SCOTT CITY POLICE COMPLAINT FOUND FALSE

SCOTT CITY -- A complaint filed against two Scott City police officers accusing them of abandoning a 6-year-old boy after arresting his grandfather has been found "without doubt false" by a city officer who investigated the claim.

A copy of the investigating officer's report, obtained by the Southeast Missourian, states "the child was never abandoned" and that the grandfather gave four men who were inside a nearby building permission to take the boy home.

The report also accuses the woman of filing the complaint in hopes of getting charges against her father dropped.

The grandfather, Jerry Moore of Scott City, called the findings "all wrong.

"They're going by what the officers said, and somebody's lying," he said, adding he never gave anyone permission to take his grandson home.

Jeannie Moore, the mother of the boy, filed the complaint June 4, 11 days after the arrest. An investigation into the complaint by the Scott County Sheriff's Department is still ongoing, said a spokesman for the department.

Jerry Moore, who was charged with driving with a revoked license, said his daughter did not file the complaint in a ploy to get charges against him dropped.

"That's just what they want people to believe," he said.

Jeannie Moore has claimed the officers left her son unattended in her father's truck while they took her father to jail. She said her son was left without supervision for about an hour until two men who were inside a nearby building took him to a friend's house.

Jeannie Moore could not be reached Wednesday or Thursday for comment, and her father said he wasn't sure what further action his daughter would take against the department, if any.

Officer Danny Clubb of the Scott City Police Department investigated the complaint. Police Chief David Beck declined to comment on the report's findings.

Clubb's report, which was released in a closed meeting to city council members and other city officials, states Jerry Moore, at the time of his arrest, turned over responsibility of the boy to four men whom he knew.

It also states that the officers at no time had any say over what happened to the boy. Two of the men, Louis Heisserer and Wilford Raines, a short time later took the boy first to Moore's house, and upon finding no one home, took him to the home of the boy's friend, according to the report.

It states: "In fact, the child was never left neglected... Review shows that at least one man in the (building) heard Officer Wooten say something about the child and they then saw the child and offered him something to eat."

The men were eating lunch inside a nearby building when the arrest occurred but did not see it happen, they said. Heisserer contends the officers are at fault and that neither he nor the three others had been asked by Moore or the officers to take responsibility of the boy.

But the report claims that interviews with people involved in the incident and the officers shows "there is no reason to doubt the officers. A possible motive is that the child was used in hopes to get (Moore's) charge dropped."

In addition, the report states that, according to police telephone logs, one of the men called the Scott County Sheriff's Department after Moore was arrested, told an officer there what had occurred and asked what they should do with the boy. The caller did not identify himself, the report says.

The two officers who arrested Moore are Lloyd Young, the husband of Mayor Shirley Young, and Bobby Wooten. Both are reserve officers.

Officer Young said the report confirms that he and Wooten have been "telling the truth all along.

"What I resent is being accused of mistreating a child. No officer in the Scott City Police Department would do that."

Young said that if Moore had not asked the men to take charge of the boy and take him home, he and Wooten would have taken the boy to the police station.

"We allowed him to request some friends to take him home," Young said. "It was a choice between that or turning him over to juvenile authorities. That's apparently what the Moores wanted to happen."

Jerry Moore said he's not satisfied with the investigation's results. He said that throughout the investigation, authorities did not believe his account of the incident, although they declined his offers to submit to polygraph tests.

"They're just going by what the officers said. It just isn't right," he said.

The complaint has prompted city officials to draw up a clear policy for officers to follow when children are present during an arrest.

Scott County Sheriff Bill Ferrell said the county's investigation would be completed next week, and findings will be turned over to Scott County Prosecuting Attorney David Dolan.