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ACP Chester Sends Lawyer Letter To Sr. Supt Vidal Threatening Suit
posted (September 15, 2017)
All this week we've been reporting on the serious beef between the two senior police officers: Chester Williams and Marco Vidal. ACP Williams is the former Southside commander, and "Senior Supe" Vidal took over from him two and a half months ago.

Williams had forged a gang truce in April, and crime in the city - especially gang crime - had taken a sharp downturn. And then in August, it all flared up again. So, the finger was pointed at Vidal. Had the former GSU commander riled things up in the street again with his hard charging tactics?

Vidal has rejected this narrative as bogus and oversimplified. And, on Tuesday at a press briefing he went a step further when he said that the apparent peace created under Chester Williams command - was not peace at all, but an accommodation to the criminal element. Here's how he put it:

Sr. Sup. Marco Vidal
"Certainly I answered a question in exactly the manner in which it was asked. I have nothing else to say to that."

Reporter
"Sir, so you don't believe that you've been saying very inflammatory things about your predecessor. He says that he has not said anything bad about you."

Sr. Sup. Marco Vidal
"Well unless you are trying to help him with his case, I have nothing more to say on that matter. I am not going to be helping anybody with his case."

Reporter
"Have you been alerted of possible court action from this?"

Sr. Sup. Marco Vidal
"Well I don't know. I am hearing that from you. I know there are a number of things on the social media. I have my own opinion about the social media. But as I said I will not contribute to anything that is being said. I said what I said and I will leave it at that."

Reporter
"And you don't retract anything you've said?"

Sr. Sup. Marco Vidal
"As I said, I will say nothing else in regards to that matter."

That's accusing his senior officer, ACP Williams, of being involved in some level of criminal complicity, and Williams immediately threatened suit.

Today, 7News has learnt that Williams has gotten a high profile attorney, Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck who today sent one of those lawyer letters to Vidal.

The Marshalleck letter quotes the Vidal exchange with 7News Director Jules Vasquez and concludes, quote, "these allegations are completely untrue and constitute a grave slander upon our client. Our client has never been selective in enforcing the law against gang members and has never allowed anyone to engage in the marijuana trade. As a senior police officer and attorney at law, our clients has always acted to uphold the law." End quote.

And so, Marshalleck demands the following: first, that Vidal, quote, "give a further interview to Channel 7....containing a suitable withdrawal and apology in terms to be approved by us on our client's behalf;" second, that Vidal give an undertaking in writing to not repeat the allegations; third, that he must pay Williams's legal costs, and, fourth, that he also pays damages to, quote, "compensate our client for the serious injury to his reputation which he has suffered by the publication of these allegations." End quote.

The letter requires Vidal to respond in 10 days. Two days ago, Vidal told the media that he would not address it further.

Sr. Sup. Marco Vidal
"In terms of any peace having been, between whatever period you want to put it, as a journalist, if you would go in and speak to the very people who speak about peace, you would know that there was no peace and there was a number of underlined issues that prevailed during that same time. My policy is that I don't give any persons any break, in terms of breaking the law. If the criminals are not happy with that then we will enforce the law. And that's it."

Now, we don't know if we've ever seen a lawsuit threatened between senior officers like this. But, at the same time, we cannot say that we've ever seen a junior officer make allegations of criminal complicity against a senior officer - so this story still has some ways to go - we'll be following it.

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