Philly NAACP Chief Visits L.M. as Board of Commissioners Review Police Allegations

The Lower Merion Township Board of Commissioners plans to go against its usual practice of not discussing personnel issues concerning two allegations involving the Lower Merion Police Department made at a May 18 board meeting, Board President Liz Rogan said at Wednesday's committee meetings.

Rogan opened the meetings by saying the board had been in executive session Wednesday and on May 25, the previous Wednesday. Discussed were two separate allegations made at the same May 18 meeting:

• A woman alleged she had been sexually assaulted by a Lower Merion police officer, a matter that is now being investigated by the Montgomery County District Attorney.
• An African-American Lower Merion police officer claimed racial discrimination was involved in police promotion practices that directly affected him.

Looking on was J. Whyatt Mondesire, president of the Philadelphia NAACP.

The board started its Wednesday evening meetings 45 minutes late because the board was meeting in executive session.

“The board is taking these allegations very seriously,” said Rogan, adding that the board is taking necessary steps to review both matters.

While the board usually does not publically discuss personnel matters, it will go against that practice in these two cases, Rogan said.

“We will be providing updates and information in the future,” Rogan said.

The board then listened to the regularly scheduled Police Committee briefing. Just as it was about to move on to the Parks and Recreation Committee, a man stood up and asked that the public be allowed to address the Police Committee about one of the allegations.

Rogan said the public would not normally be allowed to speak since it was not during a normal public comment period, but she allowed it.

The man then gave the floor to Diana Robertson, a paralegal who said she was speaking on behalf of the NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference, including J. Whyatt Mondesire, president of the Philadelphia NAACP Committee. Mondesire sat beside her in the audience.

Robertson spoke about the allegations made by Lower Merion Township Police Officer Kerry Godbold.

Godbold, who is black, has accused the police department and the Board of Commissioners of discrimination concerning promotion practices in the Lower Merion Police Department and questioned why a recent Civil Service list, which would have given him the opportunity for a promotion to sergeant, was allowed to expire.

Commissioners said at the May 18 meeting that they could not act on the list because of a new law which puts an expiration date on it, and they were not biased because they did not know Godbold’s race before he came forward.

Robertson said that, based on the NAACP’s interpretation of the law, the township had a two-year window to promote police officers from the Civil Service list.

When a Patch reporter asked Robertson in an interview to explain her public comment, she said, “They used the bill to say the list had expired and that wasn’t true.”