Source says Sanford police chief to resign

[CatWoman]

CNN) - Chief Bill Lee of the Sanford Police Department in Florida plans to resign, a city official familiar with the matter said Monday.

Lee's department has been criticized for its handling of the investigation into the Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager. Lee said one month ago that he was stepping down temporarily, a day after the Sanford City Commission expressed no confidence in his leadership.


http://www.wpbf.com/news/nationalnews/Source-says-Sanford-police-chief-to-resign/-/8788944/11578254/-/4b3n47/-/index.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57419136/sanford-police-chief-bill-lee-to-officially-resign/

[maddezmom]

1. Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett has called a special meeting with city commissioners at 4 p.m

SANFORD, Fla. -
Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee Jr., who temporarily stepped down from his position in connection to the Trayvon Martin shooting, will permanently resign on Monday, city officials said.

Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett has called a special meeting with city commissioners at 4 p.m. A public notice for the meeting only stated commissioners would consider adoption of a "resolution relating to the police department."


http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Sanford-police-chief-to-permanently-resign/-/1637132/11643760/-/wtkan2/-/

[grasswire]

3. Triplett seems like a good man, to me

He is the one who insisted on the release of the 911 calls.

[The Magistrate]

2. Excellent, Ma'am

Heaven help any town that hires him after this; the man's career in law enforcement ought to be at an end.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. He will probably take retirement at this point

[HappyMe]

4. That's interesting.

[myrna minx]

5. K&R.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. CNN has it on their site too

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/23/justice/florida-teen-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

[Spazito]

8. The CBS article has this additional tidbit...

"A source within the Sanford Police Department said one of the acting chiefs may also tenure his resignation today as well."

I can only find one person assigned as the "acting chief" and that is Capt. Darren Scott. I wonder why CBS is indicating there is more than one sharing the assignment?

[malaise]

9. Good

Rec

[maddezmom]

10. link to meeting updates here

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/04/report-sanford-police-chief-to-resign-permanently-today/1?csp=hf

Update at 4:45 p.m. ET: Mayor Jeff Triplett asks Commissioner Patty Mahany whether she thinks Chief Bill Lee could still lead the department with the public's confidence. She says that the community is not as divided as portrayed in the media and that she has spoken with African-American residents who disagree with Lee's suspension and removal.

Update at 4:40 p.m. ET: Commissioner Randy Jones says, to applause from the audience, that any outside group that comes to Sanford "to get their 15 minutes" of publicity should "be shown the finger and shown the door."

Update at 4:28 p.m. ET: City Manager Norton Bonaparte responds to a question about why he changed his mind about waiting for results of an outside investigation before deciding on Lee's fate. He says it appears that it will be "three-plus more months" for outside agencies to conclude their investigations and that "it's time Sanford moves forward."

Update at 4:27 p.m. ET: Commissioner Patty Mahany asks, "What did he do wrong?"

Update at 4:23 p.m. ET: Commissioner Patty Mahany says she is "deeply saddened that someone has to stand up for Sanford and say, 'we are not a racist city, we don't have a racist police department' ..

[maddezmom]

11. Update at 4:52 p.m. ET: Mayor Jeff Triplett asks whether an outside evaluator could come in over ...

Update at 4:52 p.m. ET: Mayor Jeff Triplett asks whether an outside evaluator could come in over "three or four months" to decide whether Lee could continue to serve or has become too polarizing a figure.

Update at 4:56 p.m. ET: Mayor Jeff Triplett says "the bottom line .. the crux" of "this whole dog-and-pony show" over past two month is "where was ...policy, procedure, state statute violated" by Chief Bill Lee in the investigation of Trayvon Martin's killing.

"If there were missteps," commissioners Mahany and Jones interject.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/04/report-sanford-police-chief-to-resign-permanently-today/1?csp=hf

[maddezmom]

12. UPDATE: Sanford board rejects police chief's resignation

Update at 5:06 p.m. ET: In a reversal, the commissioner vote to reject the resolution accepting Chief Bill Lee's resignation.

Update at 4:59 p.m. ET: Commissioner Velma Williams said that she supported the "no confidence" motion in March "because the way the investigation was handled brought national shame to this city," and that her vote wasn't based on violations of state laws orcity policies.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/04/report-sanford-police-chief-to-resign-permanently-today/1?csp=hf

[Rex]

13. He better hope he ends up staying out of jail himself.

Better pray he didn't do anything stupid like help Zimmerman via Daddy Zimm.

[joeybee12]

14. Can someone answer this? Hasn't the guy been on the job less than a year?

Thought I recall something about him being very new..if so, me thinks there's more to this...that he's taking the fall when it was that prosecutor who showed up at police hq-in the middle of the night, thank you- and said not to charge him, after a phone call from daddy Zimmerman.