Post by almagata on Sept 30, 2019 18:09:11 GMT
This is a case from 2006. A PI that was sent to investigate a police brutality complaint was found dead. His death was ruled a suicide quickly.
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www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/suicide-declared-within-hours/article_f58586c6-a410-52e9-8bd8-050ced2234ac.html
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www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/suicide-declared-within-hours/article_f58586c6-a410-52e9-8bd8-050ced2234ac.html
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Suicide declared within hours
Apr 7, 2006
6 min to read
Reports in man's death show witness was never pursued by authorities
By Roger McKinney
Globe Staff Writer
GALENA, Kan. - Within hours of discovering a Wyandotte, Okla., private investigator lying dead on the side of the highway, shot in the back of the head, Cherokee County authorities were calling the death a suicide.
Earlier that morning, investigators had questioned a Galena man who was driving north on Highway 26 into Galena. John Link told deputies that he saw a car pull off the road, thought he saw movement in front of the car and by the time he could stop to see if help was needed, found a man lying in a pool of blood.
Investigative reports in the Aug. 26, 2003, death of 51-year-old Jim Potts were released this week by the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department in response to a request filed under the Kansas Open Records Act by The Joplin Globe's attorney, Charles Buchanan.
The reports also revealed that another Galena resident told Potts' widow that he had seen Link that morning soon after he had found Potts. The man told Carolyn Potts, according to investigative reports, that Link had blood all over his clothes that morning. The investigative reports did not include any follow-up with that man.
Nor did the Sheriff's Department conduct tests that crime-scene experts say are normally routine in ruling out a suicide.
Here's what the Globe found in reviewing the investigative reports and interviewing Cherokee County Undersheriff Gary Allen:
A .38-caliber revolver, owned by Potts and found by his right foot, was never tested for fingerprints or submitted into evidence.
The victim's hands were never tested for gunshot residue.
Interviews were conducted with three people: Link, the Galena man who found Potts' body; Potts' wife, Carolyn; and Gary Ice, an investigator with the Ottawa County, Okla., district attorney's office and a former associate of Potts'. Potts, a former Joplin firefighter, had worked for the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department from 1982 to 1985, when he re-enlisted in the Army. He was injured in 1997 while unloading a truck and went back to the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department, then worked as an investigator for two Miami, Okla., law firms before going into business for himself about nine months before his death.
Carolyn Potts and her family continue to dispute the suicide ruling. Efforts by the Globe to locate Link for comment have been unsuccessful.
Body found
Potts was found dead outside Galena, Kan., shortly after 6 a.m. Aug. 26. His car, with the engine still running and the headlights on, straddled the southbound lane of Highway 26 and the shoulder.
Potts' body, according to the investigative reports, was found lying face-up near the rear passenger-side tire. He had died of a gunshot wound to the back of his head. His .38-caliber revolver was by his right foot, a spent shell casing in the gun. His Oklahoma driver's license was upside down by his left hand.
Link, who had been driving on Highway 26 toward Galena, was reportedly the man who found Potts' body. He told investigators that he saw what would later be identified as Potts' car pull over to the side of the road. After Link discovered Potts' body, according to reports, he saw a car coming so he got back in the road to try to stop the car. According to his statement, the car would not stop. Link then went and made contact with someone who called the death in to the Galena Police Department. The report does not name the person who made the call.
Carolyn Potts has told the Globe that her husband had been asked to investigate the Galena Police Department in the weeks before his death. Galena resident Bob Shryock has told the Globe that Potts met with him and his wife at their house about two months before his death. He said Potts told him that a Tulsa, Okla., lawyer had hired him to investigate allegations of police mistreatment of Alberto Reyes, whose arm was broken on April 25, 2003, while he was being arrested.
George Jackson, a former Galena city commissioner, said he had met with Potts in late July or early August at the Miami, Okla., law office where Potts worked. They had talked on the phone before the meeting about Potts investigating complaints about the Galena Police Department.
Wayne Hill, of East Moline, Ill., has spent the past 15 years as a homicide-reconstruction specialist for police agencies. He wrote the textbook "Homicide Event Reconstruction Sciences." The textbook is used in the criminal-justice department at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.
"You just can't be too thorough," Hill said. "You've got to interview relatives, business associates, potential enemies. You've got to do all this before declaring a shooting death is self-inflicted. That's the problem with a half-hearted investigation. The rumor mill can run rampant and you can't disprove it."
Sheriff's Detective Sean Putnam, in his investigative report, wrote that before he told Carolyn Potts of her husband's death, he had called the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department in reference to "an Ottawa County resident who had committed suicide in Cherokee County, Kansas."
'Rumor mill'
Allen confirmed that only Link, Potts' wife and Ice, the investigator who had worked with Potts, were interviewed. Allen said that if the victim had no potential enemies and had money problems or family problems, then the investigation might lean toward a suicide ruling.
Hill said investigators should have swabbed the hands for gunshot residue and placed paper bags on the hands with rubber bands to preserve remaining residue.
Hill said that when a revolver is fired, residue typically spews from the front and back of the cylinder and from the barrel.
Allen has said that bagging the hands is standard procedure in most cases when a suicide is suspected, but that apparently was not done in this case. He said his department also did not swab Potts' hands.
"The swabbing would not have been done by us," Allen said. "Anything like that, we're going to let the pathologist do to obtain a better sample."
There is no record that any swabbing was ever done.
Hill said the absence of other tire tracks or footprints at the scene could suggest that the death was a suicide.
Allen said no tire tracks or footprints could be discerned on the asphalt of the highway or the driveway a few feet to the north of the car. The investigative reports do not mention tire tracks or foot prints.
Putnam, the lead investigator for the Sheriff's Department in the case, had worked part time for the Galena Police Department, the same department Potts had been asked to investigate.
Hill said Putnam should not have been involved with the investigation. "If it was me, I would say, 'Excuse me, sheriff, I have a conflict of interest here,'" Hill said.
Allen said that Putnam was the investigator on duty on the morning of Potts' death and that he had no idea when he arrived on the scene Potts was a private investigator.
"Later on came the rumor mill that he was investigating the city of Galena," Allen said. "He was well into the case before those comments were made, and he had already determined it to be a suicide."
Allen said the department didn't see any reason to involve an outside agency or place someone else in charge of the investigation.
"I don't see that it was a problem," Allen said.
He said that although people in Galena have said they had talked with Potts about investigating the Galena Police Department and said he was working for a lawyer, no one has come forward to say they hired Potts.
"I would think those individuals would say, 'He was working for us,'" Allen said. "We don't deal in innuendo or rumor. We deal in facts and evidence."
Gun not checked
Newton County, Mo., Sheriff Ron Doerge has investigated many homicides and suicides in his 25 years in law enforcement. He said he was not familiar with the Potts case but discussed how his department handles shooting deaths.
"Anytime it's a gunshot death, first of all you have to start with an eye toward it being something other than a suicide," Doerge said.
He said he has never investigated a suicide in which the gunshot entry wound is in the back of the head.
Doerge said some aspects that should be examined are the angle of the projectile, the direction of blood spatters, how close the weapon was to the victim, and whether there was "tattooing" of the skin from a gun fired from point-blank range. If there is no tattooing, he said, the shot was fired from farther away.
An autopsy on Potts' body was conducted by Dr. Erik Mitchell, at Frontier Forensics in Topeka, Kan. He ruled that Potts died of a gunshot would consistent with self-inflicted injury. Mitchell declined to answer questions about the autopsy.
He wrote in his report: "There is a contact gunshot wound to the head with the entry well behind and below the right ear and the exit in the left temple ... While the entry site is not usual for self-inflicted injury, it is not mechanically impossible."
Doerge said that instead of placing paper bags on the hands, his department usually swabs the hands to gather samples of gunshot residue at the scene. He said it is also important to check the gun for fingerprints. He said that if the victim's fingerprints are the only ones found on the gun, it is probably a suicide.
Allen said the Potts gun was not checked for fingerprints.
"I don't believe the gun was submitted, no," Allen said.
Doerge said it's also important to carefully examine the area around the body in every direction for any evidence. He said investigators must also make numerous sketches and take numerous photographs.
"You don't want a bunch of people tramping around" the death scene, Doerge said.
Allen said the Sheriff's Department would re-examine the case if relevant information becomes available, but he said that has not happened.
"Our information is he was not investigating the city of Galena," Allen said. "He was not investigating the police chief. There was no reason to meet with anybody In Galena. He was not here to do anything other than commit suicide."
Apr 7, 2006
6 min to read
Reports in man's death show witness was never pursued by authorities
By Roger McKinney
Globe Staff Writer
GALENA, Kan. - Within hours of discovering a Wyandotte, Okla., private investigator lying dead on the side of the highway, shot in the back of the head, Cherokee County authorities were calling the death a suicide.
Earlier that morning, investigators had questioned a Galena man who was driving north on Highway 26 into Galena. John Link told deputies that he saw a car pull off the road, thought he saw movement in front of the car and by the time he could stop to see if help was needed, found a man lying in a pool of blood.
Investigative reports in the Aug. 26, 2003, death of 51-year-old Jim Potts were released this week by the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department in response to a request filed under the Kansas Open Records Act by The Joplin Globe's attorney, Charles Buchanan.
The reports also revealed that another Galena resident told Potts' widow that he had seen Link that morning soon after he had found Potts. The man told Carolyn Potts, according to investigative reports, that Link had blood all over his clothes that morning. The investigative reports did not include any follow-up with that man.
Nor did the Sheriff's Department conduct tests that crime-scene experts say are normally routine in ruling out a suicide.
Here's what the Globe found in reviewing the investigative reports and interviewing Cherokee County Undersheriff Gary Allen:
A .38-caliber revolver, owned by Potts and found by his right foot, was never tested for fingerprints or submitted into evidence.
The victim's hands were never tested for gunshot residue.
Interviews were conducted with three people: Link, the Galena man who found Potts' body; Potts' wife, Carolyn; and Gary Ice, an investigator with the Ottawa County, Okla., district attorney's office and a former associate of Potts'. Potts, a former Joplin firefighter, had worked for the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department from 1982 to 1985, when he re-enlisted in the Army. He was injured in 1997 while unloading a truck and went back to the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department, then worked as an investigator for two Miami, Okla., law firms before going into business for himself about nine months before his death.
Carolyn Potts and her family continue to dispute the suicide ruling. Efforts by the Globe to locate Link for comment have been unsuccessful.
Body found
Potts was found dead outside Galena, Kan., shortly after 6 a.m. Aug. 26. His car, with the engine still running and the headlights on, straddled the southbound lane of Highway 26 and the shoulder.
Potts' body, according to the investigative reports, was found lying face-up near the rear passenger-side tire. He had died of a gunshot wound to the back of his head. His .38-caliber revolver was by his right foot, a spent shell casing in the gun. His Oklahoma driver's license was upside down by his left hand.
Link, who had been driving on Highway 26 toward Galena, was reportedly the man who found Potts' body. He told investigators that he saw what would later be identified as Potts' car pull over to the side of the road. After Link discovered Potts' body, according to reports, he saw a car coming so he got back in the road to try to stop the car. According to his statement, the car would not stop. Link then went and made contact with someone who called the death in to the Galena Police Department. The report does not name the person who made the call.
Carolyn Potts has told the Globe that her husband had been asked to investigate the Galena Police Department in the weeks before his death. Galena resident Bob Shryock has told the Globe that Potts met with him and his wife at their house about two months before his death. He said Potts told him that a Tulsa, Okla., lawyer had hired him to investigate allegations of police mistreatment of Alberto Reyes, whose arm was broken on April 25, 2003, while he was being arrested.
George Jackson, a former Galena city commissioner, said he had met with Potts in late July or early August at the Miami, Okla., law office where Potts worked. They had talked on the phone before the meeting about Potts investigating complaints about the Galena Police Department.
Wayne Hill, of East Moline, Ill., has spent the past 15 years as a homicide-reconstruction specialist for police agencies. He wrote the textbook "Homicide Event Reconstruction Sciences." The textbook is used in the criminal-justice department at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.
"You just can't be too thorough," Hill said. "You've got to interview relatives, business associates, potential enemies. You've got to do all this before declaring a shooting death is self-inflicted. That's the problem with a half-hearted investigation. The rumor mill can run rampant and you can't disprove it."
Sheriff's Detective Sean Putnam, in his investigative report, wrote that before he told Carolyn Potts of her husband's death, he had called the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department in reference to "an Ottawa County resident who had committed suicide in Cherokee County, Kansas."
'Rumor mill'
Allen confirmed that only Link, Potts' wife and Ice, the investigator who had worked with Potts, were interviewed. Allen said that if the victim had no potential enemies and had money problems or family problems, then the investigation might lean toward a suicide ruling.
Hill said investigators should have swabbed the hands for gunshot residue and placed paper bags on the hands with rubber bands to preserve remaining residue.
Hill said that when a revolver is fired, residue typically spews from the front and back of the cylinder and from the barrel.
Allen has said that bagging the hands is standard procedure in most cases when a suicide is suspected, but that apparently was not done in this case. He said his department also did not swab Potts' hands.
"The swabbing would not have been done by us," Allen said. "Anything like that, we're going to let the pathologist do to obtain a better sample."
There is no record that any swabbing was ever done.
Hill said the absence of other tire tracks or footprints at the scene could suggest that the death was a suicide.
Allen said no tire tracks or footprints could be discerned on the asphalt of the highway or the driveway a few feet to the north of the car. The investigative reports do not mention tire tracks or foot prints.
Putnam, the lead investigator for the Sheriff's Department in the case, had worked part time for the Galena Police Department, the same department Potts had been asked to investigate.
Hill said Putnam should not have been involved with the investigation. "If it was me, I would say, 'Excuse me, sheriff, I have a conflict of interest here,'" Hill said.
Allen said that Putnam was the investigator on duty on the morning of Potts' death and that he had no idea when he arrived on the scene Potts was a private investigator.
"Later on came the rumor mill that he was investigating the city of Galena," Allen said. "He was well into the case before those comments were made, and he had already determined it to be a suicide."
Allen said the department didn't see any reason to involve an outside agency or place someone else in charge of the investigation.
"I don't see that it was a problem," Allen said.
He said that although people in Galena have said they had talked with Potts about investigating the Galena Police Department and said he was working for a lawyer, no one has come forward to say they hired Potts.
"I would think those individuals would say, 'He was working for us,'" Allen said. "We don't deal in innuendo or rumor. We deal in facts and evidence."
Gun not checked
Newton County, Mo., Sheriff Ron Doerge has investigated many homicides and suicides in his 25 years in law enforcement. He said he was not familiar with the Potts case but discussed how his department handles shooting deaths.
"Anytime it's a gunshot death, first of all you have to start with an eye toward it being something other than a suicide," Doerge said.
He said he has never investigated a suicide in which the gunshot entry wound is in the back of the head.
Doerge said some aspects that should be examined are the angle of the projectile, the direction of blood spatters, how close the weapon was to the victim, and whether there was "tattooing" of the skin from a gun fired from point-blank range. If there is no tattooing, he said, the shot was fired from farther away.
An autopsy on Potts' body was conducted by Dr. Erik Mitchell, at Frontier Forensics in Topeka, Kan. He ruled that Potts died of a gunshot would consistent with self-inflicted injury. Mitchell declined to answer questions about the autopsy.
He wrote in his report: "There is a contact gunshot wound to the head with the entry well behind and below the right ear and the exit in the left temple ... While the entry site is not usual for self-inflicted injury, it is not mechanically impossible."
Doerge said that instead of placing paper bags on the hands, his department usually swabs the hands to gather samples of gunshot residue at the scene. He said it is also important to check the gun for fingerprints. He said that if the victim's fingerprints are the only ones found on the gun, it is probably a suicide.
Allen said the Potts gun was not checked for fingerprints.
"I don't believe the gun was submitted, no," Allen said.
Doerge said it's also important to carefully examine the area around the body in every direction for any evidence. He said investigators must also make numerous sketches and take numerous photographs.
"You don't want a bunch of people tramping around" the death scene, Doerge said.
Allen said the Sheriff's Department would re-examine the case if relevant information becomes available, but he said that has not happened.
"Our information is he was not investigating the city of Galena," Allen said. "He was not investigating the police chief. There was no reason to meet with anybody In Galena. He was not here to do anything other than commit suicide."