WASHINGTON — In her second day of testimony, Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier called the 2011 police escort of Charlie Sheen from Dulles airport “troublesome” but maintained that celebrity escorts by police are at times appropriate and necessary.
Lanier and the D.C. government are among those named in a whistleblower lawsuit by a former top officer who says he was demoted for speaking out about celebrity escorts. Capt. Hilton Burton says he was demoted two full ranks and removed as Commander of the Special Operations Division because of his remarks to the D.C. Council, in which he said that celebrity escorts were a common occurrence under Lanier.
On Monday, Lanier said officers “didn’t use good judgment” in agreeing to pick up Sheen, they “could have hurt somebody” as they sped to D.C. from Dulles, and the trip was a violation of policy for multiple reasons. However, Lanier accused Burton of claiming that celebrity escorts were numerous in order to “protect himself and his division” after performing an “unauthorized escort.”
Burton has accused Lanier of overseeing dozens of escorts while she headed the department’s Special Operations Division between 2002 and 2006. But Lanier said of those cases, only four involved actual celebrities and occurred while she headed the division, and she denied responsibility for them. Lanier said a 2003 escort of Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera happened while she was on two weeks of leave, and a 2005 escort given to Paul McCartney happened on a day she was not working. Lanier said she was working when a Billy Joel escort was said to have occurred but could find no record of it. She said a 2005 escort given to Louis Farrakhan was not authorized by her, and disciplinary measures were handed out afterward. Lanier said that she usually “denied, flat-out” escort requests.
A lawyer for Burton also asked Lanier about escorts that have happened during her time as Chief. Lanier said she did not know anything about escorts that were given to Bill Gates, Jay Z, and John Wall, and had no documentation on whether or not the assignments were appropriate. Lanier and other officers maintain anyone can be given an escort if it serves a public safety need.
But Lanier said that since the Sheen incident, the internal policy on escorts has been amended to give officers less discretion, since “apparently discretion wasn’t working well.”
Shortly after the Sheen escort and Burton’s statements to the council, Burton was demoted to captain and assigned to the Medical Services Branch before being sent to the fire department to help with internal investigations.
Lanier said she absolutely did not demote Burton in response to his council testimony and pointed instead to a long list of job-related issues. She said his crowd control measures during a parade were too aggressive, he gave officers in his division overtime assignments that should have been spread around the entire department, and he mishandled several standoff situations.
However, the judge earlier ruled the defense could not reference one of those standoffs, because the government had argued in another case that police had acted appropriately.
Burton’s suit asked for $6 million in addition to his former rank. Closing arguments are expected Tuesday.
