Prosecutors remove Lansing police chief from list of problem cops

MONDAY, Oct. 12 — Lansing Police Chief Daryl Green’s name has been formally removed from a list of problematic cops who were found to have credibility issues, but the public will still remain in the dark about the details behind those misconduct allegations.

Green, who has worked at LPD since 1997 and was named chief last August, made headlines over the summer when his name was spotted on a Brady List at the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office. The list names officers with documented credibility concerns.

After review, however, prosecutors erased Green’s name from the list altogether last week and established additional reporting criteria in order for officers to appear on the listing in the future.

“I can say that some people were removed from the list because, like Green, we could not put them on the list if we used the new process,” Prosecutor Carol Siemon explained. “There was no allegation of violence. I believe it was that he had helped secure a patient to a gurney.”

Green also told City Pulse in July the incident that led to his inclusion occurred over 20 years ago when he assisted medical personnel in holding a patient on a gurney. During a subsequent investigation, there was “disagreement” on whether force was technically used, he explained.

“If force was used, I was required to complete a use-of-force form,” Green explained in an email to City Pulse. “However, subsequently, I learned that holding down a person on a gurney at the request of medical personnel, was defined as force and I should have filled out the form.”

Former Chief Mike Yankowski, Green’s supervisor at the time, argued that Green’s statements regarding the matter were not truthful, which warranted a memo from Yankowski to the prosecutor’s office to include him on the Brady List — named after a case that found suppression by prosecution of evidence favorable to the defendant violates due process rights.

“Green used force in effecting the arrest, but didn’t complete a use of force report,” Yankowski wrote in a letter obtained by City Pulse this year. “A report was filed by the subject for excessive force. During the interview process with internal affairs, Green was not truthful regarding the fact force was used, but quickly recanted his account of the incident to Internal Affairs.”

Siemon said the whole Brady List process is “very unclear.” She said Green didn’t know at the time that he was required to complete a use-of-force form for the gurney incident and also would have been able to dispute his inclusion on the list under her new Brady system. 

Siemon has since refused to provide additional details about the incident. City officials have since destroyed the records, which it had no obligation to keep. A records request by City Pulse earlier this year also didn’t turn up any additional documentation.

“We did extensive research to try to develop a policy that provides integration the system to protect accuseds’ rights while also providing due process and notice to officers to be fair to them,” Siemon explained without providing any additional information about the incident.

Green, who is Black, has said the findings were assembled during a time when he and minority officers had expressed concerns about a racist environment within the Police Department — one that Green was careful to note “no longer” exists under his leadership “and have not for quite some time.”

“At the close of the interview, the supervisor argued that my previous statement was not truthful. However, in reality it was a disagreement on the definition of use of force when I held him on the gurney. Importantly, there were no injuries or excessive force findings,” Green had explained.

He also called the Brady List “illegitimate” and questioned its fairness and constitutionality.”

Siemon’s latest policy amendments require each name on the list to be reviewed by a three-person committee including herself and two other prosecuting attorneys. That committee has since removed the names of 11 of its 15 officers; One is still pending an internal review.

“We will continue working with law enforcement and prosecutors in other jurisdictions to make any needed changes or clarifications in the future,” Siemon told City Pulse late last week.

After the Lansing State Journal first reported Green’s name on that list, the Lansing NAACP also issued a statement in support of Green that touted Green’s active involvement in multiple community-based organizations and experience in navigating LPD through “difficult” events.

“Our membership recognizes that the event of twenty years ago recently in the local newspapers appears to be due to a difference of opinion between now Chief Green and this then supervisor. Unless we learn of very strong evidence to undermine it, we shall continue to have faith and confidence in Chief Green,” according to an emailed statement from the NAACP that also offered to further review documents that detail the dated allegations against Green.

"I would like to think that my attention to the ICPO’s Brady list brought forth an active discussion that was a catalyst in creating a fundamental fair process in Ingham County that addresses Constitutional due process concerns," Green told City Pulse. "I look forward to working with the appropriate decision makers in completing the circle of fairness and objectivity regarding the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Brady list process so no others are victimized in the future from policy that is not in alignment with fundamental fairness and due process."