Mayweather returned with a tape recorder and plugged it in. He chose the seat at the far end of the table, under the recently hung painting of Burl Brewer.
Mayweather glanced at Sergeant Scully. 'You're a sergeant one, is that right?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Okay, Shane, you and I don't know each other. I guess we've probably met once or twice, but we're not really acquainted. It's important you know that I'm just here to take your statement. I'm going to try and determine what happened and then make a recommendation to the department as to what our next step should be. A police officer died at your hands. His death may have been completely unavoidable, but either way, we're into a mandatory use-of-force review. I'm not here to hurt you, take advantage of you, or trap you in any way. Okay?'
'I appreciate that, sir.'
The door opened and Bud Halley entered with a pot of coffee and three mugs. He poured. They each took one, blew across the steaming surface, then sipped gratefully.
'What goes on here is subject to the Police Bill of Rights under Title One,' Mayweather continued, 'so this pre-interview will not preempt any of your Skelly rights or privileges guaranteed by Section 202 of the city charter.' The Skelly hearing was his chance to answer the charges against him before his case went to a Board of Rights, if it got that far.
'This is an administrative review and is subject to the provisions laid down in Section 202. I'm going to record the interview.' Mayweather turned the tape on. 'Raise your right hand.' Shane did as he was instructed. 'Do you, Sergeant Shane Scully, swear that all information given by you during this interview is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?'
'I do.'
'This tape-recorded interview is for use in an Internal Affairs investigation only. For purposes of department statute-of-limitations requirements, today, April sixteenth, will be the due date of this inquiry. If no action is taken within a year of this date, the investigation will officially be determined to be closed. Is this interview being conducted at a convenient time and under circumstances you find acceptable?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Are you aware that the nature of this interview is to determine if the escalated force that resulted in Lieutenant Molar's death was within departmental use-of-force guidelines?'
'Yes, sir.'
'It is April sixteenth, at five-seventeen A. M. We are in the main conference room, on the ninth floor of Parker Center. Present is the interviewer, Deputy Chief Thomas Clark Mayweather. Also present is the officer being interviewed, Sergeant One Shane Scully. Witnessing the interview is Captain Bud Halley. In accordance with departmental guidelines, it is noted that no more than two interrogators are present. Okay' Mayweather paused and glanced at a crib card in front of him 'Section 202 governs this part of the administrative process and establishes procedures for the completion of a chronological log. If you could take care of that, Captain Halley? And then if you could get us a fresh DR number to file the case under.' A DR number was a Division of Records number, issued in all nonarrest reports.
Bud Halley nodded then took out a pad and pen to begin a chronology.
'Shane, if you could just start at the beginning and tell us what happened this morning… Don't leave anything out. Give us approximate times if you can. I want to get it all down on tape because the preliminary interview will be an important part of the record, if anything more comes of this later.'
'Okay.' Shane cleared his throat and began to tell exactly what had happened, starting with the wake-up call from Barbara at 2:16 A. M., followed by his call to Longboard Kelly. He told how he drove to Shell Avenue, found the front door open, saw Molar beating his wife. He related the conversation that ensued, telling how he tried to settle it down. Then how Molar, moving toward him, swung the baton at his head, hit him with his fist, pulled his gun, and fired. Shane explained how he returned fire, killing the huge LAPD lieutenant with his 9mm Beretta Mini-Cougar, just moments before Unit X-ray Twelve arrived.
When he finished, he looked up at Mayweather, who was making notes on a pad, a puzzled expression on his face.
'That's everything,' Shane finished.
'Tell me about your relationship with Raymond Molar.'
'Uh… well, he was sort of a mentor, I guess you'd call it. I met him when I went through the Academy. He was conducting a self-defense lecture. He and I were at the same table for lunch. We sort of hit it off, gravitated to each other. He did three street-combat classes while I was there, and we became friends. After I graduated, I ended up in Southwest, in the Seventy-seventh Division. He was a sergeant there. I was still just a probationer, and since we were friends, he got himself assigned as my training officer. He was my partner for the first six months of my tour. After I finished probation, we rode together for six more months.'
'Sergeants don't usually ride with partners.'
'Well, in the Seventy-seventh, a lot of the sergeants took a shotgun rider. It's pretty hairy down there. Anyway, we rode together for that last six months, and then I got reassigned. I went to the West Valley Division for four years, then spent six in Metro. I've been back at Southwest for the past six years and in RHD down there for twenty-eight months. Ray was in Central, then Newton, so we didn't see much of each other after that.'
'I see.' Mayweather made some more notes on his pad. 'You see him socially during that first tour in Southwest when you were partnered?'
'Yes, sir, we were friends.'
'Right about then you had an Internal Affairs complaint that wasn't sustained, isn't that correct?'
'Excuse me, sir, but I thought I had immunity from background on unsustained IAD complaints.' Shane knew that since Mayweather was head of the Special Investigations Division, which supervised IAD, he had access to those old Internal Affairs records. Obviously, the deputy chief had done more than change clothes before coming in for this interview.
Mayweather looked up and lay down his pen. 'I'm just trying to determine if, when you were before that Board of Rights in March of '84, you were still partnered with Ray Molar.'
'Yes. That was just before we stopped working together.'
'Okay.' Mayweather picked up his pen. 'You say Lieutenant Molar pulled a gun. Did you see it clearly?'
'I was only a few feet away.'
'What kind of gun was it?'
'I think it was a European handgun, a Titan Tiger snub-nose thirty-eight is what it looked like.'
'That's not a department-approved handgun.'
'Well, he was at home. I suppose he can have any kind of weapon he wants at home.'
'And then, after you shot him with your Beretta, what happened to his gun?'
'I guess he dropped it. I don't know, I was kind of jacked up after the shooting.'
'Sergeant Scully, do you mind taking a urine test? As you know, you can refuse under the Police Bill of Rights, but I should warn you that in an administrative hearing, unlike a criminal case, your refusal can be viewed by the department as insubordination. You could be brought up on charges. If you do refuse, I'll have to send for a DRE to examine you anyway, and his opinion will go in the record and carry the same weight.' A DRE was a drug recognition expert who would make a judgment on sobriety by observation, checking vision and reflexes.
'That won't be necessary. I'll take the test, sir,' Shane said.
'I'll get the paperwork ready.' He leaned over and picked up the phone. 'This is Mayweather. Send somebody up from the lab for a urine sample and have whoever's on the duty desk out there dig around and get me an authorization form.' He hung up the phone, having never shifted his gaze from Shane. Then he leaned back in his chair and templed his fingers under his chin.
'Barbara Molar is quite an attractive woman.'
'Yes, sir, she is. The lieutenant was very lucky.'
'Until tonight.'
'Well, yes, that's what I meant, sir. 'Right.'
They sat in silence for a few moments.
'Did you and Lieutenant Molar retain a friendly relationship after you were reassigned to the Valley Division?'
'Well, sir… no. Like I said, we sort of drifted our separate ways.'
