Winston-Salem Police Chief Scott Cunningham has formed an internal review committee to study the findings and recommendations made the Silk Plant Forest Citizens Review Committee and to decide if the 1995 Jill Marker assault case should be reopened.
In a statement released Monday, Cunningham said he will lead the committee that will:
• consider the recommendations contained within the report, and the Police Department’s response to them;
• consider the concerns voiced, and issues raised, by the report;
• review the actions of the Police Department and its personnel during the investigation of the Silk Plant Forest case;
• consider the Silk Plant Forest committee’s recommendations regarding enhancements to procedures, policies, and/or practices of the Winston-Salem Police Department;
• make a recommendation relative to the status of the case, and specifically, whether the case should be re-opened; and
• prepare and disseminate a report that outlines these and any other relevant issues or concerns involving this case.
Cunningham said none of the internal committee members worked on the original investigation and members may have “varying degrees of familiarity” with the Silk Plant Forest case. The internal committee will review the Silk Plant Forest committee’s final report as well as the exhibits, letters, transcripts and other items, which comprise thousands of pages of material.
Cunningham would not specify a timetable for the internal committee’s review.
“It will take some unknown amount of time to complete a thorough review of the issues,” he said. Once the internal review is complete, Cunningham will present his findings to City Manager Lee Garrity and the city’s Public Safety Committee.
Jet Hollander said Cunningham’s statement is troubling for many concerned citizens who were integral in the formation of the Silk Plant Forest committee.
“Our concern is a potential reinvestigation, which hasn’t even been determined to be a reinvestigation, that has no timetable will be an impedance to the full release of everything [Silk Plant Forest committee investigators] Lt. Ferelli and Sgt. Byrum collected,” Hollander said. “Nobody has a right to stand in the way of everything getting released except a superior court judge.”
Silk Plant Forest committee chair Guy Blynn submitted the citizen committee’s final report to the Public Safety Committee on Aug. 10. Assistant City Attorney Al Andrews released a redacted version of the committee’s final report on Aug. 26, excluding the thousands of pages included in the report’s appendices. Andrews said a full release of the report “will not happen until the city receives an order authorizing such a release from the Superior Court.”
The Winston-Salem City Council has yet to accept the final report. Kalvin Michael Smith was convicted of brutally assaulting Jill Marker while robbing the Silk Plant Forest shop in December 1995. Smith has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence.
Blynn said Cunningham has “done the right thing” but openly questioned what further information an internal police department review could turn up.
“I’m not sure about how beyond what we did, which was a very thorough reinvestigation of the matter, there could be any additional reinvestigation of the matter, so I was curious to what the Chief had in mind,” Blynn said.
Hollander, who served on the Sykes Administrative Review Committee, characterized Cunningham’s announcement as a tactic by the city and the police department to delay the full release of the Silk Plant Forest committee’s report.
“It was always our concern that they would make an announcement like this to provide them an excuse to not do what they’re supposed to do, which is go to court and get everything released,” Hollander said. “They don’t care that another month goes by while Smith is in prison. If it was one of them or one of their family held in contempt and put in jail for 30 days, they would move heaven and earth to resolve the situation.”
“Every day in prison for them or someone in their family would be a disaster,” Hollander continued. “But it’s a poor black man from east Winston, who’s been there going on 13 years and they couldn’t care less how long it takes.”
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