Police officers spoke to The Journal on condition of anonymity, because they feared they would lose their jobs if they were identified.

One case that several Southlake officers say is under review by the district attorney’s office involves the May 5 arrests of five Southlake students.

The incident report for the May 5 arrests states that four 17-year-olds and one juvenile were arrested that evening at about 10 p.m. for criminal trespass and evading arrest at a church construction site in the 800 block of South Kimball Avenue. The students, all members of the Carroll cross country team last year, were turned in by a passing motorist who saw them scaling a fence.

Southlake police arrived in several squad cars and addressed the trespassers on a loudspeaker. The five were ordered to stop, but according to the report, ran “west ... and then south.” Officers were parked on each side of the site, and all “were in marked police units with overhead lights.”

On May 14, according to the police report, the case was filed with the district attorney’s office and “accepted” by the D.A. the next day. The students arrested were Nicholas Piazza, Benjamin Gibson, Mark Schmiedel and John DePinto, whose father is the president and CEO of 7-Eleven, Inc. The name of the 15-year-old was excluded because he was a juvenile.

In an “Offense Supplement” filed on May 14, an officer noted a meeting at the construction site with Patrick Harmon, an official of the Rentenback Construction, the contractor. Harmon confirmed, in a written statement, that none of the boys had permission to be on the site, but that “no property ... is missing at this time.”

Another document from the Police Department, an Offense Supplement dated June 19, notes that Sgt. Jim Polley “recalled the cases from Tarrant County D.A.’s Office” on May 14, and “the cases were returned per my request.”

According to police records, the charges were reduced and on May 18 each of the boys were given a citation for attempted criminal trespass.

Kurt Stallings, director of the pre-trial division of the Tarrant County district attorney’s office, would neither confirm nor deny that an investigation is under way.

However, sources told The Journal that the district attorney’s office has called in several members of the Southlake Police Department in response to the complaint filed by the officers.

In response to questions about the changes to this case, Southlake Police Chief Wade Goolsby sent the Journal a copy of a memorandum he sent to Department of Public Safety Director Jim Blagg. In the letter, Goolsby states that “Approximately 2-3 weeks ago, I received a phone call from an attorney stating that he represented several boys that had been arrested on a construction site for criminal trespass and evading arrest. He went on to tell me that these were really good kids and that two of them were getting college scholarships and one was trying to get into West Point Military Academy. He told me they were out there playing football and that the officers had arrested them.”

Goolsby also mentions being contacted by “one of the suspect’s teachers, saying these were really good kids.”

The document, which contains few specific dates, describes efforts by Goolsby and others to find a more suitable charge after he said police learned that the district attorney’s office was “not interested in pursuing the case.”

In a meeting with Polley and Lt. Ben Brown, “within a couple of days (it may have been the next day),” Goolsby said, “I asked whether the contractor wanted to prosecute and [Polley] advised that the contractor wanted to ‘hang ’em high’”

Goolsby said, “I felt they should be charged with something — since they had run from the officers.”

Goolsby said the options he, Brown and Polley talked about included attempted criminal trespass, which Goolsby said he thought was not “the best charge in this case since the kids were actually in the property.”

Goolsby said that in the discussion he decided that disorderly conduct might be a better charge. “There was one section of Disorderly Conduct that dealt with noise, so we discussed the fact that the police response and the subsequent running around in the construction site probably created noise late at night,” Goolsby wrote.

According to Goolsby, “A few days later, Polley called me and told me that he had met with the attorneys [sic] and parents and that he had issued citations [for attempted criminal trespass] and the attorney was very appreciative.

“Brown and I had a discussion,” Goolsby wrote, “... and we agreed that while I had not ordered Polley to charge the suspects with Disorderly Conduct, we had agreed that it was the best charge. I advised Brown to counsel with Sgt. Polley about following direction [sic] given by the Chief. A couple of days later, Sgt. Polley stopped by my office and apologized for the mistake regarding the charge.” (To read the full memo, click the link above.)

See next week’s edition for part two in this series, “Questions of Leadership.”

Researcher Marcia Melton of the Star-Telegram contributed to this story.

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