Police brass do not make a practice of criticizing their chief in public, especially in testimony before the city council. In my 36 years covering the D.C. cops, through eight chiefs, not once can I recall a commander speaking out against the boss. So when Hilton Burton, commander of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Special Operations Division, contradicted Chief Cathy Lanier before the Judiciary Committee on Thursday, I knew we hadn’t heard the last of it.
Lanier was swift to tell reporters Burton had lied during his testimony.
Now Burton has asked his lawyer to explore whether he can sue the chief for libel or slander.
The subject of the hearing was how the MPD handles escorts for VIPs. Committee Chairman Phil Mendelson wanted to know why D.C. cops had met Charlie Sheen at Washington Dulles International Airport and sped through the region, sirens blaring and lights flashing, so Sheen could make a performance in downtown D.C.
Sheen outed the cops by tweeting his fabulous ride.
When Sheen’s tweet went viral, Lanier pounced on her troops. She said the escort was out of line, and she set in motion an investigation of the officers involved. Lt. Stuart Emerman, who authorized the escort, was busted back to patrol on June 5.
Lanier said such escorts are not police policy.
Burton, a 21-year veteran, was not amused, especially when he received an email directing him to say Emerman’s transfer had nothing to do with Sheen.
At Thursday’s hearing, Burton said he was testifying as a citizen who was “compelled” to set the record straight, because the explanation for Emerman’s transfer was “not truthful.”
He said: “I feel I cannot stand by and allow this continued distortion of the facts and the unmitigated attacks on the professional character of the members of SOD.”
Burton testified that Lanier herself had established the practice of escorting celebs when she ran SOD from 2002 to 2006. In fact, records show that Lanier had OK’d escorts of Paul McCartney, Billy Joel and others. My sources say that as police chief she still asks to be notified of the escorts so she can have her picture taken with the entertainers.
After Burton testified, Lanier told the panel Burton was mistaken, then told reporters he had lied.
Burton told me he had left the hearing and missed Lanier’s testimony, but he got wind that she had called him a liar.
“I told the truth,” he told me. “I have documentation. I don’t know where she’s coming from. I can refute anything she said.”
Burton, 44, worked his way up from patrol through the ranks to commander of the major narcotics branch from 1999 to 2001 and then commander of the Fourth District. In May 2010 he became commander of SOD, which includes SWAT teams.
Burton declined to comment on Lanier’s standing among her command staff; he has joined other male commanders in a complaint that Lanier has unfairly demoted males but never females.
Now he has put his lawyer, E. Scott Frison, on Lanier’s disparaging lines.
“We’re reviewing anything libelous or slanderous that was said,” he told me.
Is “Mutiny on the Bounty” playing out in D.C.?
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
