Chief of JACNET won't face discipline

Anderson returns to full duty a month after shooting at a man who threw food at him

By SARAH LEMON
Mail Tribune

No disciplinary action will be taken against Lt. Jim Anderson for flipping off and firing a shot at a Hispanic man armed with Chinese food last month.

The Jackson County Sheriff's Office absolved Anderson on Tuesday of any wrongdoing according to the department's policies and procedures. Commander of the Jackson County Narcotics Enforcement Team, Anderson was back on full active duty after being confined to administrative tasks for about a month.

"Everything Lt. Anderson did was appropriate with one exception," said Sheriff Robert Kennedy, referring to Anderson's "finger-waving."

Anderson, 52, fired one round from his police handgun at 24-year-old Jorge Armando Cisneros. Cisneros threw a box of Chinese take-out into Anderson's unmarked police vehicle at Stewart and Columbus avenues at 5 p.m. on April 2. Anderson told a Jackson County grand jury that he feared he was under attack because the men knew he was a police officer. The jury declined to file criminal charges against the lieutenant.

Jurors also heard that before Anderson fired, Cisneros and two friends Jose Pepe and Javier Banuelos "flipped him off" from their black Dodge pickup while trying to pass Anderson's red Dodge Durango on Columbus. Anderson testified that he flipped off the three men.

"He's been told not to do that anymore," Kennedy said. "There won't be any serious discipline," Kennedy added, calling Anderson's "finger-waving" a "very minor violation" of sheriff's office policy."

Kennedy admitted that it's not the first time the sheriff's office has taken complaints of deputies exchanging obscene gestures with citizens while on duty - even in marked patrol cars. Deputies normally are responding to harassment on the part of citizens and are usually, themselves, under some type of emotional strain, he said.

"Yeah, it's a reason," Kennedy said. "You get caught up in the emotion."

Anderson said Tuesday that he wasn't under any particular stress, either professionally or in his personal life, on April 2. He said he was just looking forward to going home and doing some yard work.

The shooting was the first for an officer of Anderson's rank in the sheriff's department, Kennedy said. The circumstances also demanded that someone outside the sheriff's office look at the situation. An expert in the use of force by police, who has testified in more than 100 court cases, is still reviewing Anderson's use of force, Kennedy said. Kennedy would not reveal the identity of the reviewer or the agency involved until the review is finished.

The rest @
[url]www.mailtribune.com/news/051502n1.htm[/url]

This guy probably has a fine future in the FBI.