First Of A Multi-Part Series.

About two dozen of Roswell's most senior cops, including MPO's (Master Police Officer) detectives, sergeants and officers say they've had enough of Chief Ed Williams' reign.

Disgusted and disgruntled with what they claim is an ongoing and rampant abuse of power by the highest ranking officials in the Roswell Police Department, these veteran law enforcement officials approached The Beacon to "let the community know the truth about what is going on in the RPD." They spoke only on the condition of anonymity. This is the first installment of their story.

RPD "GOOD OLD BOYS CLUB" RUNS AMOK

Coining the RPD top brass the "Good Old Boys Club," Roswell law enforcement veterans outlined detailed accusations of internal cover-ups, nepotism, deception, intimidation, incompetence, inappropriate sexual liaisons and chicanery. At the center of the allegations are Williams, Captain Donald Moss, Major John Watson and Sergeant Jeff Lanier. "We're fed up with the Chief and his cronies' antics," said one detective. "As a result, morale of the rank and file is abysmal."

COVER-UP IN "WAVING DRUNK DRIVER" INCIDENT?

In the early morning hours of April 6, 2010, 40 year-old Marietta resident Samuel Creel was weaving in and out of his lane on Holcomb Bridge Road. Two RPD cruisers attempted to initiate the traffic stop, but Creel failed to pull over or slow down.

A low speed chase then ensued. The chase entered Cobb County, than circled back to Roswell. While making a U-Turn in an attempt to evade his pursuers, Creel waved to the of fi cers. Moss told Channel 2 Action News reporter Darren Lyn that the eight-mile low speed chase ended when officers used spike strips to stop Creel. However, the accident report on file conflicted with Moss's account, saying that Creel was finally stopped when police performed a "rolling road block." According to two Roswell cops -- one who watched the in car video of the chase and another who was at the scene stated -- Moss "rammed" Creels car with his police issued SUV. While this tactic is not viewed as extreme in ending a potentially dangerous situation, cops charged Creel with causing the wreck and filed an accident report at the scene. According to police procedure, an incident report -- not an accident report -- should have been filed against Moss, not Creel, since the Moss vehicle ramming was collaborated by eyewitnesses on location.

Additionally, the damage to the front end of Moss's SUV was noted by multiple officers in the following days. Moss's vehicle was quickly repaired and the con fl icting accounts of the collision.

WAS "FLASHBANG" SWAT INCIDENT AN ACCIDENT -- OR WAS IT PRE-MEDITATED?

In 2007, Roswell’s SWAT team, commanded by Moss, brought in three civilians –one was Jayson Sobhani-- to participate in training exercises involving Stun- Grenades, a non-lethal weapon used to disorient the senses allowing the user to incapacitate an adversary. This weapon is also known as a "Flashbang" due to the temporary vision and hearing loss it causes from the intense "flash" of light that affects the retina and the loud "bang" that disturbs the fluid in the ear. In such exercises, according to police policy, a "training grade" Flashbang is supposed to be deployed.

According to several SWAT members who participated in the training exercise, Sobhani was "trash" talking the entire SWAT team. He also managed to "shoot" then Sgt. and SWAT team leader Lanier (like paint-ball). RPD SWAT members participating in the training say Lanier then proceeded to engage in some "locker room" talk of his own before leaving the training area briefly to go to his SUV. As per protocol, upon re-entry another veteran officer, Sergeant Andy Reach, searched Lanier before letting him back in. The sergeant cleared Lanier for entry, as he brought in several Flashbangs for the training.

But Reach admitted he did not verify whether the Flashbangs Lanier brought into the SWAT exercise was of the training grade variety or fully loaded. Lanier, who was in charge of weaponry for the exercise, then dispersed his Flashbangs to several SWAT team members. Perhaps unknowingly, a SWAT team member then deployed a fully charged Flashbang on Sobhani during a subsequent phase of the routine training exercise. Sobhani incurred permanent hearing loss as a result and in turn sued the city of Roswell eighteen months later. While this incident happened over two and a half years ago, an Internal Affairs investigation was not opened until December 2009.

The case was settled out of court in 2010. A veteran of the legal department inside City Hall said the I.A. investigation came only after pressure from the city lawyers who were defending the lawsuit. Sobhani is now a police officer with the city of Norcross.

DID ARREST QUOTAS MORPH INTO PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES?

As reported by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution on May 8, 2010, Williams rescinded Moss' morning shift D.U.I. quotas. Williams maintained he didn’t know about the quotas, and told the AJC he wasn’t aware of them "until I got your open records request." But cops on the shift in question, including the crime suppression unit, told The Beacon that after Williams' directive to rescind the quotas, Moss orally ordered his shift sergeants to simply cease calling the practice "quotas" and instead refer to them as "performance objectives." These "objectives" were then used against cops with the lowest arrest records as part of their performance evaluations. According to several senior officers, cops with low arrest percentiles were subsequently "assigned the [lousy] details such as prisoner transport." Other veterans of the RPD claim some cops subsequently specifically targeted Roswell’s hapless Hispanic population to find "easy busts" to meet their arrest "objectives."

THE BEACON INTIMIDATED? OR PROTECTED?

On Friday afternoon The Beacon emailed its readers a preview of this story. On Saturday morning a Roswell squad car showed up at The Beacon offices and parked diagonally in front of the building for hours, for no apparent reason. The office complex that houses The Beacon has low weekend activity except for The Beacon editorial staff, which works a double shift in preparation the Sunday night print edition.

An Open Records Request obtained by the Beacon the following week revealed that no cops were dispatched to the Beacon Offices. The tag of the squad car in question has been forwarded to Roswell Councilwoman Betty Price for investigation. Price said she gave another Roswell Councilwoman, Nancy Diamond,  who oversees the city's public safety division a "heads-up." Thus far, Diamond has not followed-up.