Police recommend suspension of officers involved in wrongful arrest case

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA - Police have recommended three officers be suspended for their involvement in the case of a teen wrongly accused of killing a northeast Georgia tourist. <br> <br> The announcement comes less than a month after Brenton Butler&#39;s family reached a $775,000 settlement with the city of Jacksonville. <br> <br> Butler was picked up by police in May 2000 and taken to a Southside motel, where he was identified by the husband of Mary Ann Stephens of Toccoa, Ga., who was fatally shot during a robbery. <br> <br> The then 15-year-old said he spent hours being interrogated by police, without his parents&#39; knowledge, and eventually confessed after being beaten and threatened. <br> <br> Butler was acquitted by a jury. A subsequent grand jury investigation criticized the police handling of the investigation but found no criminal wrongdoing. <br> <br> Undersheriff John Gordon said Friday he recommended a 30-day suspension for Sgt. Andy Joiner and 20 days each for detectives Duane Darnell and Jim Williams. <br> <br> Gordon said two other detectives on their team would receive written reprimands as part of the internal affairs investigation, which began last summer. <br> <br> The investigation found that among other things, detectives failed to process the victim&#39;s purse for fingerprints, to check Butler&#39;s alibi and to follow up on a tip about a car seen in the area of the shooting. <br> <br> ``It was a poor piece of work,&#39;&#39; Gordon said of the case. ``It was a long way from being our best example of what our detectives could do. The wrong person spent months in jail. It&#39;s an embarrassing situation for everybody.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The detectives can accept the discipline or appeal it to a Sheriff&#39;s Office disciplinary review board, which would then recommend whether to uphold Gordon&#39;s proposed punishment or offer its own. The detectives also can appeal it to the Civil Service Board or an arbitrator. <br> <br> Their phone numbers were either unlisted or unpublished and they could not be reached for comment Saturday. <br> <br> Last year, the sheriff and State Attorney Harry Shorstein apologized to Butler and his family after two other men were charged in the killing. The case also was the subject of the Oscar-winning HBO documentary Murder on a Sunday Morning.