Chapter 4 - THE POLICE CHIEF'S FOUNDATION
Pine Ridge Civic Foundation looked charitable.
Youth sports.
Police scholarships.
Community safety nights.
The website showed smiling children and uniformed officers handing out bicycles.
The bank records showed something else.
The foundation had received money from dozens of local contractors and property companies.
Including businesses that later received municipal contracts.
Not automatically illegal.
But interesting.
More interesting:
Dana Peterson had organized two fundraising galas.
Colton’s renovation company had received three city repair contracts after donating.
And Chief Enzo’s nephew owned the event company that billed the foundation.
Casey could not investigate the matter personally anymore.
That was crucial.
Her own mother and brother were directly involved.
Conflict of interest.
So she recused herself from any state inquiry related to the police department and requested appointment of an independent special counsel.
Enzo expected the opposite.
He told reporters Casey was “using state power to interfere in a local family matter.”
Casey answered once:
“I have recused myself. My mother deserves the same thing every citizen deserves: an investigation that does not depend on who her daughter is.”
That sentence changed public opinion.
More importantly, it changed the legal terrain.
Special Counsel Rebecca Sloan arrived from another district.
Cold.
Methodical.
Impossible to charm.
She started with the disabled cameras.
The booking-room system had not malfunctioned.
It had been manually placed into maintenance mode.
User credential:
ChiefEnzo01.
Enzo denied doing it.
Claimed his credentials were shared with command staff.
Bad practice.
Convenient defense.
Then Sloan pulled dispatch audio.
Dana had called 911 at 6:11 p.m.
“She attacked me,” Dana said, crying.
Dispatcher:
“Are you injured?”
Dana:
“She tried to kill me.”
But the first responding officer’s handwritten notes included something absent from the final report:
Margaret seated on kitchen floor. Visible bruising. States daughter-in-law grabbed arms during argument over documents.
The final report changed that sentence to:
Margaret emotionally agitated. Dana reports defensive physical contact.
Who edited the report?
Chief Enzo.
The audit log recorded his login at 7:04 p.m.
Margaret was arrested at 7:12.
Casey arrived at 7:36.
Enzo knew exactly who was coming.
May you like
Colton had called him.
That was why he knew Casey’s title before she mentioned it.
