TACOMA -- For the first time we're hearing from Tacoma city leaders on the heels of troubling revelations over how the Tacoma Police Department handled the Zina Linnik case, with allegations of a police cover-up.
Last week,it wasrevealed that aTacoma Police sergeant slept through a call to issue an Amber Alert the night Zina Linnik disappeared, July 4, 2007, resulting in a six-hour delay.
City leaders have decided to take no action against Sergeant Mark Fulghum or Police Chief Don Ramsdell.
But the Linnik family has filed a lawsuit against the city. The city manager and the mayor acknowledge mistakes were made.But aftermeeting in executive session with the full city council,theydecided not todiscipline anyone.
We have to make damn sure our performance re-establishes the public'strust, said CityManager Eric Anderson.
Trust broken by accusations the police chief tried to cover it up.
I believe that in a stressful situation some information was not released that should have been released, said Anderson. The Chief agrees with that and has apologized for not doing that.
Linnik, 12-years-old at the time, was abducted on July 4, 2007.Her body was foundthree days later.Her confessed killer, Terapon Adhahn,is now in prison.
Also for the first time, we're hearing Adhahn s version of events.He toldinvestigators he was upset over not being able to see his son that night.
If I ain't gonna have my kid neither will anyone else, thehell with them, he said.
He says that night he d gone to see his son but he wasn t home.Angry, seeing red, he said, I wanted to destroy a human...cause pain make them feel that. Why Zina,he was asked, She was just there, he said, I can grab her and do what I want.
Adhahn says he accidentally killed her by pulling a zip-tie around her throat within minutes after she was taken.Zina s family disputes that timeline, and blames sloppy and sleepy police work.
But for the comedy of errors we discussed, Zina would still be alive today, said Linnik family attorney, Tyler Firkins.
Mayor Marilyn Strickland disagrees.She stands by Terapon Adhahn s version of events.
I mean anything's possible but he made a confession and he's behind bars and that's what happened, said Strickland.
Strickland says the city and the police department have taken steps to improve the process for issuing Amber Alerts in the future.
There was no redundancy in place.So at the time there was only one responsible for issuing the Amber Alert. We fixed that so now there are multiple people who could issue an alert if we decide to take that route, said Strickland.
