Friday, March 28, 2014

About the Joplin Globe, Mark Rohr, and the Joplin Police

In its March 16 edition, the Joplin Globe revealed that part of the investigation that resulted in the firing of City Manager Mark Rohr centered on a 911 call and domestic dispute that took place at Rohr's home on December 29, 2012.

The police investigated, determined that no crime had been committed, and closed the investigation.

Nearly two weeks have passed and nothing more has been written about this in the area's newspaper of record, yet the Globe article leaves many questions unanswered and many more unasked.

-When did the Joplin Globe first know about the 911 call and the police visit to Rohr's house? It stands to reason Globe editors and reporters knew about this long before March 16, and frequent Globe guest columnist Anson Burlingame recently wrote on his blog that Editor Carol Stark was already aware of the incident. When did she know and why was nothing ever written about it in the pages of the Globe? A 911 call from the home of the City Manager would seem to be a newsworthy event, even if the news was just dispelling rumors. At this time, it was already well known that Rohr's time at Piqua, Ohio, ended with him filing a libel suit against someone who had said that the police had made a number of visits to his house on domestic incident reports. Rohr won the lawsuit, but if nothing else, the coincidence should have made the Globe take a closer look into the Joplin incident.

-Why did the Joplin Police not call in an outside agency to investigate the situation? When the person who is being investigated is the man who hires and fires the police chief, there would seem to be a conflict of interest. Usually in this type of case, the Missouri Highway Patrol is called in, even when the matter seems to be routine. There is no indicating in the March 16 story that the Globe even asked Joplin Police Chief Lane Roberts that question.

-Why did Roberts refuse to sit down with investigator Tom Loraine for an interview? He turned over the tape of the 911 call and the police report, but he did nothing to dispel the rumors that there was a cover up.

-Though Missouri law leaves the matter to the police officers' discretion, some states require that at least one of the parties in a domestic abuse situation be removed from the location as a precaution. What is the Joplin Police Department's policy and was it followed on December 29, 2012 or was preferential treatment provided to Mark Rohr?

-Do Joplin Globe Editor Carol Stark and Publisher Michael Beatty provide preferential treatment to their friends?

The answer to the last question is obvious.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Too many coincidences unless you are really dumb.

It is embarrassing to see the only local paper so biased. I feel sorry for the 5 that the globe is trying to smear.

Anonymous said...

This website tries so hard, such thin, lame "investigative" reporting. I come here to chuckle, and I find chuckle disturbing, look it up.

Anonymous said...

Keep asking these questions, I have asked them on here before and you and I are starting to put together the same ironic path this whole situation as taken.
I have more info on the domestic violence, but I only have two sources and both are biased. I'm seeking two more sources who do not have an agenda, which is difficult to find giving all of the developments.
I do know this, Shaw has a key role in this domestic violence situation and the aftermath, and the domestic violence started before the tornado. Two of my sources have confirmed the tornado saved Rohr's job in 2011, but I want two more sources to confirm that.
The Joplin police chief and the Seneca police chief, I am getting closer to nailing down their roles in this. Their refusal to participate in the investigation set off an indicator that something wasn't right.

Anonymous said...

I live across the street from the Rohrs and have only seen police at their house once in the 2+ years we've lived here.