Prosecutor puts officer on dubious list

A Richmond Police Department assistant chief has been placed on a Wayne County list that challenges his credibility.

The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office maintains a Brady-Giglio list of law enforcement officers subject to evidence that could discredit their testimony in court. U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the Brady and Giglio cases require prosecutors to disclose to defendants material that could impeach law enforcement witnesses, such as information about dishonesty, criminal conduct, bias, misuse of force or mishandling of evidence.

In an Oct. 9 letter, Prosecutor Mike Shipman informed RPD Chief Kyle Weatherly that Major Adam Blanton, an assistant chief and the department’s public information officer, was placed on the Brady-Giglio list. The letter addresses two issues for Shipman’s decision: a statement Blanton released on RPD’s Facebook page about two murder victims not being RPD informants and a statement attributed to Blanton in a Palladium-Item newspaper article that the “prosecutor’s office did not elect to pick up any charges” against a YouTube prankster.

Weatherly distributed a news release saying he and Blanton dispute Shipman’s placing of Blanton on the Brady-Giglio list “and the erroneous characterization of the events regarding that decision.” It says that RPD and Blanton are reviewing options to remedy the matter. “While we fundamentally disagree with the actions of Prosecutor Shipman, we are confident that this issue will be resolved appropriately,” it says.

When asked about the issue, Mayor Ron Oler said he could not say anything beyond the RPD statement.

Dominique Mejae Washington, 30, is charged in Allen County with murder in the deaths of Christina M. Dixon, 40, and Matthew J. Johnson, 41, whose bodies were found in the St. Mary’s River in Fort Wayne. The affidavit of probable cause against Johnson indicates that an RPD sergeant told investigators that Dixon and Johnson were both RPD confidential informants, providing information that led to a search warrant for the house of an individual connected to Johnson, who is identified as a known drug dealer.

After media reports about the murder case included the confidential informant information, Blanton posted on RPD’s Facebook page that the information Dixon and Johnson were informants was not accurate. Shipman’s letter says that this blanket statement itself is not correct, and further says both provided information to RPD that was used to receive a search warrant and that Shipman approved Dixon as a CI to purchase drugs.

Blanton issued a follow-up statement to a media outlet saying that RPD could not rule out that Dixon and Johnson provided RPD information at some point in their lives and that the sergeant mentioned them related to a separate investigation. Shipman’s letter indicates that Blanton told the prosecutor’s office that he received incorrect information from another officer.

Shipman told Western Wayne News in an email that he has an obligation to inform attorneys in Washington’s case about Blanton’s inclusion on the Brady-Giglio list and has done so.

Related to the YouTube prankster who attached himself to a pole, Shipman notes that responding RPD officers did not receive a case number or write a report about the incident; therefore, nothing had been submitted to the prosecutor’s office to consider charges. A case number was later assigned to the incident and a report submitted for the prosecutor’s office to consider a criminal mischief charge more than two weeks after the incident.

The letter also indicates that Shipman received a Palladium-Item reporter’s voicemail message on his personal cellphone indicating that Blanton had provided the reporter with Shipman’s number, then Blanton denied it when Shipman asked him not to distribute the number.