State police officer’s e-mail raises stir
Posted on Saturday, April 29, 2006
The Arkansas State Police’s lead investigator of a March 7 fatal shooting by a fellow trooper used his state-issued e-mail account to distribute a plea for donations to the indicted trooper’s criminal defense fund.
Sgt. Steve Coppinger said he sees nothing wrong with forwarding the e-mail to other Northwest Arkansas police off icers. The e-mail seeks donations for Trooper Larry Norman, who was indicted on a misdemeanor negligent homicide charge in the death of Joseph Erin Hamley, 21, of Springdale.
“I don’t see a conflict at all,” Coppinger said. “I typed in ‘FYI’ and forwarded the e-mail to a list of [police ] contacts. I didn’t ask anyone to contribute to the fund. At that point, the investigation was over, and Larry had already been indicted.”
Coppinger led the state police investigation into Hamley’s shooting. The Benton County prosecuting attorney’s office conducted its own investigation before asking that a grand jury be appointed to consider the case.
Norman shot Hamley — who was mentally handicapped and had cerebral palsy — along U. S. 412 in Benton County, believing that Hamley was a fugitive reaching for a gun, state police officials have said.
The grand jury indicted Norman on April 13. His arraignment is May 22 in Benton County Circuit Court.
The Arkansas State Police e-mail policy forbids employees from “sending, forwarding executable files, JPEG, bitmaps or other attachments unrelated to work activities.”
State police spokesman Bill Sadler said an inquiry is under way to determine whether Coppinger violated the policy.
Supervisors are interviewing Coppinger and will “examine his computer in an effort to determine the exact content of the e-mail that was forwarded,” Sadler said.
Coppinger said that a day or two after Norman was indicted, he received the e-mail seeking donations from a state police dispatcher assigned to Troop L in Springdale.
Dispatcher Terri Anderson sent the e-mail from her home computer and from her personal e-mail account, Coppinger said.
Days later, Coppinger said he forwarded the e-mail to the previously created police list. He has since deleted the e-mail as well as the forwarded version after his computer mailbox became full, he said.
Coppinger hasn’t donated to the defense fund but said he might.
“That’ll be my personal decision,” Coppinger said. “This fund is set up to help Larry. We’ve had several people contacting the state police, asking how they can help him.”
Norman was an officer at the Fayetteville Police Department from 1988-99, when he became a trooper at Troop L in Springdale.
Troop L commander Capt. Les Braunns said Anderson established a bank account on her personal time to help Norman.
Anderson said she thought she sent the e-mail to police officers at their personal e-mail addresses only, Braunns said.
She inadvertently sent a copy to Coppinger’s state police account, he said.
“This is a very passionate issue,” Braunns said. “The defense fund was established, but neither state police time or resources are being used. Whether or not these troopers and employees decide to contribute to the fund is their personal choice. These are human beings, and what they do off-duty is their choice.”
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