There has been tremendous change in the Shepherdstown Police Department (SPD) since 2005. Four officers have left the department, a new police review board has been established, a new chief has been appointed, and there have been two new mayors with new ideas about how to run the department.

The Back Story

Over the past few years, numerous stories of abuse and violence at the hands of the Shepherdstown police force have emerged. Two civil suits are currently in court, with citizens—Molly Humphreys and Justin Pistore—suing for damages against the police who allegedly used excessive force during arrests.

These allegations came on the heels of other public disputes between area residents and the SPD. Nancy Van Tol allegedly was injured during an arrest on High Street. Wendell Piez allegedly had his house broken into by a police ride-along. Doug Herrick alleges he sustained bodily injury while being arrested. Lissa Janssen alleges that she sustained facial bruising and multiple tazer burns on her back during her arrest.

In 2006, Chief Curtis Keller terminated the employment of two Shepherdstown police officers, Roper and Lynch. The officers appealed the decision to the Shepherdstown Police Review Board and lost their appeals. They then appealed to the Circuit Court in Jefferson County. In March 2007 Judge Thomas Steptoe turned them down. They still can appeal to the West Virginia Supreme Court, but no appeal has been filed.

“I believe that everybody who is employed should have some form of due process,” said Keller. “Whether it is me terminating or me fighting against termination, I’m in favor of hearing both sides of it. And I think it was fair in the way it was handled.”

The SPD now has five full-time officers, including the chief, one full-time secretary, and one full-time clerk/parking officer. There are also six part-time officers. The SPD has a mutual aid contract with Shepherd University under which Shepherd University police can go to the scene and maintain control until SPD arrives.

Missing Money, Stolen Evidence

In 2005, approximately $7,800 disappeared from SPD custody. The money was being held as evidence in a criminal matter. It is not clear who took the money or why evidence in police custody was so loosely controlled.

The SPD asked the state police for help with the investigation, but the state declined, saying the theft was a local problem that needed a local investigation. The investigation is currently led by Officer Brad Dusek of the SPD.

The case is still open but by all accounts has reached a dead-end. “For now there is not enough evidence to make accusations,” said Keller. “We have a suspicion of who did it, but we can’t make any accusations. I do think it is always possible we can solve this case; it is something that could happen.”

According to Mayor Lance Dom, the suspect in the case does not currently work for the SPD. “It turns out that we have a good idea of who did it. I thought within a couple of weeks we would [apprehend the suspect]. That was seven months ago.” A polygraph was not administered, said Dom, because the suspect would have had to agree to take it. The Town was also slowed by the price of the test and the difficulty of finding someone to administer it. “You are faced with having to decide: Do you want to lose $7,800 and say it should never have been out of the evidence room and put it down to bad police work, or do you get the guy and spend fifteen to twenty thousand dollars doing it?”

Where Are the Guns?

Police departments are able to obtain, free of charge, surplus military equipment from the government, including handguns and automatic weapons. According to Charles Cole, who was police chief in Shepherdstown prior to Keller, two M16s were obtained under this program, and they were in the department before Cole came into office.

When Keller became chief, he found paperwork indicating that there should be M16s at the station. But he could not find the weapons. “I looked in the safe, and I saw there are no M16s,” said Keller. “Then I asked the officers here and they didn’t have a good answer, so I had to do it myself—and find out what is going on.”

Keller conducted a trace and eventually found that the two M16s had been sent to a police department in Brecknock Township, Pa. They had been traded for an AR15 rifle. “The guns were never missing, so everything turned out okay,” said Keller. “But yeah, when I first got here, there was a concern. And obviously, when you come into that situation, and you are responsible to the government, and they are going to hit you hard if there is a problem, I got on it right after I found out about it. That was something I had to jump on myself.”

According to Nancy Cerchiaro, West Virginia coordinator for the 1033 Excess Military Property Program in Charleston, transactions of government military surplus are legal between police agencies, but only with prior approval from her department. Cerchiaro confirmed the transaction of the M16s from the SPD, but said the transaction was done without prior approval from her department.

When asked about the guns, Cole, who now works at the U.S. Customs Border Protection Center in Jefferson County, said the transfer of the M16s was “all above board.” He transferred the M16s because Shepherdstown police officer Robert Maraugha, who also served on the county SWAT team, needed the AR15. “I had put Robert in charge of it,” said Cole. “I thought all the I’s were dotted and T’s were crossed.”

Keller Disciplines Officer

Officer Kenneth Mauck joined the SPD in 2005 after having worked in the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department alongside Keller. When he came to Shepherdstown, Mauck was given the rank of sergeant, second in command to Keller.

In 2006, Mauck was the first on the scene when a man shot his two sons and then killed himself in a Shepherd University parking lot. Mauck was soon joined at the scene by police officers from Shepherd University as well as state police and officers from other agencies.

Keller said Mauck was shaken up by the experience. “Anytime you have a loss of life, it affects you. It affects you in a lot of different ways.”

In early 2007, according to Chief Keller and for reasons he would not disclose, Mauck was demoted from sergeant to corporal, suspended for two weeks, and required to undergo counseling. Mauck waived his right to appeal this decision before the Shepherdstown Police Review Board, according to Keller.

Keller declined to talk further about this issue. “It was a personnel matter. There was an investigation that was conducted. I can’t give you details of what happened or when it happened,” he said. “The only thing I can tell you is that I took care of it.”

According to those involved in the case, Mauck was accused of violating a section of the Town’s employee code.

Neal Martineau is a member of the Shepherdstown Police Committee. He spoke to The Observer as a private citizen. “If I had been in the position of being able to fire him, I would have,” said Martineau. “Here is a policeman who can’t police himself. He broke the law; he broke the procedures. And I think frankly what he did was plain stupid.”

According to Martineau, Officer Mauck has gotten away with it. “The demotion did not result in any loss of power within the department. That was demotion in name only.”

Keller is fully supportive of Mauck. “There is no danger to the people in town. The department is functioning fine. Everything is fine.”

Mauck remains second in command to Keller and has kept his sergeant’s salary.

Park And Pay

The Shepherdstown Police Department is self-financing. The department generates revenue, including salaries, through ticketing (moving violations), parking meters, and booted cars. The department’s 2007 budget is $499,820, with police expected to “earn” $401,250 in revenue. This means the police generate 80 percent of their operating funds through their activities. The remaining 20 percent is provided by the Town, partly from video lottery, a.k.a. slots revenue.

A consequence of this budget formula is the unspoken pressure on police to prowl the streets looking for income-producing crimes, such as moving violations, rather than income-neutral crimes, such as theft and vandalism.

Keller is hardly upbeat about the financial context of his work. “I don’t think that the police department should be self-supporting,” he said. “I don’t think we should be put into a situation where we have to write so many tickets in order to generate the money for us to operate. That should never be. Now granted … we have to write tickets, but we shouldn’t be put into a situation where you have to for the department to work.”

When asked what would happen if the police department was unable to generate funds necessary to pay police salaries, Keller shrugged and added, “I know, and the guys know, that if we don’t generate revenue then we are not going to be here, or something is going to give. If it came to the point that we are not generating enough revenue, then the town is going to have to make a decision as far as their protection.”

So far this year, the department has met its overall financial goals—about $36,000 over their targets in parking meter collection and almost $30,000 less than their projected income for moving violations and other fines.

The Way Forward

Mayor Dom has initiated a review of the police department by an outside consultant. Many of the findings of the report, which has not been released to the public, are positive—perhaps better than people expected.

“Yes things are better. Chief Cole had some administrative skills, but we have made a significant improvement in the last couple of years. We now have kinder and gentler police officers. Good guys. We have better officers,” said Dom. “I feel that in the last few years, with the help of [former] Mayor Wilson, the police department has made a big step forward, and I still feel there is room to go.”

Dom wants to establish West Virginia’s first municipal police department to earn outside accreditation based on standards of procedure.

Neal Martineau is frustrated that he is unable to police the police the way he would like to. “How is it that our hands are tied when things are pretty obviously solvable?” Martineau asked. “And we can’t be running to our town attorney all the time; he costs a bundle every time we do.”

Chief Keller is positive about the future. “From what I came to, and what it is today, I know that people are more satisfied and content with the way that the department is running. I know everybody has issues with us, but at the same time I trust my people that I have working. And I trust the public that if they do have issues … they can come to me and work things out.”