Before he issued his statement on Sunday about the Allen Chapel incident, Chief David Alexander didn’t contact Pastor Freddie Tellis or Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan to learn all the facts.
According to the chief’s press release, the father “indicated he attempted on multiple occasions to retrieve the child from the grandparent’s home with the assistance of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office; however, the grandparents would not open their door.”
Through a public record request, Inweekly obtained the ECSO deputy’s report. The sheriff’s office made only one attempt to retrieve the granddaugther -one, not numerous. The family was at church. How did the deputy know the family was at church, the father told him. The deputy agreed to check back at the home in the afternoon, which he did.
From the report: “I knocked on the door, but was unable to make contact with anyone at the residence. Bobby Williams (father) stated that his child was possibly at church which is located in the Pensacola city limits.”
The morning and afternoon visits on Sunday, Sept. 6 to the residence are the only –repeat only – visits made by ECSO in 2015.
The father lied to PPD – which should also bring into question his other statements, but Chief Alexander didn’t check.
Inweekly decided to check back even further for issues at the Tellis’ residence and found another custody incident in August 2014.
Back then, it was the father who was refusing to return the daughter at the time required by a court order from Judge Thomas Santurri. The girl was supposed to fly back to her home in California. The father was to return her to the Tellis residence by 9 a.m. on Aug. 18, 2014. He claimed he had court order to keep the child, but could not produce it to ECSO. His wife returned the girl only after a deputy informed him that he could be arrested. Pastor Tellis was able to return his granddaughter to California so that she would not miss the start of school.
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Inweekly did get a copy of the most recent Court Order from Judge Shackleford that orders law enforcement to pick up the child. What is strange is the Pensacola Police could not provide us a copy of it. And Chief Alexander said the officer was not at the church to serve a court order….although the officer mentioned it several times on the body cam video.
The inconsistency is bothersome.