When Mayor Marilyn Strickland announced in May her choice of a Texas consultant to do an outside review of Tacoma police's Zina Linnik investigation, she made it clear his lack of local ties was an asset.
"For me, the fact that he is out of Texas and isn't local, I think is a plus because he comes to this with complete objectivity," Strickland publicly told fellow council members on May 17.
Three days later, the mayor learned from a local cop that former Arlington (Texas) Police Sgt. Mark Simpson had helped train several Tacoma officers, including one at the center of controversy in the Zina case.
For the next month, the mayor did not publicly mention Simpson's local training ties before the city hired him on June 24 to conduct "an objective and unbiased review" meant in part to improve public trust.
"I didn't think it was necessary to raise this publicly," Strickland said in an interview this week after The News Tribune learned about the connections.
Simpson, a retired officer with a national reputation for his work in child abduction cases, did not respond to requests for comment this week.
"He is an expert and definitely knows his stuff," said Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer, a detective who informed Strickland in May about Simpson's connection to local officers.
"But the problem is, he has instructed my group for the last three years – and that included a bunch of Tacoma officers, including Mark Fulghum. They sat in on his classes time after time after time after time again."
Four months before Terapon Adhahn abducted and killed 12-year-old Zina in July 2007, Simpson was one of the instructors who trained Fulghum and other Tacoma officers about child abduction investigative techniques at a seminar in Hawaii, records and interviews show.
Fulghum also confirmed this week he has attended two other training programs – one in 2006 and one in 2008 – where Simpson was an instructor.
"We did not socialize," Fulghum responded, when asked how well he got to know Simpson.
Strickland said this week she could have sought to hire a different consultant or to publicly disclose the matter. Instead, she opted to stick with Simpson without raising the issue. In private, she separately informed two council members about Simpson's local ties. "My job was to find the best possible person with the expertise and experience to lead this investigation," she said. "I think I did that."
TRAINING QUESTIONS
The training of Fulghum – the officer responsible for activating Tacoma police's Amber Alerts at the time Zina was abducted – has become an issue in a wrongful death lawsuit brought against the city by the Linnik family.
The suit contends the department's delay in issuing an Amber Alert contributed to the girl's murder. Lawyers for the family argue that, based on training, Fulghum and other Tacoma officers understood the alert should have been activated much sooner than the 12 hours it took.
The city denies those claims, contending Zina was killed shortly after her abduction and that it had no obligation to issue the alert. Before choosing Simpson in May to investigate the city's handling of the case, Strickland considered candidates with the help of the city attorney's office for more than two weeks. City police were not consulted, Strickland said.
The mayor acknowledged she didn't ask Simpson before selecting him if he'd ever trained any Tacoma officers, nor did he offer that he did.
After reading a news story in May about the mayor's choice to review the case, Troyer said he informed Strickland about Simpson's ties to local officers.
"I told the mayor that he's been an instructor of ours – both county and city folks – and that Mark Fulghum sat in on his class," Troyer said.
Troyer, who coordinates training for the multi-agency Child Abduction Response Team in Pierce County, said he did not attend the Hawaii seminar in 2007. In the years since, he has set up the local team's participation at various other training events. Thirty to 50 officers from across the country, including those from Tacoma, typically attended the classes taught by Simpson and other experts, he said.
"I don't have a problem with (Simpson), but your story said they were hiring him for an 'independent, objective investigation,' " Troyer said. "So, I just wanted to say up front that this guy isn't a stranger to us, we do know him. I didn't want it to become an issue after the fact."
Strickland thanked him, Troyer said. "She didn't say what she was going to do."
On June 24 – three days after the council authorized spending up to $50,000 for a review – Strickland and other city officials signed a contract with Simpson.
He will be paid $150 per hour, plus expenses, to complete a "comprehensive review" and submit recommendations to "strengthen the effectiveness of the Tacoma Police Department and improve public trust," the contract says.
'THEY'RE THE EXPERTS'
After Troyer told her about Simpson's local ties, Strickland said she took the matter seriously.
"I thought there could be an issue there and thought it was definitely worth exploring," she said.
Strickland called the administrator of the training program that employs Simpson to confirm he'd trained local officers. "I even asked if there was someone else that he could recommend," she said. "He expressed full confidence in Mark."
Strickland also called Simpson, who acknowledged Tacoma cops were among those he has trained, she said.
"It wasn't just Mark Fulghum who he trained, he trained a lot of Tacoma officers," Strickland said. "His group does training specifically for police departments across the country. So, I didn't think it was an issue. They're the experts."
Strickland noted she also opted against considering other candidates due to "the amount of time it would've added" to starting the review.
Simpson, who retired as a decorated sergeant in 2007, has since worked as a consultant specializing in child abduction cases for the Fox Valley Technical College. The college works with the federal justice department to provide nationwide training, including the "Investigative Techniques in Child Abduction Cases" program Simpson designed.
During more than 30 years as a cop, Simpson also led the task force that investigated the 1996 unsolved abduction and slaying of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman in Texas. The case led to development of the Amber Alert program.
AMBER ALERT CASES STUDIED
Accounts about the Hagerman case during the March 2007 training program in Hawaii made an impression on Fulghum, court records show.
During the 4½-day program, Simpson taught a module called "Investigative Case Management" and presented a case study on the Hagerman investigation, program agendas show.
Three years later, when a lawyer for Zina's family deposed Fulghum, she asked for examples of Amber Alert success stories he'd learned during the program.
"The main one was the Hagerman story from – or incident from Texas that started the Amber," Fulghum replied.
The Linniks' lawyers have since submitted the deposition's transcript and training agenda as part of the lawsuit's public case filings. Simpson's name is not listed among potential trial witnesses so far submitted. An Amber Alert expert from the University of Nevada-Reno is on the list.
Strickland said she consulted with City Attorney Elizabeth Pauli after learning of Simpson's local ties, but the possibility Simpson might be called as a witness in the wrongful death case "didn't come up," Strickland said.
During the same deposition in November 2010, Fulghum admitted he "went back to bed" after receiving a sergeant's call early on July 5, 2007, requesting an alert be activated for Zina.
Fulghum's actions partly caused the alert to be issued 12 hours after Zina's abduction, the deposition shows. His part in the delay wasn't publicly revealed until The News Tribune discovered and reported the details in April.
In May, after initially saying no further review of the case was needed, Strickland and City Manager Eric Anderson announced the city would pursue a third-party review.
The mayor this week stood by her choice of consultant.
"No matter who I chose to do this, we knew there would be some kind of criticism," Strickland said. "So, my job was to find the best person who had the experience and expertise to do this objectively. I'm confident that Mark Simpson is that expert."
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