By Janet Pelletier & Erika Neldner
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Canton’s former police chief says his resignation was “somewhat forced,” despite the city manager’s characterization of it being mutual, after a scathing third-party review that was released last week.

Canton City Manager Scott Wood told the Ledger-News in an in-person meeting last Thursday that Chief Jeff Lance’s separation with the city was “mutual.” He said Assistant Chief Todd Vande Zande was named interim chief and would serve until the city finds a permanent top cop.

When asked, Wood said he didn’t expect any officers to be disciplined as a result of the third-party review.

Lance, speaking in an exclusive interview with the Ledger-News, said he was told the City Council asked that he resign.

“I felt like he (Wood) had the backing of the city council to ask for my resignation,” Lance said, adding he took it to heart because the mayor was sitting in the same room.

Lance, 45, said he told city leaders he had “a problem with resigning. You need to give me some time, and they said they needed something by tomorrow” and that they thought the city needed new leadership in its police department.

Lance was appointed police chief in 2007, after rising through the ranks at the Canton Police Department during his 20 years of service.

His resignation Jan. 19  came just two days following a third-party review examining the Canton Police Department’s response and actions regarding the disappearance of 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera.

Jorelys was abducted Dec. 2 by 20-year-old Ryan Brunn, a maintenance worker at the River Ridge apartment complex, where the girl lived with her family. Her body was found in the complex’s trash compactor Dec. 5.

Brunn was arrested and charged with murder and making false statements Dec. 7; he was indicted Jan. 13 on a slew of charges including murder, child molestation and aggravated assault.

Brunn pleaded guilty in Cherokee County Superior Court Jan. 17 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Just two days after the sentencing hearing and being transferred to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Brunn was found unresponsive in his cell at 4:15 p.m. He was pronounced dead at 5:37 p.m. at a nearby hospital.

The GBI autopsy released Jan. 20 showed Brunn hanged himself with his sweatshirt.

The review of the local police department’s response, requested by Mayor Gene Hobgood after discussion with Wood in December, showed officers violated the department’s own policies and procedures related to missing persons and there was a “lack of leadership” in the first few hours and days of the investigation, among other findings.

Conducted by LaGrange Chief of Police Lou Dekmar, the 17-page report was given to city officials Jan. 17 and released to the media Jan. 19.

In the review, Dekmar said he interviewed 20 people affiliated with the case, from Canton police and fire to Georgia State Patrol, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, Cherokee County Search and Rescue, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation-Atlanta.

A lack of leadership, Dekmar said, gave the false assumption that Jorelys’ disappearance Dec. 2 from the playground was a routine runaway case and “she would turn up.”

The report indicated a week prior to the girl going missing, she had an argument with her mother and threatened to run away, and on at least one prior occasion, she had reportedly stayed overnight away from home, without her mother’s permission or knowledge.

Lance, who said, during his time on the force, the only murders in the city of Canton were related to domestic altercations and never a child abduction, said the department’s officers were doing the best they could at the time with the information they had.

“You learn from things you’ve never had before,” Lance said. “The only thing they had to go on was what we were being told. At the time, you didn’t have a crime scene or witnesses.”

The report said the department waited too long to notify Lance, after Jorelys was first reported missing at 7 p.m. that evening.

“In the Rivera case, contrary to policy, rather than prompt notification of the police chief through the chain of command as soon as possible, chain of command notifications began one hour after the event began,” Dekmar wrote in his report.

“We found there was a communication breakdown,” Lance said.

The report said Lance was not contacted until two hours after the incident, while Vande Zande was not informed until he heard the news from Lance, which Vande Zande said was at 11 p.m. Friday night.

Dekmar said in the report that Lance did not arrive on scene until 17 hours after the child was reported missing; however, he was updated via phone calls. Detectives did not arrive at the River Ridge complex until two hours after Jorelys was reported missing, the report said.

“Time is critical in these types of incidents,” Dekmar wrote.

Vande Zande said he’s not interested in going back to find out if anyone else was at fault in the search for Jorelys.

“The audit pointed out where fault was; it was the leadership and I think that that’s been addressed with the resignation of Chief Lance,” Vande Zande said.  “I think that we’re going to move forward and get our guys back in the community and garner support from the community.”

Vande Zande said he handled the day-to-day operations at the police station, adding he helped out in the search as well.

“Since the chief was handling the main incident, my job was going to be to handle the issues that still needed to be taken care of here at the police department,” he said, adding he also went door-to-door during the search and got other officers coffee when they needed it.

When asked, Vande Zande said he felt he did what he was supposed to and didn’t feel that he could have done things differently.

Lance said, on Saturday morning during the search, he was on a family hunting trip about an hour and a half away. When he got the phone call Saturday morning saying the little girl had not been found, he packed up his things and headed to Canton.

“I said, ‘Let me get packed up, and I’ll start heading back. I should be there around 10 (a.m.),’” Lance recalled. “They want to try to make it like it was unconcern. It wasn’t unconcern. When I arrived there on Saturday at 10 a.m., it was obvious to me what was going on. “They had the grids they were following … those teams were giving information back to who they were supposed to give it back to. I didn’t see people walking around in circles. If there were, then why didn’t someone say something then?”

Once on scene that Saturday morning, the report said Lance “reportedly was observed by several personnel from different agencies commenting on the ‘Georgia game’” and those on scene characterized his level of concern as being laidback.

“Anyone who knows me knows I’m laidback. I keep my cool and don’t run around like a chicken with his head cut off,” Lance said, adding an employee of the apartment complex had the TV on in the leasing office, which was being used as a command center. “And this is no offense to anyone, but I don’t watch Georgia football games. I’m a Tarheels fan.”

Lance added that the majority of the time in his career, he has been on scene and even has micro-managing notes documented in his personnel file. The Ledger-News has filed an open records request for his personnel file, but that request had not been responded to or fulfilled by press time.

“You have to let your command staff do something … they have to do their jobs,” he said. “Ninety-nine times out of 100, I have shown up. The one time I didn’t show up exactly when they called me, I get beat down for. The other times apparently don’t count.”

Dekmar said in his report that the responding officers continued to operate as though the child was a runaway after the critical 48-hour mark – the case was upgraded to a child abduction at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday.

In addition, the report concluded that the Canton Police Department failed to properly notify the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about Jorelys’ disappearance, as they were not informed until Dec. 4 at 4:40 p.m., 48 hours after the child had vanished. Dekmar said the department also failed to promptly notify the Department of Family and Children Services to find out if there was a history of abuse, contrary to policy. DFCS was notified Dec. 3.

The report also revealed that the department’s supervisory officers failed to request assistance from the state police (GBI and GSP); Missing-Children Clearinghouse; Victim-Witness Services; and NCMEC Project ALERT team. The report said GBI was contacted two days after the child was reported missing because Cherokee County Sheriff Roger Garrison called the director and asked for assistance.

Lance said one of his detectives had been speaking with the FBI Sunday morning.

“The FBI told the detective that they we were doing what they (FBI agents) would have done, and that they’d see them on Monday,” Lance recounted.

He said a detective called GBI, who told them they would only respond with the Child Abduction Response Team (CART). It was suggested that police consult with the search and rescue incident commander before having more search parties come out, as to not make the situation chaotic.

Lance admitted there was some miscommunication and said Garrison ended up calling the GBI director, who had CART on their way.

“Then the sheriff called (GBI Director) Vernon (Keenan), and at that point they called (the detective) back and they said they would be en route,” Lance said, adding, at the time, they were looking into a person of interest  in a nearby community.

In other findings, the report also said investigating officers from the department failed to initiate a neighborhood canvas using standard questionnaires; develop and execute an investigative plan; determine what additional resources and specialized services were required; or establish a lead-management system.

Law enforcement officials from other agencies reportedly told Dekmar they felt as though they “were walking on eggshells” during the search for the missing child. An internal affairs investigation conducted by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office concerning a deputy and trainee failing to report blood in a vacant apartment also noted the “lack of a level of command.”

Dekmar asserted that Canton police should have opened and operated a criminal investigation alongside the rescue/recovery effort, something that was recommended by personnel from other agencies but was not acted on.

Lance contends a criminal investigation was under way.

“You had detectives there. The detectives weren’t out searching,” Lance said. “They were trying to figure out if this was a runaway or criminal (incident).”

Canton police did receive credit in the report for having personnel stay on scene at the apartment complex throughout the weekend, a continued presence the report said “hindered the disposal of Rivera’s body outside of the immediate area of the 
complex.”

The report concluded by saying forensic evidence showed that by the time Jorelys was reported missing, she was most likely already dead, but that isn’t always the case.

“It is clear that if a subsequent missing child report were to be approached in the same manner as was the Rivera case, the Canton Police Department may indeed miss an opportunity to save a victim’s life,” the report stated.

Lance said he feels the department could use this experience to learn from, adding many of Dekmar’s recommendations for policy, procedural and training changes came from him.

“When he briefly interviewed me, he asked me what we needed to change,” Lance said, adding Vande Zande showed Dekmar, three different times, the “A Child is Missing” checklist they were provided after Jorelys’ body was found. “Most of what you see in the last two pages of the report was what I said we would change. I have no problems with his recommendations.”

Lance said he feels he was forced to resign so it would take some of the media pressure off the city.

“It is obviously a headhunt, thinking that getting rid of me would take the pressure off the city,” Lance said.

He said he started to compile a rebuttal to the review to give to city leaders, but was never given the chance.

He said only 25 percent of the Canton officers involved that day were interviewed.

The report shows 20 people were interviewed: five from Canton police, two from Canton fire, one from Canton Emergency Management, four from the Cherokee Sheriff’s Office, two from Cherokee Fire-ES, one from Cherokee Emergency Management, three from the GBI, one from the FBI and one from the state patrol.

Lance said he feels the report was one-sided and flawed. He also said he feels the report was not enough reason for him to be “somewhat forced” to resign, considering his history with the department.

“No problems have ever been expressed to me … nothing ever bad has been said in front of me about the way I was running that department,” Lance said.

Lance said he plans to focus his time now on his family.

“As chief, you work 24/7. It’s time to take some time with my family,” he said.