Supes allegedly clamp down after an offender complains
By Joseph Neff
The News & Observer
N.C. probation jobs reshuffled
Probation help sought in N.C. city
DUNN, N.C. — For 10 years, Mark Hornsby has worked the night shift as a probation surveillance officer, confiscating guns and drugs, nabbing offenders on the lam, at times juggling a double workload. He has earned rave reviews from his superiors.
But last year, probation managers wrote a disciplinary letter that tied Hornsby’s hands when it came to doing his job. His offense: He conducted a search in Harnett County of a convicted drug dealer who was on probation in Sampson County.
When the suspect complained that Hornsby was harassing him, Hornsby’s boss called the search unlawful because the suspect was not under Hornsby’s supervision. She forbade Hornsby to conduct searches without first getting permission from his direct supervisor.
Hornsby said this has cramped his work. From midafternoon to midnight, he makes curfew checks, looks for absconding probationers and collects drug samples. His searches have been cut by more than half, he said.
Warrantless searches are an essential probation tool; judges routinely order offenders to submit to warrantless searches as a condition of their sentences. Officers look for weapons or illegal drugs.
James Fullwood, who oversees probation in Harnett and 21 other counties in eastern and central North Carolina, did not return phone calls for comment. Joyce James, the probation manager for Harnett, Johnston and Lee counties, declined to discuss the disciplinary order she issued in the case.
Department of Correction spokesman Keith Acree declined to discuss the case, saying it was a personnel matter.
“We expect our officers to know and follow our policies and the law regarding searches,” Acree said in a statement. “All searches are to be documented in the offender’s probation record and appropriate action taken on what is found.”
State law says probationers must “submit at reasonable times to warrantless searches by a probation officer ... for purposes specified by the court and reasonably related to his or her probation supervision.”
Lavee Hamer, chief counsel at the Department of Correction, said state law does not limit searches to a specific officer or office.
“The goal is to encourage people to remain lawful, or discourage them from breaking the law,” said Hamer, who would not discuss Hornsby’s case. “Is he engaged in criminal activity? That violates probation.”
The News & Observer, in a series published in December, found many cases in which probation officers weren’t doing their job. Officers failed to check on offenders for months or years, failed to file arrest warrants on wayward probationers and didn’t equip offenders with electronic tracking devices as ordered. At least 50 current and former probation officers have contacted The News & Observer since the series was published; all complained of mismanagement or incompetence. All refused to speak publicly, fearing loss of their jobs.
Hornsby is a rarity because he agreed to speak on the record.
He seems to fit the description of “good old-fashioned probation work” put forth by Gov. Beverly Perdue in December: “Get into people’s faces who are on probation or on parole and remind them they are on the streets because they signed a contract, a compact if you will, to work and stay off drugs and alcohol and stay out of trouble and to come home by a certain time. And to those folks who are breaking down that system, I want their bodies put back in jail.”
Glowing evaluations
Hornsby, a probation officer since 1998, earns $34,614 a year. He spent 10 years as a prison guard, where he became skilled at finding contraband. He quickly used this knack in probation, locating illegal drugs on a probationer during his initial training in June 1998.
His job evaluations were glowing for the next 10 years. He was voted Probation Officer of the Year in 2007 by his colleagues in Harnett, Johnston and Lee counties.
Hornsby said he builds rapport with his probationers, who tip him off if another offender is carrying drugs or weapons. He also worked closely with Dunn police.
“I’d love to have a whole office full of Hornsbys,” said Lynwood Rains, who ran the Harnett County probation office before he retired in 2007. “He was aggressive, and that’s what we need.”
Rains and Dunn police pointed out that Hornsby volunteers almost daily with Dunn’s Police Athletic League, mentoring children and teenagers and teaching them how to box.
Leaving Hornsby’s turf
But police had no kind words for Elijah Neighbors, who has accrued a long list of convictions in Harnett County: possessing drug paraphernalia in 2000, selling cocaine in 2001, 2002 and 2006, and larceny in 2001.
Neighbors, who also spells his name Nabors, pleaded guilty in Harnett County in 2006 to four felonies and was put on probation for three years. Neighbors moved to Sampson County, just a few miles from Dunn.
Several offenders have moved from Dunn out of county or to other parts of Harnett County just to get out of Hornsby’s turf, according to Lt. Jimmy Page, a narcotics officer in Dunn.
Neighbors was assigned to a Sampson County probation officer, Karen Joyner.
In May 2007, Dunn police contacted Joyner to say Neighbors was again selling drugs in Dunn, a violation of his probation, according to a letter from Dunn police to probation officials.
“PO Joyner told me on 3 separate occasions that Harnett Probation could search NABORS since he was on intensive probation,” wrote Sgt. A.J. Poppler.
“PO Joyner’s reply was, ‘Absolutely yes, he is on Intensive Probation and can be search anywhere in North Carolina.’ ”
In February 2008, Joyner said that Neighbors had tested positive for marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine on three occasions, Poppler wrote.
“However, it was not to be discussed or ‘she would be fired for telling me,’ '' Poppler wrote. “I asked her ‘why ... is NABORS not revoked?’ ”
On March 25, 2008, Hornsby said he received a tip that Neighbors was carrying drugs. Hornsby found him sitting behind the wheel of his car at an apartment complex. A man in the passenger seat jumped out and ran away. Hornsby waited with Neighbors until police arrived, so they could witness the search. Hornsby said he found marijuana residue in the glove box.
Neighbors complained to probation officials.
Supervisor’s action
James, Hornsby’s supervisor, deemed the search unlawful because Neighbors was not on Hornsby’s caseload nor on probation in Harnett County. Hornsby did not get permission from Joyner -- the Sampson probation officer -- for the search, James put in the official written warning. And Hornsby made no records of the search.
Hornsby refused to sign the official warning. The law doesn’t limit searches to the supervising officer, he said. What’s more, he said he discussed Neighbors with Joyner on three different occasions, and she urged him to search if he suspected criminal activity. During the investigation into Neighbors’ complaint, James did not contact Dunn police, who had relayed reports of Neighbors’ drug dealing to the Sampson County probation officer.
Hornsby said his one regret is not recording the search in Neighbors’ probation records.
James typed the disciplinary notice May 23, 2008.
On that day, Dunn police arrested Neighbors and charged him with possession and sale of cocaine. The charges are pending.
Job Appraisals
Mark Hornsby’s supervisors have rated him “outstanding” over the years. Here are some highlights from his job appraisals, primarily related to seizures of weapons or drugs:
NOVEMBER 2004: Search took 32 grams of meth and two weapons off the street
MARCH 2005: Found AK-47 assault rifle during warrantless search
OCTOBER 2005: Search took MAC-10 automatic weapon from gang member. Weapon was used in drive-by shooting and murder.
JANUARY 2006: Confiscated .38 Smith & Wesson pistol, 9 mm pistol, AK-47 assault rifle and cocaine during searches.
FEBRUARY 2006: Confiscated 9 mm handgun, .38 Colt pistol and marijuana during searches.
JUNE 2006: Confiscated .38 pistol, three other guns, a half-ounce of cocaine and large amounts of marijuana during searches.
JANUARY 2007: Confiscated two .25 automatic pistols, cocaine and marijuana.
JULY 2007: Named Probation Officer of the Year in District 11.
DECEMBER 2008: Confiscated .357 Magnum handgun from probationer during domestic disturbance.
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