Detroit cop's firing clouded by his history of shootings

It was a time card -- not gunplay -- that did in Eugene Brown.

The 44-year-old Detroit police sergeant has been a stone in the shoe of the department since 2000, when a Free Press series spotlighted his extraordinary record of nine shootings -- three of them fatal -- in just six years. The shootings cost the city millions of dollars in lawsuits and helped push the Police Department into federal oversight.

Defenders and critics say the police brass used allegations of cheating on overtime to finally oust Brown when all earlier efforts had failed.

"It seems they couldn't get him on what they thought he did, so they tried to get him on anything," said attorney John Goldpaugh, who helped represent Brown in the fallout over the shootings. "I believe they were just looking for any reason."

Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. wouldn't discuss the details of Brown's firing, but said he supports the decision.

Efforts to reach Brown at work and through his union and social media were unsuccessful.

But, he told the Free Press in 2000 that "my actions were justified."

It was learned last week that Brown was fired in December but remains on the job -- without his gun -- pending an appeal through arbitration.

But history says don't count Brown out: The brass has tried to fire him and deny him promotion, and they exiled the gung-ho street cop to a desk -- and he survived it all.

Cop firing reignites shootings debate

After more than 10 years, Detroit is still debating whether Eugene Brown is the poster child or scapegoat for Detroit's shoot-'em-up officers of the 1990s.

These old passions were rekindled last week when it was learned that Brown -- a onetime police officer of the year who fatally shot three people in nine shootings in six years -- had been fired in December for cheating on overtime. He remains on the job pending an appeal through arbitration.

Brown's gunplay was extraordinary, even in a department once notorious for its quick-to-shoot reputation.

"He was out there doing his job -- everything he did was found to be justified," said attorney John Goldpaugh, who helped defend Brown during that turbulent time. "He did his job, and he took care of business."

But Roosevelt Carrington Jr. says he still thinks Brown got away with murdering his brother.

"If he is dishonest on overtime, how honest was he on what happened in 1995?" Carrington asked last week.

Although the shootings are never far from any discussion about Brown, Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. said the firing has nothing to do with Brown's history: "Unfortunately, that had run its course."

But the pain is still fresh for the families of the men Brown killed.

"I haven't changed my mind about it being murder," said Carrington, whose brother Roderick Carrington, 30, was killed by Brown in 1995. "I would like to see the investigation reopened."

For the past decade, Brown has been manning a desk, handling time records and paperwork, a far cry from the gung-ho former Marine who once aggressively patrolled the streets of Detroit.

Brown, the police union's officer of the year in 1997, fell from grace in 2000 after the Free Press revealed that Detroit led the nation's big cities in the rate of fatal police shootings of civilians. The shootings cost the city millions of dollars in lawsuits and fed distrust and fear among Detroiters.

Brown became the face of the problem because of his record: He was involved in more shootings than anyone else on the force.

Amid an uproar over more questionable shootings, the U.S. Justice Department forced the department to undertake sweeping reforms, which are ongoing.

Detroit is still paying for the problem. The city has spent more than $10 million for court-appointed federal monitors, and the reforms are years behind schedule.

Though Brown had been cleared in all nine shootings, police officials ordered a new investigation that reached a different conclusion. But the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office conducted its own investigation and declined to charge him.

"Some of the cases were closer calls than others," but in the final evaluation, there was not enough evidence to bring charges, said Douglas Baker, who handled the investigation as a former assistant Wayne County prosecutor.

"Just the number of them raised suspicion," said Baker, who is now a special assistant Michigan attorney general.

Lawyers for the families of some of the dead men conceded that prosecution was unlikely because initial investigations cleared Brown.

But one of those lawyers, Juan Mateo of Detroit, said sloppy investigations and "mishandled evidence" stymied the later investigations.

Brown was not prosecuted, but the department put him behind a desk and tried unsuccessfully to block his promotion to sergeant.

He filed a lawsuit against the city in federal court over the promotion, but lost. He later got his stripes through arbitration.

Even though U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen dismissed Brown's lawsuit, he said the evidence suggested Brown "was used as a scapegoat to shield more senior police officials from public scrutiny and criticism of their handling of deadly force incidents."

Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, who was police chief during the Brown uproar, says in hindsight that Brown was a hardworking, aggressive cop whose shootings withstood repeated scrutiny by multiple agencies.

"I understand how this looks to the general public, but the fact is that every agency that looked at those shootings independently cleared him," Napoleon said. "If you're always responding to gun runs, to robberies, to shootings in progress; if you're always shaking the bushes, you increase the likelihood that you'll get involved in those events."

Herman Vallery II, the father of Lamar Grable, 20, whom Brown fatally shot in 1996 during what Brown described as a foot chase and struggle over a gun, says he will remain skeptical of Brown's dismissal until the sergeant actually leaves the force.

"I'll believe it when I see it," Vallery said. He added that by allowing Brown to continue working, the department seems to be saying that Brown "can do what he want to do and get away with it."

Grable's mother, Arnetta Grable, is skeptical, too.

"I'd be surprised if they actually fire him ... because it hasn't happened before and because so many of the family members and so many different attorneys have tried to get rid of him.

"He should have been gone a long time ago," she added. "This is a very dangerous man."

Eugene Brown

Badge number: S-114
Age: 44 Background: Grew up on Detroit's east side, graduated from Kettering High in 1985, then joined the Marine Corps, spending two years in Okinawa, Japan, then four more in the U.S., boxing, driving a tractor-trailer and hauling nuclear weapons. He was honorably discharged at the rank of corporal in 1991.
Employment: After returning to Detroit, he worked briefly as a security guard at Eastland mall before joining the Detroit Police Department in 1993. He has worked as a patrol officer, a member of then-Mayor Dennis Archer's security detail, harbor master and tactical services units, and the record-keeping section. He was promoted to sergeant in 2004, despite efforts by the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners to halt it.
Discipline: He has been reprimanded for wrecking two police cars, hanging up on an irate citizen, failing to keep accurate paperwork and allowing his scout car to roll into the rear of a supervisor's vehicle. He was fired in December for cheating on overtime. He remains on the force while he is appealing.
Quote: "My actions were justified," Brown told the Free Press in 2000.

Brown's shootings

1995
• Feb. 9: Fatally shot Roderick Carrington, 30, who Brown said attacked him with knives at a gas station at Grand River and West Grand Boulevard. A judge dismissed the family's lawsuit against Brown.
• May 20: Fired his gun, he said accidentally, while climbing a fence -- which collapsed -- during the chase of a car theft suspect. No one was hurt.
• Summer or fall: Fired at a car theft suspect who charged him, he said, with a screwdriver or anti-theft steering wheel lock. No one was hurt.
1996
• Jan. 2: Exchanged shots with a car theft suspect during a foot chase near Hogarth and Dexter on the west side, according to police reports. The suspect got away.
• Sept. 21: Fatally shot Lamar Grable, 20, who Brown said fired at him during a foot chase near Field and Kercheval. A Wayne County jury awarded Grable's family $4 million in 2003.
1999
• Jan. 22: Fatally shot Darren Miller, 33, who Brown said attacked him with a sledgehammer when Brown intervened in an alleged domestic assault at a motorcycle club near City Airport. The city settled out of court with Miller's family for $3.5 million in 2003.
• Summer: Fired into the ground, he said accidentally, when he tripped getting out of his scout car after chasing a motorist near Jos. Campau and Davison.
• Nov. 4: Fired when, he said, a motorist tried to run him over at the end of a car chase near Alter and Warren on Detroit's east side. The driver was wounded but recovered.
2000
• Jan. 12: Shot at shoplifters who allegedly tried to run him down at the end of a car chase near Tel-Twelve Mall in Southfield. No one was hurt.