The Cop Who Killed a Murder Case

Police Chief Jim Corwin agreed with Masters' recommendation to fire Holmes.

On August 29, 2006, Capt. Don Sight showed up at Holmes' house to collect his badge. Holmes was placed on unpaid leave. He decided to fight the charges and requested a public hearing before the Board of Police Commissioners. Such hearings are rare. Usually, cops would rather quit.

Holmes' hearing began at 9 a.m. on March 8 in a sixth-floor boardroom at police headquarters. Holmes sat at a folding table. He wore a black suit and a tie with an aqua-colored pattern. His face was somber and mostly expressionless as his name and actions were brought up over and over again.

The Fraternal Order of Police assigned him an attorney, Luke Harkins. Lawyer James Rawls acted as the prosecutor. Mark Berger, a University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor, served as the judge. Berger will make a recommendation to the Board of Police Commissioners whether to uphold Holmes' firing.

There were few observers. Captain Smith watched from a folding chair, next to Sgt. Hutcheson's pregnant wife. Hutcheson was on the witness list for the department, but he wasn't present. Gardner came to root for his old partner — the only onlooker present to support Holmes.

Rawls' first witness was St. Omer. She had left the prosecutor's office for a job with the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation.

St. Omer recounted the conversation she had with Holmes at the Landing. She said Holmes told her that he and Hamre pushed their way into Henderson's apartment. St. Omer said she was furious. "In my opinion," she said, "the entire police investigation is now so muddied that the case will no longer be able to be prosecuted."

It wasn't just the Coombs murder case that could fall apart. St. Omer said that because Holmes was suspended, the prosecutor's office felt obligated to dismiss every case in which Holmes was a potential witness.

When it came Harkins' turn to cross-examine St. Omer, he asked her, "You would agree that if Danny Holmes is telling the truth, as far as being directed to leave things out of his report, that that would seriously discredit the KCPD?"

"Yes," St. Omer said.

"It would be a conspiracy?" Harkins asked.

"Yes."

"It would damage the police department?"

"Yes."

Rawls called Police Chief Corwin to testify. He sat at the folding table, facing Berger, wearing his full formal uniform, navy-blue with yellow stripes. Medals dangled from his chest, and he wore polished patent-leather shoes. He told Rawls that he had signed off on Holmes' termination because he believed that Holmes had acted on his own when he entered Henderson's apartment, hid the gun in the freezer and took the box of bullets.

"Was there any legal reason for him to be in that apartment?" Rawls asked.

"No," Corwin said.

During the cross-examination, Corwin was cagey, often saying that he could not recall specific details.

"What's wrong with calling detectives 'defectives'?" Harkins asked.

"Demeaning," Corwin replied.

Holmes' partner, Hamre, took the witness table next. He wore his police uniform, and his shaved head reflected the overhead lights. He said they hadn't barged into the apartment. Henderson had stepped back to give them room to come in.

"But you had no paperwork, no exigent circumstances, no warrant and no specific request?"

"Just the sources of information that led us there. Holmes did the majority of the talking."

Harkins asked Hamre, "Have you heard other officers call detectives 'defectives'?"

"Yes."

"Is there a rivalry between patrol officers and detectives?"

"Unfortunately, there seems to be."

In the hallway, during a break in the hearing, Hamre and Holmes shook hands. Captain Smith offered to buy Holmes a Coke.

When the hearing resumed and Rawls rested his case, Harkins called Holmes to the stand. The room had gone from chilly to hot over the course of the day. Testimony was punctuated by the sound of sirens from the street.