The
Culpeper police officer who was indicted for fatally shooting a woman while on duty pleaded
not guilty Friday, according to media reports, and his bail was set at
$100,000.
Daniel
Harmon-Wright, 32, was charged with murder, malicious shooting into an occupied
vehicle, malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle resulting in a death and
use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, police said.
On
Feb. 9, Harmon-Wright responded to a suspcious person call and approached
54-year-old Patricia Cook, who was in a Jeep Wrangler.
Media
outlets reported that a prosecutor said Friday that Harmon-Wright fired his
weapon seven times. The first two shots were not fatal, but Harmon-Wright then
fired five more shots as Cook tried to drive away. One bullet struck her head
while another struck her spine before going into her heart and lungs.
A
prosecutor also said in court that Harmon-Wright had a history of alcohol abuse
and was hired in 2006 over the objections of a sergeant and lieutenant. A
lawyer for Harmon-Wright said the officer had good reason to shoot Cook, media
outlets reported.
Harmon-Wright
has been suspended without pay from the police department.
Culpeper Police
officer previously reprimanded
Exactly one month before Culpeper Police
Officer Daniel Harmon-Wright fatally shot Patricia Cook Feb. 9 on North East
Street he received an official reprimand for using excessive force in an
incident last year, according to testimony at his bond hearing Friday and
personnel documents obtained by the Star-Exponent.
The 32-year-old officer, in addition, had a
history of disciplinary issues and dishonesty dating to his time as a trainee
at the Central Shenandoah Criminal Justice Academy in Luray, which he attended
after being hired by the Culpeper Police Department Aug. 30, 2006.
Trainee untruthfulness?
While at the academy, Harmon-Wright, then
Daniel Sullivan, made misleading statements to staff regarding an injury he
sustained while participating in defensive tactics training. The matter was
subsequently brought to the attention of former Culpeper Police Chief Dan
Boring, elected to Culpeper Town Council in 2010 soon after his retirement from
police work.
In a Dec. 7, 2006 written reprimand to
Sullivan, Boring said information provided him “shows that you provided
different and misleading statements to different members of the academy staff
with regard to your ability to return to training and to complete the course of
instruction.” Boring went on to say that while he understood the trainee’s
“motivation for equivocating on this matter” – to facilitate continued training
and avoid lost time – that “the effect of the behavior was to create doubt in
the minds of the academy staff regarding your credibility and truthfulness.”
Asked by the Star-Exponent last month about
any concerns or issues with Harmon-Wright, indicted last month for murder,
Boring was not completely truthful himself.
In an email, Boring mentioned the officer’s
stint at the training academy, saying he retired soon after and didn’t have
much contact with Harmon-Wright.
“That being said, I don’t believe there
were any training or disciplinary issues during that period,” Boring said.
In the 2006 written reprimand to Recruit
Officer Daniel Sullivan, Boring emphasized the importance of honesty saying,
“Our nation’s entire system of justice which, in its extreme, permits our
officers to deprive citizens of their property, their liberty, and perhaps
their life, is totally dependent upon each officer’s integrity and
truthfulness. Your actions in this matter demonstrated a lack of judgment,
reflected poorly on your character and diminished the reputation of our
department.”
Boring further stated in the reprimand that
a copy of it would be put in a permanent personnel file. The memo was copied to
then Capt. Chris Jenkins, now chief of police. The alleged matter of dishonesty
at the police academy subsequently caused Harmon-Wright’s name to be placed on
the so-called Brady list, documenting law enforcement personnel with a history
of making dishonest statements.
Former Culpeper Police Chief Scott Barlow,
who took over after Boring retired, notified former Culpeper County
Commonwealth’s Attorney Gary Close of Harmon-Wright, then Sullivan, being on
the Brady list. In the memo, Barlow said, “Officer Sullivan injured himself
during his stay at the regional academy. When asked he was untruthful about his
injury. I believe that this was done for the sole purpose of completing the
academy without being recycled.”
Reprimanded
In January 2008, Sullivan received another
written letter of reprimand from Culpeper Lt. Troy Steele regarding the
officer’s response to a 2007 car accident.
“While you had your emergency vehicle
activated, you ran through a red light and collided into another vehicle
causing a substantial amount of damage,” Steele wrote in the memo copied to
Barlow and Chris Jenkins. “It was determined through the accident investigation
that this was a major/avoidable collision.”
Again, the reprimand was placed in
Harmon-Wright’s personnel file.
In October 2009, the officer had a
counseling session at the PD related to proper departmental policy and
procedure for pursuits “to review a pursuit that Officer D. Sullivan initiated
on Oct. 11, 2009,” according to a memo from Sgt. W.W. Hickman to Lt. Troy
Steele.
Mistakes made during the unspecified
pursuit were explained to Sullivan, the memo said, and Sullivan said he
understood the mistake that was made. Chris Jenkins and Capt. Rick Pinksaw were
copied on the memo.
Crash at PD
On an Oct. 20, 2009 employee evaluation
form, Sullivan received an “unsatisfactory work performance rating” and verbal
supervisory warning related to another car accident in which the officer was
involved – this time in the parking lot at the police department.
“Officer Sullivan, upon entering the police
department parking lot and pulling into a parking space, collides with another
police cruiser. Officer Sullivan states a wire was hanging below the dash,
preventing him from reaching/pressing the brake pedal,” the evaluation form
says.
Sullivan, according to the document, said
he noticed the wire hanging down a week prior and took no actions to correct
the matter. In the employee comments section, the officer hand wrote that he
disagreed with getting an unsatisfactory rating, and that “other” would have
been more applicable.
Prior excessive
force?
Finally, on Jan. 9, 2012, Harmon-Wright was
reprimanded for an excessive force violation involving the use of a firearm,
special prosecutor Jim Fisher, Fauquier County Commonwealth’s Attorney wrote in
his motion opposing bail in the Pat Cook shooting case.
This most recent reprimand related to an
Oct. 10, 2011 incident “where he forced his way into a local residence with his
gun drawn and brandished the weapon at two occupants of the home,” according to
Fisher. At the time, the prosecutor said, Harmon-Wright lacked probable cause
and a warrant to enter the home.
“In fact, he had been chasing a 15-year-old
boy that he had been running after on a ‘suspicious person’ complaint,” Fisher
wrote.
Losing sight of the boy, the officer got a
tip that he lived in a particular residence on Garr Avenue. Harmon-Wright
banged on the door of the house with his gun pointed at the door, according to
Fisher.
A half-dressed female occupant answered the
door and asked what was wrong. The officer then demanded that she vacate the
premises to which she protested considering her state of undress. Harmon-Wright
insisted that she “get out of the house” allowing her to put on pants before
she went outside. The officer then “cleared the house room to room with his
weapon raised,” encountering the woman’s 18-year-old son “whom he ordered to
the floor after brandishing the weapon in the young man’s face.”
Turns out, the person Harmon-Wright was
chasing was not in that particular residence, but some distance away, according
to Fisher. Further, the boy he had been chasing had committed no crime and was
on his way to school that morning.
Following an internal affairs
investigation, the officer was found to have used excessive force. Pinksaw
drafted the letter to Harmon-Wright informing him of the violation.
More information
It should be noted that positive
information, employee evaluations and commendations are also part of
Harmon-Wright’s personnel file, including several letters from residents
thanking him for his service.
A January 11, 2010 letter to Sullivan from
Barlow noted the gratitude of a woman who was stranded in a snowstorm with her
11-week-old granddaughter and no formula or diapers. The officer went to
Walmart to pick up the items and delivered them to the woman.
Harmon-Wright was also commended in 2008
for assisting with a crime against a senior citizen and for his military
service.
The officer, who is married and has a
9-month-old son, changed his adoptive name in 2010 to reflect the name of his
natural parents.
Related to the fatal shooting four months
ago of 54-year-old Patricia Ann Cook, wife of Gary Cook and an active volunteer
in the children’s ministry at Culpeper United Methodist Church, officer
Harmon-Wright was apparently visibly upset at the scene on North East Street,
outside the middle school building of Epiphany Catholic.
“Officer Harmon-Wright was witnessed by
responding officers as being distraught at the shooting scene and stated
numerous times that he was going to “lose his (f)-ing job,” according to
Fisher’s motion to deny bond.
Suspended
without pay
The Culpeper Police Department suspended
the officer without pay on May 29, the day he was indicted on numerous felony
charges in Mrs. Cook’s death. Her husband has filed a $5.35 million wrongful
death suit against Harmon-Wright.
The officer indicated at bond hearing
Friday that he and his wife and baby had been living “paycheck to paycheck”
even when he was still on the payroll, doling out $1,300 per month in rent for
an apartment in Gainesville. Harmon-Wright said his family was in the process
of moving in with relatives in Warrenton.
As of 6:30 p.m. Friday, he had not been
released from the Fauquier County Jail where has been held since the
indictment.
Officer’s mother
charged
In a related case, Harmon-Wright’s mother,
Bethany Sullivan, appeared briefly in court Friday immediately after her son to
face charges that she forged his personnel records while employed as
administrative secretary to the police chief. She was charged with felony
forgery and uttering related to her alleged attempts to purge her son’s
personnel file of negative information, specifically his Culpeper Police
Department Entrance Exam and a 2006-2007 performance evaluation.
Bethany Sullivan is out on bond. Her
arraignment was set for August 28 at 9:30 a.m. in Culpeper County Circuit
Court. She appeared in court Friday dressed in a pale green skirt suit, her
brown hair pulled back in a bun.
Exiting the courthouse, several cameramen
chased Bethany Sullivan as she attempted to get into her vehicle to leave.
Higginbotham & Bowen, of Orange, is
representing her. The law firm could not be reached for a comment Friday
evening.
The town of Culpeper has thus far not
released any personnel information on either employee except for their dates of
hire and salary.
Harmon-Wright made $40,227 as a police
officer, while his mother made $44,346 as administrative secretary to former
police chiefs Boring and Barlow.