Released on = July 24, 2007, 10:05 am

Press Release Author = Montana News

Industry =

Press Release Summary = Massive corruption is Billings Montana Police Deparment

Press Release Body = BILLINGS MAYOR RON TUSSING DAMNS HIMSELF WITH RETALIATION CASE
TESTIMONY
by MONTANA NEWS ASSOCIATION

By: Investigative Reporter
Janet Green and
Donald Cyphers Editor-In-Chief


CLICK ON LINK BELOW TO VIEW TUSSING IN COURT:
http://www.montanasnews.com/vid/courttussing.wmv


Billings Montana., July 23, 2007--/MNA PRESS/--Officer Steve Feuerstein's attorney,
Elizabeth Best, hammered former Billings Police Chief and current Mayor Ron
Tussing's testimony in defense of the City of Billings, this afternoon in
Yellowstone County District Court. During the lunch break, someone on the defense's
legal team must have told Tussing to quit trying to lead Plaintiff attorney
Elizabeth Best down rabbit trails, through his non-compliant and evasive
non-answers. After the lunch break, Tussing's answers were more direct, but no less
self-damning. Sweating face and twitching cheeks, darting eyes that would blink
repeatedly, evidenced Ron Tussing's nerves and lack of truth in his answers.

Tussing was faced with correspondence he had written to command staff regarding
Steve Feuerstein. In an e-mail to command staff, dated November 24, 2003, Tussing
wrote, "Okay, let's play hardball. The Unit is out of control. I think Joe [Bryce]
has a plan to get Steve [Feuerstein] out." In a response e-mail, Rich St. John wrote
to Jerry Archer, "Steve Feuerstein is the source of trouble [within the K9 Unit].we
have ample evidence to remove him from the department..He believes he's untouchable,
because he's dabbling in areas he shouldn't."

The "areas" that Steve Feuerstein was "dabbling in" were the illegal taking of DEA
narcotics that were specifically to be used only by law enforcement K9 training
aids, by Officers Dave Punt and Brian Korell, and giving them to Tanya Godfrey, for
her personal use in training her own dog. It is alleged that Tanya Godfrey had
sexual relations with both Punt and Korell. Godfrey is now married to Dave Punt,
goes by Tanya Punt, and works as a misdemeanor probation officer for Community
Solutions, Inc., where she regularly violates her clients' probation for their
alleged illegal possession of drugs.

Ron Tussing also testified today that he had brought in Neal Trautman, founder of
the Law Enforcement Training Network and Director of the National Institute for
Ethics, to conduct ethics training for the Billings Police Department, in either
February or March of 2002. (Tussing "couldn't remember" exactly when the training
took place.) It was at this training that Officer Steve Feuerstein approached Dr.
Trautman, who is an acknowledged expert on the infamous law enforcement "Code of
Silence", and asked for advice about his situation.

NOTE: Between June 1999 and February 2000, the National Institute of Ethics
conducted the most extensive research ever conducted on the police Code of Silence.
The survey found that 79% of the 1,016 law enforcement recruits said that a law
enforcement Code of Silence exists and is fairly common throughout the nation.

The sampling of current officers was comprised of 1,116 fulltime officers from
twenty-one different states. In response to the Code of Silence question "At the
time of the incident occurred, what did you think would happen if you revealed what
had taken place?" the five reasons listed most often were: I would be ostracized
(177 times); the officer who committed the misconduct would be disciplined or fired
(88 times); I would be fired from my job (73 times); I would be "blackballed" (59
times); the administration would not do anything even if I reported it. (54 times);
73 percent of the individuals pressuring officers to keep quiet about the misconduct
were leaders.

Findings: Whistle-blowers are generally not supported by the administration of law
enforcement agencies; the Code of Silence typically conceals serious law enforcement
misconduct for years before the corruption is revealed; the Code of Silence usually
occurs within cultures created by the role-modeling of leaders."

Attorney Elizabeth Best asked Ron Tussing if Joe Bryce's "plan" to take care of
Steve Feuerstein and get him out of the department, was part of the retaliation
against an officer who broke the Code of Silence. "I don't know," droned Tussing.
Best again pressed Tussing about Bryce's plan against Feuerstein, referring to
Trautman's writings on the Code of Silence, to which Tussing disclaimed, "Well yeah,
if you subscribe to the Code of Silence dogma."

When asked further about the Ethics Training and the "Oath of Honor", it came out
that Ron Tussing had allowed members of the BPD, who had NOT completed the ethics
training, to sign the certificate saying they HAD completed the training. Tussing
then wrote a letter to Neal Trautman, stating, "We have thoroughly investigated the
allegations from Officer Feuerstein from when you were here.Coincidentally, a full
audit was conducted the day Steve Feuerstein voiced his concerns. All the drugs are
accounted for."

Steve Feuerstein had taken the matter to Dave Hinkel on February 20, 2002. Yet,
despite Ron Tussing's written word to the contrary, there was no drug log entry of
an accounting for any BPD drugs on February 20, 2002. Ron Tussing lied to Neal
Trautman.

Elizabeth Best caught Tussing in his lies about purity testing the drugs that had
been taken by Officers Punt and Korell, too. In Tussing's sworn, written response to
Plaintiff's Counsel Discovery Request, Tussing wrote, "...Tussing and Jerry Archer
responded immediately with an investigation involving the weighing and re-packaging
of the drugs.determined that all drugs were returned and accounted for, according to
specified purity." However, Tussing admitted today in court that he actually had no
idea regarding the specific purity of those drugs. Backed into a truth corner,
Tussing clearly stated, "It was false," regarding his sworn written testimony. Mayor
Ron Tussing admitted he lied, when under oath.

A letter from Ron Tussing to then-City Administrator Kristoff Bauer, dated September
22, 2004, answering Bauer's concerns regarding what was going on in the police
department, was equally dishonest. Tussing alleged that Steve Feuerstein had
submitted a letter of resignation from the K9 Unit, in August 2004, solely due to
his partner Igor's medical problems, and also for reasons "outside his control."
(Feuerstein was referring to an Excessive Force violation, regarding a Pursuit, in
which he and 12 other inter-agency law enforcement officers had been involved.
Officer Feuerstein was the only one to receive a Pursuit Violation, which at that
time was governed under the Excessive Force policy. Feuerstein, according to policy,
could not serve as a K9 officer, with an Excessive Force violation on his record.)

Tussing wrote that he had not been able to find anyone who had told Steve Feuerstein
that he couldn't get another dog. Elizabeth Best questioned Tussing as to whether he
had done anything - anything, at all - to find out what those forces were? "No."

Tussing explained to Bauer, "We are well into the replacement process.it's too late
for him to try to get a new dog." Ron Tussing had seen to it that while Igor was
still in service and Steve Feuerstein was still in the K9 Unit, his replacement was
picked, prepared and in position. In the following four years, Tussing - and Chief
Rich St. John after him - made sure that Steve Feuerstein continued to pay the price
for doing the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason.

Billings Mayor Ron Tussing, the same man who walks in parades, strumming his guitar
and singing Kum-By-Yah, for the public to see, secretly and behind closed doors,
authored a campaign of retaliation against an officer who broke the BPD's prime
directive of the "Code of Silence." Tussing's climate of corruption that he fostered
while Chief of the Billings Police Department is finally on the record, in a court
of law, despite all his efforts to keep the "Code of Silence" intact.


MORE BILLINGS POLICE CORRUPTION STORIES:


http://www.montanasnews.com/articles.php?mode

Web Site = http://www.montanasnews.com

Contact Details = Montana News
P.O. box 1876
Billings, Montana
59103