REPORT: EX-COPS USED SLINGSHOT

Police officers accused of vandalizing a house on Oak Street in December
weren't just tossing rocks and bricks at the structure. Some used a
slingshot to terrorize those inside, according to police documents.

Reports associated with disciplinary action against former officers on the
Montgomery Police Department's third shift shed light on the nature of
their activities. Eight officers from the shift quit in the face of a
disciplinary hearing, two were fired and one was suspended for 30 days.

Five of the disciplined officers have been connected to the Oak Street
incident.

The incident occurred one December night when officers Marcus Lightsey,
Michael Clark, Michael Provo, Casey McCasland and R.L. Miller and their
partners - unnamed in two statements to the police internal affairs bureau
- - drove to the Oak Street residence, according to police documents.

Lightsey gave the internal affairs bureau his interpretation of what
happened afterward.

Lightsey said: "There's, ah, a house ... you know, it's a crack house. We
find a crack house, we try to find a way to get in there, shut 'em down or,
you know, shut 'em down any way we can. So, just a, ah, it gets them off
(inaudible) a bit.

"Myself, ah, officer Clark, officer McCasland, I can't remember, I think I
was riding with officer Provo that night, their partners, I can't remember
who they were riding with. Officer Provo wouldn't take part in it.

"Ah, went to Davison ah, Davison Street which is behind ah, to the east of
Oak Street. Come up to the back of the residence and ah, were gonna throw
rocks at the back of the house."

Messing with Minds

Lightsey was asked why they threw rocks.

Lightsey responded: "Ah, it started out just to mess their minds. Try to,
you know, try to get 'em to come out or, I really don't know the purpose of
it. It was childish.

"Then, ah, officer Clark and McCasland said they had slingshots, and they
had little marble, ammunition for the slingshot."

Lightsey told internal affairs officers how the slingshots were used.

"C.D. McCasland. The male, white male. Began to shoot slingshots at the
back of the um, ah, just to let them, saw them looking out the window a
couple of times. Just to mess their minds, you know, either try to get 'em
to move, or to stop selling crack and ..."

Interviewer: "Were they aware that the police officers were doing this?"
Lightsey: "I don't, I don't have a clue. They never, they never came out.
Every time we drove by on Oak Street, they ran up in the house. I don't
have a clue."

He said he didn't know if anyone was injured.

Provo, who stood by but took no part in what his colleagues did that night
on Oak Street, told investigators the officers were at the house about five
minutes. He named Clark, McCasland, Lightsey and R.L. Miller as having
taken part.

"They all got together and decide they was gonna go to a crack house on Oak
Street," Provo told investigators.

"I believe officer McCasland had the slingshot," Provo said. "They went up
there and decided they were gonna throw rocks and break windows, trying to
get someone to come out of the house. They started throwing rocks and using
the slingshot to bust out the windows and whatnot.

"I was standing back. I didn't have any part in throwing the rocks. But I
did witness them throw some rocks and use the slingshot."

Rocks and a Slingshot

He said McCasland, Clark and Lightsey used the slingshot. Rocks also were
thrown. A slung or thrown projectile broke out the house's back porch
light, and a window also might have been broken, Provo said.

Provo and two other officers were fired Feb. 21 for their roles in the
police scandal. Provo alone was reinstated, when Mayor Bobby Bright decided
March 7 to reverse his decision upholding the officer's dismissal. He's
nearing completion of a 30-day suspension and must undergo human relations
training at the police academy.

Maj. Kevin Murphy, police patrol division commander, confirmed that an
investigation showed two or more officers had used a slingshot to pelt the
house.

Furthermore, he said, a bag of yellow marbles were found in Clark's patrol
car after Clark resigned two months after the Oak Street incident.

Murphy said he does not know what kind of slingshot was used. It was
described as yellow, he said.

Clark is the only officer among the 10 who resigned or were fired who has
been charged with a crime. He was arrested in early February on charges of
harassment and criminal use of a defense spray - charges unconnected with
what happened on Oak Street. They stem, instead, from the alleged beating
of a 17-year-old arrested in January.

The Police Department has asked the FBI to investigate at least four
incidents involving the former midnight-shift officers.

The entire leadership of the midnight shift was changed last month, and
officers still on the shift have been interviewed to determine if they were
ever involved in activity that could be considered a violation of police policy.