Three weeks before a federal judge ordered an investigation into how police department attorneys lost crucial evidence in a civil rights lawsuit, Attorney General Peter Nickles hailed a central figure in the widening scandal as “an exemplary lawyer,” a letter obtained by The Examiner shows.
Terry Ryan has been general counsel of the D.C. police department for more than a decade. He’s under intense scrutiny after U.S. Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered a probe into how key police department records, subject to a subpoena from 400 some people suing the city, disappeared or were destroyed after being handed over to Ryan’s office. Nickles has promised the judge to get to the bottom of the case but has resisted pressure for an outside investigation.
In a July 8 letter to the police union, Nickles told the police union that he was “personally very familiar with Mr. Ryan and am extremely pleased with his performance.”
“He is an outstanding … employee and an exemplary lawyer. Mr. Ryan has never been anything less than professional in his treatment of anyone,” Nickles wrote.
Nickles was responding to a union request for yet another investigation into Ryan’s conduct. Police union Chairman Kris Baumann says he’s being illegally targeted by an internal investigation seeking the source of media leaks.
Hundreds of innocent bystanders were rounded up and hog-tied by D.C. police cracking down on anti-World Bank protests in 2002. Lawyers suing the city on the bystanders’ behalf said in court papers that police department’s “running resume” — a log of department orders — as well as audio recordings of police conversations were destroyed after they were handed up to Ryan’s office. Sullivan said he was horrified by the revelation and ordered Nickles to explain what happened.
Nickles has brought in retired Judge Stanley Sporkin to review the matter, but critics say that Nickles can’t be trusted to run his own inquiry.
“It’s clear that the attorney general and his office aren’t in the position to conduct an independent investigation,” plaintiff lawyer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard said.
Ryan didn’t respond to requests for comment. Nickles said he “absolutely stood by” his praise for Ryan.
“I see nothing that points to Terry Ryan,” he said, adding that he trusted Sporkin to deliver a fair examination. “I’m going to stand back and let [Sporkin] advise me.”
