May

29

Police Chief Faces 5 Years in Jail for Saving Lives

May 29, 2008 | By PA Pundits |

Police Chief Faces 5 Years in Jail for Saving Lives

My name is Mary Thompson and my husband, Richard, is the Chief of Police here in Crawford, Nebraska.

He’s also a father — and grandfather — who could be sent to prison for five years.

All for defending himself in the line of duty against an armed and dangerous suspect!

For the past seven years Richard has been the Chief of Police here in Crawford.

I am worried — worried that my husband will be locked away in prison with cop-hating criminals just for doing his job!

Richard was on duty when he heard that
a man by the name of Jesse Britton was wanted in connection with a string of burglaries in the area.

Britton had a long criminal record — including 16 appearances in juvenile court.

Most recently, he had just been released from a juvenile detention center.

Witnesses told my husband that Britton had stolen a Ruger revolver — and that he had threatened to kill his girlfriend, the local school superintendent, and my husband with it.

The local high school immediately went into “lockdown” after Britton’s threats, in order to prevent another Columbine or Virginia Tech massacre.

Meanwhile, Richard and Officer Dan Kling tracked Britton down to an abandoned bar.

They posted three officers outside in case Britton tried to make a run for it.

Once inside, they heard someone moving on the floor above.

Richard walked up the narrow stairwell to the bar’s office and storage area.

It had no windows and was completely dark.

Richard turned on his flashlight and swept it around the room. Suddenly the light landed on a large desk in the back.

And crouched low behind the desk was Jesse Britton!

Knowing he could have a gun, Richard shouted, “Show me your hands! Show me your hands!”

But Britton refused.

Instead, he rose slowly out of his crouched position and pointed the Ruger revolver he had stolen directly at my husband’s forehead.

Richard had only a split-second to react.

First yelling, “Drop it! Drop it!”, he then fired two shots from his service revolver as he ducked backwards to avoid the aim of Britton’s gun.

One shot hit Britton.

Meanwhile, Officer Kling heard the shots and fired twice at Britton as well, hitting him at least once.

Britton died at the scene.

Richard was devastated.

If Britton had just stood up and showed them his hands, it would have been a routine arrest. And this troubled young man would still be alive.

Under Nebraska law, a Grand Jury had to be convened, as well as a routine investigation.

The Nebraska Attorney General said that since Britton had been shot after pointing a gun at the officers and ignoring their orders to drop the weapon, he fully expected Richard and Dan to be cleared.

So imagine our shock when the Grand Jury indicted Richard on charges of “Second Degree Assault!”

According to the Grand Jury, Richard should have retreated, run out of the room, and surrounded the building instead of shooting Britton.

They said his actions were “reckless.”

Yet Officer Kling was not indicted.

After the indictment, Richard was immediately suspended without pay from the police force.

He’s facing trial later this year.

And if convicted, he could be sent to prison for five years.

For 23 years he has risked his life as a sheriff’s deputy, police officer, and Chief of Police.

I can’t believe my husband could go to prison for doing his job — as he was trained to do.

And even if Richard does survive the trial, we will be devastated financially.

Now Richard has gone without pay since last November — more than five months!

And now we could be facing over $100,000.00 in legal bills.

Thankfully, something we do have is the support of the good folks at the .

If you’ve heard of LELDF, then you know they defend innocent police officers like Richard who have been forced to make split-second decisions in the line of duty.

is a member of their Board of Directors.

And they have told us they will do everything they can to defend Richard from these unfair charges.

For the first time since this nightmare started, I finally have some hope.

But my hope also depends on you.

You see, LELDF is a non-profit organization — which means they don’t receive one dime of funding from the federal government.

It also means I’m going to swallow my pride and ask you a very hard question.

Would you please consider sending a contribution to LELDF today to help them fund expert witnesses, legal research, and attorneys for Richard’s trial?

Your gift of any amount is tax-deductible.

But most importantly, your gift could be the one thing that keeps Richard here at home with his family where he belongs…
… instead of sending him to prison for five years for a crime he didn’t commit!
Please — I know when you looked at our photo that we are just strangers to you.

But I see a husband… a father… a grandfather… and a family that will be further torn apart if Richard is sent to prison.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

And thank you on behalf of every wife of an American police officer. I hope they never go through a nightmare like ours. (Please click here to show your support)

Sincerely,

Mrs. Mary Thompson

P.S. If shooting a suspect who’s pointing a gun in your face is “reckless,” then sooner or later every police officer in America will be behind bars. Won’t you please help LELDF defend my husband today for doing his job - and doing it right? Thank you again!

Sphere: Related Content

Tagged with , , , , , , , |

Filed Under: Common Sense, PA Pundits

Trackback URL


Comments

7 Comments so far

  1. Jay on May 31, 2008 11:22

    Very tragic story for everyone involved including the family of the 16 year old victim. Obviously Chief Thompson deserves the best legal defense, but am unsure why the public plea? Since this happened during the line of duty, you would think that the Municipality of Crawford is obligated to provide this! Furthermore, you would think that since he has not been convicted he should be put on PAID leave. Not sure who represents the chief, but something is not right here.

  2. Marjorie Edwards on May 31, 2008 11:57

    This police offioe should be profoundly thanked by the people in his community. Whenever you have any kind of emergencey, from traffic accident to health problem the first thing you do is reach for a phone to call the police for held. And they always come. Without law enforcement officers the world would be a wild and dangerous place for the majority of citizens. Each day when an officer goes to work he places his life in harm’s path for our safety, and for a low salary that few of us would consider equal to the service they provide. This officer should be thanked and sent home to his family. Any and all charges against him should be dropped and removed from his record.

  3. Dave on June 2, 2008 14:19

    This is ridiculous, cops are put on the street to save lives, and that is what this man did. If were going to turn around and sue and prosecute every cop that uses force to save the lives of others, we might as well give them stuffed animals to throw at bad guys.

    Peace through Strength.
    Stop tying the hands of our heroes or we’ll end up with only dead heroes.

  4. Tabby on June 13, 2008 23:08

    Well Mary has quite a pretty way of putting things doesn’t she. Did she leave a little of the story out. Like the countless reports of abuse from Rick the people of Crawford endured. From harassment of inocent people to the killing of peoples pets. Or maybe she left out that Jessie was a child. He was wrong in the matter but it was to Rick’s knowledge that he was there and he did not need to die. The biggest problem I have with the whole thing is the fact that they could have saved the boy. No one was called to talk the boy out. They came to our school finally brow beat one teen to telling them where he was then rushed the place. The boy was scared to death. I listened to messages on various students cell phones of Jessie the day before they found him. He was so scared he was backed into a corner that a little communication first would have been the right move and could have saved this small community from spliting even further down the middle. Low and high class. I hope Rick is faced with this everyday. A sixteen old boy’s face. Everyday. The city of Crawford is better off with out Rick.

  5. PA Pundits on June 14, 2008 13:49

    Hello Tabby,

    I entered this article as a public service announcement and trusted the source.

    I checked all the sources I could find and have no way of proving or disproving your claims.

    With nothing to go on, I approved your comment with the hopes that you or someone else will provide proof of your claims.

    BTW: Jessie is 16, NOT a Child! He’s a young adult (Certainly an immature one) with the ability to know Right from Wrong! Calling him a child (a 3 to 6 year old or so) is an Emotionalism; a play on words to elicit an emotional not a reasoned response.

    FYI: Jews at the age between 12 - 14 are Bar or Bat Mitzvah and they have the responsibilities of an adult. They are morally responsible for their own actions. As well as many other cultures and even here in the USA.
    We know that someone at that age is capable of reasoning, barring certain mental/physical conditions that would prevent mental development.

    It is always a tragedy when someone is killed or Kills others. Why didn’t someone in that small town reach out to him before this? Or did they and were rebuffed?

    Thank you in advance for any Facts that can shed light on this tragedy.

    —Ed

  6. Tabby on June 17, 2008 13:08

    Ed there is a story about some of this from the ACLU on the following website (which is also one of the local papers). http://www.chadronnews.com/articles/2008/06/11/chadron/opinion/news70.txt. There are more stories there I am sure.

  7. PA Pundits on June 17, 2008 22:10

    Tabby,
    Thank you for this information.

    As much as I distrust the ACLU, I must say this was a fair article, not accusing or slandering anyone. It was written in such a way that we all can agree with it. However it provided no proof of wrong doing nor did it claim to.

    It seems with matters like this, you can lop off about 10%, or so, off both sides of the argument, the Pro and the Con, and what you end up with is closer to the truth.

    I guess we’ll have to wait and see what develops in the hearings.

    Please keep us informed of any other developments.
    —Ed

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind

If your comment/trackback doesn't show up, please refer to the Comment & Trackback Policy Page.

Bad Behavior has blocked 3600 access attempts in the last 7 days.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.

This site is created and edited using Dreamweaver 8.
Posts are created using Windows Live Writer.
We suggest viewing this site using Firefox at 1280 x 1024.