Dozens of celebrities, sports teams and even the president’s pardoned Thanksgiving Day turkey were given D.C. police escorts when Chief Cathy Lanier headed the division that doled them out.
Lanier testified during a Thursday D.C. Council hearing that she’s investigating 17 celebrity escorts from the past decade.
The hearing was called to look into the chief’s changing stance on escorts for celebrities following a high-speed ride given to actor Charlie Sheen in April. The list of 17 includes Beatle Paul McCartney, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera — all of whom were given escorts when Lanier commanded the special operations division from 2002 through 2006.
Not on her list of escorts to look into are those for football teams like the New York Giants, or the 2005 ride for the pardoned Thanksgiving turkey, which testimony and documents obtained by The Washington Examiner show also happened under her watch.
“Yes, we do escort the president’s turkey,” Lanier said.
| VIP rides |
| Among those who received police escorts while Chief Cathy Lanier’s headed the special operations division: |
| Justin Timberlake (Aug., 25, 2003) |
| Christina Aguilera (Aug. 25, 2005) |
| New York Giants football team (Dec. 4, 2004) |
| Paul McCartney (Oct. 8, 2005) |
| Louis Farrakhan (Oct. 14, 2005) |
| Billy Joel (Oct. 14, 2005) |
| Hillary Duff (June 10, 2006) |
| Source: Police records and D.C. Council testimony |
Escorts for anyone can be given with approval from the chief or mayor, she said. Lanier pointed to two department orders — one issued in 1974
— to support her claim. No one got the approval for Sheen, she said.
“If you violate [the orders] it’s like ignorance of the law,” Lanier said.
But it’s clear from records that such “ignorance” extended to when she ran the division. “Practices of conducting celebrity, sports teams … escorts have been in place for a number of years,” testified Cmdr. Hilton Burton, who now heads the special operations division. “The chief of police … knew or should have known about these escorts.”
Officers in the unit that approved the April 19 Sheen escort from Washington Dulles International Airport to DAR Constitution Hall testified the policies were never clear.
“The unanimous testimony was that they found the policies confusing,” said at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson, who ran the hearing.
Lanier also didn’t make them clear to the press following Sheen’s escort. Mendelson said that left the public befuddled. During the three days Lanier took to respond to media requests about the Sheen escort, Burton said that he was “ordered” to develop a division policy on escorts for celebrities. The Washington Examiner published the policy days later. It helped show how Lanier’s statements about celebrity escorts had changed from an absolute “no” to “sometimes.”
On Thursday, Lanier blamed the media for the confusion.
“I can’t control what snippet of what I say makes the paper,” she said.
That didn’t sit well with police union chief Kris Baumann.
“Instead of taking responsibility for completely mishandling the escort issue, Chief Lanier blamed the media [and] her own officials,” Baumann said. “While that tactic may be effective internally in the [Vince] Gray administration, it is poisonous inside the department.”
