Christmas Cop Car Draft Script
Prologue:
(audio of Ariel driving in the car with her daughter)
Ariel Lavery: There’s soldiers marching…
Lumi Lavery: Go!
Ariel Lavery: There’s the cop car, there’s the Christmas Cop Car!
(funny christmas music starts)
Female News Anchor: ... Murray Kentucky is stolen again.
Male News Anchor: Yeah, the police department says this squad car made of Christmas lights had been on display at a park as part of their display there, until someone stole it.
Female News Anchor: Park officials announced on Thursday the decoration was returned. However, today police say the lights got taken again. Anyone with information about this latest theft is asked to call the Murray Police Department.
Austin Carter: So, Ariel, you remember a year ago, in November of 2019, when I showed you this little story in our local newspaper?
Ariel Lavery: Sure, you were thinking of doing an episode about a Christmas display that was stolen from the city park. But, I was like, what? Why?
Austin Carter: (laughs) Yeah, I very vividly remember your reaction. In the article the park’s Maintenance Director was imploring the community to help get this display back.
Ariel Lavery: Right.
Austin Carter: And at that point, we had no idea what was coming. We didn’t know that the display would be returned, only to be stolen again… and returned again.
Ariel Lavery: Returned bent in half.
Austin Carter: And what we really couldn’t foresee was that our attempt to investigate what we thought would be a harmless story about a small town prank, would put us at odds with the local police department.
Ariel Lavery: And it got the state’s Attorney General involved!
Amye Bensenhaver: it is one of the most pervasive problems confronting open government in Kentucky, this issue of access to law enforcement records in quote, unquote, open investigations.
(theme music starts)
Austin Carter: Some people might think small town cops are friendly with most people in their community, but when does that trust break down?
Austin Carter: Today, the Case of the Christmas Cop Car, on Middle of Everywhere.
Ariel Lavery: Big stories from the small places we call home. I’m Ariel Lavery
Austin Carter: And I’m Austin Carter.
Scene 1: The Unsuspecting Police Car
Ariel Lavery: One of the things I knew as a new resident of Murray was that you have to go see the parks’ Christmas light display. Especially if you have kids. So my husband and I took our daughter Lumi last year.
(audio of Ariel and family driving through light display)
Ariel Lavery: And ten leaping people? (laughs) I just can’t remember. I have to sing the song.
Lumi Lavery: On!
Ariel Lavery: (singing) On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, something, I just can’t remember. I’m gonna have to look that up.
Lumi Lavery: Ooohhh. (in awe) Ohhhh!
Ariel Lavery: Look at the giant deer over there Lumi! Do you see the giant deer? See?
Lumi Lavery: Mama, mama.
Ariel Lavery: You think that’s mama?
Lumi Lavery: Yeah.
Ariel Lavery: (laughs) That’s not mama.
Austin Carter: One of the displays in this Festival of Lights is a six-foot-long, police-car-shaped Christmas display strung up with LED lights. And sponsored by the local Fraternal Order of Police. That was the stolen display.
Steve Whilhem: It was right there, it was as bold and vibrant as you can get, right there at the front entrance. And I noticed, the display was gone.
Austin Carter: That’s Steve Wilhelm, the Maintenance Director for Murray, Calloway County parks. He spoke with the local paper saying how much he wanted to find this Christmas display. They wanted to get it back.
(curious music starts)
Austin Carter: A few days later, it is returned to the local police department.
Ariel Lavery: An odd choice.
Austin Carter: And the perpetrators turn themselves in.
Ariel Lavery: But the names are not made public.
Austin Carter: So, everything seems well and good with the world for the parks maintenance director. They put the display back out… but... it gets stolen again.
Ariel Lavery: The case is in the newspaper again, it's missing for maybe 24 hours or so. But something much more malevolent happens this time.
Austin Carter: The display is returned to its original spot, completely destroyed. Now, at this point, I think your curiosity about this story changed right?
Ariel Lavery: Yeah, I wanted to know why someone would repeat this heist only to return it to the park destroyed.
Austin Carter: I did too. So we decided to interview Steve, and you asked him just that.
Steve Wilhelm: Who does it? My guess is somebody that's either mad at the police department for some reason, or mad at the park for some reason, or just plain mad at Christmas.
Ariel Lavery: We found out that nobody really knew who vandalised the display. But Steve told us what he thought happened.
Steve Wilhelm: The three students that had it, I think they were just looking to take something and as a joke, they really didn't think it through. They really didn't have any kind of ideas to what they were taking. They actually took the display that was closest to the front of the park that they could carry. There was no symbolism in the police car at all to them.By taking that one, they kind of started a firestorm because it kind of offended the police department, the sheriff's department. So they made a special effort to go out and start really looking for it.
Ariel Lavery: So Steve didn’t really know that it was students who took it, like officially, but he somehow had information that led him to believe it was.
Austin Carter: Yeah, and the community really wanted to see this display get returned, thanks to the newspaper article.
Steve Wilhelm: So we were putting some pressure on and these kids decided that they needed to get it out of Murray. So they took it to Huntington, Tennessee, which is to one of the kid’s parent’s houses. And instead of bringing it back to the park, which is probably what I would have done and dropped it off at two o'clock in the morning at the front entrance of the park and been on my way. They took it back to the police station, and the police department simply charged them with a felony (laughs).
(demoralizing music starts)
Ariel Lavery: The heavy cost of this prank comes from the value of the display at over $500, felony territory.
Steve Wilhelm: So all three of them got charged in the felony. I don't know the names, they haven't released the names and I probably never will know the names although I'd like to see them do some community service out here. I got some toilets they need to clean. (laughs)
Austin Carter: So our focus kind of changed at this point. We weren’t sure that we would ever find out who had actually damaged the display. But in regards to the first theft and return, we wanted to hear their side of the story. We wanted to find out why they did it, and how they felt about having a felony charge on their record.
Ariel Lavery: Yeah, we wanted to see if they felt any remorse for committing this silly prank. And see if there was any redemption in it.
Austin Carter: But, this is the start of a whole other story we didn’t expect.
Scene 2: Investigation Ongoing
Ariel Lavery: We knew we wanted to find out who dunnit, and supposing it was college students, thought it would be easy to talk to them.
Austin Carter: So we went to the Murray Police Department and filed an open records request in December of 2019, and in January of 2020, we get the response from our first open records request, and it is denied saying that the “investigation is ongoing.”
Ariel Lavery: But it was also only a month or so after the event. So we figured we’d give it a few months, then we could get those names and continue pursuing the story. But we all know what happened then...
Austin Carter: Yep, the pandemic hit. Everything was up in the air for everyone across the country. And we didn't really proceed with this story for a few more months. Finally in August, things had settled down a bit, we started looking to get these names again. I filed another open records request with the Murray Police Department. And in a week or so's time when they responded to me.
Ariel Lavery: Oh that’s much faster than the first time!
Austin Carter: Yeah, however, they said that this investigation was...again, still ongoing. The thing about this answer was, when I had asked the person who was in charge of the records at the police department if I could get those records, she said “Oh, sure, that'll probably be no problem.”
Ariel Lavery: But that wasn’t the case?
Austin Carter: Nope. She goes back and checks. Comes back and says, “Sorry, they’re not available.”
(inspiring music begins)
Ariel Lavery: Okay, so this was the point where I felt uncertain that there was any way we could proceed because we both felt like the key to this story was getting the perspective of the students who had taken the display.
Austin Carter: Exactly. So, because we operate out of a radio station, we enlisted the help of our News Director, Rachel Collins, based on her experience as a journalist filing open records requests.
Ariel Lavery: Yeah, she knows everything about public requests and getting information. Rachel came to the rescue! (Austin laughs)
Rachel Collins: I feel very passionately about the open records stuff. I typed up a formal open records request. And, because I knew we — as in WKMS — had already had trouble obtaining documents, I wanted to make sure that I hand delivered that open records request to the police department. That was around mid-September.
Austin Carter: We thought at that point that maybe our requests had not been specific enough, or that if we directly requested in a more formal manner that maybe they would be available to be released.
Ariel Lavery: But when we talked to Rachel, she said she had an inside source...
Rachel Collins: I spoke with someone who is close to the department, who is certainly in the know, and who has access to records there. And that person assured me that this case was in fact closed, and that I should have no problem getting a hold of those documents with a formal open records request. Now, I was told that the first time that you guys asked for the documents that the investigation was ongoing, but that it had been officially closed by this point. And so I was not actually anticipating any trouble. I just knew that certain departments, especially law enforcement departments, are very particular about protocol and procedure when it comes to documents, which is why I wanted to hand deliver the documents to make sure that they got to the right person.
Ariel Lavery: And that’s what Rachel did.
(mischievous music starts)
Rachel Collins: At first, we got no response, which was the first illegal action by this police department. In Kentucky, when you file an open records request with a government agency, they have to respond to you acknowledging that they have received it, and then they have to tell you when they are going to respond. But, they didn’t respond at all, and after several days had passed, and I received no formal acknowledgement that they had received the documents that I knew they had received, because I hand delivered them, I sent an email to the public information officer at Murray Police Department and said, “Hey, I followed the open records request. I hand delivered it on this date, I've received no response. Just wanted to check on the status.” He emailed me right back and he said, “Oh, we'll get right on that. Sorry you haven't received anything. Thanks so much.” Soon after is when I got an email from the records keeper, Brittany Bean. She said that they were denying my request, because the investigation was ongoing.
Scene 3: To The Attorney General
Ariel Lavery: Ok, so now we’re at three filings for open records requests, one of them after our news director got on the case, followed by three rejections.
Austin Carter: Right. Rachel emails back the public records keeper saying she had information the case was closed.
Rachel Collins: She emailed me back and said that my information was incorrect that the investigation was ongoing. And at that point is when I decided to file an appeal with the attorney general.
(Christmas rock music blasting)
Austin Carter: In Rachel’s appeal to Kentucky’s attorney general...
Ariel Lavery: Daniel Cameron.
Austin Carter: Right, she includes all of her correspondence about the documents, a formal letter, and all the pertinent information about our denied request.
Rachel Collins: In the meantime, the city attorney's office, responds to me and says, “We can't give you these documents because this is ongoing.” And I pointed out that they were only acknowledging one of the cases. But there were two cases. And I had requested documents for both cases, the case when someone stole the display, and then brought it back, unharmed, but also the case that when they stole the display and brought it back harmed.
Austin Carter: And the city attorney responded saying the second case, when the display was broken, was already closed. And those documents had been released.
Rachel Collins: … That significantly increased my suspicion with the case.
Ariel Lavery: So, the case where the display was destroyed was closed, the documents being handed over. But the case where they supposedly knew who the perpetrators were was ongoing and unavailable?
Rachel Collins: That smells.
Austin Carter: And while we’re waiting for a ruling from the attorney general, another attorney for the city writes a letter defending the Murray Police Department’s position.
The letter says the police department received the attorney general’s notice, but…
Rachel Collins: The premature release of this information could be harmful to the impending law enforcement action.
Austin Carter: A summons has been issued to the defendants, but has not yet been served, due to COVID-19.
Rachel Collins: But in that letter, it doesn't provide any evidence that the case is ongoing.
Ariel Lavery: Very fishy.
Rachel Collins: The attorney general responded on October 27, in favor of WKMS. And they said very plainly, that the police department had not successfully demonstrated how it could harm the investigation if they released those names to us.
Austin Carter: They also acknowledged that the police department did not follow open records law.
Rachel Collins: So on October 27th, we got the ruling from the attorney general on October 30th. I got an email from Brittany Bean.
Ariel Lavery: The records keeper.
Rachel Collins: She attached a number of documents and she says the documents he requested... are attached.
(Celebratory christmas music starts)
Rachel Collins: So I opened the documents. And, I, I celebrated when I got that email, I thought, Ah, finally, finally, we have these documents. I got to help the podcast team. Yay, yay, yay! It's finally done. Yay. And I had a little dance party in my office. And then I opened the documents.
(suspensful music starts)
Rachel Collins: And I saw that they had redacted every name from every document, and y'all... I had to go for a walk... I was so just raging furious.
Scene 4: What Now?
Austin Carter: Even though the names in the documents we received were redacted, there was still some interesting information to be found, including an affidavit from the Murray State University Police Department.
Ariel Lavery: Wait, the Murray State PD was involved? Does this confirm what Steve, the maintenance director, said… about it being students?
Austin Carter: We still haven’t fully confirmed that but it does lend some credibility to that explanation. All we know is that the university police took this statement from one of the alleged perpetrators.
(suspenseful Christmas music starts)
Rachel Collins: (reading) My name is... then redacted. And I reside at … also been redacted. I went to go see a movie. After the movie, we drove by the park and saw the police Christmas light. And we said that'd be hilarious to steal for the irony.
Ariel Lavery: Hmm, for the irony? I want to talk more about that…
Rachel Collins: (reading) We were driving... name redacted... truck. So we cut it off the zip ties and ran with it. We covered it up with a blanket and then... name redacted. So we drove it out to a spot in the woods.. Put it about 50 yards into the woods, and covered it in leaves and a log.
Austin Carter: So, yeah, that line, wouldn’t it be hilarious “for the irony?” It suggests there’s some meaning to them taking the police car.
Ariel Lavery: Yeah, seems indicative of this person's relationship to the police maybe?
(energetic Christmas music starts)
Austin Carter: Well, here's some options. It is a Christmas display. So this could be like, Santa Claus’s son maybe, for the irony of stealing a Christmas display. (all laugh) Or it could be somebody related to the parks, which I don't really think it is, or it’s obviously somebody's child who has a relationship to law enforcement… Right?
Rachel Collins: I don't think that's a far leap. I really don't think that's a far leap.
Conclusion:
Austin Carter: Here’s where we’re at today, we haven’t gotten the names of the alleged perpetrators. The police department hasn’t provided unredacted copies, and it appears that taking it to court would be the final option.
Ariel Lavery: All of this over a goofy Christmas prank that I honestly did not think was much of a story when you first brought it to me.
Austin Carter: So I spoke to Amye Bensenhaver, a former assistant attorney general who now works for the Kentucky Open Government Coalition, about the implications of this case.
Austin Carter: How common is the situation that we're in, where journalists are given the runaround or denied is specifically information regarding police investigations.
(Melancholy music starts)
Amye Bensenhaver: It's all too common. In fact, it is one of the most pervasive problems confronting open government in Kentucky, this issue of access to law enforcement records in quote, unquote, open investigations, especially those in which there appears to be no real activity.
Ariel Lavery: Wow! I wouldn't expect this to be so pervasive, but I guess it kinda confirms some of my suspicions about how law enforcement operates. Did she say why they would withhold this information on a case like this?
Amye Bensenhaver: Obstinance, stupidity, bad legal guidance? You know, there is an infinite number of reasons they might be doing this. And it's hard to understand why they would dig their heels in on this particular case, particularly where the Kentucky attorney general has told them to disclose these records.
Austin Carter: All we really wanted to do was have a conversation with the people who stole this display.
Ariel Lavery. Yeah, we didn’t want to chastise or berate them. We just wanted to hear about what it’s like to make a dumb mistake like this, especially if that means you have charges filed against you.
Austin Carter: Exactly. But, because our open records requests were denied and then circumvented, it became this whole crusade for open government. We reached out to the Murray Police Department again, but they weren’t willing to make a comment on record because, you got it, “the investigation is ongoing.” So, I hate to say it, but this story doesn’t have a tidy resolution. At least not yet.
(empowered music starts)
Ariel Lavery: I’ll admit I didn’t know much about this whole process of records requests and real investigative work or even how the principle of open government is meant to work. But, now knowing more, I feel empowered, thanks to Rachel and Amye.
Amye Bensenhaver: It's so important that the public be able to monitor the activities of public agencies by means of accessing records and by means of attending their meetings. It's critical. As the legislature says, free and open examination of public record is in the public interest. And the formation of public policy is public business. In other words, you know, the public has an absolute right to know how public agencies conduct their business, the public's business.
Credits
Austin Carter: You can find lots more information about our show at our website middleofeverywherepod.org. While you’re there you can sign up for our newsletter so you’ll always be the first to know about exciting updates and new episodes. This episode was produced by me, Austin Carter.
Ariel Lavery: And me, Ariel Lavery. Our Editor is Naomi Starobin. Our theme music was composed and recorded by Time on the String sound studio in Paducah, Kentucky. Other scoring was from APM music. Marketing and sponsorship support comes from Dixie Lynn. Our intern is Serenity Rogers. Thanks to KFVS-12 for the clip of their broadcast. And to Chad Lampe and Rachel Collins for support with this episode. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at middleofeverywherepod and on Twitter @rural_stories. Middle of Everywhere is a production of WKMS and PRX. This program is made possible, in part, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private organization funded by the American people.