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Detective Howell, Officer of the Second Quarter

The Excellence in Law Enforcement Committee has selected Detective Howell as Officer of the 2nd Quarter. Detective Howell had demonstrated performance above and beyond that, which is routinely expected. Most notably his diligent efforts in an investigation leading to the arrest and conviction of a chiled predator living in Bellevue.

Detective Roy Howell is the computer forensic examiner for the department and has been working with the FBI Cyber-Crimes Task Force for the past year. In April, he identified someone in Bellevue who was sending/receiving known child pornography files over the internet. Det. Howell started an investigation and subpoenaed internet providers to find out who the suspect was. The investigation led him to 1511 Lawrence Lane. On several occasions, he conducted surveillance on the residence to confirm who lived there. A 51-year-old man was identified as living alone in the home.

Detective Howell drafted a federal search warrant and executed it on June 10. He recovered fourteen, one-terabyte, hard drives; along with numerous videos of suspected child pornography. A preliminary estimate was that the hard drives contain over 90,000 child pornography videos and pictures. It will take weeks, if not months, to analyze all of the evidence that was seized. The suspect was arrested on federal child pornography charges and confessed to Detective Howell; admitting that the child pornography was his.

In the following days, Detective Howell started to review the evidence. He discovered that the suspect had been creeping into people’s yards in his neighborhood and had secretly videotaped at least two juvenile females while they were nude in their rooms. Over the course of several days, he would sit outside their windows for long periods of time. The suspect would also secretly videotape his neighbor’s juvenile daughter while she was swimming with friends in their pool. Detective Howell spent over a week trying to identify all of the juveniles who were on the videos. The videos were taken nearly eight years earlier. He was able to locate all but one of the victims.

Detective Howell had scheduled a vacation for the end of June, but found out that he may be needed to testify at a grand jury hearing. He immediately cancelled part of his vacation, because he wanted to contribute to the successful indictment of the suspect. Thanks to Detective Howell’s investigation and testimony, the suspect was indicted by a grand jury. Detective Howell’s expertise with computer forensics showed during this investigation, and he should be recognized for his exceptional dedication to bringing this suspect to justice. A dangerous child predator was taken off the streets; and may very well spend the rest of his life in prison.

Honorable Mention

For the 2nd Quarter in 2011, Officer Cvitanov has been selected to receive an Honorable Mention.

Officer Cvitanov was commended for possibly preventing a serious domestic assault or homicide. On June 14, 2011, Officer Cvitanov was dispatched to meet with a victim who had received a cell phone call from her ex-boyfriend. She only dated this man for about four months. She broke up with him after experiencing his violent temper. She reported that he had a long criminal record and found that he spent ten years in prison. Since the break up, she said that she has received several threatening phone calls. She wanted to report that she had received more threatening text messages, and that he had started coming around her apartment complex to watch her. He also showed up at her place of her employment in Omaha, where he “chased” her through traffic. He then started sending very specific threatening phone messages. He told her that he was going to kill her with a gun and told her that he was going to “get even.” Officer Cvitanov documented and collected all of the evidence. He advised the victim on how to get a protection order, which she acquired the next day.

Officer Cvitanov made the extra effort to research the suspect’s criminal history. He found that he had been convicted of killing a girlfriend and had served time in prison for the crime. With this additional information, Officer Cvitanov wrote a request for an arrest warrant and contacted a detective with the Metro Fugitive Task Force. He asked the detective to walk the warrant request through the County Attorney’s office the next day and coordinate a search for the suspect to be arrested immediately. Those extra efforts were successful, and the suspect was jailed. Armed with Officer Cvitanov’s carefully detailed reports, the judge set his bond at $150,000. During the investigation, Officer Cvitanov called the victim every day with updates to reassure her.