A District of Columbia police commander heatedly ordered one of his officers to “take back” a ticket he had written to an aide to Mayor Adrian Fenty, the officer’s union has claimed in a complaint.
After Seventh District officer Kevin Dean cited Isha Foster Lee for driving while talking on her cell phone, Cmdr. Joel Maupin called Dean on a cell phone and told him, “Dean, you are going to take that ticket back and that’s all there is to it,” according to the complaint, lodged on Dean’s behalf by the police union and obtained by The Examiner.
Lee is a neighborhood services coordinator for Fenty and one of the mayor’s public faces in Ward 8. Dean’s complaint disputes the public account offered by Maupin — that he pulled Lee’s ticket so that he could “review” it to make sure it was completed properly. Maupin also said that Lee only called to complain that Dean had treated her rudely.
According to the complaint, dated Oct. 5 and addressed to Assistant Chief Peter Newsham, the top police official for internal discipline, Lee was pulled over for driving while talking on her phone and grew indignant.
“I’m going to call Maupin,” Lee told Dean, according to the complaint, “and take care of this right now.”
Lee has not responded to requests for comment. Fenty spokeswoman Carrie Brooks dismissed the controversy as “he said, she said.”
“She never asked him to dismiss the ticket,” Brooks said. “Lots of citizens regularly call commanders. It happens all the time.”
A short while after Dean wrote the ticket, his sergeant approached, according to the union’s complaint.
The sergeant warned Dean that he had ticketed “the mayor’s press aide” and that “Maupin wanted him to take back” the ticket, the complaint states. Maupin ordered Dean by cell phone to bring the ticket in.
Maupin, who did not respond to requests for comment, told The Examiner earlier this month that Lee’s position in the Fenty administration had nothing to do with his “review.”
After The Examiner began asking questions about the ticket, Maupin said he checked it out, found that it was written properly and sent it on its way.
Police union chair Kristopher K. Baumann could not be reached for comment.
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