CITY MANAGER CONCURS WITH CHIEF'S INVESTIGATION OF SWAT RAID

The decisions of the Citizens Police Review Board and Columbia's
police chief concerning a February SWAT raid have been confirmed by
City Manager Bill Watkins.

The decisions of the Citizens Police Review Board and Columbia's
police chief concerning a February SWAT raid have been confirmed by
City Manager Bill Watkins.

Watkins' letter is dated Friday and addressed to California marijuana
activist Ed Rosenthal, who appealed the board's decision. The letter
says that based upon his review of Rosenthal's complaint, a Columbia
Police Department internal investigation, Chief Ken Burton's decision
and the recommendations of the review board, Watkins supports Burton's
decision in the matter.

Watkins' decision is the third that has found the officers to have
acted appropriately in the drug-related raid at a southwest Columbia
home. The review board voted 4-3 in support of police actions
concerning the raid during an Aug. 4 meeting, which was a confirmation
of Burton's prior internal investigation.

"This is unfortunate but not unexpected," Rosenthal said. "I don't
understand why the city manager and the so-called citizens review
board would rather protect the police and not the citizens. It's
obvious they are protecting a bad policy."

Rosenthal's original appeal of Burton's investigation included four
points. His appeal of the board's decision was been stretched to 12
points, many of which were speculative.

"They were ignored," Rosenthal said of his complaints.

Watkins could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

A civil lawsuit was filed yesterday in U.S. Western District Court by
Jonathan Whitworth and other family members who reside in the Kinloch
Court residence seeking payment for damages.

The ordinance establishing the review board calls for the city manager
to review appeals of the board's decisions and for the city manager to
seek additional information from those involved in the investigations.
In his decision, Watkins also considered additional information from
the three officers who fired shots in Whitworth's home, resulting in
the death of a pit bull and injuries to another dog.

During the raid, police had expected to find evidence of a drug
operation but found only a misdemeanor amount of marijuana. Changes to
the police department's SWAT policies followed.

"This is supposed to be of the lowest priority," Rosenthal said of
marijuana enforcement in Columbia. He was referring to a
voter-approved ordinance that makes marijuana enforcement among the
lowest priorities of law enforcement in the city. "I would have to
presume police have solved all the murders and crime against people
and property before they go after" marijuana. "Why are they wasting
their time like this? The chief has said he will continue to enforce
state law. He is like a rogue official."