Leaked documents, footage shed light on 'unfair' termination of Springville police officer (2024)

SPRINGVILLE, Utah (KUTV) — A former Springville police officer said she became the target of an unfair internal affairs investigation and termination after responding to a potential case of religious extremism and emotional child abuse.

It's something Springville police refuse to talk to 2News Investigates about. In fact, they denied all requests for information in this case.

2News Investigates has only been able to show the documents and body camera footage because it was leaked to us.

Kati Powell reported what she believed to be an extremist father to the Division of Child and Family Services after the father called the non-emergency number for Springville Police on January 7, 2023. She says and records show the Springville Police Department used the interaction and her report to DCFS to fire her more than eight months after she responded to the home.

We're only identifying the father by his first name but have reached out to him and his wife multiple times but have not received a response.

This is a partial transcript of the call James made on Jan. 7 that shows there was an incident between him and and his 12-year-old son. This is not the first time either. The child previously tried to stab himself with scissors.

James: Hi, um my 12-year-old son is really having trouble going to bed and he’s kind of being a little bit physically and verbally abusive towards me.
Dispatcher: Ok, your 12-year-old is.
James: Yeah.
12-year-old son: It’s a joke.
James: You’re a joke.
Dispatcher: Is it physical abuse or just assault?
James: He threw a ball at me in my face, so I guess that’s physical.
Dispatcher: Ok is there um your wife at home?
James: Nah, she's here.

Officer Powell was then dispatched to the home along with another officer who was not party to the conversation once Powell was inside the home.

Powell said she thought she was walking into a scene where the father had just been assaulted by his 12-year-old son based upon his call to the non-emergency dispatcher. James makes his intent clear to Officer Powell.

"I think he needs to learn about what assault is you know. He can't be, he can't be physically hurting his brothers or me or throwing things or destroying property," he told Powell.

HANDWRITTEN SIGNS ALL OVER THE WALLS WITH RULES FOR THE CHILDREN TO FOLLOW

Powell told 2News Investigates that the sheer volume of signs on the walls immediately caught her attention.

“I am immediately overwhelmed by the amount of signs that are taped all over his walls, handwritten signs and posters of rules that these children have to follow,” Powell told 2News Investigates.

The body camera footage shows 10 religious images related to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faith, and 33 handwritten signs with rules on them. However, one sign was exceptionally troubling for Powell.

“The biggest sign that raised the biggest alarm for me was one on the cabinet, or the pantry, that said, ‘Have you been obedient enough to deserve food today?’” she said.

She elaborated about what she saw. “The signs were very controlling,” she said. Referring to the father she said, “It felt manic – it felt like he would just write a sign and slap it up - and write a sign, you know and slap it up.”

When investigating the call and the report to DCFS, internal affairs investigator Lt. Jeremy Leonard from the Springville Police Department drastically reduced the number of handwritten signs at the house, despite visual evidence.

The body camera footage shows the father making it explicitly clear he wanted Officer Powell to use scare tactics on his 12-year-old son.

A CRY FOR HELP FROM THE 12-YEAR-OLD BOY

Then came what Powell said she perceived as a cry for help from the 12-year-old boy who said, "He has so many rules and it's so hard to follow all of them."

Powell's immediate response to the child, "I see that, trust me. I see that, kid."

Powell then asks the children to leave the room so that the adults could talk. When James was on the phone talking to the dispatcher, he was asked how many children were in the home. He said a 12-year-old, 10-year-old, 8-year-old, 6-year-old, 4-year-old, and a 2-year-old. The 2-year-old child is not seen in the body camera footage, and neither is his wife though he said she was home at the time of his call.

FATHER: "THE RULES ARE CLEARLY STATED"

As Officer Powell begins to ask him if they can have an honest conversation, that was not age appropriate for the children previously in the room, the father is seen pointing up to the signs directly above his head as he sat on the couch and said, "The rules are clearly stated." He elaborated about the punishment for breaking his rules, "A little one minute, two minutes in the corner," the father said.

Officer Powell asks him if he wants her honest opinion and says they can just leave or have an honest conversation and the father tells her, "You can leave."

She then told James that his kids seem "great," and that he's got really nice children to which he says, "they're great." But reiterated to her that he wants his 12-year-old son, "To be aware of what his behavior could, the future could hold. "

Officer Powell then tells James that it makes sense what he's saying, "But we just don't come to scare kids, like that we want them to come to us for help, you know if they're lost, or someone is hurting them." She continues, "So, for having us come to scare for lack of a better word, into going to bed or to, you know is just not, that's not part of public safety and what we do." His response was, "That's great, good to know."

James told Powell that it takes his 12-year-old son about 30 to 45 minutes to "comply" when it's time for the child to go to bed.

POWELL'S CALL TO DCFS INTAKE WORKER JONI ANDERSON

After that response to the home, Powell called DCFS intake worker Joni Anderson.

Those calls are recorded by DCFS.

When Powell reported the incident to DCFS, records show, and she says she paraphrased what the 12-year-old boy said.

Those same records also show Anderson did the same.

In Powell's report she wrote James picked (his son) up, threw him on the ground, and pinned him down.

Anderson also noted, the “child said dad grabbed him, slammed him on the ground, and pinned me.”

Read again from the body camera footage:

12-year-old son: He comes over, picks me up and puts me on the ground.
Officer Kati Powell: What do you mean?
12-year-old son: He pins me on the ground.
James: Yeah.

Neither Powell’s nor the DCFS account got the exact wording right.

In the internal affairs report, Lt. Leonard stated that neither the words "slammed," nor "threw" were used. He then concluded that this appears to be an "intentional and untruthful embellishment by Officer Powell."

Lt. Leonard's IA report continued, "These word choices by Powell to DCFS appear to be fabricated, inflammatory statements to fit the narrative that Officer Powell is creating, beyond what Powell actually observed or heard."

DCFS INTAKE WORKER JONI ANDERSON TELLS LT. LEONARD "EVERYBODY HAS KIND OF A DIFFERENT WAY OF DESCRIBING THINGS"

However, when Lt. Leonard later interviewed Anderson, leaked documents showed her immediate response was that she didn't remember what Powell said, and she referenced how long ago the call was. Keep in mind this interview was conducted more than eight months after Officer Powell responded to James' home.

JONI ANDERSON: "SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO CONDENSE"

She did say she wouldn't have put slammed the child to the ground unless that was stated, but admitted everybody has kind of a different way of describing things.

Anderson was asked if she types word for word. She said a lot of people, when they call, are talking very quickly so you have to, "sometimes condense."

FATHER: WHAT IF I WANTED TO PRESS CHARGES AGAINST 12-YEAR-OLD SON

Another point in the internal affairs investigation was when the father inquired as to how he could press charges against his son.

James: I do want him to be aware of what this, what assault looks like - battery, injuring, what that could, what, what I guess yeah, what if I wanted to press charges.
Officer Kati Powell: I wouldn't charge him for anything right now.

Again, Powell's report said, “The boy had not done anything criminally wrong.”

DCFS: "FATHER WANTED TO TURN CHILD THROWING SQUISHY BALL INTO ASSAULT CHARGE"

The DCFS report said, " father wanted to turn child throwing a squishy ball at him into an assault charge and law enforcement refused."

The internal affairs investigation report said, “James did not make any requests for law enforcement to charge his son with assault, nor was there any conversation about Powell refusing to charge the son.”

The conversation was clearly captured by Powell's body camera.

Ultimately, Lt. Leonard accused Powell of abusing her authority, and "using her position as an officer to report unsubstantiated information to DCFS knowing that there could be serious consequences as a result."

"I WASN'T DISHONEST, AND I DID THE RIGHT THING BY THOSE CHILDREN"

“I would rather be fired for something I have conviction in, that I believe firmly to this day. I did the right thing by those children,” Powell said.

Powell said she had a responsibility to report suspected abuse – and did so – and said she is not responsible for the inaccurate statements of the DCFS intake worker.

“It’s something I’ll defend to my last day in this career, that I didn’t I wasn’t dishonest, and I did the right thing,” Powell said.

DCFS DID NOT OPEN CASE AGAINST FATHER FOLLOWING POWELL'S CALL

DCFS did not open a case when Powell called citing no physical abuse had occurred.

Springville police later called DCFS and told the DCFS intake worker that they were looking into this as a potential false report.

Documents 2News Investigates obtained show Anderson went back into the report and added that accusation to the narrative.

"I DID THE WRONG THING, BUT THEY DIDN'T DO THE WRONG THING"

It's important to note, Springville police were called back to the family’s home on March 23 on a call allegedly involving the same child for a similar issue.

Those officers also reported the incident to DCFS.

As far as we can tell, none of the other officers were fired for their report to DCFS. Powell says, "I did the wrong thing, but they didn’t do the wrong thing."

The department has denied KUTV all the records related to the incident. We are currently appealing the denial.

CHIEF LANCE HAIGHT: "ALL REFERRALS TO DCFS MUST BE FACTUALLY ACCURATE"

Chief Lance Haight has declined to speak to KUTV for this report, but in a previous email he sent, he wrote, “It is not a policy violation to make a referral to DCFS. All referrals must be factually accurate.”

DCFS has also declined to speak with KUTV about the case. It’s important to note that DCFS did speak on camera with a KUTV 2News reporter recently but declined to grant the same opportunity for this report.

DCFS STATEMENT: UTAH LAW REQUIRES ANY PERSON WITH REASON TO BELIEVE THAT A CHILD HAS BEEN SUBJECTED TO ABUSE TO REPORT IT TO DCFS OR LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT

Instead, we received the following email response from Miranda Fisher, the public information officer for DCFS:

Good afternoon, Wendy,

Thank you for reaching out. DCFS respectfully declines to participate in an on-camera interview. Please see the following statement:

The Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) works with children and families during some of their most vulnerable moments. DCFS respects that each child and family has a right to privacy and remains firm in our commitment to that privacy for the children and families of Utah.

In order to protect the integrity of the necessary working relationships with those we serve, and to respect the privacy of children and families, DCFS will continue its practice and refrain from sharing specific information on a case.

Utah law requires any person with reason to believe that a child has been subjected to abuse, neglect, or dependency to report it to DCFS or a local law enforcement agency.

You can contact the 24/7 abuse and neglect hotline at 855-323-3237.

Kind regards,

Miranda Fisher

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