LCSO Captain Sends Anonymous Letter

LIBERTY, July 7, 2009 - We first contacted Chief Deputy Ken Defoor when i-dineout.com heard allegations of Captain Harry Kelly of the Liberty County Sheriff’s Department sending an anonymous and slanderous letter by FAX about newly appointed City of Cleveland Police Chief Mark Bradshaw.

According to Chief Deputy Ken Defoor of LCSO, Captain Jim Cooper was heading an internal investigation into the incident and recommended that we direct our requests to him.

Approximately one month passed while i-dineout.com conducted interviews and submitted Open Records Requests to obtain what documents were available that would help to explain this matter.

Sheriff Henry Patterson, Captain Jim Cooper and Captain Harry Kelly all worked together at the City of Cleveland Police Department before they came to the Sheriff’s Department after Sheriff Patterson took office in January of this year.

	According to the Department of Public Safety Captain Harry Kelly is a Concealed Handgun Licensing Instructor. As part of the Concealed Handgun Licensing Course students prove minimum proficiency in firing a handgun. This aspect of the course is performed at a shooting range.
Captain Harry Kelly of LCSO

Monday i-dineout.com called Captain Jim Cooper for a telephone interview to ask some questions we had after reviewing the documents we had obtained.

In order to more fully understand this incident it is helpful to construct a timeline of events revealed in the documents i-dineout.com obtained. Below is that timeline.

On April 1, 2009, newly appointed City of Cleveland Police Chief Mark Bradshaw closed the City of Cleveland Shooting Range for safety issues.

On April 25, 2009 Sgt. Ralph Fuller while checking on the Liberty County Firing Range found Captain Kelly and two civilians on the firing line and the civilians were shooting under the direction of Captain Kelly.

On May 1, 2009 Captain Kelly sends an anonymous letter by FAX from Akin Service of Cleveland to a FAX number at the Juvenile Probation Department according to Captain Cooper. The letter is not signed nor does the sender identify himself in any way. The recipient is also not identified other than by the FAX number on the document. Kelly is apparently using the FAX machine of Akin Auto Service as a matter of convenience or an attempt to decieve the recipient of the letter and conceal his identity.

On May 4, 2009 Akin Auto Service Center obtained a copy of Captain Kelly’s anonymous letter sent from their FAX machine.

On May 6, 2009 Akin Auto Service Center of Cleveland sends a letter of apology to Mayor Jill Kirkonis of Cleveland apologizing for Captains Kelly’s anonymous letter sent from their FAX machine.

The letter contained unsubstantiated and slanderous allegations that City of Cleveland Police Chief Mark Bradshaw was involved in Sexual Harassment, Retaliation Against a Public Servant and Pornography.

In the letter from Akin Service Center of Cleveland, President Jeff Pfeiffer explained that Captain Kelly requested the use of their FAX machine to send the letter and they granted the request without any knowledge of what Captain Kelly was up to and without any knowledge of the content of the letter that Kelly sent. Akin Auto Service did not inquire about the purpose or content of the letter to be transmitted using their FAX machine by Captain Kelly.

Akin Auto Service also expressed their disappointement in allowing Captain Harry Kelly to take advatage of their generosity in permitting him the use of its FAX machine. Akin Auto Service has since the time of Kelly's letter established a policy of prohibiting the use of its FAX machine by governmental employees. Akin Auto Service also apologized to Chief Bradshaw for any embarrassment, inconvenience or anguish caused by Captain Kelly's letter and the use of their FAX machine.

On May 11, 2009 Constable Royce Wheeler claims in a letter to Sheriff Patterson that Kelly's use of the county shooting range on April 25, 2009, was a misuse of the Firing Range by Captain Kelly exposing the County to civil liability. Wheeler’s letter copies County Attorney Wes Hinch and County Judge Phil Fitzgerald.

On June 20, 2009 the Sheriff’s Office obtains release of liability forms from the two civilians on the Firing Range with Captain Kelly back dated to April 25, 2009, making it seem as though the release forms were obtained in April. By admission of Captain Cooper they were not. The release forms are signed by Judith Ardoin and George Ardoin.

As you may be aware, one of the recent allegations against County Judge Phil Fitzgerald is that he used County owned property in the form of a generator in his private business for his personal gain and i-dineout.com wanted to know if Captain Kelly was using the County Firing Range in his own Concealed Handgun Licensing Business.

When i-dineout.com ask Captain Cooper whether or not Captain Kelly was using the County Firing Range in conjunction with his Concealed Handgun Licensing Business, Cooper responded, “I have not had any information related to that so I don’t know.”

Captain Cooper also did not know how many people Captain Kelly had sent his anonymous letter to or who the other recipients may have been other than the one FAX that was sent to the Juvenile Probation Department. Cooper also did not know who the intended recipient of the letter at the Juvenile Probation Department was.

i-dineout.com asked Captain Cooper if he had found that any actions by Captain Kelly had resulted in Civil Liability to the County. Cooper responded, “There’s always that possibility, but at this time we haven’t found that.”

Captain Cooper claimed in the closing of our interview that the investigation into this incident is still ongoing.

Even after an investigation that has been ongoing for about two months headed by Captan Cooper little is actually known about many of the circumstances surrounding this case.

See Related Documents Obtained through Open Records...

Captain Kelly's Anonymous Letter

George Ardoin Release Form

Judith Ardoin Release Form

Constable Royce Wheeler's Letter

Akin Auto Service Letter

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