Did the Anchorage Police Department spokesman purposefully provide misinformation to cover for Todd Palin's possible connection to Shailey Tripp?

After the National Enquirer story came out APD spokesman Dave Parker released a statement (Which did NOT show up on the official APD website) refuting much of the allegations made by NE, and of course the bloggers.

However it appears that the documentation I recently received does not exactly support Parker's assertions;

Here is what the APD spokesman said:

Shailey Tripp Investigation APD #10-1823

The Anchorage Police Department investigation and arrest of Shailey Tripp has recently been mischaracterized in internet blogs and in a National Enquirer article. Several errors regarding the investigation and arrest were reported in the Enquirer article (printed and internet versions):

*None of the physical evidence examined by police showed any connection to Wasilla resident Todd Palin and his name did not appear in any of the records seized by APD.

*The investigation of the prostitution operation was initiated by Anchorage Police Department’s Vice Unit responding to internet advertisements, not through information developed from any tips or other persons.

*No rolodex was seized and taken into evidence.

*The National Enquirer has not contacted Anchorage Police Department Public Affairs Unit to fact check its story so their reported “call to Anchorage Police Department” could not have been returned.

*“Bloggers” have had no access to the evidence seized so their linking of evidence in police custody to any other person is incorrect.

Okay so we have this "official" statement from Dave Parker concerning the incident saying that the NE and the bloggers have the whole story wrong.

So I checked that against he documentation that I have in my possession and found some very interesting contradictions. 

This is part of the affidavit from investigating officer David Burns. (The important part starts at "Facts and Circumstances" section.)

According to Dave Parker the investigation was prompted by advertisements on Craiglist, NOT "information developed from any tips or other persons." However right there in the "Facts and Circumstances" section for Case "10-3948, it says that the investigation was the result of a tip from a William Fortier. 

Why would the spokesman have provided misinformation about this?  And if THIS is not a truthful statement, what else might turn out to be false?  Here is the rest of the "Facts and Circumstances" portion of the affidavit.

 

 "Tia" by the way is the name that Shailey Tripps was using in the advertisements posted on Craigslist. So as you can see the appointment was originally set up with "Tia" AKA Shailey Tripp, but she had a last minute scheduling conflict and was not there.  So Kashawn Thomas took the appointment instead.

So as you can see after the arrest of Kashawn Thomas a request was made for a search warrant.  That was granted and the items seized are listed below.

Now as you have read in the statement released by Dave Parker "No Rolodex was seized and taken into evidence."  As I mentioned in an earlier post that appears to be a little trick with semantics because in fact among the evidence seized was a "receipt book" and a "date book" from the office cabinet, a "notebook" found in the office, and a "ledger" found on top of the desk.

In my mind there is probably a hell of a lot more information contained in those four items than might have been found in a simple Rolodex.  So once again the statement by Dave Parker may be factually accurate, but also extremely misleading.  Which beggars the question as to WHY the APD spokesman felt the need to confuse the issue with a statement that could be proven false, or at the very least misleading, with a little investigation?

And speaking of misleading Dave Parker also stated that "The National Enquirer has not contacted Anchorage Police Department Public Affairs Unit to fact check its story so their reported “call to Anchorage Police Department” could not have been returned."

Well guess what?  I talked to my contact at NE and I was told that of course the Enquirer did NOT attempt to call the APD spokesperson, why would they?  However they DID attempt to contact the vice cops who were involved with the investigation and made the arrests.  To my knowledge that phone call was never returned.

So now the question remains as to what compelled this APD spokesman to come out and provide cover for Todd Palin, and give Sister Sarah the ammunition she needed to dismiss the whole story? Does the Anchorage Police Department work for the citizens of Anchorage, or are their loyalties with the disgraced Governor who quit halfway through her term?

Well they sure as hell better get their stories straight because I have it on good authority that they are going to soon have a lot more to worry about then just a local blogger asking questions of them.

Before I publish this post I thought I would take a moment to address another potential misstatement by the APD spokesman.

Dave Parker said "None of the physical evidence examined by police showed any connection to Wasilla resident Todd Palin and his name did not appear in any of the records seized by APD." However you may have noticed that among the items seized during the search of the premises were two cell phones.  One belonged to Kashawn Thomas, and one to Shailey Tripp.

That made me curious so I contacted Shailey and asked the obvious question: "Is Todd Palin's number on the cell phone that is still in police custody?"

This was her official response to that question: "I can not comment on that at this time."

As you can imagine there is much more to come, we are really just getting started in fact, so there is plenty of time to run to the grocery store for more popcorn.  Believe me, you are going to need it.