Mother irate at police actions; Officers bungled case, she says

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 7, 2005 Thursday Home Edition
Metro News: Pg. 1C

By Rhonda Cook

Theresa Lewis had been searching desperately for her 22-year-old daughter, Chasity, for 10 days when she got the long-distance call that her daughter had been found.

Her relief soon turned to fury, however, when she found out that her daughter, a Clark Atlanta University student, had been in the city jail all along. Repeated calls to police and jailers --- along with pictures and a description of the pretty, petite young woman --- had yielded nothing but dead ends.

"I'm so angry," Lewis said in an interview Wednesday after she had "time to think" about how her daughter became lost in the city's system for 10 days. She had been picked up for disturbing the peace on June 26, when neighbors complained that she was screaming as she walked down Hopkins Street in southwest Atlanta.

Chasity Lewis appeared before a Municipal Court judge Wednesday and was ordered back in court Friday. Her health will be evaluated in the meantime. Police say they did nothing wrong in the case and took Lewis' concern for her daughter seriously.

Atlanta Police Department spokeswoman Sylvia Abernathy said, "The officers got right on the case." She added that detectives checked in area hospitals and jails, went to Chasity Lewis' neighborhood, talked to neighbors and posted information on the APD Web site.

"We work with families," Abernathy said. "We understand, during this time, it's very challenging and very draining on the families, and we try to gather as much information as possible. There was nothing to indicate foul play."

Police Chief Richard Pennington issued a statement, saying: "It is our policy to thoroughly investigate all reports of missing persons and to work closely with their families. Our investigators followed all leads regarding Chasity Lewis' disappearance, which led to her being located."

It didn't feel that way to her mother.

"I am upset with the Atlanta police. It's very embarrassing. Now they are flashing on TV that she was found in jail," Lewis said. "My daughter is having mental problems, and I'm just learning this for the first time. I really would [have] liked to have had a personal moment with her and handled it in private. Now everybody knows about this. The way this was handled was totally lazy. Now I have to deal with backlash."

Lewis, who lives near San Francisco, had been trying to find her daughter since the evening of June 26, when she asked a family friend in Atlanta to go to the young woman's apartment to look for her.

The apartment was locked, and the landlord was out of town. The police said there was nothing to suggest they should break down a door to get inside.

Lewis' fear increased late Tuesday, June 28, when her daughter did not get off a flight from Atlanta for a two-week visit home. The mother then called an Atlanta relative to go back to her daughter's duplex. He climbed through a bedroom window and saw the young woman's personal items --- cellphone, wallet, keys and passport --- but not Chasity Lewis. The lights and air conditioner were on in the apartment.

He returned to the duplex the next day to find that nothing had changed, so Theresa Lewis flew to Atlanta Friday night, arriving about 3 a.m. Saturday. She had filed a missing persons report by daybreak.

Contacts with police

Lewis said she made multiple calls over the holiday weekend to police headquarters and the zone office near her daughter's home. She also called the Atlanta Detention Center several times and described Chasity.

Lewis also told police that a friend of Chasity's had seen her talking with a police officer on the street where she was arrested at about the same time that the psychology major was picked up.

Police and jail officials repeatedly told Lewis that they had no record of an arrest at that time or of a person fitting Chasity's description: 5 feet 1 inches tall, weighing 100 pounds.

On Monday, just hours before she was to return to San Francisco, Lewis said she finally reached the lead detective. She said he told her: "We are going to stay on top of it . . . [but] nobody is here today. It's a holiday."

Abernathy said that was a reference to the staff that distributes photos and reports of missing people.

The local media reported Tuesday morning that the young woman had vanished. The story soon was picked up by news outlets in California and by the national media.

Police finally found Chasity Lewis after employees at the city jail recognized her from photographs shown on television and in the newspaper. She had been booked into the jail as "Jane Doe" because she refused to give her name.

Atlanta Corrections Chief Thomas Pocock said a jail nurse who had given the woman medication and a guard who had helped her change into a uniform for an earlier court appearance recognized her picture.

Pocock said the jail routinely gets calls from law enforcement agencies and individuals about missing people. Typically, he said, the name is checked against the jail's roster. They compare photographs of missing people with those of people brought into the jail. The jail never received a picture of Chasity Lewis, he said.

'This is bizarre'

The chief jailer said internal affairs investigators would review what happened in Chasity Lewis' case.

"We'll certainly fix any policy that's ripe for modification or improvements," he said.

Theresa Lewis is not mollified.

"I am really upset with the way the Atlanta police handled this," she said. "All this could have been avoided if they had just done their work. I flew from California and did all this investigating myself to find my daughter.

"How could they not know [where Chasity was]?" Lewis said, recounting the numerous calls to the precinct in her daughter's neighborhood, police headquarters and the jail. "What's happened to her? Did she have a nervous breakdown? Is she sick? This is bizarre, and I want to get to the bottom of this. I don't know what I'm going to see when I get there [Atlanta ]."

Lewis will be in Atlanta for her daughter's arraignment Friday. Chasity Lewis is accused of disturbing the peace, a violation of a city ordinance, which could mean a fine of up to $1,000 or up to 60 days in jail for chronic offenders. Jail records show that Chasity Lewis' only other offense was misdemeanor possession of marijuana in February 2004, for which she paid a $200 fine.