Officer Asks: Can Good Cop Excel in L.A.? : Police: Carl McGill won praise for his anti-gang work but faces suspension over charges he was disrespectful to his supervisor. He says he is being railroaded, an accusation his bosses deny.

The accolades poured in from around the nation. Newsweek magazine honored Carl McGill as among California’s top five “problem solvers,” and he was profiled as one of the state’s leaders “for the future.” “ABC World News Tonight” selected him as its “Person of the Week.” Even the lieutenant governor in Sacramento hailed him for doing “what is best in California” and steering troubled youths from a life of gangs.

McGill won the praise because he is a cop, but today he fears that his once-promising future with the Los Angeles Police Department may soon become a thing of the past.

“This system,” he said of the department, “is just not designed for a good cop to shine.”

The 31-year-old McGill is facing a lengthy suspension for allegedly acting “loud, boisterous and disrespectful” to his superiors after his stepbrother told him that police officials had burglarized his car, and for allegedly failing to properly notify his supervisors about two sick days he took last year.

The five-year veteran contends that the department has singled him out for several reasons: that he is black, that he is involved in Inglewood city politics and that his supervisors are jealous of his national recognition.

“It’s like a railroad,” he said, reflecting on the police internal justice system at a Morningside Park-area restaurant, where the owner, the workers and a customer readily recognized him for his efforts to clean up gangs in the inner city.

“It’s like Mickey Mouse,” he said. “It’s like a kangaroo court. It’s like the story of the tainted tree. The whole system is bad.”

Cmdr. William Booth, however, strongly denied that the Police Department, for any reason, was selectively persecuting McGill, who on Wednesday is scheduled to appear before a Board of Rights administrative hearing to defend himself against a maximum 22-day suspension without pay.

Booth said the Board of Rights process shields officers from the very kind of harassment McGill says he has suffered.

“The department is out to get no one,” Booth said. “But the department does strive to hold everyone to a standard of conduct, and within the parameters of the City Charter. And that’s what the purpose of a Board of Rights is, to determine whether an accused has or has not lived up to the standards that are required. In fact, a board protects a member of the department from arbitrary and capricious penalties.”

Added Capt. James Tatreau, who was McGill’s supervisor in the department’s anti-gang CRASH unit: “I didn’t have anything in for him either. Absolutely not. He got to where he is now because of his own actions.”

Two years ago, McGill was portrayed by the national news media as one of the Police Department’s rising young stars. After growing up with gang members in South-Central Los Angeles, he turned to a career in police work and donated countless off-duty hours trying to stop gang warfare in his crime-infested neighborhood.

He helped organize neighborhood watches, counseled high school kids, conducted anti-gang seminars at the schools and educated parents on how to detect signs that their preteen children were embracing the gang lifestyle. He became active in the Black Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles County, the Oscar Joel Bryant Assn./Foundation for black police officers and its counterpart for Latino officers. He even tested the political waters when he ran, albeit unsuccessfully, for the state Assembly last year.

ABC News chose him “Person of the Week” in June, 1988, because the network “couldn’t help but be impressed” by his community involvement.

A year later, Newsweek noted that while California was “struggling to remain the nation’s leadership state,” McGill was one of five residents who “tackle the most vexing concerns” here.

McGill’s Southern California Gang Awareness Program also drew high praise in a resolution from the state lieutenant governor’s office.

In Los Angeles, the accolades continue to roll in, even today.

“He is a highly respected and very bright personality,” said the Rev. Otto McClinton, pastor of St. Thomas Missionary Baptist Church on Southwest Drive. “He’s got a lot of motivation. He’s got a lot of intelligence. He’s got a lot of drive, a lot of charisma, and he’s available to the community. He knows how to relate. And that makes him very special.”

Estelle Van Meter, who operates the Van Meter senior citizen’s center on East 76th Street, said McGill is “very, very respected” in the community.

“We don’t want the dope pusher around here,” she said. “We don’t want the gang member. We need Officer McGill to help us against them. He’s extremely valuable.”

McGill’s troubles began a year ago, he said, when he was unable to report to work for two days because of back pain from the combined injuries of an automobile accident and a knife attack.

He stayed home last Oct. 2, and his telephone records show he called his police station seven times that day. But the Police Department maintains that he never informed his supervisors that he was sick, as required under the department manual.

The next day he again stayed home. His phone records show another seven calls to the station. But, again, the department said he never notified superiors of his absence.

That day was also Election Day in Inglewood, and McGill’s close friend, fellow officer Garland Hardeman, was running for the City Council. Capt. Tatreau said that since officials had heard nothing from McGill, they wondered if he wasn’t actually out campaigning for Hardeman.

Tatreau and a sergeant went to McGill’s home to investigate. McGill said he had left when a friend came by to drive him to the doctor’s office. At home were his mother, LeJean Ware, and his stepbrother, Craig Ware.

The Wares said they refused to answer the door because the police supervisors did not identify themselves. Craig Ware said he watched from the window as the policemen approached McGill’s 1970 green Cougar.

“I saw one of the officers use a Slim Jim (a locksmith’s device) to get in my brother’s car,” Ware said. “He got in and took out some papers. Then they drove off.”

McGill said his stepbrother told him that the police supervisors took some of the Hardeman campaign literature from the car to learn the address of the Hardeman campaign office and to search for McGill there. But Tatreau said he had already learned Hardeman’s address from the Inglewood police chief earlier in the day, although he did not locate McGill that day.

“It didn’t happen,” Tatreau said of the alleged burglary. “Carl McGill is a liar. And Carl McGill knows he’s a liar.” Ware stands by his story.

A subsequent Internal Affairs Division investigation determined that no burglarly had taken place, and no administrative or criminal charges were brought against Tatreau. But McGill said the Police Department never fully investigated the incident. Eventually he angrily confronted Tatreau with the allegations.

“I was emotional, yes,” McGill said, admitting that he shouted and screamed at Tatreau. “I lost my temper. I went off. I exploded.”

He alleged that Tatreau, who is white, reacted by threatening him with a racial slur. But Tatreau denied making any slurs. “That’s ridiculous and Carl knows it,” the captain said.

Since then, McGill said, he has been transferred from CRASH and placed back on patrol. “I don’t feel safe when I go to work anymore,” he said. “They can set you up, and I feel like I can’t trust the environment around there anymore.”

Should he lose at the Board of Rights hearing, he said, he may consider resigning from the police force--a loss that some in his community said would be hard to bear.

“If he left the Police Department and did not pursue the kind of relationships he’s now engaged in in the community, we’d be set back quite a way,” said the Rev. McClinton. “It would most definitely be quite a loss.”

McGill believes it is his work in the community, and the public attention that it garnered, that ultimately led to jealousy from some police adminstrators who felt he was stealing their spotlight.

“The department just doesn’t like officers who do things on their own,” McGill said. “They don’t like officers who have their own ideas. And they really turned up the fire when they found out that I had these special interests.”