Bachman/Northwest Highway Community Association

Bolton / Lipscomb / FBI

Dallas Morning News Article

Bolton has history of tension with FBI

Chief was summoned to testify about police ties to Lipscomb

By Todd Bensman, Dave Michaels / Staff Writers of The Dallas Morning News

Published 11-11-1999

Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton, whose first weeks on the job have been marked by high-profile conflicts with the FBI, has had a stormy relationship with the agency for at least a year.

In the fall of 1998, while an assistant chief, he faced repeated questioning from federal agents conducting the public-corruption investigation of City Council member Al Lipscomb. Under pressure, Chief Bolton eventually testified about police commanders' relationships with Mr. Lipscomb, whose trial on bribery charges could start in January.

Chief Bolton declined to comment this week on his testimony but said that his recent decisions to move intelligence officers out of Dallas FBI headquarters were unrelated to any anger he might feel toward the FBI. He has cited various reasons for the moves, ranging from a desire to keep a closer watch over the officers to getting more cops to fight street crime.

Former Chief Ben Click, under whom Chief Bolton long served, said he saw no evidence that his successor did anything wrong in regard to Mr. Lipscomb. But Mr. Click also said that Chief Bolton seemed "irrational" in believing that someone in his own department and the FBI were trying to smear him.

"His anger was sustained. Looking back, I don't know if it ever went away," the recently retired chief said from his home in northern Arizona. "He left me with the impression that he felt someone had done this to embarrass him.

"For whatever reason, he completely misread that," Mr. Click added.

Chief Bolton disputed his predecessor's recollection.

"You've got to understand what has taken place here. I just moved 32 people he [Mr. Click] was fond of," he said, referring to the intelligence officers.

Through a spokesman, Chief Bolton criticized Mr. Click for not intervening to prevent him from having to testify. He said his predecessor knew that he had nothing to offer the federal investigators.

"Chief Click knew that and did nothing to help him," Sgt. Jim Chandler said, speaking on the new chief's behalf.

Mr. Click said he never would intervene in a federal investigation. "That would have been inappropriate, unprofessional and maybe illegal, " he said.

Mr. Click's recollection about Chief Bolton's anger was confirmed by other sources who were at police headquarters at the time.

"He was very upset," said former Executive Assistant Chief Robert Jackson, who recently retired after Chief Bolton demoted him. "He did not trust the FBI."

The FBI would not comment on the matter. Nor would the U.S. attorney' s office, which is prosecuting Mr. Lipscomb.

Mr. Click has questioned Chief Bolton's recent actions regarding the FBI. And he said he has been puzzled by other things the new chief has done.

Chief Bolton, for example, avoided him during the transition of power this summer, Mr. Click said. He said that his successor ignored repeated pleas to meet about the handoff of hundreds of pending business items.

Through a spokesman, Chief Bolton declined to address that subject.

Officers transferred

On his first day as leader of the Police Department last month, Chief Bolton ordered all intelligence officers housed at local FBI headquarters to return to city premises. That prompted the FBI's Dallas boss to accuse him of endangering "the welfare of Dallas and also the security of the United States."

More recently, the Police Department cut off work with an FBI counterterrorism task force, then restarted it in response to criticism.

In addition to separating police officers from federal agents, Chief Bolton has transferred veteran intelligence Lt. Ken Lybrand and two sergeants to unrelated night jobs.

Also among Chief Bolton's first moves was to reassign the intelligence unit's top commander, Willard Rollins, to the graveyard shift at the county jail. Chief Click, after demoting Executive Assistant Chief Rollins to captain for leaving the scene of an alleged minor traffic accident, left his reassignment to Chief Bolton.

Mr. Click said he was surprised that Capt. Rollins was put in that job. Chief Bolton has said he would have fired him instead of demoting him.

The new chief has said he may reduce the size of the intelligence unit, whose duties range from investigating police corruption and monitoring suspected terrorists to protecting the mayor and dignitaries.

"I think everybody knows that what he's doing with the intelligence unit is just because he was [expletive] at the FBI for questioning him on the Lipscomb thing," a highly placed law enforcement source said. "It's just payback."

No one disputes the basic facts surrounding Chief Bolton's involvement in the case of Mr. Lipscomb, who is accused of taking money from a local taxicab owner in exchange for favorable votes.

Additionally, federal agents questioned whether Mr. Lipscomb asked a high-ranking police commander in 1996 to ease late-night patrol raids on several topless bars in northwest Dallas, law enforcement sources have confirmed.

The FBI was casting a wide net at the time, questioning other council members and businessmen about a range of issues. No charges resulted from this line of questioning.

FBI Agent Don Sherman first questioned Chief Bolton about the topless bar issue in November 1998, Mr. Click and other sources confirmed. The interview occurred the same month that Chief Click approved a plan to let intelligence officers use FBI office space for their local investigations.

Chief Bolton was further incensed when the questionings continued later and he was subpoenaed to testify, Mr. Click and others said. Mr. Click recalled him saying that he didn't want to appear and vowing, "They're not going to embarrass me."

Also subpoenaed were Chief Bolton's working papers going back to 1992, when he was appointed commander of the northwest patrol division. At one point he met in vain with the FBI's local commander, Agent Danny Defenbaugh, to seek a reprieve.

FBI office space

Of the 38 officers that Chief Bolton ordered to leave FBI headquarters, about 25 had been borrowing FBI office space for the last year and worked strictly on local cases, officials say. They had been moved to free up space at cramped city offices.

About 10 others had been at FBI headquarters for years, working on various task forces addressing national and international crime issues that cross into Dallas-area jurisdictions.

Chief Bolton initially ordered all to leave as one group, regardless of their different tasks. After objections from the officers and the FBI, he backed away from that position.

Mr. Click, FBI spokeswoman Marjorie Poche and other law enforcement experts said the 10 task force officers were considered indispensable. But the public, they said, also benefited by having the 27 tenant intelligence officers close to the FBI.

"They had a good thing over there," said Jim Adams, who oversaw the Dallas FBI office between 1995 and 1998. "They had all kinds of access to federal government equipment and programs that have to do with intelligence gathering."

The informal arrangement helped solve crimes such as bank robberies and kidnappings, he said. If the relationship breaks down, he said, "the only loser is the general public."

Mr. Click said the arrangement was a victory in his effort to build a working relationship between police and the FBI after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Through his spokesman, Chief Bolton said Wednesday that his decision to move the intelligence officers was based on rising crime rates.

"It's something that he had been thinking about for some months, " said Sgt. Chandler, the spokesman.

Thirty-six percent of the department's officers respond to 911 calls, which the chief says is below average for major cities. At the same time, the department had a bloated intelligence unit, he said.

The chief has since committed to sending 100 officers back to the streets.

Chief Bolton was also surprised at the backlash to his decision because Dallas officers originally left city offices simply because of a shortage of space, not in the interest of public safety, Sgt. Chandler said.

"Even the executive assistant chief, Rollins, was making plans to relocate his office to the FBI headquarters," the sergeant said. "Again, that had nothing to do with public safety."