At the start of the District’s Independence Day Parade, Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier happened to pull up alongside Hilton Burton, commander of the Special Operations Division. In addition to overseeing SWAT teams, Burton and his division provide escorts for parades — and rock stars and movie actors. They exchanged a glance, but there were no smiles between the chief and her commander. Last month Burton had called Lanier a liar at a D.C. Council hearing, and they haven’t had much to do with one another since.
The war of words erupted over police escort policies because bad boy Charlie Sheen sent tweets of police cruisers clearing his way from Washington Dulles International Airport into D.C. for an April 19 appearance. Lanier threw a public snit, said her department was not in the practice of escorting celebs and proceeded to demote two of Burton’s officers for violating police policy.
Three problems: Cops know that Lanier had OK’d escorts of rock stars when she was commander of SOD from 2002 to 2008. General orders on escorts are old and murky. And Burton is a solid citizen who was not going to stand for Lanier demoting two of his men — done, in his estimation, to cover her rear.
So Burton called out Lanier in public testimony about her “distortion of the facts” and explanations of the transfers that were “not truthful.”
Cops don’t criticize their chief. The war was on.
A week ago D.C. Inspector General Charles Willoughby issued a report concluding that the Sheen escort had been an “accepted routine MPD practice for a number of years” and that the officers involved had not acted “cavalier or contrary to established practices.”
In other words, Lanier had not told the truth in her testimony.
“I’ve been smiling from ear to ear,” Burton told me. “It vindicated everything I said to the council. The report isn’t flattering to our department, but it lays out the practice. For the chief to continue to say we don’t do escorts is simply not true. It was part of the practice when she ran SOD.” And he has documents to prove it.
Lanier has been backing and filling. In her written response to my colleague Freeman Klopott, she said the IG report did not refer to celebrity escorts. It absolutely did. She said the department’s general order is clear; it is not, according to Willoughby.
What’s clear is that Cathy Lanier has a Hilton Burton problem. The department’s escort policies will get sorted out, but how does a chief deal with a top commander who stood up to her, called her a liar, and is still standing? And has been vindicated by an independent report? Burton has hired a lawyer to explore a libel suit against Lanier, too.
Lanier is in a bind: If she demotes Burton — a 21-year veteran with a stellar record — she’s open to charges of retribution; if she lets him stay, he becomes an example of public defiance. Others may be emboldened.
And more truths about the D.C. police could emerge.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
