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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesFBI: COP-CITIZEN CLASH 'NOT A FEDERAL MATTER'

FBI: COP-CITIZEN CLASH 'NOT A FEDERAL MATTER'

After a brief review of a March incident involving an off-duty policeman, another police officer and a private citizen on St. John, FBI officials have decided not to conduct a full-scale civil rights investigation.
FBI San Juan bureau spokeswoman Sarah Lema said agents looking into the case could not find evidence of any federal civil rights violation against St. John villa rentals courtesy car driver Kelly Giggenbach.
The FBI looked into the case "from our own initiative, our own determination," Lema said. "We found they [the police] did not identify themselves as police officers."
The federal agency has the authority to investigate possible civil rights violations when there is evidence that police have abused their status as law-enforcement officials, Lema said. But since the officers did not identify themselves as police in this case, she said, they were not abusing their police powers at the time.
According to news media accounts, off-duty police officer Eugene Somersall confronted Giggenbach while she was involved in a dispute with taxi drivers over a parking space near the Cruz Bay dock. A Police Benevolent Association official who represented Somersall and Officer Lorraine Sprauve at a May 11 hearing before Police Chief Jose Garcia said when Somersall asked Giggenbach for her driver's license and motor vehicle registration, she walked away without responding.
A witness for Giggenbach told the police chief Somersall grabbed the woman by her breast and repeatedly bounced her against a car, then grabbed her by the throat to keep her from screaming. Six witnesses appearing at the hearing in defense of Somersall said no such altercation took place.
Sprauve was charged with failing to take police action.
"We're not saying it didn't happen," Lema said Tuesday of the alleged assault. "We're saying it's not a federal matter."
PBA officials said that, following the May 11 disciplinary hearing in his office, Garcia sent his recommendation to Police Commissioner Franz Christian that all charges be dropped against both Somersall and Sprauve.
On May 12, the day after the hearing, Garcia said it would be up to the commissioner to make the final determination on disciplinary charges. But PBA president Elroy Raymo said Wednesday that only rarely does the commissioner reverse a recommendation made by the police chief. As far as the union is concerned, Raymo said, the matter has been settled.
Christian released a statement in April promising full disclosure of the case after the hearing was over. Since the hearing nearly two weeks ago, he has made no comment.

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