Khaalis developed a disturbing pattern o f disappearing from the wire room without authorization, on at least one occasion immediately subsequent to a minimization briefing concerning a tap that was about to go live on Varner. On this occasion the first incoming intercepted call advised Varner to “drop” his phone, meaning to discontinue use of the phone. On two other occasions Varner dropped his phone shortly after a wiretap went live. CNT officers now had strong reason to believe that Varner was being tipped off by a source inside CNT. The case was moved to the DEA office, where, without Khaalis’ knowledge, a fourth wiretap was initiated on Varner. On this occasion sufficient evidence was obtained to lead to eventual indictment of Varner. It was then decided to move the case back to the CNT office where it was made to appear the fourth wiretap was about to be initiated anew. In short order after the tap went live, Varner dropped his phone.
Early in 20I0 Khaalis and two other CNT officers were monitoring a wiretap on a trafficking associate of Varner when a call was intercepted indicating that a meeting would be taking place between the associate and a female. Khaalis left the wire room without permission and shortly afterwards the two remaining CNT officers heard him on the police radio requesting that a patrol unit make a stop of the female’s car. While the reason for this action was never determined, Khaalis at the time informed his supervisor, Lt. Russ Smith, that he had discussed the stop with the case agent, Mike Delatorre. This was almost immediately determined to be a lie.
Throughout April and May 2010 Khaalis continued to exhibit what was deemed by CNT to be suspicious behavior and in June, 20I0 CNT and the FBI (which had followed this matter from a police corruption perspective), once having determined that a federal criminal prosecution would not go forward, turned over the information they had on Willet Williams and Khaalis to SCMPD Internal Affairs (IA) for administrative handling by the department. Khaalis was placed on Administrative Leave with pay for the pendency of the IA investigation. Willett Williams remained on active duty. Shortly after being placed on Administrative Leave, Khaalis agreed to take an FBI polygraph exam on the issues of: (a) whether he had warned Willet Williams that his brother James was under CNT investigation; and (b) if he had ever used his position to protect anyone involved in illegal drug trafficking. To both questions he answered “no” and on both answers he was judged to have shown deception. After an IA investigation considerably limited in scope, a report was issued by lA recommending the cases against Khaalis and Williams be closed due to a failure to find any policy violations in the information furnished by the FBI and CNT. By that time Khaalis had been returned to active duty three months earlier at the direction of SCMPD Chief Willie Lovett.
Upon learning that Khaalis had been returned to duty, CNT Director Roy Harris sent a sharply worded memorandum and supplemental report dated September 24, 20I0 to the Chatham County Manager, who, in turn, had it personally delivered it to Chief Lovett by the Chatham County Attorney. Upon learning in November, 2010 that SCMPD had closed the lA case and decided that Khaalis merited no disciplinary action, Director Harris made official notification with a copy of his September memorandum and report to the Georgia Peace Officers Standards and Training Council.
C. Methodology
Informed by a detailed review of documentation, to include an SCMPD lA repmt covered by a Letter o f Transmittal dated November 16, 2010, audio tapes of interviews of Willet Williams and Malik Khaalis, and a September 24, 20I0 memorandum with accompanying supplemental report authored by CNT Director Roy Harris, MDBI investigators interviewed more than two dozen individuals who were believed to have knowledge germane to this investigation.
II. Summary of Investigation
A. Concerning Sergeant Malik Khaalis
A review of records indicates that Malik Khaalis was assigned to the CNT in about 2004 and from about 2006 was assigned to the Major Case Unit of CNT. An interview of a CNT Officer characterized by Interim Chief Tolbert as having a reputation for being a strong investigator and a strong leader indicates that in his early years at CNT Khaalis was viewed as aggressive and hard working, a “go getter”.
Assistant Chief Julia V. Tolbert
As time went on, however, Khaalis’ performance declined and it seemed to be that whenever he was involved in a case it would lose momentum. And, according to this individual, he seemed to be always inappropriately trying to insert himself into other officers’ cases.
The focus of the MDBI inquiry concerning Khaalis is on the timeframe of approximately mid 2008 through late 20I0. The exact sequence of events is uncertain because of the passage of time and imperfect memories, but it can be said that most of Khaalis’ suspect activities were associated with the James Williams and Josh Varner trafficking cases. In June, 2008 CNT performed a car stop that resulted in the development of an informant (T-2) who furnished sufficient information to open a narcotics trafficking case on James Williams. Pete Delatone was assigned as case agent and Khaalis was assigned to his investigative team. About this same time
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