Corpuz may have squelched inquiry

Tacoma City Manager Ray Corpuz Jr. quashed an internal-affairs investigation into domestic-abuse allegations against David Brame less than two weeks before Brame shot and killed his estranged wife and himself, according to internal police documents released yesterday.

The papers raise more questions about whether Corpuz and other city officials dismissed signs that may have foreshadowed the April 26 murder-suicide. The documents also raise concerns about how the Tacoma Police Department's Internal Affairs unit handled an anonymous complaint against Brame, the late police chief.

Among them:

• The head of the Internal Affairs unit gave a copy of the complaint to a police official directly involved in the allegations, instead of going over her head or to an outside agency.

• On orders from Corpuz, Internal Affairs did not investigate the complaint because it was anonymous, even though anonymous complaints are not typically ignored.

Lt. Robert Sheehan, head of Internal Affairs, received an anonymous letter April 15, demanding Brame be investigated after his wife, Crystal, had called 911 to report that Brame had "threatened to kill her" and that she feared Assistant Chief Catherine Woodard.

"We, as officers, demand that Chief Brame be investigated with the exact same fervor, lust, enthusiasm and diligence that you have shown when investigating patrol officers," said the letter, signed "Concerned officers of the TPD."

In a follow-up memo, Sheehan said he gave a copy of the complaint to his boss, Assistant Chief Richard McCrea, head of the department's Professional Responsibility Bureau. Sheehan also gave a copy to Woodard, even though she was mentioned in the complaint.

Sheehan said Woodard told him she would inform the city manager of the complaint. The next day, Sheehan was told by McCrea that "there would be no investigation per the city manager," Sheehan wrote. "This was due to the fact that it was anonymous."

McCrea and Sheehan could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum said this was the first he had heard of the memo and of Corpuz suppressing the investigation. He said it was not standard department policy to ignore anonymous complaints.

Retired Tacoma police Capt. David Olsen, a former internal-affairs investigator, said anonymous complaints were infrequent. "But when they came, they were investigated," he said. "You can't just ignore them depending on what the allegations are. It would be bad policy."

In fact, more and more departments, some compelled by lawsuits, now investigate anonymous complaints against officers, said Sam Walker, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and an expert on police accountability.

This one should have been given more gravity, said Olsen and Walker, because of the serious allegations.

They also criticized Internal Affairs for giving a copy of the complaint to Woodard. Olsen said that was tantamount to tipping off a suspect in a criminal investigation.

"That was wrong," Walker agreed. "You really need an independent investigator, and she was probably not independent if she was named (in the letter)."

Olsen and Walker said there was nothing wrong with taking the complaint to Corpuz, though an outside agency or prosecutor would have been preferable.

Corpuz and Woodard are on paid administrative leave, pending investigations into the murder-suicide. Both have denied wrongdoing.

Corpuz appointed Woodard acting chief after Brame's death but removed her less than a week later, citing "information accumulated since that time."

Corpuz placed himself on paid administrative leave a short-time later and announced plans to retire after investigations are completed by the state Attorney General's Office, the FBI and other agencies.

Corpuz and Woodard, through her attorney John Wolfe, said they could not comment yesterday because of the sensitivity of the investigations.

Corpuz faces intense scrutiny for hiring Brame as chief and keeping him on the job, despite red flags that included a past rape allegation against him and allegations of domestic abuse.

In a related document released yesterday, Sheehan wrote that on the day of the shooting he was ordered by Assistant Chief Don Ramsdell to investigate department leaks to the media.

He didn't identify what was leaked, but among documents that were given anonymously to some media outlets before the shooting was the police dispatch report from Crystal Brame's April 11 call to 911.

In it, Crystal Brame alleged that Woodard wrongfully accompanied David Brame to her parents' house to pick up Brame's two children for visitation.

"She's not supposed to be here because she's been threatening and intimidating me," Crystal Brame told the dispatcher. "She's an unwanted guest."

The source of the leaks was not found.

Ray Rivera: 206-464-2926 or rayrivera@seattletimes.com

Staff reporter Ian Ith contributed to this report.