Tragic News Story(you need to read)
01-06-2003, 03:28 AM
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Tragic News Story(you need to read)
This is going to be posted on a few boards. Mods please leave this on them. I am putting it on each General page and the Off Topic page
The following is a Tragic but true story. Please help spread this to your local news stations and national news sources. http://www.herald-citizen.com/NF/omf...51+[cr=gdn
Please read here below or click the link and get the word out
'Felony stop' leaves family traumatized
Mary Jo Denton
Herald-Citizen Staff
It was the most traumatic experience the Smoak family of North Carolina has ever had, and it happened yesterday afternoon as they traveled through Cookeville on their way home from a vacation in Nashville.
Before their ordeal was over, three members of the family had been yanked out of their car and handcuffed on the side of Interstate 40 in downtown Cookeville, and their beloved dog, Patton, had been shot to death by a police officer as they watched.
What was their crime?
There was no crime.
But a passerby with a cell phone apparently assumed a crime had occurred when a wallet flew from a car on Interstate 40 near Nashville.
That citizen called police and inadvertently set in motion what would make it the most horrible vacation the James Smoak family of Saluda, North Carolina, has ever had.
Today, the Smoak children and their parents were still weeping over what happened to them in Cookeville.
By today, they had also filed complaints with two police agencies, prompting internal investigations, they had met with Tennessee Highway Patrol Capt. Randy Hoover, and they were on their way to talk to Cookeville Mayor Charles Womack.
Because official internal investigations are underway at the Tennessee Highway Patrol and at the Cookeville Police Dept., the Herald-Citizen was unable to get details of those two agencies' accounts of the incident.
But the Smoak family willingly told their story to anyone who would listen; they hope by doing so that something might be done to prevent it from happening to another family.
James Smoak, 38, who was traveling in the family station wagon with his wife, Pamela, their 17-year-old son, Brandon, and the family's two pet bulldogs, Patton and Cassie, had lost his wallet after stopping for gas as they left Davidson County on Wednesday afternoon.
But he didn't know he lost it. Apparently, he had placed it on top of the car while pumping gas, and it flew off somewhere on the highway a short time later.
Not knowing his wallet was lost, he and his family traveled on, heading east on their way home to North Carolina.
A few cars behind James and Pamela's station wagon, his parents and the two younger Smoak children were traveling in the elder Smoak's car.
Just a few miles east of Cookeville, James Smoak began to notice that a THP squad car was following him, though the officer was not pulling him over, just staying behind him, changing lanes any time Smoak did, moving in and out of traffic each time Smoak did.
"It was obvious he was looking at me, not at other vehicles, and I'm thinking I must have done something (in my driving), but I don't know what," Smoak said today.
When Smoak reached the 287 exit area in Cookeville, three other police cars suddenly appeared, and the trooper then turned on blue lights and pulled the Smoak car over.
"I immediately pulled to the side, and expecting him to come to the window, I started reaching for my wallet to get my license and it was not there," Smoak said.
About that time, he heard the officer broadcast orders over a bullhorn, telling him to toss the keys out the car window and get out with his hands up and walk backwards to the rear of the car.
Still not knowing what he was being stopped for, Smoak obeyed, and when he reached the back of the car, with a gun pointed at Smoak, the trooper ordered him to get on his knees, face the back of the car and put his head down.
When he did that, the officer handcuffed him and placed him in the patrol car. Then the same orders were blared over the bullhorn to "passenger" and Pamela Smoak got out with her hands up, was ordered to the ground, held at gunpoint, and handcuffed. Next, Brandon was ordered out and handcuffed in the same way.
Terrified at what was happening to them for no reason they knew, the family was also immediately concerned about their two pet dogs being left in the car there on the highway with the car doors open.
"We kept asking the officers -- there were several officers by now -- to close the car doors because of our dogs, but they didn't do it," said Pamela Smoak.
And as the officers worked in the late evening darkness, their weapons drawn as the Smoaks were being handcuffed, the dog Patton came out of the car and headed toward one of the Cookeville Police officers who was assisting the THP.
"That officer had a flashlight on his shotgun, and the dog was going toward that light and the officer shot him, just blew his head off," said Pamela Smoak.
"We had begged them to shut the car doors so our dogs wouldn't get out, and they didn't do that."
As the dog was heading out of the car toward the officer, "we had yelled, begging them to let us get him, but the officer shot him," she said.
Grieving for their dog and in shock over their apparent arrest for some unknown crime, the family could only wait. At one point, one state trooper did tell them they "matched the description" in a robbery that had occurred in Davidson County, Pamela Smoak said.
The ordeal went on for a time after that, the family terrified and in grief over the dog.
Finally, after a time, someone in authority figured out that the officers here had stopped and were holding the very family that someone in Davidson County had assumed had been robbed, though how that assumption grew to the authorization for a felony stop, James Smoak cannot understand, he said today.
"Finally, they asked me my name and I told them my name, date of birth, and other information, and they talked by radio to someone in Davidson County and finally realized that a mistake had been made," he said.
"A lady in Davidson County had seen that wallet fly off our car and had seen money coming out of it and going all over the road, and somehow that became a felony and they made a felony stop, but no robbery or felony had happened," Pamela Smoak said.
"Apparently, they had listened to some citizen with a cell phone and let her play detective down there," said James Smoak.
"Here we are just a family on vacation, and we had to suffer this."
When the officers did discover the mistake, "they said, 'Okay, we're releasing you and we're sorry,'" Smoak said.
As soon as Brandon was released from the handcuffs, he rushed over to the dead dog and began to cry, Smoak said.
And that's when one of the most infuriating parts of the ordeal happened, according to James Smoak.
"I saw one of the THP officers walk over to the city officer who had shot the dog and grin," he said.
He reported that to the supervising officer, THP Lt. Jerry Andrews, and Andrews "was very nice, very professional," Smoak said.
"He told me the officer was not laughing, but I know he was," said Smoak.
Smoak's parents had come along behind the other car and had seen all the commotion and stopped too, and now all three children were crying over their pet dog, as they were still doing today.
The Smoaks gathered the body of their pet and went to a motel here to spend the night. But they didn't get much rest, and at one point, James Smoak became so upset he had to go to the hospital for medical treatment.
They also worked throughout last night to contact all the authorities they could in order to lodge their complaints about what had happened.
Today, Beth Womack, a THP spokesperson in Nashville, told the H-C that an Internal Affairs investigation is underway and that every effort will be made to "find out exactly what happened and why."
"As I understand it, a report was made in Davidson County to our officers that this car had been seen leaving at a high rate of speed and that a significant amount of money had come out of the car and someone became suspicious," she said.
An internal investigation is also underway at the Cookeville Police Dept., Capt. Nathan Honeycutt told the H-C today.
James Smoak wonders about the logic of "a robber who would be tossing the money out of the car."
He also wonders about police procedure that would "take this insinuation from a citizen" and "turn it into what happened to us."
"Out there after they handcuffed us at gunpoint and put us in the police cars, they did not ask for ID, and later on, they actually released us just on my word about my identity, with only the confirmation by radio from an officer in Davidson County who was looking at my lost wallet and the ID in it down there," he said. "What if I actually had been a robber and not just a family man on vacation?"
His children hope they never come to Tennessee for another vacation.
"Poor Patton," said 13-year-old Jeb Smoak. "When he was killed out there, it was the first time I ever saw my brother, Brandon, cry. Brandon is the toughest person I've ever met, and he cried."
The other dog, a puppy named Cassie, was "trembling all over" after the ordeal, Jeb Smoak said.
"She's being real quiet today. She knows we're all grieving."
James Smoak, though still deeply upset today, said he understands that "the officer will say the dog was coming after him."
But it could all have been prevented, didn't have to happen, he is convinced.
In addition to telling his family's story to Capt. Randy Hoover, who "was very nice and very professional," and to a Cookeville Police official last night and to Mayor Womack today, Smoak also plans to tell his lawyer, he said.
"And I also want to tell it to the Tennessee Department of Tourism," he said.
Published January 02, 2003 11:54 AM CST
The following is a Tragic but true story. Please help spread this to your local news stations and national news sources. http://www.herald-citizen.com/NF/omf...51+[cr=gdn
Please read here below or click the link and get the word out
'Felony stop' leaves family traumatized
Mary Jo Denton
Herald-Citizen Staff
It was the most traumatic experience the Smoak family of North Carolina has ever had, and it happened yesterday afternoon as they traveled through Cookeville on their way home from a vacation in Nashville.
Before their ordeal was over, three members of the family had been yanked out of their car and handcuffed on the side of Interstate 40 in downtown Cookeville, and their beloved dog, Patton, had been shot to death by a police officer as they watched.
What was their crime?
There was no crime.
But a passerby with a cell phone apparently assumed a crime had occurred when a wallet flew from a car on Interstate 40 near Nashville.
That citizen called police and inadvertently set in motion what would make it the most horrible vacation the James Smoak family of Saluda, North Carolina, has ever had.
Today, the Smoak children and their parents were still weeping over what happened to them in Cookeville.
By today, they had also filed complaints with two police agencies, prompting internal investigations, they had met with Tennessee Highway Patrol Capt. Randy Hoover, and they were on their way to talk to Cookeville Mayor Charles Womack.
Because official internal investigations are underway at the Tennessee Highway Patrol and at the Cookeville Police Dept., the Herald-Citizen was unable to get details of those two agencies' accounts of the incident.
But the Smoak family willingly told their story to anyone who would listen; they hope by doing so that something might be done to prevent it from happening to another family.
James Smoak, 38, who was traveling in the family station wagon with his wife, Pamela, their 17-year-old son, Brandon, and the family's two pet bulldogs, Patton and Cassie, had lost his wallet after stopping for gas as they left Davidson County on Wednesday afternoon.
But he didn't know he lost it. Apparently, he had placed it on top of the car while pumping gas, and it flew off somewhere on the highway a short time later.
Not knowing his wallet was lost, he and his family traveled on, heading east on their way home to North Carolina.
A few cars behind James and Pamela's station wagon, his parents and the two younger Smoak children were traveling in the elder Smoak's car.
Just a few miles east of Cookeville, James Smoak began to notice that a THP squad car was following him, though the officer was not pulling him over, just staying behind him, changing lanes any time Smoak did, moving in and out of traffic each time Smoak did.
"It was obvious he was looking at me, not at other vehicles, and I'm thinking I must have done something (in my driving), but I don't know what," Smoak said today.
When Smoak reached the 287 exit area in Cookeville, three other police cars suddenly appeared, and the trooper then turned on blue lights and pulled the Smoak car over.
"I immediately pulled to the side, and expecting him to come to the window, I started reaching for my wallet to get my license and it was not there," Smoak said.
About that time, he heard the officer broadcast orders over a bullhorn, telling him to toss the keys out the car window and get out with his hands up and walk backwards to the rear of the car.
Still not knowing what he was being stopped for, Smoak obeyed, and when he reached the back of the car, with a gun pointed at Smoak, the trooper ordered him to get on his knees, face the back of the car and put his head down.
When he did that, the officer handcuffed him and placed him in the patrol car. Then the same orders were blared over the bullhorn to "passenger" and Pamela Smoak got out with her hands up, was ordered to the ground, held at gunpoint, and handcuffed. Next, Brandon was ordered out and handcuffed in the same way.
Terrified at what was happening to them for no reason they knew, the family was also immediately concerned about their two pet dogs being left in the car there on the highway with the car doors open.
"We kept asking the officers -- there were several officers by now -- to close the car doors because of our dogs, but they didn't do it," said Pamela Smoak.
And as the officers worked in the late evening darkness, their weapons drawn as the Smoaks were being handcuffed, the dog Patton came out of the car and headed toward one of the Cookeville Police officers who was assisting the THP.
"That officer had a flashlight on his shotgun, and the dog was going toward that light and the officer shot him, just blew his head off," said Pamela Smoak.
"We had begged them to shut the car doors so our dogs wouldn't get out, and they didn't do that."
As the dog was heading out of the car toward the officer, "we had yelled, begging them to let us get him, but the officer shot him," she said.
Grieving for their dog and in shock over their apparent arrest for some unknown crime, the family could only wait. At one point, one state trooper did tell them they "matched the description" in a robbery that had occurred in Davidson County, Pamela Smoak said.
The ordeal went on for a time after that, the family terrified and in grief over the dog.
Finally, after a time, someone in authority figured out that the officers here had stopped and were holding the very family that someone in Davidson County had assumed had been robbed, though how that assumption grew to the authorization for a felony stop, James Smoak cannot understand, he said today.
"Finally, they asked me my name and I told them my name, date of birth, and other information, and they talked by radio to someone in Davidson County and finally realized that a mistake had been made," he said.
"A lady in Davidson County had seen that wallet fly off our car and had seen money coming out of it and going all over the road, and somehow that became a felony and they made a felony stop, but no robbery or felony had happened," Pamela Smoak said.
"Apparently, they had listened to some citizen with a cell phone and let her play detective down there," said James Smoak.
"Here we are just a family on vacation, and we had to suffer this."
When the officers did discover the mistake, "they said, 'Okay, we're releasing you and we're sorry,'" Smoak said.
As soon as Brandon was released from the handcuffs, he rushed over to the dead dog and began to cry, Smoak said.
And that's when one of the most infuriating parts of the ordeal happened, according to James Smoak.
"I saw one of the THP officers walk over to the city officer who had shot the dog and grin," he said.
He reported that to the supervising officer, THP Lt. Jerry Andrews, and Andrews "was very nice, very professional," Smoak said.
"He told me the officer was not laughing, but I know he was," said Smoak.
Smoak's parents had come along behind the other car and had seen all the commotion and stopped too, and now all three children were crying over their pet dog, as they were still doing today.
The Smoaks gathered the body of their pet and went to a motel here to spend the night. But they didn't get much rest, and at one point, James Smoak became so upset he had to go to the hospital for medical treatment.
They also worked throughout last night to contact all the authorities they could in order to lodge their complaints about what had happened.
Today, Beth Womack, a THP spokesperson in Nashville, told the H-C that an Internal Affairs investigation is underway and that every effort will be made to "find out exactly what happened and why."
"As I understand it, a report was made in Davidson County to our officers that this car had been seen leaving at a high rate of speed and that a significant amount of money had come out of the car and someone became suspicious," she said.
An internal investigation is also underway at the Cookeville Police Dept., Capt. Nathan Honeycutt told the H-C today.
James Smoak wonders about the logic of "a robber who would be tossing the money out of the car."
He also wonders about police procedure that would "take this insinuation from a citizen" and "turn it into what happened to us."
"Out there after they handcuffed us at gunpoint and put us in the police cars, they did not ask for ID, and later on, they actually released us just on my word about my identity, with only the confirmation by radio from an officer in Davidson County who was looking at my lost wallet and the ID in it down there," he said. "What if I actually had been a robber and not just a family man on vacation?"
His children hope they never come to Tennessee for another vacation.
"Poor Patton," said 13-year-old Jeb Smoak. "When he was killed out there, it was the first time I ever saw my brother, Brandon, cry. Brandon is the toughest person I've ever met, and he cried."
The other dog, a puppy named Cassie, was "trembling all over" after the ordeal, Jeb Smoak said.
"She's being real quiet today. She knows we're all grieving."
James Smoak, though still deeply upset today, said he understands that "the officer will say the dog was coming after him."
But it could all have been prevented, didn't have to happen, he is convinced.
In addition to telling his family's story to Capt. Randy Hoover, who "was very nice and very professional," and to a Cookeville Police official last night and to Mayor Womack today, Smoak also plans to tell his lawyer, he said.
"And I also want to tell it to the Tennessee Department of Tourism," he said.
Published January 02, 2003 11:54 AM CST
01-06-2003, 10:47 AM
#3
Race Director
Re: Tragic News Story(you need to read) (Lord_Auric)
Police make mistakes, and it sounds like they really messed up this time. If the family gets a sharp lawyer, they will be getting a few dollars for this one. Unfortunately, their family pet is gone forever, and hopefully the police officer will receive some type of a reprimand.
I'm not trying to be a pain here, but what does this have to do with ZR1's, or even corvettes in general? If you post it in off topic fine, but why here?
I'm not trying to be a pain here, but what does this have to do with ZR1's, or even corvettes in general? If you post it in off topic fine, but why here?
01-06-2003, 10:56 AM
#4
Melting Slicks
Re: Tragic News Story(you need to read) (Lord_Auric)
Most cops think they are above the law.. to bad, it give the good cops a bad wrap!
My guess is the cops involved may get a couple weeks vacation (Suspended with pay...) if they even get that. :bs :bs :bs :bs :bs
My guess is the cops involved may get a couple weeks vacation (Suspended with pay...) if they even get that. :bs :bs :bs :bs :bs
01-06-2003, 12:08 PM
#5
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Re: Tragic News Story(you need to read) (Bans25)
That type of behavior does not suprise me a bit. Law enforcement down here in San Antonio is a joke. :reddevil
01-06-2003, 06:35 PM
#7
Administrator
Re: Tragic News Story(you need to read) (Lord_Auric)
Tis s h e "Drop_Top_Dave," a professional polie officer. This is what you need to read!
:iagree:
Yes its an awful story. However, I wasn't there. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but no one else posting here was there either. Obviously, MOST people here have already made up their minds one way or the other. Nothing I say is going to change that.
Also, threads like this are one of the reasons I no longer frequent glocktalk.com. Every day some new thread would pop up about some grossly negligent or criminal act perpetrated by the police on some innocent victim. The LEO's on that board were always put in the position of having to defend their profession. I come to the Corvette Forum to enjoy myself, not to defend my actions or the actions of my colleagues. I spend enough time doing that at work, I don't want to do it here. Jesse (Cor99vette) and I had a conversation about that very thing a while back. I explained to him why I try not to even get involved in these "discussions". I'm only posting here because Mainieac IM'ed me and also specifically asked me by name. Otherwise, I would have MAYBE just skimmed this thread and moved on.
The point was made that you don't have to be a LEO or have LE experience to have an opinion. That's absolutely correct. But until you've stood on the side of a dark stretch of highway and faced an unknown threat from a strange car with thoughts of your friends and family streaming through your mind... Until you've been cursed, assaulted, spit on, threatened, and yes even shot at... Until you've had to serve as pall bearer at a cop's funeral and stood at attention all pressed and spitshined when you really just want to curl up in a ball and cry... Until you've strapped on body armor and a pistol and saddled up a patrol car... Until you've done these things, you're really in no position to second guess.
Also, threads like this are one of the reasons I no longer frequent glocktalk.com. Every day some new thread would pop up about some grossly negligent or criminal act perpetrated by the police on some innocent victim. The LEO's on that board were always put in the position of having to defend their profession. I come to the Corvette Forum to enjoy myself, not to defend my actions or the actions of my colleagues. I spend enough time doing that at work, I don't want to do it here. Jesse (Cor99vette) and I had a conversation about that very thing a while back. I explained to him why I try not to even get involved in these "discussions". I'm only posting here because Mainieac IM'ed me and also specifically asked me by name. Otherwise, I would have MAYBE just skimmed this thread and moved on.
The point was made that you don't have to be a LEO or have LE experience to have an opinion. That's absolutely correct. But until you've stood on the side of a dark stretch of highway and faced an unknown threat from a strange car with thoughts of your friends and family streaming through your mind... Until you've been cursed, assaulted, spit on, threatened, and yes even shot at... Until you've had to serve as pall bearer at a cop's funeral and stood at attention all pressed and spitshined when you really just want to curl up in a ball and cry... Until you've strapped on body armor and a pistol and saddled up a patrol car... Until you've done these things, you're really in no position to second guess.
01-06-2003, 07:39 PM
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Re: Tragic News Story(you need to read) (David Haag)
That type of behavior does not suprise me a bit. Law enforcement down here in San Antonio is a joke. :reddevil
01-07-2003, 04:54 PM
#10
Drifting
Re: Tragic News Story(you need to read) (Lord_Auric)
The off topic section is where this post should be Why would you post it on all the general forums......it has nothing to do with ZR1,s ...Mods need to move it ..I come here to read and talk Zr1,s :mad