Records obtained from the City of Champaign, Illinois show that social media comments about retired Police Chief Robert T. Finney nearly erupted into a libel lawsuit against the City. The comments were related to Finney’s involvement in the 2009 police killing of Kiwane Carrington, and were posted to the “Spotted in Chambana” Facebook group in September, 2020 by Champaign City Council member Clarissa Fourman.
Finney was upset that Ms. Fourman’s posts insinuated that the killing of the unarmed 15-year old by Finney and his partner, Daniel Norbits, constituted murder, whereas the Police Department had determined that Carrington’s death was merely an accident. On the afternoon of October 9th, 2009, Finney and his partner shot and killed the unarmed boy after suspicion of a break-in, though Carrington was merely entering a relative’s home at which he frequently stayed.
Just one day after the comments appeared on Facebook, Finney sent a “Cease and Desist” notice to Fourman, as well as Mayor Deborah Feinen, City Manager Dorothy Ann David, and City Attorney Fred Stavins. The notice begins:
“On September 5th and 6th 2020, Councilwoman Clarissa Nickerson Fourman;
I. Published false statements on an unprivileged third party website with 41,073 members, the defamatory statements include, but are not limited to the following libel statements about RT. Finney:
A. ” … is a child murderer.”
B. ” … used your police badge to kill a child”
C. “You a man who participated in the murder of a young black man in our community”
Finney’s letter includes as “exhibits” screen shots of the Spotted in Chambana Facebook group with several highlighted comments. Finney goes on to argue in his letter that Fourman was clearly commenting in her capacity as a City Council member, that she knew the statements were false, and that she was “willfully negligent”.
“Ms. Fourman is willfully negligent by her libelous publication as a City Council member and as an individual and damaged the reputation of RT. Finney who is a respected professional in the community and has spent his life building a positive reputation. Nevertheless, Ms. Fourman has been maliciously spreading inaccurate and unfounded information that is damaging to the personal and professional character of RT. Finney. RT. Finney provides law enforcement consulting services throughout the State of Illinois and the allegation of criminal accusations has/ will cause damage to his livelihood and reputation in this field. R.T. Finney had to change his name on Facebook because of the feedback of her libelous allegations.”
Finney closes his letter with demands that Ms. Fourman immediately delete her Facebook comments, write a letter of apology to Finney, and cease any further allegations. Finney makes clear that a failure to comply would result in his filing of a lawsuit which would seek monetary damages from the City of Champaign.
Such a lawsuit would not be the first effort by police officers to capitalize on Carrington’s death. Finney’s partner, Daniel Norbits, who supposedly “mishandled” his gun and shot Carrington in 2009, had received $423,697 in pay in the five years following the incident, a large portion of which was “stress related” workers compensation. (note: Jeshaun Manning-Carter, the only other witness to the killing, claims that Finney fired the gun, not Norbits)
City Attorney Fred Stavins responded to Finney’s lawsuit threat with his own letter, asserting that Finney’s focus on the City of Champaign was unwarranted:
“The City has no control over the actions that Ms. Fourman takes in her private capacity. You have alleged that certain actions were taken by the City in response to the death of Kiwane Carrington in 2009. These are matters of public record.
Since we do not represent Clarissa Fourman in her private capacity, we are unable, from our office, to provide legal advice as may be appropriate in order for her to respond to your letter. If you have information that would contradict any statements that I have asserted above, please respond to this letter with such facts.”
It does not appear that Finney issued further arguments in response to Stavins’s letter. Check CU could not locate the 2020 comments on Facebook, so it is likely that they may have been removed.
Finney did send a follow up email to Stavins and Mayor Feinen, complaining about an incident that occurred at an Espresso Royale where he felt harassed by local journalist Brian Dolinar:
“Fred;
Just to provide context to the results of Foreman’s defamatory language. At 10:30 this morning, (September 13), as Connie and I sat at the patio of Expresso Royale at the Crossing, I heard someone speak loudly to me, in front of other customers, that they were surprised that I was still around after killing Kiwane Carrington. I turned and saw Brian Dolinar sitting behind us. My wife and I both stated to please leave us alone. He continued by stating that he was surprised that I would stay in Champaign now that it’s out there again. He continued to talk about how everyone knows it was me that “put him in the ground” and I shouldn’t be around. All of this was loud enough for the other 6 or 7 people present to hear. At one point he indicated that it was on social media again. Her comments have clearly made it more dangerous for my family to be in public. These comments align with a statement from Fourman that was eventually deleted from the Spotted in Chambana site ( I wasn’t fast enough to screenshot it) that indicated that like “Darren Wilson” I should just go away. Eluding to the Ferguson Mo. officer who killed Micheal Brown.”
R.T. Finney’s Cease and Desist letter, lawsuit threat, exhibits, and related emails can be viewed below (click image for full 13-page PDF):
Correction: the original version of this article erroneously indicated that Police Officer Daniel Norbits held the rank of Deputy Chief, which is incorrect. The article has be corrected. The Deputy Chief at the time was Troy Daniels.
Update: after initial publishing, the beginning of this article was edited slightly to include the date and time of the shooting incident.
What a great example of journalism. Perhaps you should do a better job of research. Dan Norbits was not nor ever was a Deputy Chief. In your haste to malign police officers you failed to accurately get that detail right.
Thank you for pointing out the error. The article has been corrected.
Gun violence didn’t erupt in 2009 in did in 2014 so why was the officer quick to use his firearm if a person without a badge kills someone on accident they go to jail for manslaughter or first degree but because he had a badge he only got fired that’s not constitutional or right Kiwane was unarmed why didn’t you draw your taser first Mase baton you had three others options but chose a gun how do you expect us to put the guns down and y’all haven’t we control the community not y’all what have y’all done to stop the violence nothing cause you can’t normal people don’t feel comfortable talking to y’all so who really failed the community or the police y’all pose to protect us