LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - A detective raised concerns about traffic tickets being fixed in exchange for University of Kansas basketball tickets a year before police started investigating, newly released documents show.
The Lawrence Journal-World (https://bit.ly/2nwGwml ) reports that it reviewed records after former Sgt. Mike Monroe asked for a new investigation at a city commission meeting last month. Monroe, who admitted to fixing tickets, filed an unsuccessful wrongful termination suit against the city, alleging he was subjected to disproportionate discipline.
The scandal ended with five university athletics department employees being convicted and serving time in prison for the loss of between $1 million and $3 million worth of sports tickets. Besides Monroe’s firing, another police officer, Sgt. Matt Sarna, resigned.
At the meeting, Monroe, provided commissioners with a city document detailing how Chief Tarik Khatib - who previously was in charge of the department’s internal affairs division - knew of the ticket fixing well before the 2011 investigation began. City Attorney Toni Wheeler didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.
Besides Monroe and Sarna, documents show three officers and a sergeant also were implicated in the scandal. No information about the four was previously released. The three officers all admitted to voiding traffic tickets, though only two also accepted free tickets, one for Final Four in 2008. The sergeant also admitted to accepting tickets, but the investigator said he couldn’t recall asking whether the sergeant also voided tickets, according to a deposition in Monroe’s lawsuit. All of the other four remained a part of the department, until one retired several years after the investigation.
Police Det. Mike McAtee first raised concerns in 2010 when former Kansas Athletics employee Rodney Jones appeared on a list of those being investigated. In a sworn testimony that was taken as a deposition for Monroe’s wrongful termination lawsuit, McAtee said he warned Khatib that the department could face serious blowback because he knew of at least one officer who was close to Jones.
In an interview the next morning with Khatib and a captain, Sarna acknowledged that he had voided tickets and accepted free sports tickets from Jones, who eventually went to prison. Sarna also dropped the names of three other officers - including Monroe - who had also received basketball tournament tickets.
Afterward, Khatib reported some of his findings to then-Police Chief Olin, although Khatib but didn’t share that some of the information came from McAtee. Olin told the paper he decided not to investigate further after personally interviewing Sarna.
Olin, who also received an anonymous complaint before retiring, subsequently went to work for the university in a brand new, security-related position. Khatib subsequently promoted Sarna to be the department’s chief spokesman.
The police department’s involvement in the scandal lay dormant until May 2011 when a second anonymous letter was delivered to Khatib, who is retiring this summer.
The ensuing investigation found that Jones had been stopped 56 times by 12 different law enforcement agencies in just over a decade but had just two driving convictions on his record. Neither conviction was in Douglas County, where Lawrence is located.
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