Former police chief calls officer's spitting 'inhumane'

ASHEVILLE — The city's former police chief says he wanted to fire an officer accused of spitting on a teenager but worried the Civil Service Board would not support him.

The board on Friday ruled his decision to place the officer on a lengthy suspension was justified.

William Anderson said his decision to keep officer Jonathan Collins on the job was also meant to give him a second chance.

Anderson suspended him without pay for 320 hours despite a recommendation from police commanders of 30 hours — the longest in departmental history at the time.

"Disrespectful. Inhumane," Anderson said. "It's not something anybody should do but especially a law enforcement officer. I wasn't going to tolerate it under my watch."

Collins said he did not spit on 17-year-old Rico Jackson. He said he regrets spitting on the street as he passed him.

"It was silly," he said. "It was immature."

Anderson, who retired Dec. 31 amid problems with morale and investigations into administrative errors, made his comments at a hearing for Collins.

The officer filed a grievance saying the chief's discipline was too harsh.

The police department started investigating Collins after Jackson filed a complaint in April that the officer spit on him in the Livingston Street area. Jackson and his mother filed the complaint 21 days after the incident.

The shirt Jackson was wearing that day had been cleaned by then.

Internal Affairs Sgt. Jonathan Brown said during the grievance hearing he could not prove Collins, who is white, spit on Jackson, who is black.

Jackson, during a break in the grievance hearing on Friday, said Collins' action was disrespectful.

"I need some justice," he said.

Collins told Brown during the internal investigation that Jackson, who was walking, had made an obscene gesture as Collins passed him in his marked patrol car. Jackson then spit on the ground, Brown said in recalling Collins' statement.

The officer turned around and approached Jackson from behind in his patrol car, Brown said.

Collins, during the hearing, said he spit on the ground as he passed Jackson. The spit, he said, landed inches from his car door. He said he did not drive his car close to Jackson.

"Primarily it was just a spur of the moment thing," he said. "The overtness of it kind of caught me off guard. I was just kind of letting him know I saw it, I can do it too."

Jackson said Collins spit on him. Kathy Smith backed up his allegation during the hearing. She said she saw Collins spit on Jackson from her porch.

"I feel like that could have been my son or someone else's children," she said. "You don't do that to nobody's child."

The action, Brown said, violated the department's conduct policy and satisfactory performance expectations even if Collins did not spit on Jackson.

A panel of police commanders reviewed the internal affairs report and debated discipline ranging from firing to suspension before landing on 30 hours without pay. The suspension was the longest in the department's history at the time, said Kelley Dickens, the city's human resources director.

The recommendation went to Anderson, who had the final say as chief of police.

Anderson said he was disappointed in his commanders.

He said they had never before recommended a lengthy suspension and were uncomfortable with it.

"I know my feelings were it was absurd," he said during the hearing. "Thirty hours did not fit this particular case at all."

Collins filed a grievance after Anderson issued the harsher suspension.

The Civil Service Board has the authority to overrule disciplinary action against most city workers.

Collins' attorney, Christopher Reed, asked the board on Friday to rule that the 30 hours of suspension was the appropriate punishment.

Anderson's comments mark one of the few times the tension among command staff has been publicly revealed.

He announced his retirement in November, about a month after 44 officers signed a petition saying they had no confidence in commanders.

His decision to leave also came after the state Department of Justice started a standards inquiry into lapses in radar gun certifications. Prosecutors dismissed hundreds of cases because of the errors.

Anderson got $35,000 in exchange for agreeing not to sue the city and to help with any legal proceedings under his watch. He was the city's first black police chief.

The board, in ruling in favor of the city and Anderson, said it supported the message the discipline sent that the kind of behavior Collins was accused of would not be tolerated in Asheville.