Innocent man's jailing called 'honest mistake'

Detective won't face criminal charges in fingerprint snafu

By SCOTT DAUGHERTY, Staff Writer

Published 08/28/08

A county police detective who earlier this year included incorrect information in court documents - leading a Glen Burnie man to serve four months in jail for a crime he did not commit - will not face criminal charges.

View Latent Print Examination Report

Prosecutors do not believe Detective Greg Tate, a 15-year veteran of the department, intentionally lied to the court in January when he said the county's crime lab matched the fingerprints of Raymond H. Jonassen to those left at the scene of a Dec. 6 burglary.

"Both perjury and misconduct in office require the state to negate the "honest mistake" defense, which we cannot do," Deputy State's Attorney William Roessler wrote yesterday in a letter to the commander of the department's Internal Affairs Unit.

He said it appeared Detective Tate simply misinterpreted the Latent Print Examination Report and referred the matter back to the department.

"I anticipate there to be appropriate administrative action," he told The Capital.

Sgt. John Gilmer, a county police spokesman, declined to comment about Detective Tate or how he misinterpreted the report. He said it is a personnel matter.

Sgt. Gilmer said Detective Tate still is employed by the Anne Arundel County Police Department, but he would not say if the officer remains on active duty.

O'Brien Atkinson, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 70, said he never thought Detective Tate would lie.

"Detective Tate is a very reputable detective," he said. "I was always under the assumption there was a mistake or a misunderstanding."

But District Public Defender William Davis still thinks criminal charges are appropriate.

"The State's Attorney's Office prosecutes many cases every year where the evidence is 'questionable.' I am not sure why they have decided not to pursue charges in this case and let a jury determine if the officer made an 'honest mistake,' " Mr. Davis said. "It is difficult to understand how a detective with many years of experi-ence and whose job requires that he be knowledgeable of various police forms used by the department, misinterpreted the report."

Assistant Public Defender William Cooke, Mr. Jonassen's attorney, added: "I've looked at the report. I don't know how anyone could misread it."

Mr. Jonassen, whose criminal history includes two convictions for misdemeanor theft and a third for possession of drug paraphernalia, was arrested Jan. 22 and charged with first-degree burglary, misdemeanor theft and felony destruction of property in connection with a break-in at a home on Thomas Road in Glen Burnie.

Those charges were based largely on Detective Tate's assertion the county's crime lab had matched Mr. Jonassen's fingerprints to those found at the scene.

"On 1-5-07 I received a positive hit on the palm prints that are identical to the defendant, Raymond H. Jonassen," Detective Tate wrote in charging documents after swearing under the penalties of perjury his statements were true to the best of his knowledge.

Investigators later discovered that wasn't the case and Mr. Jonassen was set free from the Jennifer Road Detention Center May 9 after serving 108 days.

Mr. Cooke said he always planned to question the veracity of the fingerprint match, but he never expected to find it hadn't happened. After several phone calls he learned the lab checked Mr. Jonassen's prints twice - once on Dec. 8, 2007, and again on May 9. The lab technician wrote in his first report the fingerprints on file for Mr. Jonassen were not good enough to make a positive match. He said in his second report the prints were not identical.

The report, which is basically a worksheet, contains a place to check whether the fingerprints are identical or not identical. Mr. Roessler noted the technician wrote in the Dec. 8 report, "see note below" next to "identical."

While the note in question actually told the detective the crime lab needed a better sample from Mr. Jonassen, Mr. Roessler said Detective Tate took that to mean there was a match. "It's a bad mistake, but its not a criminal mistake," Mr. Roessler said. He does not believe the report needs to be changed to make it easier to understand.

"I've never seen this happen before," Mr. Roessler said.

Sgt. Gilmer previously said the department first learned of the misstatement on June 19 from The Capital, which had learned of the situation from Mr. Jonassen.

Mr. Cooke, the assistant public defender, disputed the assertion no one told the department about the charging document foul-up before that. He said he left a voicemail for Detective Tate in late May, which was never returned, and traded several voicemails with Ernie Lowman at the crime lab.

Kristin Fleckenstein, spokesman for the State's Attorney Office, said Assistant State's Attorney Crighton Chase also tried to contact the investigating officer to no avail.

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Self-serving - August 29, 2008

Anne Arundel County once had a very corrupt police force. The corruption now isn't with police officers enriching themselves financially for personal gain. The corruption now is about the belief that the police are not accountable for their actions. The police now have enough people to tell that whatever they do is acceptable. The cult of police that has developed in the last few years means the police no longer feel linked to the community and instead feel impowered to conduct themselves as they please. This isn't just a county problem. This is the problem with most agencies. Drunk police officers drink and drive killing people and aren't accountable, federal police shoot people without cause and aren't held accountable, local police hold contest to see who can get the most naked pictures of young girls in the community, etc. Having the police investigate themselves is a self-serving mis-carriage of the ideals that this country was founded on. There isn't and shouldn't be an imperial class that is above questioning.