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Accountability in the Richmond Police Department is long overdue. This is a story about Jason Norton, William "Jody" Blackwell, and how record-keeping and policy failures in the department blurred the lines between deceit, incompetence, and indifference. https://link.medium.com/797PiAAZ87
With all that's happened over the last month (protests, police use of force, not one but *two* new chiefs of police, etc.) you might have missed another story about the Richmond Police Department. https://richmond.com/news/local/crime/special-prosecutor-declines-charges-against-former-richmond-detective-citing-missing-documents/article_5e29b79d-201f-52bf-9c1f-a88993effc2c.html
Former Richmond detective Jason Norton was investigated for using flawed affidavits to obtain search warrants. Did he intentionally include false information or was he so negligent that he regularly made errors? Whichever it was, the impact was the same: invalid search warrants.
The affidavits included descriptions of police informants who, according to Norton, had provided information that showed there was probable cause for a search warrant. But if the informants weren't reliable, the judge wouldn't find the information they shared credible.
So the informant description was basically a resume. It listed all the concrete results gained from information shared by the informant (like searches, arrests, and convictions). But there were problems with Norton's descriptions...
Norton used illogically different descriptions for the same informant. He also used identical descriptions for what he claimed were different informants. And when his claims were investigated? Records that should have supported his claims were absent.
The Richmond Police Department, specifically the confidential informant program, had very detailed policies on record-keeping. Norton consistently failed to follow them. Why didn't anyone notice? Or if they did, why didn't they correct his behavior?
As it turns out, Norton wasn't the only person using confidential informants who wasn't following department policies. Instead, required informant records weren't being created *in general.*
To make a VERY long story short, Norton was investigated by federal and state authorities, over a dozen convictions related to his search warrant affidavits were vacated, and he was sued by (and settled with) many of those whose convictions were overturned.
But the VA Beach Commonwealth's Attorney concluded last month that they would not pursue any criminal charges against Norton. The reason will make you angry, but it might not surprise you after reading this thread.
