It took James Garrett five long weeks, but he finally  received a copy of a report he requested from the North Miami Police Department.

Mr. Garrett’s ordeal began on October 20, 2015.  Earlier that week, his mother had suffered a heart attack and when he couldn’t reach her by phone for several hours he became concerned.  Fearing she might have suffered a second heart attack, he drove to her house.

When he got there, he noticed through the window that the television was on but she didn’t answer the door.  He had no key to her home, and believing she might be sick – or even dead – he called 911 for help.  He waited at her door for ten minutes and then called 911 again.   Mr. Garrett was understandably upset that it took so long for help to arrive.

On October 27, 2015, Mr. Garrett spoke at a council meeting to voice his displeasure with the police department.  From the podium, he also made a public records request for the audio recordings of his 911 calls and a copy of the incident report.

North Miami Police Chief Leonard Burgess immediately got defensive, denied all responsibility, and claimed in an email that “all 911 calls go to Miami-Dade Communications unit dispatchers.”

Three weeks later and still on the defensive, Chief Burgess followed up with another email on November 17, 2015, reiterating that his police department did not handle Mr. Garrett’s 911 calls.

In this email, Chief Burgess again claimed that, along with Commander Donald Blanchard and Assistant Chief Gary Eugene, he met with Mr. Garrett “in the hallway of Council Chambers and advised him we will research this matter.”

This is a flat out lie.  Mr. Garrett told me that Chief Burgess did NOT meet him in the hallway nor did he speak with him at all that night.

Nearly a month later Mr. Garrett still had not received all the public records he had requested, so he followed up with another request in writing.

Interim City Manager Arthur Sorey wrote back immediately claiming that “we do not have the audio recordings” and that this “is a closed matter on the City’s end.”

There’s only one problem.

BOTH BURGESS AND SOREY LIED!

Here’s the truth.

As I posted on November 25, 2015, after several queries about his records request, Mr. Garrett finally received the audio recording of the second 911 call, but not the first one.  He also did not receive the paperwork he had asked for.

On November 30, 2015, he finally received the documentation, but not the audio recording of the first 911 call.

In the meantime, I had also made a public records request from the Miami-Dade Police Department for the audio recordings of James Garrett’s 911 calls on October 20, 2015 at 12:32 pm and 12:42 pm.  I received the CD in the mail on Friday, December 4, 2015. ⁽¹⁾

According to the first recording:

• Mr. Garrett’s 911 call was answered at “12:32 pm and 33 seconds.”
• He told the dispatcher that his mother might have had a heart attack, and gave his name, address and phone number.
• At minute 1:46 of the recording, the MDPD dispatcher said, “Let me get North Miami on the line.”
• The call was immediately transferred.
• At minute 2:07, a female answered the phone by stating, “North Miami Police, Johnson.”
• Mr. Garrett spoke with her for over a minute, repeating the information he had given to the MDPD dispatcher.
• At minute 3:34, Johnson said, “I’m going to send an officer over there.”
• The call ended at minute 3:37.

This timeline corresponds with the “Detail Call for Service Report” that Mr. Garrett finally received on November 30, 2015, as part of his Public Records Request #478 (See the Call Log on page 8).

According to the audio recording, Mr. Garrett’s conversation with Ms. Johnson lasted exactly one minute thirty seconds.  Ms. Johnson took the call at 12:34:42 pm.  One minute and 27 seconds after she first answered the phone, she told him she was “going to send an officer over there.”  She made that statement at approximately 12:35 pm.

And yet, the North Miami Police Department is claiming they have NO RECORD OF THAT FIRST 911 CALL!

Meanwhile, despite the fact that Ms. Johnson told Mr. Garrett that she was sending an officer to his mother’s house, no one showed up.

Mr. Garrett then made a second 911 call at “12:42 and 13 seconds,” according to the audio recording from Miami-Dade County Police.

He told the dispatcher who answered that he had called North Miami PD earlier and that “they’re taking their sweet time.”  He again stated his mother’s address, and 30 seconds into the call, the MDPD dispatcher connected him to the North Miami Police Department.  Once the call was transferred to the NMPD, the county audio ended.

The audio recording that Mr. Garrett received from the North Miami Police Department, which I embedded in a previous post, was of his second 911 call and begins when NMPD dispatcher Norman answered the phone at 12:45:58 pm.

By that time it had been a full ten minutes since Mr. Garrett first spoke with Ms. Johnson during his first 911 call, and still no one had responded to his mother’s home.

At 12:45:58, Norman noted that Mr. Garrett’s mother is “possibly having a heart attack,” yet for some reason he didn’t end the call for another almost two minutes.

Here’s where it gets even worse.

According to the Call Log, even though the North Miami Police Department was advised that it was a possible heart attack, a police officer wasn’t dispatched UNTIL FOUR MINUTES LATER at 12:50:53 pm.  A second unit was dispatched approximately two and a half minutes after the first. ⁽²⁾

Even more inexcusable, the Miami-Dade County Fire Department was not notified until A FULL FIVE MINUTES LATER!

Although Mr. Garrett stated that no one showed up at his mother’s house until 1:07 pm, the Call Log reflects that Officer Joachim arrived at 12:54:53 pm.

Mr. Garrett told me that he was so distraught from not knowing if his mother was alive or dead, he may have been mistaken about the time.

Regardless, IT STILL TOOK A FULL FIFTEEN MINUTES FOR FIRE RESCUE TO BE DISPATCHED from the time the North Miami Police Department received the first 911 call at 12:34:42, and OVER TWENTY MINUTES until the first police officer arrived at 12:54:53 pm.

Everyone knows that in a medical emergency, especially in cases of heart attack or stroke, EVERY SECOND COUNTS!

A TWENTY MINUTE RESPONSE TIME IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE!

Equally unacceptable is the fact that Chief Leonard Burgess has refused to take any responsibility for his police department’s mishandling of this case.

In fact, he already denied that the North Miami Police Department responded to Mr. Garrett’s calls to 911 in the first place!

Despite the fact that Chief Burgess claimed – IN WRITING – that the county dispatchers handle all 911 calls, the North Miami Police Department’s own Call Log clearly states that the NMPD called the fire department at 12:50:53 pm, five minutes after the county turned Mr. Garrett’s call over to dispatcher Norman.

But, even more troubling is that Interim City Manager Arthur Sorey attempted to COVER UP FOR CHIEF LENNY!

Troubling, but not surprising.

As I already mentioned in an earlier blog, Chief Burgess had enlisted Arthur Sorey’s support of his “North Miami is Aventura” crime stat mantra.

In an email circulated by the Chief dated March 5, 2015, in which he laughingly claimed that “the Crime Rate Index for NM is the same as the City of Aventura,” he copied then Budget Director Arthur Sorey, among others.

When I posted that blog I wondered why on earth the city’s Budget Director (a civilian, no less!) would be copied with an email from the Chief of the North Miami Police Department regarding crime statistics.  Based on an anonymous tip I received, I surmised at the time that there was a behind-the-scenes effort to get rid of then-City Manager Aleem Ghany and promote Arthur Sorey in his stead.

While that scenario didn’t play out immediately, less than six months later Aleem resigned and Sorey was appointed as Interim City Manager in his stead.  Apparently, my tipster had been on to something.

New rumors are swirling that Chief Lenny has been angling for Arthur Sorey to be appointed as permanent City Manager.  Considering their cozy relationship, the Chief’s job will be safer with his buddy at the helm than under a new manager whose ass he hasn’t kissed yet.

A brand spanking new city manager with no personal or political ties to anyone in North Miami would be Chief Lenny’s worst nightmare.  It would only take about twenty four hours for a competent, unbiased, outside the “beltway” public administrator to notice that the police department is in a shambles, and that the main problem is its leadership.

But, as long as the Police Chief’s cronies are on the payroll, and as long as he can count on a city manager who will protect his job and cover his ass for him, the North Miami Police Department will continue to be plagued with the types of problems that Mr. Jim Garrett experienced.

And worse.

Hopefully, the Mayor and Council will realize that public safety should be their top priority.  Professional leadership is imperative in a police department.  There should be zero tolerance for predator cops, botched 911 calls, fudged crime stats, finger pointing, buck passing and outright lying.

As long as the North Miami Police Department is run like an amateur flag football team instead of a professional law enforcement agency, they can continue to expect more of the same.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”

^NOTE:

^{(1) The recording files of the 911 calls from Miami-Dade County were too large to upload to my website.  I’ll be happy to send them to anyone upon request.  Please email me and specify if you want the files sent in a .wav or .mp4 format.}

^{(2) On October 29, 2015, Mr. Garrett received an email from Assistant Chief Larry Juriga enumerating the timeline of events.  He began with October 13, 2015, the date of his mother’s first heart attack, through October 20, 2014, the date Mr. Garrett called 911.  There appears to be a discrepancy of several minutes between Assistant Chief Juriga’s account and a time listed on the Call Log.  However, since there may be a reasonable explanation for this discrepancy, I emailed him to ask for clarification.  Until I receive a response from him, I will refrain from commenting at this time.}