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TAPED INTERVIEW WITH LORI BATTEY

Holstine: This is Sergeant Paul Holstine with the Bullhead City Police Department

Office of Professional Responsibility and present with me is Emergency

Services Dispatcher Lori Battey and you are Lori Battey are you not?

Battey: Yeah.

Holstine: Lori have you reference that Notice of Administrative Investigations thats

in front of you have you received that?

Battey: Un huh.

Holstine: Reviewed it and youre aware of its contents?

Battey: Yes.

Holstine: Okay. And do you understand your specific rights and responsibilities in

this investigation?

Battey: I guess what rights are you talking about?

Holstine: Well its, it sounds like you probably dont and this is your first

Battey: Yeah

Holstine: time

Battey: in here.

Holstine: interviewed. Um basically there are contained in ah the paragraphs A

through E here Ill read em out loud. Youre being compelled by a

Bullhead City Police Department Supervisor to truthfully answer questions

relating to your duties or conduct. Um actually youre a witness in this

case but all these rules do apply to you, youre not, youre not being

investigated youre a witness with

Battey: Un huh.

Holstine: ah all the, all of the same things apply youre required to come in here

and tell the truth. Ah you can be disciplined to up to and including

dismissal for refusal to answer these questions. Questions, tests or

examinations will be specifically related to your performance or fitness forduty. Ah any such statements, tests or examination results can be used

against you in a disciplinary or administrative or civil proceeding but will

not be used against you in a criminal proceeding. Voluntary statements,

confession or untruthful statements by you about conduct unrelated to

this investigation may be admissible in any subsequent criminal action

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any false, deceptive or misleading statements you make may lead to

additional discipline up to and including dismissal as well as possible

suspension or revocation of your Arizona Post Peace Officer Certification

since youre not a Peace Officer that doesnt apply as far as your

certification goes. But basically ah it also refers to ah our internal rules

and regulations and ya know youre, youre duty to be forthcoming,

truthful and give, give the whole truth, not just the part of the truth that

doesnt make you look funny.

Battey: Okay.

Holstine: Um so do you understand your specific rights and responsibilities in this

investigation?

Battey: Yes.

Holstine: And do you have any questions about your specific rights and

responsibilities in this investigation?

Battey: No.

Holstine: Okay then sign right here to acknowledge that and Ill just since its your

first time that pretty much covers it but this is compelled testimony is what

its referred to where the department ah has the right to, to order you to

answer questions. Now what you heard me say in here about it not being

used against you in a criminal proceeding that is due to whats called the

Garrity Decisions where ah if, if the department orders you to testify about

something theyve basically and then they use it against you in a criminal

proceeding theyre violating your rights cause you have the same rights

as everyone else. And so the Garrity, the Garrity Provisions protect you

from that sort of violation. If were gonna order you to tell us the truth the

whole truth and nothing but the truth under penalty of losing your job then

we cannot use it against you criminally and that obviously applies more to

somebody thats a subject not a witness but ah thats the basic set of

rules. Fun stuff huh?Battey: Oh yeah.

Holstine: Good times. Okay first thing that we need to do is fill out this handwriting

exemplar. Fill your name out in the end (Inaudible) gonna be of any use

but go ahead and do it and pay attention to whats going on here in here

because there are very specific instructions for each section like it will say

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write do not print and at the bottom of the page its asking you for your

signature and a witness so when you get to the bottom of each page

prompt me and Ill come sign as a witness.

Battey: Okay.

Holstine: Take your time this will, this will take a while its several pages thick but

Battey: So the top needs to printed though huh?

Holstine: Yeah ah each, each section ah specifies ah if it doesnt say otherwise

print just print usually itll tell you if it wants cursive writing, itll tell you if it

wants capitals or lower case. And Ill be over here waiting for you to ask

me something or have me sign one of those. And if I didnt already put it

on the record were at the Office of Professional Responsibility its 9:58

a.m. on the 22nd of October, 2009 and were interviewing on OPR 09029.

And Lori can you spell your last name for me?

Battey: B-A-T-T-E-Y.

Holstine: And Lori is L-O-R-I?

Battey: Yes.

Holstine: Thanks.

Battey: Okay Im done with the first one do you need to watch me sign this?

Holstine: No just sign (Inaudible).

Battey: Paul on the symbols

Holstine: Un huh.

Battey: do they want me to do it exactly like they have it or how I would do it if I

were writing it?

Holstine: How, your version of those symbols.

Battey: Okay. Okay. Okay Im done.

Holstine: (Inaudible) okay. Alright um obviously theres a whole lot of disturbing

stuff in this allegation if, if any of its true um so just in general do you

wanna address this stuff or do you have any opinions, complaints ah

otherwise about this whole subject matter. I mean obviously this is aboutah Marion and Tammys ah, ah split up.

Battey: Yeah. I dont know how much I should say. Im obviously involved in this

so.

Holstine: Yeah and the reason why the reason this personal matter ah has come to

my office is because it hit the radar screen and basically became

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departmental business because it involves three departmental members.

Um of course the object of this investigation is to figure out if, if there is

any misconduct involved and I can tell you that the department is not

eager to just jump into the middle of these things there has to be some

sort of line crossed for their for the department to, to go okay now this is

our business

Battey: Un huh.

Holstine: and I can tell you that initially where that line was, was that some of the

guys on Marions shift noticed that he was not too productive and the

theory was that um the theory was obviously that it was due to him being

upset over his personal life but they also another off shoot of that theory

was that his, he was getting special treatment from you as a dispatcher

and you were like not giving him calls or giving someone else his calls

and ah thats how why the supervisors ah initially addressed it to find out

if there was any truth to that and ah its not a part of this allegation but it is

part of the history

Battey: Un huh.

Holstine: of this thing becoming (Inaudible) coming into the work place.

Battey: The reason its not part of that is because it wasnt true. I never gave I

never have given him special treatment ever.

Holstine: Right.

Battey: We were friends from the very beginning and never have I done that. If

you look at all the logs, if you look at the calls that on those days either

there wasnt something in his beat or he was on something and it went to

the next person. Never once have I done that.

Holstine: Yeah and that and before I could get there you, you, you told me your,

your take on this but um thats already been looked into by Sergeant

Wincentsen and it was already shot down. But thats that was the initial

kind of the first harmful event if you will that got this onto the departmentsradar screen

Battey: Un huh.

Holstine: because its ya know obviously gossip as far as gossip goes its been

on the radar for a lot longer than that,

Battey: Oh I know.

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Holstine: But ah thats why this has come in here and also that this ah stuff that

Officer Crawford brought up and if you noticed in the allegation its she

had a conversation with Tammy and Tammy, Tammy told her a bunch of

things and ah ya know she felt that if those things were true theyre

misconduct and she felt right

Battey: Right.

Holstine: if those things are true

Battey: Exactly.

Holstine: they are misconduct and so thats why

Battey: I dont have a problem with what Jamie did I think Jamie did what she

needed to do.

Holstine: Yeah thats why were here.

Battey: I have a problem with the other party.

Holstine: I figured as much.

Battey: (Inaudible) and, and I dont have a problem with her to the my problem is

if that stuff were true why did she allow him to raise her daughters for all

those years if all that were true why as a mother I would take my kid and

leave why did this only come to light because he filed for divorce?

Holstine: I think thats a valid point. Ah and those are some of the things that are

being investigated obviously cause theyre in, theyre in there. Anyway so

lets see weve addressed ah something that really was a non topic that

being the ah allegation of favoritism.

Battey: Okay.

Holstine: Um with you the, the theory I think is all it ever developed into a theory

that ya know you were, you were giving him you were cutting him slack.

Battey: Un huh.

Holstine: Anyway so that having been said ah anything else that you wanna get off

your chest as far as this whole situation goes I mean

Battey: Un huh.Holstine: I, I dont Im not gonna make you air out all of your personal business if

you got something you wanna address in this forum go ahead otherwise

well just go on with my

Battey: You just ask what you wanna ask.

Holstine: Yeah um what is the nature of your relationship currently with Marion?

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Battey: We live together.

Holstine: Is it romantic is it platonic?

Battey: Romantic.

Holstine: Okay I assumed that but I, but I dont want to assume too much.

Battey: Right.

Holstine: Okay.

Battey: Yes we are in love with each other.

Holstine: Well good for you. Ah how long has it been a romantic endeavor as a

relationship?

Battey: Oh my goodness (Inaudible) probably a year that we decided that we love

each other and were probably gonna go that way.

Holstine: Okay. Alright um and from what you were just saying it would be safe for

me to assume that it started out as, as something less than a romance?

Battey: Yeah. We were just co-workers and friends we talked on our shift

basically to keep each other awake we were on night shift

Holstine: Un huh.

Battey: and we both are into horses we talked about horses, old cars and stuff

we just had lunch now and then talk about what we did that week or

whatever yeah we were just friends.

Holstine: Okay without getting into too much graphic ah the year figure as far as it

being, being romantic would that you said that a year or better its been?

Battey: With this being October you want exacts good grief (Inaudible).

Holstine: Well I dont really expect exacts if you, if you can give me them.

Battey: I dont know exact thats the thing I

Holstine: Okay.

Battey: um but its, its been yeah its been over a year probably

Holstine: Okay. So is it fair to say that back in the end of June of the beginning of

July that it would have been a romance as apposed to a platonic

relationship?Battey: Of this year?

Holstine: Yeah this past year.

Battey: Oh yeah.

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Holstine: Um and again I, I feel really dumb asking these questions but um when I

think about a romantic or a romance and being in love I usually make the

assumption that its also a physical relationship am I wrong?

Battey: Nope.

Holstine: Okay. And, and thats all I need to know about that. Um so thats ah I

mean were pretty much getting right down to the end of this as far as

your believed value as a witness. I mean yeah its not as far as all these

allegations go the only thing theres only one part in here that you have a

ah, ah relationship to as a witness to my knowledge. Um and I want to

ask you to validate a couple of things because these were given to me

and when they were given to me they were believed to be evidence of a

romance between you and Marion and Im, I dont know if you perceived

this from the notice or my questioning but the existence of a romance

between you and Marion is not considered misconduct you understand

that?

Battey: Okay.

Holstine: Thats not what this investigations about. Thats why theres nothing in

here that says its believed that they were in love thats, that wouldnt be

that wouldnt be misconduct in the, by the department. Whats your,

whats your e-mail address?

Battey: Medic106_99@(Inaudible).

Holstine: And do know what Marions is?

Battey: Um the one he has now is PHUNAM_223.

Holstine: Okay. And the reason Im asking you that is to validate an e-mail I was

given and if youd read that real quick. Is, is that my, my opinion is that,

that e-mail indicates that you guys were romancing at that period of time

is that accurate?

Battey: Yeah within the last year yeah thats, that was Christmas time.

Holstine: Okay. Alright so that, that is an e-mail that you eventually received fromMarion

Battey: Un huh.

Holstine: correct? Okay.

Battey: Yeah he was trying to set up a page and

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Holstine: Okay. That pretty much just gets us down to a couple of things. I want

you to look at this card and tell me if that is

Battey: Oh that

Holstine: from you to Marion?

Battey: Its when it first started yeah we had been friends for a year that is but we

had only been physical I well at this point its been physical its been over

a year now.

Holstine: Okay thats all I wanna know.

Battey: I love him.

Holstine: And, and that is not an issue thats not, thats not considered like I said

this is sticky stuff.

Battey: Yeah.

Holstine: I mean Im embarrassed asking half these questions.

Battey: Im embarrassed that you even have them.

Holstine: But ah I think its a fairly well done ah romance card. Lets see also

another piece of information that I got was that do you have a niece in

school here locally?

Battey: Yes I do.

Holstine: And it, its been submitted to me that ah maybe back around the first of

the year just after the holidays she something came outta her mouth at

school ah to Jamie Crawford

Battey: Un huh.

Holstine: is Jamie Crawford her School Resource Officer?

Battey: Un huh.

Holstine: And whats this nieces name?

Battey: Her name is Jordan Jamison.

Holstine: Okay and Jamie basically said that Jordan referred to your boyfriend

Battey: Yeah.

Holstine: and knew him as a police officer named Marion thatBattey: I can tell you exactly what happened with that.

Holstine: Ah go ahead.

Battey: Again it was within the last year it was the boom box parade this past

year

Holstine: Un huh.

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Battey: he came down and helped make sure that my saddle was on tight and

stuff for the parade

Holstine: Un huh.

Battey: and when he left he gave me a kiss on the cheek goodbye and she as

a child who saw that I she said did he just kiss you on the cheek and I

said yeah and I said thats my boyfriend.

Holstine: Again not, not ah this is not you being investigated for

Battey: Un huh

Holstine: anything.

Battey: but I hate it that this is making him look bad when we were just ya know

he was trying to get out he was trying to do it without losing his son and

now its gonna backfire on him.

Holstine: I understand that ah theres a huge swirl of icky subjects and personal

business that needs to be left personal and

Battey: And thats what we were trying to do.

Holstine: departmental business that has to be handled with the utmost of ah

delicacys so that we dont get too far into your business where its not our

business to do it and on that note I think were about done here as far as

what I needed to ask you cause all I needed to know is how long has the

how long has the relationship as far as a romance been in existence and

youre saying over a year.

Battey: Right its been over a year.

Holstine: And when we talk about romance were talking about an adult physical

relationship without using any bad words. And ah that these this e-mail

and this card these all are actually things that were exchanged between

you and Marion and that your nieces statements were accurate and

thats it as far as, as far as I know. Anything that I need to get into with

you I think you pretty well addressed all the rest of this ah business up

front on your own but in relation to the remainder of the allegations or allof the allegations in there I want you to read through those and tell me if

you have any knowledge whether it be direct, hearsay, rumor or

otherwise about any of those subjects.

Battey: Her and her freaking porn. She was just obsessed with this porn crap.

And if I believed this stupid allegation about his step-daughter I would

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never allow him around my two daughters. He has been nothing but

totally wonderful to them.

Holstine: How old are your daughters anyway?

Battey: Um actually ones my daughter and ones my granddaughter but I raised

them and ones eight and ones nine. Hes never even anything except

fight back hes just

Holstine: Well those are allegations (Inaudible).

Battey: I know but, but it has to do with his character and this is killing me.

Holstine: Yes yeah obviously is those if any of those or any group of those is true

its bad news I mean its bad stuff.

Battey: Weve never touched a child never he dedicates his life to protecting

them. As far as this thing about Sergeant Best what was told to me was

that Sergeant Best said hey by the way just so you know theres rumors

about you and a certain dispatcher and what I think Marion said was well

you know how rumors are and that, they left it at that. He didnt lie he left

it so that we couldnt bring this stuff to work we didnt want this stuff at

work and we have never done anything

Holstine: So well ya know what and that brings up a good category for discussion

obviously you guys have talked about this you talked

Battey: Yeah for like a year.

Holstine: you and Marion what sort of ah youve had the conversation about lets

try our best to keep this from blowing up at work

Battey: Yeah.

Holstine: yes?

Battey: Yes I mean I careers are everything to both of us

Holstine: Un huh.

Battey: we fell in love do we like how this happened no absolutely not Ive

never done anything like this I dont know whether he has or not all I know

is hes good to me.Holstine: Un huh.

Battey: And we were in love he wanted to leave, he was miserable thats how

some of our friendship got started we talked cause he was miserable we

had things in common neither one of us really wanted to go that way but it

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did. He says I cant lose my son so he tried to make it work as long as he

could cause he knew that if he tried to leave she would do something.

Holstine: What sort of thing did he I mean what does he think shes capable of?

Battey: Shes done way more than he thought she was capable of. He just

thought she would try to get me fired. But shes already proven way

beyond that.

Holstine: Have a did you guys ever go as far as to like researching policy or, or

trying to figure out just where bright lines lie that ya know stay outta the

mess?

Battey: No I didnt even think about it I mean everything that whenever we saw

each other it was at my home it was ya know did he ever come up and

eat he came up and ate with everyone of the guys on his shift we always

made sure he was only with the guys on his shift ya know everybody

came up and ate that was the only time I ever saw him during work hours

to be sure that nobody could ever say we did anything wrong.

Holstine: Right. Well thats again thats what this investigation is designed to

determine. Ya know 99% of the investigating I do determines that nothing

was done wrong. But we gotta go down this road now so.

Battey: Even the girls up there could tell you he didnt even sit at my desk he

would sit across the room and we talked about again horses, cars,

motorcycles whatever everyone participated in the conversations but its

never anything personal said.

Holstine: Right and, and theres no theres no avenue of investigation that, that,

that alleges or indicates that there was anything improper going on up

there other than, other than what I told you about at first this theory

Battey: Yeah.

Holstine: that came forth. Ya know the it looks like he was certainly depressed

and not being a ball of fire on the street but beyond that theres no

indication ofBattey: He was extremely depressed if you look at him now hes a whole different

person. Hes loves coming to work, he loves, he loves his job and his

career. Tammy knows that he has two big misses his career and his son

and shes going after both of em.

Holstine: Well in that respect this is a typical ugly divorce.

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Battey: Yeah.

Holstine: Anyway ah one of things that ah as far as the allegation that Marion has

refused to pay any bills and this was something that Jamie Crawford said

that Tammy told her are you aware of any of his financial

Battey: I know what thats about.

Holstine: dealings or what thats about?

Battey: His attorney told him to stop paying the house payment that shes living in

and to stop paying her truck payment he said if she wants to live in the

house and she wants to keep the truck she has to take care of those.

The house they have in Kingman hes still paying on.

Holstine: Okay.

Battey: Um and I think theres another like generic bill loan somewhere that he,

he makes a payment on.

Holstine: Okay.

Battey: But

Holstine: Thats, thats really not ah

Battey: the attorney told him if she wants the car or the truck and she wants the

house she needs to pay em so he stopped at the advice of his attorney.

Holstine: And thats Fred Kearns correct?

Battey: Un huh.

Holstine: Okay. Um

Battey: He has paid all of Brandons school lunches, we bought all of Brandons

uniforms for school we pay all of his daycare.

Holstine: Have you had any confrontations with Tammy?

Battey: Nu huh she doesnt speak to me and I try to keep it very professional if I

have to give her a call I give her a call she usually hangs up on me but I

dont see again Im trying to keep this as professional as we can if it I, Im

doing the best I can with it. I she ya know I havent even really spoke to

her other than to give her a call or shell call up and shell say clear mycall and I said okay and shell hang up but

Holstine: Alright.

Battey: she hasnt approached me.

Holstine: (Inaudible) so weve covered Im just talking out loud now so I make sure

Ive gone everywhere I need to go. Weve covered these the documents

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that youve authenticated which pretty much makes your handwriting

exemplar (Inaudible). Um did Marion ever mention to you ah this civil

standby as its called where ah Reid McNally went down to the house as

they were splitting up or he was down there getting things or he was

leaving or something?

Battey: Un huh.

Holstine: Are you aware of anything that happened on that?

Battey: Other than that she was very angry at him for filing and she was trying to

get Reid to look at stuff on the computer.

Holstine: Okay. Im just reading through a couple of things here and seeing if I

have any other questions to get to but I dont theres (Inaudible) cover you

said you have, you have some knowledge of that incident with Reid

McNally and, and Marion and Tammy down at their old house um weve

talked about your niece (Inaudible) you have actually already addressed

ah Marion and his girlfriend which would be you meeting during work

hours.

Battey: Yeah thats crap.

Holstine: Um okay well let me just clarify this you guys had met during work hours

to do to have lunch?

Battey: Well he comes up and eats in dispatch

Holstine: Right.

Battey: its not just us its

Holstine: Right.

Battey: everybody.

Holstine: Right um but what I, what Im trying to get at here is, is there any reason

why you couldnt meet on duty for lunch?

Battey: In a public setting no.

Holstine: In any setting if its for lunch on duty and youre and youre given time for

lunch.Battey: No I guess not.

Holstine: Im not saying it doesnt apply to leaving the building

Battey: Right.

Holstine: at dispatch.

Battey: Well yeah.

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Holstine: But its more from an officers standpoint from a departmental standpoint

is there some reason why if you were romantically involved with Marion

Morgan that hes band from the building?

Battey: I dont feel so no. Is it any different than Reid going home for lunch to

with his wife its the same thing to me.

Holstine: Right. Okay. Have you ever seen Marion viewing or in possession of

child porn?

Battey: No it is that whole thing is because he looked at an adult x-rated video,

shes very against that. She burned some that he had when they met and

he had like a classic playboy collection that somebody had given him that

was like in plastic sleeves and stuff

Holstine: Un huh.

Battey: that was worth money she burnt those youre not allowed to have any

of that stuff. So because she found out that he looked at she looked

through the history and saw he viewed a video it was not child it was an

adult and he has since shown me this is what shes talking about and its

not but shes obsessed with that whole concept. Thats what the whole

child custody is based on.

Holstine: Okay well I think weve pretty much exhausted this topic I cant think of

anything else to ask you, you got anything to ask me?

Battey: No.

Holstine: Then well end this interview at 10:38 a.m.

Transcribed and submitted to the best of my ability: Carol A. Escoffier