Two District police officers and one civilian employee have been disciplined for their roles in the investigation of the David Rosenbaum attack, The Examiner has learned.
The most serious punishment, according to a June 28 memo from Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey, was a 10-day suspension for a civilian crime scene technician who failed to collect blood samples at the Gramercy Street Northwest crime scene. “The police have gotten off too easily,” said D.C. Council Member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the judiciary committee, who asked Ramsey to provide the information.
Much of the public attention had been paid to emergency medical personnel, Mendelson said. But the police department also was singled out in a recent Inspector General’s report slamming the whole of the city’s response. MPD officers failed on numerous fronts, the IG found, from securing the scene to searching Rosenbaum for identification.
In addition to the 10-day suspension, one officer was officially reprimanded for combining photos of the Rosenbaum homicide with those of a burglary on the same roll of film, “thereby compromising the integrity of the evidence,” according to the memo. The other officer was “counseled and documented” for a violation of a field reporting general order.
The officers were not named. A police department spokesman declined comment.
Marcus Rosenbaum, David Rosenbaum’s brother, said those “who screwed up ought to be held accountable.” But the real problem, he said, is an “impaired work ethic” throughout public safety agencies “that goes up and down the line.”
In its report, the Inspector General recommended that MPD immediately review and reissue general orders relating to officer responsibilities at emergency incidents, and suggested assigning quality assurance responsibilities to the senior officer on a call.
