Madeline Fletcher is Free

Kenneth Cockrel

Madeline Fletcher is Free

Flint policewoman Madeline Fletcher (SUN, June 3) was found not guilty on Saturday, June 19 of assault charges. A Genesee County Circuit Court jury consisting of eight whites and four blacks returned the verdict after six and a half hours of deliberation.

It was announced June 22 that Walter Kalberer, the other Flint police officer initially involved in the dispute with Fletcher, would not be charged in the shootout behind the Flint police headquarters last December 27. Genesee County Prosecutor Robert F. Leonard said justice would not be served by prosecuting Kalberer and that such a prosecution would "further polarize the community."

In other words, it's all right to polarize the community by putting a black female on trial whose only crime was trying to defend herself from a sexist 220-pound ex-Marine who grabbed her and sought to "eject her from the driver's seat" of a patrol car, but it's not all right to prosecute that attacker and risk "polarizing" Leonard's constituents, who happen to be mostly white.

Defense attorney Kenneth V. Cockrel has begun moves to reinstate Fletcher in the Police Department, but senior department officials have indicated that they'll fight it, saying that a Police Department Board of Inquiry is different than a court trial.

Meanwhile, Flint Councilman Woody Etherly is pushing for an investigation by the Council to determine the causes of the sexist and racist attitudes in the FPD and to see if anything can be done to correct them. Prosecutor Leonard has said that he believes sexism and racism do exist in the department, and that department policies should require officers to treat each other with respect and equality. Leonard believes the city administration should take action to correct the "institutionalized sexism and racism" that permeates the department.

The reactions to Fletcher's acquittal were immediate and joyous in the crowded courtroom. Cockrel jubiantly hugged Fletcher over and over, and the crowd shouted its approval. Former Flint Mayor and current Genesee County Registrar of Deeds Floyd McCree said it was a good verdict and a fair one, based on the evidence presented. Cockrel said the only really fair thing would have been to have no trial at all. There is deep resentment in Flint's white community, or at least in segments of it, that Fletcher wasn't convicted. One 40-year-old factory worker remarked that the reason the mostly white jury acquitted Fletcher was because they were afraid if they convicted her, "their houses would have been bombed."

Walter Kalberer's reaction to the verdict? "How about that."

-Doug Cunningham