Officer was shot and killed after filing whistleblower complaint alleging police corruption

[Bjorn Against]

I will probably be accused of spreading conspiracy theories for posting this, but I am not going to offer you any theories. What I am going to do is post some facts that were reported by major Minnesota news outlets and let you decide for yourself whether or not you think something smells rotten. I am not here to make any accusations, but I do think there are some serious questions that need to be asked about this case.

Last summer Officer Scott Patrick of the Mendota Heights Police Department was shot and killed in the line of duty. I live just outside of Mendota Heights and this shooting happened just a few blocks from my sister's house. Mendota Heights a quiet middle class suburban community just outside of Saint Paul. Police shootings are rare around here so Officer Patrick's murder got a lot of media attention but it was not until this week that some very interesting new details were revealed about Officer Patrick, a man who appears to have been a good cop in a very corrupt police department.

Months before he was killed in the line of duty last year, shot while conducting a traffic stop, Patrick filed a whistleblower suit against the city and its police chief alleging retaliation for reporting two officers he thought stole a picnic bench.

Michelle Patrick will now take her husband’s place in that lawsuit, which is scheduled for trial days before the anniversary of his death. In an order earlier this month, Dakota County District Judge Martha Simonett granted Michelle Patrick’s motion to substitute for her husband in a July 27 jury trial.

“We lost Scott even before he was actually killed,” Michelle Patrick said Thursday, describing the way her husband often brought his displeasure with the department home at night.

Scott Patrick’s original complaint, filed in February 2014 in Dakota County District Court, accused Mendota Heights Police Chief Michael Aschenbrener of retaliating against him for reporting a theft by two other officers in 2008. Patrick also alleged that the department failed to provide adequate written notice regarding the nature of an internal affairs investigation before a 2012 disciplinary hearing.

http://www.startribune.com/local/302031311.html

Officer Patrick's widow is continuing the fight her late husband started, she is working to expose the corruption in the department.

"I have come across some paperwork stuff and learned he was bullied at work,” Michelle said. "And it's really hard because I didn't understand beforehand. He kept a lot he didn't want us to know. I knew things weren't right at work, but I left it up to him to tell us."

According to the lawsuit, the trouble began 7 years ago, when Officer Patrick saw 2 fellow officers moving a picnic table to city hall from the old Lilydale Tennis Club, which was being demolished. Patrick reported what he considered to be a property theft by city employees to Mendota Heights Police Chief Michael Aschenbrener, who, according to the lawsuit, thought it wasn't theft but a "mistake in judgment." Patrick filed a complaint against the chief alleging "a pattern of questionable ethics and criminal violations."

snip

Patrick documented the retaliation -- what he interpreted as payback. One day, his squad car was moved by a sergeant who parked it just inches away from another squad, keeping Patrick, who was admittedly overweight, from getting into his squad. There was also the time a label of rat poisoning was allegedly slipped into Patrick's locker. The officer didn't tell his wife about either incident. Same story with an email he received from the city shortly before he was killed. The city was offering him a settlement, early retirement, to leave the department.

snip

And just days before he was killed, Patrick was suspended once more, for a day, for failing to turn over the audio recordings he'd made documenting his conversations with the chief.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/28934517/officer-patricks-private-war-against-mendota-heights-pd

Earlier this year Brian Fitch was convicted of killing Scott Patrick, it must be noted however that no were no witnesses who saw Brian Fitch at the scene of the crime.

ST. CLOUD – Brian G. Fitch Sr. was convicted late Monday for the murder of Mendota Heights police officer Scott Patrick, a verdict that condemns him to life in prison without parole.

A Stearns County jury of seven men and five women also convicted Fitch of attempted first-degree murder for shooting at three St. Paul police officers who captured him after a shootout.

snip

In his closing arguments prosecutor Phillip Prokopowicz, standing at a lectern facing the jury, said “the time has come” for justice.

He acknowledged the weakest point in the state’s case: No one saw Fitch at the scene of Patrick’s shooting, and witnesses to the crime gave conflicting testimony about who was driving the Pontiac Grand Am that Patrick had pulled over.

http://www.startribune.com/local/south/290548811.html

As I said in the beginning I am not here to make accusations, what I will say however is that something smells very rotten in Minnesota.

[niyad]

1. as church lady would say, "how conveeeeeeeenient"

[libdem4life]

2. I think it's starting...no where to hide now. We're watching them watch us now. Lord help us.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. K and R. This starts out like Fargo.

And ends like Chinatown.

Creeeeeepy.

[subterranean]

11. Serpico comes to mind, too.

[GoneFishin]

4. That friggin' reeks.

[Dawson Leery]

5. Life in prison without parole.

It is rare that a cop is given such punishment. Yes, he killed another officer. That other office stepped far outside the blue wall, meaning that the establishment would rather he be dead and no ever tried for the murder.

[Bjorn Against]

12. I think the new information coming out may warrant a new trial

Maybe the guy is guilty, I really don't know but it sounds like the evidence against him was not real rock solid to begin with. Now that we are learning about what was going on with the whistleblower suit it raises all kinds of diubts.

[dionysus]

6. "saw 2 fellow officers moving a picnic table to city hall from the old Lilydale Tennis Club, which

was being demolished."

THAT?! of all the things to report to supervisers... that?!

[Bjorn Against]

7. There are lots of details that are still unclear

One thing is clear however and that is that this goes far beyond moving a picnic table. The situation may have started out petty but grew into something much bigger.

[dionysus]

8. i hope so. and obviously, being a douchebag over people taking a picnic table from a

condemned joint doesn't deserve retaliation.

but I do think people who would actually complain to their bosses about coworkers grabbing a picnic table from a place about to be demolished have issues. people like that don't usually have any friends.

"According to the lawsuit, when Patrick learned in 2011 that Aschenbrener still hadn’t addressed the 2008 theft allegation, Patrick assembled a police union meeting to discuss the matter." three fucking years later, he called a union meeting over a picnic table?!

[Bjorn Against]

9. They put a rat poison label in his locker

You don't know the whole story, placing a rat poison label in his locker is a death threat. I don't know why you are so focused on the picnic table when there is obviously a whole lot more to this story.

[dionysus]

10. the rat poison label makes it a whole other ballgame.