[WA] 10 years after Tacoma police chief David Brame's murder-suicide of wife Crystal Judson - Articles from the News Tribune

Blogger's note: The excerpts selected for this blog post are not intended to represent the articles, but rather meant to lead you TO the articles to read them for yourself.

THE CRIME THAT CHANGED TACOMA: 
10 YEARS AFTER: Looking back at former Tacoma police chief David Brame

News Tribune, Front Page, A1

Sean Robinson

April 21, 2013 

[Excerpts] ...What do you do when this particular boss falls apart?... But the scandal wasn’t about money or fraud or standard notions of public corruption... The boss was the one going crazy, but the boss also happened to be ruthless, and subordinates knew it. They couldn’t go over his head... Two weeks before the shootings, Crystal complained of intimidation and death threats by her husband... [Tacoma City Manager Ray] Corpuz declined to act...  Corpuz told him to focus on work. Days before the shooting, as word of Brame’s divorce and allegations of domestic abuse became public, Corpuz said the chief’s divorce was a civil matter, and declined to take action... Corpuz told The News Tribune he would not investigate the chief... As the news [of the shooting] spread across the city, police spokesman Jim Mattheis drove Corpuz to the crime scene... Mattheis recalled Corpuz asking a question: “Why would he do this?” [Full article  here] 

Photo Caption: Lane Judson, father of Crystal Judson who was murdered in a Gig Harbor store parking lot by former Tacoma Police Chief David Brame in April of 2003, helped create the Crystal Judson Family Justice Center which opened in 2006 to help victims of domestic violence and their children. (Dean J. Koepfler/Staff photographer)

FATHER OF CRYSTAL JUDSON TURNS TRAGEDY INTO FIGHT FOR DV VICTIMS: You’re not supposed to outlive your child...
News Tribune, A13
Sean Robinson
April 21, 2013
[Excerpts] ...Her husband fatally shot her, then himself. He was Tacoma’s police chief, David Brame – a powerful man who used his position and influence to protect himself from accusations of domestic violence. [Lane] Judson whispered a promise to his daughter that day in the hospital. He would do whatever he could to make sure the horror never happened again. He started a new career, and remade himself into a crusader. To anyone who will listen, he speaks about police officer-involved domestic violence and the need for law enforcement agencies to adopt policies to prevent it. He speaks to groups large and small, to people high and low. He’s written to governors, attorneys general, presidential candidates and members of Congress. He’s visited Florida, Illinois, Wisconsin, Idaho and New York, among other places. He’s spoken to law-enforcement agencies in Great Britain. He answers distraught emails from across the country. .. The department’s rewritten domestic-violence policy replaced a brief note in the police manual with a specific set of guidelines... Better than that, Judson said, was the state law, passed in 2004, that required every law-enforcement agency to develop a similar policy... “It’s something that never goes away, and you think about it,” he said. “Each day is just another day that you go through. We have good days and bad days just like everybody else does. Our goal, I think, was how to make something positive come out of a tragedy.” [Full article here]

PROMISES MADE, SOME PROMISES KEPT...
News Tribune, A14
Stacey Mulick
April 21, 2013
[Excerpts] ...Tacoma city leaders, police officials and community members proposed changes and made promises to ensure that nothing similar happened again in Tacoma... The city also made several promises to the family of Crystal Judson to settle a $75 million lawsuit in 2005... Several of the changes came within the first few months. Others were put in place within a year or two but still others lingered, unfilled. Over the years, The News Tribune has assembled the promises made and updated the public on which ones were kept and which were not. Below is the latest status report... DOMESTIC VIOLENCE REFORMS FULFILLED -- Open a city-county family justice center, also called a one-stop center... New federal law tying federal funding to domestic violence programs and procedures... Coordinate the Tacoma and Pierce County court systems... A public education campaign about domestic violence... Better services for domestic violence victims in Pierce County suburbs... NOT FULFILLED - A coordinated, city-county system to track domestic violence perpetrators after they get out of jail... PARTIALLY FULFILLED -- An independent reporting system for victims of domestic violence involving city employees... More domestic violence victim advocates in Tacoma... Install a plaque reading: “The Family Justice Center is dedicated to the memory of Crystal Judson and other victims of domestic violence. Crystal Judson was fatally shot on April 26, 2003, by her estranged husband, the Chief of Police of Tacoma”... Dedicate a page to Crystal Judson on the justice center’s website... CITY OF TACOMA REFORMS FULFILLED -- Investigate members of the police department and other city agencies suspected of violating administrative policies... ... Hire a city manager... The city will return all personal photographs, videotapes and other personal items from the Brame case to Crystal Judson’s family... Investigate all credible tips regarding public corruption in Tacoma and Pierce County... TACOMA POLICE REFORMS FULFILLED -- The city will continue to make reasonable efforts to implement the recommendations in a sweeping 2001 performance audit of the police department... The department will continue to make reasonable efforts at accreditation by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs... Annual performance evaluations for rank-and-file officers and commanders... Early-warning system to spot problem officers and intervene with counseling or training... The city will make reasonable efforts to “determine, establish and implement policies” on psychological screening of police recruits and fitness-for-duty evaluations of officers... Civilian oversight of the department... NOT FULFILLED -- Hire an outsider to run the police department...  [Full article here]

Photo caption: Crystal Judson Family Justice Center director Susan Adams visits with Lane Judson, father of Crystal Judson, who was killed in 2003 by Tacoma Police Chief David Brame. The center helps victims of domestic violence and their children. Nearly 12,000 clients, including more than 2,300 last year, have visited the center since it opened in 2005.  (Dean J. Koepfler/Staff photographer)

Photo caption: A child’s artwork offers thanks to staff members at Crystal Judson Family Justice Center. Director Susan Adams, at right, waves to a child whose mother sought protection from a domestic-violence abuser. The center tries to be a “one-stop shop” for those seeking help.  (Dean J. Koepfler/Staff photographer)

NO SHORTAGE OF CLIENTS FOR FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER...
News Tribune, A13
Adam Lynn
April 21, 2013
[Excerpts] ...Some people who work to provide services to domestic-violence survivors in the South Sound region say the center has filled an important niche since it opened in the wake of Judson’s death at the hands of her husband, Tacoma Police Chief David Brame. “It gives more choice,” said Miriam Barnett, chief executive officer of the YWCA Pierce County. Others say that detectives and deputy prosecutors working at the center discourages many people from using it, including women who’ve been battered by cops or others who have reasons to be leery of law enforcement. “Crystal Judson herself would not have sought help there,” said Mary Pontarolo, executive director of SafePlace Olympia, which provides services and shelter to domestic-violence victims. Susan Adams, the center’s director, brushed off that criticism. “We heard that from the beginning,” she said during a recent interview. “We are one door. The great thing is there are other ways to get service in our community”... The center opened in December 2005, 20 months after Judson was fatally shot by her estranged husband. Tacoma officials agreed to name the center after her as part of the settlement of a wrongful death suit brought by her family, which also received a $12 million payout... “The Brame situation” opened a lot of people’s eyes to the scourge of domestic violence and the need to provide services to survivors, said Karin White, deputy director of the YWCA Pierce County... She and Barnett said the ongoing conversation about domestic violence in Pierce County helped them convince donors of the need to expand the YWCA’s own 50-bed shelter in 2008. The organization bought and renovated a new building... Pontarolo of SafePlace Olympia fears the center and others like it popping up around the country discourage many people from seeking help... [Crystal] Judson’s father, Lane Judson, said he and his wife, Patty, support the center and its mission. “I guess you can’t please everyone,” he said. “If the Crystal Judson center saves just one person, they’ve done their job.”... [Full article here]

Photo caption: Past and present chiefs of the Tacoma Police Department are represented in “chiefs row” in a hallway of Tacoma police headquarters. The face of disgraced Chief David Brame is not there, replaced by the image of a badge. (Peter Haley, photographer)

LONG-TIME TACOMA POLICE CHIEF PUSHES REFORMS AT BATTERED DEPARTMENT

News Tribune, Page A14

Stacey Mulick, Sean Robinson, Alexis Krell and Adam Lynn

Published: April 21, 2013 

[Excerpts] At Tacoma police headquarters on South Pine Street, faces stare from a line of portraits along a wall... One picture has no face; only a police badge, filling the frame. A label gives the name of the mysterious figure: David A. Brame... The past decade has brought several reforms to the Police Department and a movement to make it a more professional, accountable agency. “It was an impetus for change,” said [current Tacoma Police Chief Don] Ramsdell... Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor is Ramsdell’s peer. He runs an agency of similar size and complexity... A decade later, the sheriff has grown to admire the chief, and meets with him regularly... [County Councilman Rick] Talbert said, communication between the Police Department and the City Council and public has improved in the past decade... Mayor Marilyn Strickland praises the chief for his efforts. “I think that Chief Ramsdell is absolutely dedicated to being very progressive and forward thinking,” Strickland said... She highlighted the department’s accreditation as an example of its progress. “It’s a very, very exhaustive process where they basically have to turn their organization inside and out and really see what they’re doing well and what they can work on,” Strickland said. “I think it’s commendable that they said it was something that they wanted to pursue”...  [Full article here]

ACCOUNTABILITY A BIG PART OF OUR WATCHDOG ROLE...
News Tribune
Karen Peterson; Executive Editor
Published: April 21, 2013 at 12:05 a.m. PDT — Updated: April 21, 2013 at 1:57 p.m. PDT
[Excerpts] ...Today’s front page begins a package of stories that bring back painful memories of another difficult time in our own community’s history - the David Brame shootings of a decade ago. In fact, some people may wish we had let the anniversary pass without notice... The last time we published it, in 2007, a number of items remained undone. After 10 years, we are taking another look... But the most prominent justification for writing again about the tragedy that befell a family and a community 10 years ago comes from between the lines of Sean Robinson’s story on Page One. A number of people around David Brame knew he was melting down and knew his wife was afraid for her life. No one stepped in to remove him from his position of power or to take away his gun... As Pierce County Councilman Rick Talbert, chairman of the Family Justice Center board of directors, says in our story today: We need to remember Crystal Judson...  [Full article here]

"TEN YEARS AGO, the city's top law enforcement officer became the city's worst criminal when he fatally shot his wife and then himself. Afterward, community leaders realized David Brame wasn't the only problem. Policies and attitudes had to change."

[police officer, involved domestic violence, oidv, intimate partner violence, ipv, abuse, law enforcement, public safety, fatality, fatalities, murder-suicide, policy, professional, family, washington state, politics, union, April 26, 2003, Crystal Judson Brame, children, Attorney General, Christine Gregoire, culturally corrupt, City Manager Ray Corpuz, abuse of power, psychological evaluations, rumors, sexual assault, lawsuit, The Coronation, marriage, divorce, counseling, police chaplain, subordinates, threesome, Jeanette Blackwell, mental health, Assistant Chief, Catherine Woodard, tpd, tacoma police, anonymous officers, death threats, inaction, civil matter, and declined to take action, birthday gift, ominous, Human Resources, badge, gun, civil proceedings, Las Vegas, Lt. Bob Sheehan, Allen Myron, Gig Harbor, domestic-violence policy, grandchildren]

[WA] 10 years later: Looking back at former Tacoma Police Chief David Brame

...Tacoma Police Chief David Brame kept a picture in his office, a framed portrait of a young executive: Al Pacino as cold-eyed Michael Corleone, the freshly anointed Godfather...


News Tribune,
'Sean Robinson
April 21, 2013

What do you do when the boss falls apart?

Tacoma Police Chief David Brame kept a picture in his office, a framed portrait of a young executive: Al Pacino as cold-eyed Michael Corleone, the freshly anointed Godfather.

The portrait was a gift, the punch line of a private joke among Brame’s closest friends in the department who rose with him. It also was a sign of respect, perhaps even fear.

Before Brame reached the chief’s office in 2001 at the age of 42, he’d been a union boss, known even among detractors as a cool negotiator. Passive-aggressive charm was his specialty. As chief, he promoted favorites, exiled enemies and brooked no dissent.

What do you do when this particular boss falls apart?

On April 26, 2003, Brame fatally shot his wife, Crystal, then himself. The couple’s 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son were sitting a few feet away in their father’s car.

The Brame scandal ended two lives and orphaned two children. It destroyed careers, sundered political alliances and devastated the Police Department. It touched off multiple investigations and shed light on officer-involved domestic violence. It led state Attorney General Chris Gregoire to describe the department under Brame as “culturally corrupt.”

It ended with a $12.5 million legal settlement, policy reforms and a domestic violence center named for Crystal Judson.

But the scandal wasn’t about money or fraud or standard notions of public corruption.

It was about a boss who killed his wife and himself. It was personal: a human-resources nuke, a road map of wrong turns and bad decisions.

A public man brought his private life to work and snarled his subordinates in the awkward details of his failed marriage. The only leader with direct authority over Brame, City Manager Ray Corpuz, didn’t know what to do about it.

Brame campaigned for chief and rolled up supporters, including elected officials. His vetting was iffy. Odd gaps appeared in his references. Asterisks surrounded his 1981 hiring; Brame took three psychological evaluations before he was deemed eligible. Few knew or noticed.

Old rumors of his behavior included an allegation of sexual assault, deemed unproven after an internal investigation led to a he-said, she-said impasse. The stories, privately known, were publicly forgotten, denied by Brame himself, or dismissed as jealous dirt-sifting: lawsuit dust, standard stuff.

He was a player. Everyone knew it. He looked good — blonde, blue-eyed, smart, young and fit. He spoke fluent management with purring deference. Above all, he was local: a second-generation police commander, a sports star straight out of Lincoln High School.

His appointment ceremony — Jan. 17, 2002 — was a pageant, unlike others before and after: the hometown boy, crowned next to his beautiful wife, Crystal, and their two children. Department wolves called it “The Coronation.”

Brame took office, unveiled grand plans and gathered accolades. He was untouchable.

Meanwhile, his marriage collapsed. On Feb. 24, 2003, barely a year after the coronation, Crystal filed for divorce, citing a long history of domestic abuse.

For the next two months, Brame was an untouchable shipwreck. He sank while everyone around him watched.

Over and over, in thousands of pages of investigative records and court testimony, the theme resurfaced. At work, Brame talked of his crumbling marriage to anyone who would listen, from assistant chiefs and captains to his administrative assistant.

Brame brought Crystal to a marriage counseling session with the police chaplain. He brought three subordinates to one of his divorce hearings. He sought legal advice on his divorce from city attorneys. To multiple subordinates, he confessed a seamy scheme to lure his wife into a sexual threesome with a female officer.

Always, he claimed to be an abused man, painting Crystal as an unstable spouse bent on destroying his career. Department duties fell by the wayside. His three assistant chiefs picked up the slack (“baby-sitting” was the internal description).

At work, he never stopped  talking of home. His administrative assistant, Jeanette Blackwell, described the numbing routine to investigators.

“It was all day, every day. Life was about Crystal Brame,” Blackwell said. “It was just all day, every day. And he made Crystal out to be crazy.”

The boss was the one going crazy, but the boss also happened to be ruthless, and subordinates knew it. They couldn’t go over his head — there was no other head but Corpuz, who hired Brame.

Old records, including sworn statements from Corpuz, show he had no shortage of information. He heard the stories again and again.

Two weeks before the shootings, Crystal complained of intimidation and death threats by her husband. She called 911 after a weekend transfer of the couple’s two children turned ugly; Brame brought Assistant Chief Catherine Woodard along for the exchange, enraging Crystal and her family.

A group of officers learned of the incident and anonymously sent a note to Corpuz, seeking an investigation and underlining a perceived double standard: one set of rules for the boss, another for everyone else. Police commanders also felt the incident warranted investigation. Corpuz declined to act, saying he wouldn’t respond to anonymous complaints.

Woodard told Corpuz of the alleged death threats and twice asked the city manager to do something about the troubled chief, according to records. Again, Corpuz did not act. Reportedly, Brame spoke to the city manager frequently about his divorce. Corpuz told him to focus on work.

Days before the shooting, as word of Brame’s divorce and allegations of domestic abuse became public, Corpuz said the chief’s divorce was a civil matter, and declined to take action.

April 24, 2003, was Crystal’s birthday. She turned 35. That night, Brame called her from Las Vegas, where he was attending a labor-management seminar.

“I have a really big birthday gift for you,” he said. “But you’ll have to wait until I get home, because I have to give it to you in person.”

On April 25, the day before the shootings, news stories surfaced about the chief’s divorce. Leaders of the city’s Human Resources Department met with city attorneys and discussed Brame’s situation.

The meeting, long disputed, led nowhere. Human resources leaders said they recommended placing Brame on administrative leave, taking his badge and gun. City attorneys said they heard no such recommendation.

Reached by The News Tribune that day, Brame denied allegations of abuse. Through her attorney, Crystal declined to comment. Corpuz told The News Tribune he would not investigate the chief.

“I’m not interested in investigating any civil proceedings that he is going though at this time,” Corpuz said that day. “There haven’t been any discussions (about an investigation) or complaints from within the department.”

That night, Brame returned from Las Vegas. Lt. Bob Sheehan, a longtime ally of Brame’s, picked up the chief at the airport. On the way home, Brame returned to his favorite subject: his divorce.

Sheehan dropped the chief off and called Corpuz.

“This babying of Brame needs to stop,” Sheehan said, adding that if Corpuz wouldn’t do something, he would.

“That’s fine,” he recalled Corpuz saying. “Somebody needs to do that.”

The shootings came the next day. As the news spread across the city, police spokesman Jim Mattheis drove Corpuz to the crime scene: a drugstore parking lot in Gig Harbor, where the chief fired the fatal shots.

In a 2003 interview, Mattheis recalled Corpuz asking a question:

“Why would he do this?”

[Link]

[police officer involved domestic violence oidv intimate partner violence ipv abuse law enforcement public safety lethal fatality fatalities murder suicide Washington state politics]

[FL] Sheriff's Detective Rauber arrested on Battery Domestic Violence

20 year veteran Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Detective Ronn Rauber was arrested after an argument with his roommate ex-wife was alleged to have turned violent. Rauber was booked into the Flagler County jail charged with misdemeanor battery with bail set at $2,500, and was suspended without pay. His ex-wife called 911 and said Rauber had  assaulted her, yelled (stuff?), and was breaking things in the house - in front of their children. The ex-wife refused to sign charges against him, and opted to not have the redness of the skin on her chest photographed. She said afterwards she didn't know how that redness got there or why her shirt was "in disarray". However (YAY) Rauber was still arrested and charged with battery-domestic violence based on the audio recording from the 911 call.

I'm still thinking - what he [allegedly] yelled matters.
Threats would be a separate charge.

The news articles say he was arrested on battery but his online mugshot reads "Battery Domestic Violence."
[deputy police officer involved domestic violence oidv intimate partner violence ipv abuse law enforcement public safety murder children flordia state politics]

[VA] Date-rape-acquitted Officer Miner changed name to Officer Rousch but now rearrested

Newport News Virginia Master Police officer Christopher Miner was previously charged with abduction and rape charges involving 2 women [he had dated], lost his job, was acquitted, got his job BACK - with back pay, changed his last name to his mother's maiden name, Roush, and now has been arrested for accusations of masturbating naked on his front porch - according to passing motorists.. The cop who responded saw naked off-duty Newport News Police Officer Chris (Miner) Roush shut his front door.

FROM PREVIOUSLY ON THE BLOG

February 26, 2010
[VA] Ex-Officer Miner, now acquitted both of raping one date and attempting to defile another date, wants his job back
In one case [Newport News Police Officer Christopher "Chris"] Miner had been accused of raping a woman and forcing her to commit sodomy. In another, he was accused of abducting a woman with the intent to defile... Officer Christopher E. Miner "grabbed her around the throat with his left hand and forced her back onto the bed," according to a criminal complaint filed in Newport News General District Court... Miner had had previous sexual relationships with both women... A  jury acquitted him on abduction and sex charges... Miner, was looking at 20 years to life on abduction and sex charges.
[Thank you for saying that I'm courageous...although it doesn't feel that way. Ive been through hell and he got his job back...did I mention with back pay?? I am technically victim #1... Im a single mom...how safe do you think I feel??]

HIS NEW INCIDENT AND ARREST

NEWPORT NEWS OFFICER CHARGED WITH INDECENT EXPOSURE PREVIOUSLY ACQUITTED IN TWO SEPARATE SEX CRIME CASES
wtkr.com
by Doris Taylor
April 8, 2013
[Excerpts] A Newport News police officer has been charged with indecent exposure and obscene sexual display after a witness told police he was standing on his front porch naked and masturbating over the weekend. Court files say other neighbors also called police... When officers arrived on the scene, an officer saw the naked man shut the front door. The naked officer has been identified as 41-year-old Christopher E. Roush... NewsChannel 3 has also learned that Christopher Roush was formerly Christopher Miner.  He legally changed his name in December of 2012. Christopher Miner had been on paid administrative leave from January 2009 until December 2009 when the department fired him. He returned to the Newport News Police Department in March 2010. The police chief reinstated Miner after he was acquitted in two separate sex crime cases.That happened in January and February of 2010. Two separate witnesses say Miner tied them up and sexually assaulted them, but juries in both cases delivered not-guilty verdicts. NewsChannel 3 has also discovered that in Newport News Circuit Court there’s no record of either trial. They’ve all vanished. This is known to happen when individuals get their past criminal history expunged... [Full article here]

NEWPORT NEWS OFFICER CHARGED WITH INDECENT EXPOSURE
The Virginian-Pilot
By Cindy Clayton
April 8, 2013
[Excerpts] A police officer was charged Sunday with indecent exposure, according to a police spokesman. About 9:15 a.m. Sunday, officers were sent to the 700 block of Harpersville Road on a report of a man exposing himself, police wrote in a news release. When they arrived, they talked to witnesses who told them a nude man had been standing on the porch. When one of the officers approached the home, a nude man shut the front door... Police notified the department’s Special Victims Unit and obtained arrest warrants. They charged Christopher E. Roush, 41, of the same address, with two counts of indecent exposure and one count of obscene sexual display, the release says. Roush, a master police officer, was released on his signature and is scheduled to appear in General District Court on April 24... This is not the first time the officer has faced charges in Newport News. A police spokesman confirmed that Roush changed his name in the last year from Christopher E. Miner. In January 2009, Miner was charged with abduction... A month later he was charged with rape, abduction with the intent to defile and forcible sodomy... [Full article here]



WITNESSES SAY OFFICER WAS NAKED ON PORCH: Officer changed his name in December
WAVY
08 Apr 2013
[Excerpts] A Newport News police officer is accused of indecent exposure after officers say he was seen standing on his front porch naked. Lou Thurston with the Newport News Police Department said officers were dispatched... Officers obtained warrants for the man, identified as Christopher E. Roush , 41. Roush is a Master Police Officer with the Newport News Police Department and has been employed there for nine years... Roush has been charged with two counts of indecent exposure and one count of obscene sexual display. Thurston said Roush is on unpaid administrative leave and an administrative investigation is being conducted by the Professional Standards Office. WAVY.com has learned o n Dec. 13, 2013 Roush changed his name from Christopher Miner... His mother's maiden name is Roush. Christopher Miner was arrested then later acquitted on charges of rape and sodomy. [Full article here]
[police officer, involved domestic violence, oidv, intimate partner violence, ipv, abuse, law enforcement, public safety, date rape, sex, sexual, assault, perversion, mental health, predator, teflon, history, hx, repeat, virgia state politics]