Months later, spotlight still shines bright on Moose

[gun-fucious]

_

Months later, spotlight still shines bright on Moose


by Manju Subramanya
Staff Writer
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feb. 5, 2003


Olivier Douliery/The Gazette

Police Chief Charles A. Moose ended months of water-cooler speculation recently when he signed book and movie deals to tell the story of the sniper crisis that paralyzed the region in October. More than three months later, Moose is still a celebrity, getting recognized in Hawaii as well as Montgomery County.


<snip>

Chief to donate some profits

Moose will write "Three Weeks in October: The Manhunt for the D.C. Sniper" with former Newsweek correspondent Charles Fleming, a Los Angeles freelancer who has written for Vanity Fair and Playboy magazines.

The book, slated for publication in the fall, will focus on the investigation but include a heavy dose of autobiography. Dutton has also acquired audio and book club rights.

Moose will tell the "inside account of the hunt" with "the equally compelling story of a black man coming of age in the late 20th century and his rise to the top of his profession in law enforcement," Brian Tart, Dutton's vice president and editorial director, said in a statement.

"When I realized that books on this subject were going to be published with or without me, I wanted to make sure that at least one book would be accurate and told with the dignity and gravity it deserves," Moose said in the same statement.

Moose, who earns $160,619 annually as police chief, plans to share profits from the book with a fund established to help families of the sniper victims, and with St. Luke's House Inc. of Bethesda and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va.

The announcement comes as the book deal faces scrutiny from the Montgomery County Ethics Commission. County rules forbid a public official from using the prestige of his office for private gain or from having secondary employment such as compensation through a book deal, unless a waiver is granted. In December, the ethics commission issued an advisory opinion forbidding police from receiving any compensation, except expenses, for speaking at events about the sniper shootings.

County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) is backing Moose, promising to help him overcome the ethics hurdle.

"The chief's story of that experience, as well as his life's work in law enforcement, is a compelling one, and I am very pleased that with the help of Dutton books, he will have the opportunity to tell it," Duncan said in a statement.

County Council President Michael L. Subin, saying the county's ethics laws are too narrowly drawn, promised to sign a waiver for Moose if Duncan asks.

For example, Moose had to turn down an invitation to speak at the University of Maryland because he could not accept the $10,000 fee they offered their speakers, Subin (D-At large) of Gaithersburg said.

"The chief has a personal and professional story to tell," he said. "Why shouldn't he be able to profit from it? Everyone else does."


</snip>

http://www.gazette.net/200306/montgomerycty/county/142394-1.html


>>>>>>

http://www.gazette.net/200306/montgomerycty/editorials/142293-1.html


Police Chief Charles Moose has landed in hot water with his plan to write a book about the sniper siege in October. The chief, who became a national hero with his steady work during the crisis, has signed a contract for a book and a screenplay based on his experiences.

Moose is being ripped for seeking to profit from his position as chief. The chief will seek a ruling from the county ethics commission.

Moose was pilloried this week by a columnist for The Washington Post who said the chief should give up the book or quit his job. That is ridiculous. The columnist of course defended Post reporters who are cashing in on the story by writing their own book on the subject.

The fact is that only the chief can provide this important historical document, original source material for one of the most important events in Montgomery County history. He should be allowed to write his story, and be paid for it.

The ethics rules of the county say that no employee can benefit from their public office, generally a praiseworthy rule. But the rulemakers cannot have envisioned a situation like this. The commission should give Moose a waiver.

 

[XLMiguel]

Yeah, riiiiight. Give 'em a waiver. Typical elitist rule-dodging, not to mention the arrogance & hypocracy of the media 'ho's pushing the notion that Moose was the brains behind the operation. No disrespect to Moose, I guess he's an OK guy, but let's get real, he was just the mouthpiece, the Feds were running the show once things went interstate. And would someone explain to me the ethics of publishing a book about a case that hasn't even gone to trilal yet. Doug Duncan is such a putz.

 

[moa]

Don't know how anybody in law enforcement would want to brag about the DC Sniper investigation. I thought it rather incompentent.

If the shooters had not virtually given themselves up, the authorities would still be looking for them.

They had about 1,000 investigators working on the case and:

1. They virtually ignored a secondary police be-on-the-lookout alert for a dark colored 1990 Chevy Caprice seen in the near vicinity of the DC shooting on the night of 10/03/03 driving with its lights out.

This shooting was the fifth one of the day, and occurred within a few miles of all the other shootings, which were all fatal.

2. The shooters were stopped about a dozen times for traffic stops in the vicinty of a number of the shootings. Apparently, their tags were run about ten times. And, nobody got a clue?

And, this is a car with firing ports cut into the trunk with socks stuffed in them.

3. And what where many of the 1,000 investigators doing? In some instances they were calling people up to make "appointments" to see citizens firearms, maybe test fire them, and ask questions.

This ought to be an interesting book.

 

[labgrade]

moa's

"If the shooters had not virtually given themselves up, the authorities would still be looking for them."

Subscribed & was just lurking this thread till I could later interject a lofty intellectual observation. You beat me & more succinctly, so I'll cough it up.

Yeah & duh! The shooters all but turned themselves in, fer cryin' out loud.

For anyone to think they actually "caught" this pair, or take credit for, is delussional.

Whatever the reasoning/s behind this criminal intent, these two were .... ahem, much less than "snipers" regardless of the hurt they put on those in the area.

Two things I gleaned from the incident/s:

- these two were nothing more than common thugs & so very sad that the likes of Moose, et al, could not have sooner found the "candle stick by Mr Mustard." ('course this in hindsight, but none of this ever did sit right w/me .... elaborate in PM, please)

- a real sniper-type, wanting to "do their thing" without getting caught would still be out there doing their thing.

So much, so wrong with this "investigation." .........

 

[CZ-75]

I hope we don't get more of those comments about him being a "hero" and us picking on him b/c he's black posts like the thread in Gen. Disc. did a week or so ago.


As to a "real" sniper, I always thought, were I al-Qaeda, that this would be a cheap way to terrorize the country and cripple the economy. Send out 100 two-man shooters to kill random persons at malls, gas stations, etc. across the country, moving to a location near you.

Sales would be down substantially. I guess al-Qaeda isn't as devious as i gave them credit...yet.

 

[gun-fucious]

or maybe:

al-Qaeda isn't

Moosie was the chief speaker in Annapolis today for a bill to require all firearms to be fingerprinted

he is acting more like a politician everyday

me wonders if any of Montgomery county's real police officers are on TFL?

dZ

 

[labgrade]

Ah, CZ-75, you ring too close to the truth.

A true "sniper-team" operating in 10 of our largest cities would just shut it all down - mostly due to The Newzies reports, if anything. In the days where we have "panic reports" when there's an expected 2-5" of snow .... if that .... (heavy sigh)

Still wondering where all these "sleeper cells" are somehow.

Latest drought in The West & 1/2 dozen "sleepers" with a few boxes of dollar-priced railroad flares could have burned us all out - infrastructure, et al.

& granted, I ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but .....

Makes me wonder.

 

[labgrade]

But gun-fucious (such a longer name) ,

Your premise would entail that "they" just needed some form of incident to further their agenda, no?

How dare you propose that there is some need of bleeding to further their outcome.

(paraphrased, I know, but close enough to the bone ... )

Moose, from all I saw (watching through The Newsies during - I am a newz junky/many mediums) was nothing more than an unsightly mouthpiece for "something else" going on. (affixes foil hat tightly)

...... (gathers thoughts - as if)

Nothing quite right here.

First off, & my initial thoughts/premise/s are on TFL archives, was a dedicated terrorist "attack," & I thought nothing to be more interrupting, nor able to catch, while such an inept attempt to stop. (as I recall - whatever)

Moose seems to be affirmative action in process ..... (hack up a hair ball)

 

[gun-fucious]

Moose's Ventures Raise Questions For Ethics Panel
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38447-2003Feb6.html
By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 7, 2003; Page B01


Six weeks after he announced the arrest of the Washington area sniper suspects, Montgomery County Police Chief Charles A. Moose established a for-profit consulting firm to deliver motivational talks, organize team-building exercises and offer pointers on crisis management and conflict resolution.

The venture is one of several off-duty opportunities that could place Moose at odds with the Montgomery County Ethics Commission, which forbids "using the prestige of office for personal gain."

Moreover, records show that Moose has failed to seek waivers from the commission, as required by county law, to pursue his post-sniper ventures, which also include an agreement with a New York publisher for a book about the case and a possible television movie. (Reporters for the Washington Post also have a contract to publish a sniper book.) Nor has Moose obtained clearance from the commission for the teaching position he has held since 2000, or for his paid service in the D.C. Air National Guard.

When asked yesterday why he had not submitted to an ethics review, Moose said the questions were unwarranted and motivated by the media's desire to damage his reputation.

"I don't know why I'm under attack," said Moose, who has pledged some of the profits from the book and movie deals to victims of the shootings and two other Washington area charities.

Later in the day, though, Moose phoned to say he had a change of heart.

"The rules are the rules," he said. "I enforce the rules, and I will fall on that sword."

Moose, who makes $125,000 a year as chief, said his failure to file requests for permission to seek outside employment was merely an oversight, and he added: "I'm going to rectify that. I'll be putting one in for the National Guard, and I'll be putting the paperwork in for Dutton publishing. Someone will have to decide if I need to resign from teaching this term."

In his previous job, as chief of the Portland, Ore., police department, Moose said, no such ethics restrictions existed and he didn't anticipate outside employment being an issue in Montgomery when he arrived in 1999.

County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) said that when he hired Moose, it was with the understanding that the chief would also teach and do consulting work, as he had in Portland. Moose started teaching an evening course in administration of justice at Montgomery College's Rockville campus soon after his arrival. He incorporated the consulting firm with Maryland on Dec. 2.

But the understanding did not exempt Moose from an ethics review. County employees are given six weeks to disclose their plans for outside employment to the Ethics Commission. Records of the commission's rulings are public and posted on the Internet. But ethics officials found no trace of Moose's applications. Then, after receiving an inquiry from The Washington Post, county officials conducted their own search.

Duncan said yesterday that he's "not sure how [Moose's] forms did not get sent to the Ethics Commission. They should have, and they're being sent now."

Edward B. Lattner, the associate county attorney who represents the ethics panel, said employees must get approval to moonlight in order to avoid conflicts of interest.

A liquor inspector, for instance, should not be allowed to work at a tavern. "There is always the potential for conflict if you're serving two masters," Lattner said.

The result is that more than 100 county employees seek -- and receive -- approval for a wide range of outside work each year. County attorneys teach law classes. Police officers work security.

But Moose's work on a book, or a tour on the lecture circuit, could present a range of ethical concerns for the county, according to Barbara McNally, the Ethics Commission's executive secretary.

Among the provisions likely to be considered when the commission meets on the Moose case Feb. 18 are prohibitions against an employee using a county job for personal gain and against displaying a title, uniform or county insignia in a private enterprise. Rules also bar disclosure of confidential information, which could include details of a police investigation.

Precedent appears to stand against Moose. In 1994, the commission denied a request by a department head who wanted to write a training textbook, drawing on expertise gained while employed by the county. The commission recently barred police commanders from accepting even nominal fees for speaking publicly about the sniper investigation.

Moose said yesterday that sudden fame, and the thicket of ethical issues attending it, caught him off guard.

When he walks down the street or dines in a restaurant, he is swarmed by well-wishers and pressed to pose for photos. Strolling in Annapolis yesterday, as he was pursued by a herd of television cameras and reporters seeking interviews, one fan handed him a pie.

He said his reaction to celebrity was to seize the opportunity with such ventures as the consulting firm, named "Two Moose -- A Caring Partnership," which he formed with his wife, Sandy. "We haven't made a single penny, but we remain hopeful," he said.

The Mooses had a similar business in Oregon, but that was before he became a familiar face on CNN.

"All of a sudden, a room full of 14-year-olds will now sit still and hear what I have to say about making good decisions in life," Moose said. "I think I should go talk to the 14-year-olds."

 

[gun-fucious]

The Chief Should Choose: The Job Or the Book

The Chief Should Choose: The Job Or the Book

By Marc Fisher

Tuesday, February 4, 2003; Page B01


If former shuttle astronauts now write books about their memories of the Columbia, there will be no ethics debate. When Al Gore and Rudy Giuliani publish tomes about their power trips after they've left office, there's no need to call the ethics police.

So why shouldn't Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose seek to get rich off his experience at the helm of the sniper investigation?

Because he is still chief of police. Because it's unethical to profit from your work as a public servant while you are serving the public. Because Montgomery's Ethics Commission recently barred police officials from accepting even token lecture fees for talking about the sniper case. Because 10 people died.

The chief says he's writing the book and pushing for a movie about his life because, "when I realized that books on this subject were going to be published with or without me, I wanted to make sure that at least one book would be accurate and told with the dignity and gravity it deserves."

Let's parse that statement: Accurate? Only independent reporting can navigate conflicting accounts of what happened inside the probe, of whether Moose was the hands-on architect of the investigation or a mouthpiece for his FBI and ATF colleagues. Dignity and gravity? In a Hollywood feature flick?

Of course, people here at The Washington Post and elsewhere in the news biz are trying to make a buck on the sniper case. The Post got an $85,000 advance for its book, which is set for publication in the fall. (Moose won't say how big his advance is; he says he'll give some of it to charity but won't say how much.)

By the time Lee Malvo and John Muhammad go on trial, the nation, for better or worse, will be awash in sniper books and endless TV reprises of last fall's trauma.

Newspaper people debate whether we should be in the book business: The "anti" side says we should stick to putting what we know in the next day's paper. The "pro" argument -- as Jo-Ann Armao, who runs The Post's local news operation, puts it -- is that readers benefit because writing a book opens up "a different kind of reporting" in which sources tell a fuller story on the condition that it not be published until a later date.

Should the police chief -- whose job description includes informing the public about police work -- save his story for a book? Should he create a conflict between his obligation to assist the investigation and his desire to sell the juicy stuff to his customers?

The chief reason the Ethics Commission should stop Moose is that it is unseemly for a public official to profit from his position while in office. If President Bush or FBI Director Robert Mueller proposed to take a mega-bucks advance for a book on the 9/11 attacks, he'd be shamed out of the deal in milliseconds. Why is Moose's deal any different?

This notoriously thin-skinned chief has sought privately to stop the Ethics Commission from commenting on his deal. By the time I called the commission, the staff refused even to identify its members.

Of the five members, Jerome Joseph, Veronique Silverman and Steven Shaw didn't return my calls, and Richard Reback referred me to the chairman, Elizabeth Kellar, who was helpful. She said the ethics panel, which screens requests from county workers who want to take on outside jobs, has not had to rule recently on employees who wanted to write about their work. What precedent exists shows how high the barrier is to Moose's plan: In 1994, the commission nixed a proposal by the head of a county agency to write and sell a training textbook because it would be based on expertise he gained on the county's dime.

Last year, the commission allowed 1,135 county workers to moonlight; most are police officers working as security guards, but there's also a fire and rescue worker who waitresses at Hooters, a firefighter who's a rural coroner, a police officer working as a fashion model, and a public works employee who doubles as a sportswriter.

But none sought to make money from work done for the taxpayers. Detectives didn't sell stories of victims they'd helped, firefighters didn't write screenplays about children they saved.

Telling stories is our job in the news business -- and we do it for profit. If Moose wants some of that coin, more power to him -- but only after he takes off the uniform.

 

[foghornl]

Isn't it amazing sometimes how long the 'spotlight' shines on such a 'dim bulb'..........................

 

[jmbg29]

Isn't it amazing sometimes how long the 'spotlight' shines on such a 'dim bulb'..........................

Substitute sickening for "amazing" and I'm on board.:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

 

[gun-fucious]

Moose Expresses Interest In Pr. George's Police Job

By Paul Schwartzman and David S. Fallis
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 11, 2003; Page B01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54144-2003Feb10.html
Montgomery County Police Chief Charles A. Moose has expressed interest in becoming chief in neighboring Prince George's County and has met with County Executive Jack B. Johnson within the last 10 days to discuss the post, according to sources with knowledge of the discussions.

Although initially eager to meet with Moose, who became a nationally known figure during the sniper shootings in the fall, Johnson is leaning toward another candidate to replace Police Chief Gerald M. Wilson, said one source with direct knowledge of the process.

The source, a high-ranking adviser in the Johnson administration, declined to identify the candidate but said the county executive would soon make an announcement.

Asked about meeting with Moose, Johnson chuckled and said, "I don't know anything about that."

Moose, through a spokesman, declined to comment.

According to sources, Johnson (D) and Moose met more than a week ago at the Bethesda home of Patrick V. Murphy, the former New York City police commissioner who is a consultant to Johnson on reforming the Prince George's force.

The meeting occurred after a Johnson associate called Moose to inquire about the credentials of another law enforcement official Johnson was considering for chief.

It was during that conversation that Moose volunteered that he would be interested in the job, sources said. Moose, who took over Montgomery's department in 1999, previously was the chief in Portland, Ore.

"We thought, 'What a coup,' " one source said.

But during their meeting, the source said, Johnson became concerned that Moose has not commanded a police force in an area with crime problems as serious as those in Prince George's, where homicides and robberies have increased in the past two years.

"His background in Portland and Montgomery isn't the strongest preparation for our problem, which is a murder problem," the source said. "He has never grappled with an inner-city problem."

Meanwhile, ethical questions surfaced about Moose's agreement with a New York publisher to write a memoir about the sniper investigation and about plans for a possible television movie. That controversy, however, was nothing more than a peripheral issue, one source said.

Wilson's status has been tenuous since he was named acting police chief by then-County Executive Wayne K. Curry, replacing John S. Farrell, in March last year. Five months passed before the County Council confirmed the 18-year veteran as the department's 13th chief.

His tenure was assured only through the end of last year, when Curry left office. Johnson has said that he was mulling whether to retain Wilson or bring in an outsider to run the 1,400-member force, which is the subject of a federal investigation into allegations of brutality.

Wilson, 39, has won praise from community and police union leaders for his accessibility and willingness to communicate, especially during a rash of police shootings in December.

But morale remains low among officers, who complain about low pay, a lack of appreciation and what they say is continual second-guessing by county politicians and residents. They are also unhappy that Wilson is seeking to implement significant internal changes -- such as rearranging shift schedules -- when it is unclear whether he will continue as chief.

Murphy, who was assigned an office at police headquarters one floor below the chief, described Wilson in a recent interview as conscientious but young for a chief, and "a product of this police culture."

"He suffers from the disadvantage of spending his whole career in one department," Murphy said. "You're limited in your outlook and perspective by the traditions of that one department. And this is a department that needs some change."