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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017 04-02 His "investigtors" had questions. So did the real police PIONEER PRESS A: MainPage 1 of 4 His ‘investigators’ had questions. So did the real police. > Singleton Incident at restaurant led to questions about of law enforcement — and the way he talked during the organization — and a charge of providing unlicensed 2015 Barway Collins case distressed police officials, who security work thought the public could be fooled into thinking he was either an officer By Tad Vezner SINGLETON, 5A tvezner@pioneerpress.com A man who Minnesota legislators think looks a bit too much like a cop for comfort says he’s allowed to have his own style. But police believe that style borders on the illegal and have charged him with a crime. The charges against David A. Singleton, chief executive of Minnesota Community Policing Services Foundation Inc., indirectly stemmed from his group’s “investigation” into a lynching photo at a Roseville restaurant, to work he did for a St. Paul health clinic that serves the poor. David A. Singleton, center, chief executive of Minnesota Community Policing Services Foundation Inc., speaks to Singleton, of Maplewood, attained brief television the media during the search for 10-year-old Barway acclaim as a spokesman for the mother of a missing boy Collins in 2015. He was a spokesman for the boy’s — who later was found murdered— in Crystal. The attire mother. he and his staff sometimes wear — closely resembling that COURTESY MINNESOTA CHIEFS OF POLICE ASSOCIATION His ‘investigators’ had questions. So did the real OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS police. For a time, Singleton’s organization had a charter > Singleton allowing it an Explorer troop. But in the fall of 2015, the Boy Scouts revoked it. At the same time, they added a CONTINUED FROM 1A policy saying that such charters can go only to law enforcement groups. or speaking for them. “We had never had such a chartering organization before Last month, Singleton was one of two examples brought (like Singleton’s), so we didn’t understand that there was up during a legislative hearing on a bill to strictly limit a problem with such a partnership,” said Kent York, how closely a citizen’s attire can mimic police, language spokesman for the Boy Scouts’ Northern Star Council. that’s now included in the House’s public safety omnibus bill. In response, Singleton filed a complaint against the group with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, alleging racial bias. He claims the council’s exploring director asked why there were so many non-white http://saintpaulpioneerpress.mn.newsmemory.com/ee/_nmum/_default_bb_include_inframe.php?token=11...4/3/2017 A: MainPage 2 of 4 Singleton has said that was not his intention, that his explorers shown on his group’s web page. York called organization is allowed its own identity and has done no the allegation “baseless,” and the department has yet to harm.rule on it. But police believe he’s taken too many liberties with that Police also question whether Singleton’s group is identity: In December, he was charged in Ramsey actually a nonprofit. County District Court with doing security work without a Secretary of State records note that on the day after his license, a document he can’t get, given his prior criminal April 11, 2016, police interview, Singleton filed for and history. Police found out about that work because a received a nonprofit certificate of incorporation. restaurant manager allegedly mistook Singleton’s staff for cops. “I think that (the date of filing) was probably just coincidental,” Singleton said. “We were prepared to file. Reached this week about the charge, Singleton at first … After getting those questions, it was like, no time like said he wasn’t aware of it. Then, after reading the the present.” complaint against him, he said it — like the effort at the Legislature — was part of a concerted effort to harass Nonprofits making more than $25,000 a year from him. charitable donations, or with $25,000 in assets, must also register with the state attorney general’s office. Singleton Roseville police “have been leading the charge here for said his group has never reached those numbers. the past year to try and find something to try and discredit our organization,” Singleton said. “This is just PAST PROBLEMS one more example of how far they would go to use their public position to make us look bad.” “I asked him, ‘Why don’t you just get a license?’ ” said the Roseville police investigator, Lt. Lorne Rosand. “It’s ‘INVESTIGATION’ AT JOE’S CRAB SHACK actually pretty easy.” Roseville police started looking at Singleton’s Singleton told the Pioneer Press he didn’t want to. organization in early 2016, when they got a call from Joe’s Crab Shack on Snelling Avenue. “If I wanted a protective license, I could go out and get one,” he said. “We have looked into it, but it wasn’t in A manager there — following media reports that one of the goals and objectives; it wasn’t in the business plan.” its tables was embedded with a photo of a lynching— told police that a couple of customers had turned up to But Singleton can’t get a license. As a felon, he’s “investigate” that photo. Were they legit law prevented from getting one by state law, a fact Singleton enforcement, the manager asked? According to an said he wasn’t aware of. incident report, the two women identified themselves as “investigators” for Minnesota Community Policing In 2002, Singleton pleaded guilty in a theft-by-swindle Services, and the manager said he thought they were law case for selling phony Radisson Hotel invoices to an enforcement. At his request, they showed him a badge associate in St. Paul. and some official-looking IDs. At the time, Singleton operated a temp agency called Singleton said he got calls from people worried about the Metro Employment Group. An associate paid him several lynching photo, and “I wanted to see if there was thousand dollars for the invoices for temp work. But anything we could do to try to bring some calm.” payment never came. The manager told the women the photo had been According to court documents, Singleton told police that removed, and the two walked around the restaurant to the Radisson had ordered the work, then canceled, but he check for other “negative things,” before leaving, the didn’t get a chance to tell his associate that. But Radisson report said. staff told police they had no records of any of that, and police noted the “work” on the invoices was purportedly The women, who told police they worked for “Chief” completed the week before Singleton sold the invoices. Singleton’s group without pay, said the group had been http://saintpaulpioneerpress.mn.newsmemory.com/ee/_nmum/_default_bb_include_inframe.php?token=11...4/3/2017 A: MainPage 3 of 4 retained by the League of Minnesota Human Rights Singleton acknowledges mistakes in his past, which he Commissions to look into the picture.says he’s moved on from. Now, he says, he’s trying to better the community. The league, it turned out, was another organization run by Singleton, its president. The women told police that “Do you want people out there getting in trouble, or do they never told the manager they were law enforcement you want people that know both sides of the system, and and even went so far as to say they weren’t.using their knowledge for a good benefit and not a bad benefit?” he said. A police investigator looking into a possible charge of officer impersonation was later unable to contact the “I’m not looking for anything, for anybody trying to restaurant’s manager, so no charges were brought.make me the big man or big hero. I’m just looking for a little respect.” But one thing the women told the investigator still nagged him: a comment he says was made when he For roughly eight years, Singleton was a member of asked what else the group did. Provide “security,” they Roseville’s human rights commission, a volunteer allegedly said, for a St. Paul clinic in the city’s North position confirmed by the city council. He also serves as End.vice chair of a police and community relations board for Maplewood. DEFINE ‘SECURITY WORK’ And since 2012, he’s been a member of Ramsey The gross misdemeanor complaint against Singleton and County’s personnel review board, which hears one of the women, Michelle Ho, notes that Minnesota disciplinary appeals and reviews the county’s human statutes require a “protective agent” license from those resources department, at the county board’s request. who “provide guards, private patrol, or other security personnel to protect persons or their property” in He will appear in Ramsey County District Court on exchange for “a fee, reward, or other valuable Tuesday. consideration.” Tad Vezner can be reached at 651-228-5461 and The investigator warned Ho during their interview that if tvezner@pioneerpress.com, or on Twitter at @SPnoir. she worked as a security guard, she’d be committing a crime. But when he drove by the clinic that evening, he found Ho there, in plainclothes and armed. She admitted that she was “providing security services,” filling in for Singleton, the complaint said. Singleton sent a letter to St. Paul’s Open Cities Health Center, at 916 Rice St., assuring “a special public safety consultant that will have a uniform presence” who would be “on duty” in the early evening. In return, Singleton’s organization was paid an $18-per-hour “financial contribution consideration.” “We look forward to keeping you and your staff safe and deterring any criminal element that may be present in your area,” Singleton’s letter ended. The letter, as given by clinic staff to police, was two pages. But when the Pioneer Press asked Singleton for a copy of it, he produced a three-page letter — with an extra page in the middle bearing different letterhead. That page had some phrases underlined and in bold, including A member of Minnesota Community Policing Services that the group was “retained as consultants” and was Foundation Inc. showed this badge to a manager at Joe’s being paid “consultant fees.” Singleton said he didn’t Crab Shack in Roseville, allegedly confusing him enough http://saintpaulpioneerpress.mn.newsmemory.com/ee/_nmum/_default_bb_include_inframe.php?token=11...4/3/2017 A: MainPage 4 of 4 know why the police’s letter from the clinic was short to think they might be police. No charges were filed in that page but said that he was not providing security. He that incident, but the investigation led to charges in said he was hired to analyze and assess the clinic’s another matter. security needs. COURTESY OF ROSEVILLE POLICE In a phone interview, Ho said she felt intimidated and DEPARTMENT “under duress” during the police interview and doesn’t remember saying she provided protective services. Those words appear in a statement that she acknowledged Singleton helped her with. When asked what she did for the clinic, she hesitated and asked to call back. When she did about a minute later, she said she was there to observe. The health center’s executive director did not return a request for clarification on what Singleton was hired to do. When asked what the $18 per hour was used for, Singleton said it went to the general fund, from which “I don’t draw a paycheck. I might get some expenses paid.” He acknowledged that those expenses included his own rent and groceries — a reimbursement, he said, to pay back money he’d given the organization. He also told police the “financial contribution” was used to provide training for Boy Scout Explorer youth. This ID card was used by foundation member Michelle Ho, who is charged with providing security without a license to a St. Paul health clinic. 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