Metro Homicide commander suspended without pay

The man in charge of investigating St. Joseph County's most violent crimes is in trouble himself.

The prosecutor believes a phone conversation Metro Homicide Commander Tim Corbett had with a South Bend police officer "had a damaging effect on the reputation of the" Metro Homicide unit.

Corbett will now serve a five day, unpaid suspension because of what he said in that phone call.

He was accused of threatening, harassing and intimidating a fellow police officer, but a special investigator decided Corbett didn't do any of that. Still, the prosecutor decided to suspend Corbett without pay.

St. Joseph County Prosecutor Mike Dvorak said what Corbett admitted he said to South Bend Police officer Jack Stilp in a phone conversation April 24 was discourteous, and what happened in that conversation also "had a damaging effect on the reputation of the County Metro Homicide Unit."

According to Corbett's disciplinary notice issued Wednesday after the Metro Homicide Board met in private, the beginning of that phone call to Stilp was about free investigative work Corbett had been doing for Stilp and his wife. He then changed the conversation to talk about rumors that Metro Homicide officers were illegally recorded on a phone line at the police department. 

Corbett admitted to special investigator David Steele, "I did tell Stilp that I was tired of a couple day shift m*****f****** running their suck about us in roll call. I indicated to Stilp that if they keep it up there would be some s*** coming down in the form of a law suit.  I then told him that I was not going to be f***** with."

But after a three-month investigation, Steele, a retired FBI investigator, found Corbett did not threaten, intimidate or harass Stilp.

"Even Mr. Stilp called it a veiled threat," Dvorak said. "Even Mr. Stilp said he wanted to document what occurred. Even Mr. Stilp, when interviewed, did not ask for a criminal complaint."

The disciplinary notice also said Corbett made the call from his desk to Stilp on Tuesday, April 24, while Stilp was on duty.    

While Steele determined Corbett did not threaten Stilp, Dvorak said Corbett did violate county policy number 504 – the "Customer and Public Relations" policy – because he did not treat Stilp with courtesy and respect. 

"When you're looking at the appropriate sanction to take, you measure everything that person has done," said Dvorak. "And what Tim Corbett has done has been outstanding. The reputation this unit has earned in the community because of its good work, the reputation it has earned among other law enforcement officers because of its outstanding work is due in no small measure to the efforts and the leadership of Tim Corbett. Having said that, he's not perfect, no one's perfect."

Corbett's disciplinary notice from Dvorak goes on to say that the prosecutor's office "cannot tolerate the actions of one person eroding the confidence our citizens and police officers have that fair, honest and objective investigations will be conducted in homicides and incidents involving injury or death in which deadly force was used by a law enforcement officer in St. Joseph County."

Stilp's major concern, the letter said, was whether he and other day shift officers would be treated fairly in future officer-involved investigations by the commander of CMHU. 

Steele told WSBT he contacted 30 to 35 potential witnesses to interview during the course of his investigation, but about half of them did not cooperate with him. He said everyone he spoke with at Metro Homicide was cooperative in the investigation.

Dvorak appointed Corbett to be Metro Homicide Commander in 2003. Corbett served a one-day suspension in 2006 for showing his police badge when he confronted a man about a private matter.

Corbett is currently at a training school in Georgia and did not immediately return a phone call WSBT made to his cell phone.

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