Bachman/Northwest Highway Community Association

NW Commander Eased Enforcement

Dallas Morning News Article

Police don't plan inquiry into allegation.

Lipscomb pressured officer about club.

Federal officials say they found no criminal wrongdoing in department.

02/01/2000

By Dave Michaels / The Dallas Morning News

Police officials responded for the first time Monday to allegations that a top commander was influenced to ease enforcement at a topless bar, with a spokesman saying the department plans no further investigation.

The spokesman stopped short of saying which top department official was implicated in the allegations that surfaced in proceedings related to the federal bribery trial of City Council member Al Lipscomb.

"It seems like everything is directed at Chief [Terrell] Bolton," said Sgt. Hollis Edwards, a department spokesman. "But the inquiries and the suspicion is being directed in the wrong direction."

Chief Bolton has declined to comment on the allegations.

According to court documents unsealed last week, Caligula XXI owner Nick Rizos contacted Mr. Lipscomb in the early 1990s to discuss what he considered excessive police enforcement. Mr. Lipscomb asked an unidentified police official to meet with Mr. Rizos, said Bill Roberts, Mr. Rizos' attorney.

Mr. Roberts said enforcement eased after the meeting.

The Dallas Morning News reported in November that federal investigators involved in the Lipscomb matter questioned Chief Bolton about the topless-bar issue in November 1998.

Chief Bolton, who oversaw the department's northwest operations division from October 1991 to January 1994, later testified before the grand jury and was listed on the government's witness list for Mr. Lipscomb's trial.

Federal officials said Monday that their inquiry found no criminal wrongdoing by police officials and that they no longer consider the investigation active.

A retired deputy chief who directly oversaw the northwest division in 1992 said Monday that enforcement of topless bars never eased under his watch. Chief Grant Lappin, who now heads the police department at Baylor University Medical Center, said he knew of no police meetings involving Mr. Lipscomb and Mr. Rizos.

"There was no direction from anybody to me while I was at that station regarding whether I should or should not enforce," said Chief Lappin, who reported to Chief Bolton in 1992. "We had a fairly high level of enforcement activity [at those bars], as you would expect . . .

"That [meeting] could not have gone on at that station without me knowing it."

Mr. Rizos also allegedly paid Mr. Lipscomb four "bribes and gratuities" totaling $7,700 in 1992, according to court documents. Mr. Rizos' attorney said his client estimated the amount at closer to $6,000 and specified that the payments were not bribes.

Mr. Rizos intended the money as a means of thanking Mr. Lipscomb, his attorney said.

"He comes from Greece. He thought this was expected," Mr. Roberts said last week. "He thought this is how business is done."

Police officials also rebuffed a request Monday from the Dallas Police Patrolmen's Union to reinvestigate the allegations in light of revelations from the unsealed court document.

"This is a matter that has been thoroughly investigated" by the FBI, Sgt. Edwards said.

The DPPU, one of the city's four officer associations, called for criminal and internal inquiries into the allegations.

"What we know is there was a top police official associated with Lipscomb and this topless-bar owner. We don't know there was anything criminal about it," said Sgt. Rick Wilson, whose association represents 600 of the 2,900 sworn officers.

"But the public-integrity unit needs to take a look and see who the officer was and whether anything was done wrong."

Sgt. Wilson said his union has been disappointed that Chief Bolton and other top commanders have said little about the allegations.

"Everybody is being so quiet, it just shows to me there were secrets," Sgt. Wilson said.

Links

The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Police Department