope of returning to the days of being a small lake resort town where they did things to suit themselves, and these are the folks whose outdated thinking is stifling the town. You have a younger working class who are just trying to make an honest living and wish their home town had more to offer to them in the way of amenities. There are the retired professionals who've sought some peace & quiet away from the bigger cities, and most of them desire to be left alone unless something gets them off the bench & into the game. There are the transplanted urbanites who would dearly love to see the city blossom and join the majority of Faulkner County in the 21st century. I've attended my share of Mayflower City Council meetings in the past, and people representative of all these walks of life (and many others) DO show up. Usually it takes a major uproar in the community to get the council chamber to capacity, but it has happened. My question to all of them is this: How could you have possibly allowed that man to be elected Mayor? If you voted for him, you deserve the mess he's delivered. If you voted against him and lost, you have my condolences. If you DIDN'T VOTE, then you have NO right to complain. Apparently, a majority of you thought it was a good idea. Have you been paying attention lately? Let's see:
Mayflower PD is a small department in an equally small town. Last count I had, there were around a dozen or so city employees outside the police department, and around a half-dozen in the PD. That makes for FEW "secrets" I can assure you. So the Mayor had no knowledge of this gun-toting counterfeit K9 handler and dog, or any idea this pair was operating alongside the legitimate police department? Doubtful! By his own admission, even such minutiae as issuance of vests, radios, and firearms to officers had to "come across his desk." Does even one person believe someone who is that micromanagerial wouldn't notice two new additions to the Police department, most especially the one with a tail? So, did this deceptive duo work on a super-hero basis, only swooping in from above when called upon by an officer and returning equally as stealthily to some secret lair? Of course not! When you work in or with a department that size in a town that small, YOU ARE NOT INVISIBLE!!!
The Mayor asserts he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing, and therefore he and the city should be held blameless and unaccountable, but there's a doctrine under the law that reads "knew or had reason to know." If the Mayor is that ignorant of the shady goings-on in his town, whether coincidentally or intentionally, he certainly SHOULD have known. I guess ignorance truly is bliss, eh? The real questions here are 1) Who knew what and when did they know it? and 2) are the Citizens of Mayflower going to accept more lame-assed excuses from someone trying to cover his own six.
So, Citizens of Mayflower, I ask you this: Are you going to sit back and be played for the gullible morons your Mayor seems to regard you as, or are you going to demand his resignation or actually recall this clown?