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Rising Tension In A U.S. Territory

By Andrew Ramonas

A Death In The Virgin Islands

When an off-duty agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives shot and killed a man in the Virgin Islands almost two years ago, the case received scant attention on the mainland. Since then, the incident has unfolded into a bitter legal battle pitting Justice Department officials against territorial authorities. It has laid bare the resentments behind the public façade of cooperation and amicability between Washington and St. Thomas. This four-part exclusive series explores the tragic shooting, the rights of an off-duty federal agent in the Virgin Islands, the tense relationship between federal and territorial authorities and the intensifying political debate in the U.S. Congress over whether the ATF agent should be honored as a hero before a territorial court has even ruled on his guilt or innocence. ?

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Part Three: Rising Tension In A U.S. Territory

When a team of federal agents landed in the Virgin Islands to investigate a fatal shooting by a fellow agent in 2008, they almost got into a brawl with local police who refused to allow the federal investigators to take part in the inquiry.

The confrontation between agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and territorial police illustrated how the case of ATF Special Agent William G. Clark, who has been charged by local authorities with manslaughter, has damaged the already frayed relationship between federal and territorial authorities in the Virgin Islands.

The physical altercation that almost broke out between federal and territorial investigators came to light when a former acting U.S. Attorney in the Virgin Islands, Paul Murphy, wrote a scathing May 2009 letter to territorial Attorney General Vincent F. Frazer.

In the letter, which was later obtained by a local news website, The St. Thomas Source, Murphy said the Virgin Islands Police Department Major Crimes Unit, which probed the killing of Marcus Sukow, was extremely unprofessional in its interaction with the ATF, and that the two groups almost engaged in a ?fist fight.??

?[T]he exclusion of the ATF shooting team was a major contributor to the issues of complete mistrust that arose between the ATF and the VIPD and resulted in the ATF withdrawing all of its agents from the Virgin Islands,? Murphy wrote.

The ATF had about four agents in the Virgin Islands before it pulled its people out in November 2008. The Justice Department agency first stationed agents in the territory about 20 years prior to the withdrawal.

“I hate to see [the relationship] go south,” said David Nissman, who led the Virgin Islands U.S. Attorney’s Office from 2002 to 2004. “It hurts my community.”

A representative of the Virgin Islands Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment from Main Justice. A spokeswoman for the Virgin Islands Police Department told Main Justice that the relationship between territorial and federal law enforcement officials is not worsening. She then directed questions to Police Commissioner Novelle E. Francis Jr., who did not respond to requests for comment.

The Justice Department agency has supported Clark, who pleaded not guilty in territorial court in January 2009. He is free on bail pending the trial and continues to work for the ATF.

Clark and his lawyers say he fired the fatal shots only after an inebriated Sukow lunged at him with a heavy metal flashlight. The ATF agent, who was not on duty at the time, said he had been trying to break up a domestic dispute between Sukow and the man’s girlfriend. All three lived in the same condominium complex.

ATF officials are not alone in their mistrust of the Virgin Islands Police Department, according to Murphy. He said many Virgin Islands residents do not have faith in the territory’s police force.

The former acting U.S. Attorney said in the letter that witnesses to a March 2009 shooting that was unrelated to the Clark case “did not trust the Virgin Islands Police Department” and “flat out refused to talk to any member of the Virgin Islands Police Department.”

Federal authorities assisted in the investigation at the request of territorial police, but the federal officials later withdrew their support, expressing concern with the fallout from the Clark case, according to Murphy.

In a second letter, also obtained by the St. Thomas Source, the territorial attorney general responded to Murphy, saying the withdrawal was “disingenuous” after both sides took steps to work together on the investigation.

Curtis Gomez, the chief federal judge in the territory, appointed Ronald Sharpe in September 2009 to replace Murphy, whose term as acting U.S. Attorney was set to expire that month. Murphy, who is from Minnesota, is now the Assistant U.S. Attorney in charge of the St. Paul branch of the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Sharpe said in a statement to Main Justice that he is “fully committed” to working with the Virgin Islands Police Department to fight violent crime. All federal law enforcement agencies — except the ATF — continue to assist territorial law enforcement agencies, Sharpe said. Murphy and Gomez did not respond to requests for comment from Main Justice.

Nissman said “some tension” has always existed between the federal and territorial law enforcement officials.

Federal authorities fear that Virgin Island leaders often make decisions that are tainted by corruption, while territorial officials are said to believe they are treated as a “stepchild” by the U.S. government, Nissman said.

Nissman, now a partner at The McChain Nissman Law Group LLC in Christiansted, Virgin Islands, said, “Federal agents feel like they cannot depend on the local government for law enforcement support.”

Tomorrow, Part Four: An American Hero?

Full post as published by Main Justice on August 16, 2010 (boomark / email).