TechnoDave
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From The Birmingham News
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1191053888268620.xml&coll=2
Trooper boss arrested in sex case, fired
Saturday, September 29, 2007
GINNY MacDONALD and NANCY WILSTACH
News staff writers
The head of the Alabama State Troopers' Birmingham post was fired by the state and jailed Friday by Pelham police on sexual assault charges.
Capt. Keith Wilson Kelley was charged with first-degree sodomy and first-degree sexual abuse. He was released from the Shelby County Jail after posting bonds totaling $200,000 Friday afternoon.
Bill Bostick, Shelby County chief assistant district attorney, said Kelley was "using his position as a law enforcement officer, threatening to take this young woman to jail if she did not perform these acts on him."
Bostick called it a "shocking abuse of the authority he has."
The alleged victim is a 20-year-old woman, Bostick said.
Police said the incident happened Wednesday in Pelham and was investigated by the Pelham Police Department. The Alabama Department of Public Safety was notified of the investigation Thursday, and Kelley was arrested Friday on warrants obtained by Pelham police.
State Public Safety Director Col. Chris Murphy placed Kelley on mandatory leave Thursday and confiscated his trooper equipment. He launched an internal DPS inquiry in cooperation with Pelham's criminal investigation, said DPS spokeswoman Martha Earnhardt.
Murphy received the preliminary results of the DPS investigation Friday. He then fired Kelley.
Murphy said he did so because the department "holds troopers to the highest of standards in conduct. That is what the public expects and deserves, and that is what I demand. I will tolerate nothing less than the utmost integrity and professionalism."
Kelley was promoted to captain Aug. 1, and he took over command of the Birmingham post, which covers Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Blount and Walker counties.
He was injured in a Memorial Day 2006 wreck on Interstate 20/59 near Arkadelphia Road. A Midfield woman was killed in the crash. Kelley was responding to a DUI call when the wreck happened.
Kelley is the second trooper in the Birmingham post to be fired this year after being accused of sexual misconduct.
Former state trooper Anthony T. Stewart, 36, was indicted in April by a Walker County grand jury. Stewart, who had been a trooper less than a year, also was fired by Murphy following a DPS investigation.
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1191053888268620.xml&coll=2
Trooper boss arrested in sex case, fired
Saturday, September 29, 2007
GINNY MacDONALD and NANCY WILSTACH
News staff writers
The head of the Alabama State Troopers' Birmingham post was fired by the state and jailed Friday by Pelham police on sexual assault charges.
Capt. Keith Wilson Kelley was charged with first-degree sodomy and first-degree sexual abuse. He was released from the Shelby County Jail after posting bonds totaling $200,000 Friday afternoon.
Bill Bostick, Shelby County chief assistant district attorney, said Kelley was "using his position as a law enforcement officer, threatening to take this young woman to jail if she did not perform these acts on him."
Bostick called it a "shocking abuse of the authority he has."
The alleged victim is a 20-year-old woman, Bostick said.
Police said the incident happened Wednesday in Pelham and was investigated by the Pelham Police Department. The Alabama Department of Public Safety was notified of the investigation Thursday, and Kelley was arrested Friday on warrants obtained by Pelham police.
State Public Safety Director Col. Chris Murphy placed Kelley on mandatory leave Thursday and confiscated his trooper equipment. He launched an internal DPS inquiry in cooperation with Pelham's criminal investigation, said DPS spokeswoman Martha Earnhardt.
Murphy received the preliminary results of the DPS investigation Friday. He then fired Kelley.
Murphy said he did so because the department "holds troopers to the highest of standards in conduct. That is what the public expects and deserves, and that is what I demand. I will tolerate nothing less than the utmost integrity and professionalism."
Kelley was promoted to captain Aug. 1, and he took over command of the Birmingham post, which covers Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Blount and Walker counties.
He was injured in a Memorial Day 2006 wreck on Interstate 20/59 near Arkadelphia Road. A Midfield woman was killed in the crash. Kelley was responding to a DUI call when the wreck happened.
Kelley is the second trooper in the Birmingham post to be fired this year after being accused of sexual misconduct.
Former state trooper Anthony T. Stewart, 36, was indicted in April by a Walker County grand jury. Stewart, who had been a trooper less than a year, also was fired by Murphy following a DPS investigation.
