Senator Kay Hagan's recent nominations for the position of U.S Marshal merit additional discussion. Recall that she had nominated former GPD officers Al Stewart and W.R. Stafford.
There are a couple of things we learned from the Bledsoe series regarding the factionalism that existed in the Greensboro Police Department. There were black and white factions. But also, there was a faction of officers that supported Bill Stafford for chief, and a pro-Wray faction. Wray and Stafford had competed for the job of chief, and I suppose there may have been some ill feelings between the two groups at various times.
When she made these nominations, Kay Hagan essentially picked sides in the factional dispute that had major implications with respect to the manner in which the GPD fiasco was handled.
Examples of how all of this played a role with the events that unfolded are cited in a Bledsoe installment that describes how Wray was being set up and undermined by others:
As for high-ranking officers who went to (Mitchell) Johnson, Wray knew that Johnson was fully knowledgeable about the split within the command staff – what Johnson referred to as the Hatfields and McCoys. Johnson would have known to whom to turn to get whatever complaints he needed from top officers.
Wray had no doubt that former Assistant Chief Bill Stafford, who had been his primary rival inside the department for the chief's job, had helped Johnson. Stafford, who retired in 2004, had opposed many of Wray's policies and decisions, and he continued to have influence among the anti-Wray faction. Stafford was friendly with Johnson and occasionally had lunch with him...
The RMA report revealed that in the summer of 2004, Bowman "became so concerned about the investigative actions of [Detective Scott] Sanders, as well as the lack of GPD supervision of Sanders, that he shared those concerns with retired GPD Capt. Al Stewart."
Stewart once had been captain of Vice and Narcotics. He also was among the anti-Wray faction in the command staff. He retired on July 31, 2003, the day Wray was named chief. Wray knew him to be a hard worker, and described him as "intense, opinionated and always critical of whoever was in charge." After his retirement, Stewart became an investigator for then District Attorney Stuart Albright.
Stewart had supervised Sanders and Detective Brian Bisset, a federal task force officer who had worked with Sanders in investigating James Hinson's ties to cocaine cartel leader Elton Turnbull.
"Stewart was aware of some previous issues involving the possible veracity of Sanders and the motives of Bisset regarding J. Fulmore," the RMA report said. "Stewart stated that both Sanders and Bisset openly expressed their 'hatred for J. Fulmore' often accusing him of being corrupt with nothing to substantiate such claims."
If RMA investigators made an attempt to determine whether Stewart's claims were true, they did not present the evidence.
The report went on to say that after Sanders was transferred to Special Intelligence, Stewart had called the captain over that unit, Bill Stafford, to tell him that Sanders was "a loose cannon and couldn't be trusted." The report also said that Stewart had tried unsuccessfully to have Bisset transferred for "insubordination" and had "counseled him several times about his 'attitude regarding Fulmore.'"...
Wray said that he questioned Deputy Chief Brady about Sanders. Brady told him that Sanders had a good reputation in Vice and Narcotics, he said, and that he had been moved to Special Intelligence by Bill Stafford because Stafford, who was in charge of the unit at the time, had previously worked with Sanders and had confidence in him. Wray said he also questioned Capt. Richard Hunt, who had worked with Sanders in several capacities.
"Hunt said, 'Sanders is great; he hustles, does good work.' At that point, I didn't have any kind of huge flag, or anything with this."
Al Stewart came to see him in July, about four months after his conversation with Bowman and more than a month after Fulmore was suspended and a new investigation had begun, Wray said.
He didn't remember Stewart telling him the things that were attributed to him in the RMA report.
"He talked about Sanders," Wray said. "He talked about what a great officer Fulmore was and how he'd take 10 Fulmores over a Bisset or Sanders. He said that Sanders didn't like Fulmore and it was a vendetta. He said he had to watch Sanders like a hawk when he was commander over there. I said, 'Al, give me something solid here.' And he couldn't give me anything except that he just didn't like Sanders. Al didn't give me anything to work with at all, just generalities, nothing but an informed opinion. He didn't give me examples of bad stuff. And this quote where Al says either you're stupid if you don't recognize it, or I'm ashamed of you if you do, Al Stewart never said that to me.
"Al made his point. I listened and said thank you. I wasn't going to jump on Al's train."
Wray said that he looked for evidence that Sanders and Bisset had acted irresponsibly or were on a vendetta and couldn't find it.
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