Herndon Police Officer Accused Of Filing False Police Report

HERNDON, VA — Herndon Police Chief Maggie DeBoard strongly defended one of her officers who is being accused of racial profiling and filing a false police report in connection with a September 2019 altercation on a Fairfax County Public Schools bus.

The mother of a Herndon Middle School student and representatives of the Fairfax County NAACP held a press conference Tuesday morning in front of the school and accused School Resource Officer M.F. Murn of filing a false police report of the Sept. 20 incident.

Sandra Barksdale of Reston said her son, Khaleaf Ali, a 13-year-old eighth-grader, was attacked by another student on the bus ride home.

"From this assault my son suffered a concussion, which required him to miss school, seek medical treatment, and has disrupted our lives in many ways," Barksdale said. "Dealing with the Herndon Police Department and Fairfax County Schools, however, has been an even bigger nightmare than hearing that your child has been attacked."

Following the assault, the school did not provide medical attention for Ali, Barksdale said. Also, Murn and the school administration blamed her son for the incident, even though Barksdale said he was not the aggressor.

"For months I have tried to find a way to handle this privately through the school, and for months I have been given the runaround," she said, adding that she is afraid to send her son back to Herndon Middle School.

Barksdale requested a copy of the police report and a chance to view the bus video of the incident. The report she received was heavily redacted and video did not have any audio. [see below]

"Officer Murn has an issue with my son and the police report does not match the video of the incident," Barksdale said.

Reaching out to the Fairfax County NAACP for assistance, Barksdale and that group's education chair, Dr. Sujatha Hampton, met with Murn on Oct. 9, 2019, at Herndon Middle School to view the video. Those who watched it included Barksdale, Ali, Hampton, Murn, Principal Justine Klena, and Regional Superintendent Douglas Tyson.

"In the video, it is clear to see that Khaleaf was assaulted from behind by another boy," Hampton said. "At no time does he get up or fight back. It was not a quick punch, rather, it was a protracted beating. All of us who viewed the video agreed with this assessment, including Principal Klena."

On Oct. 15, Hampton and Barksdale again met with Murn, this time at police headquarters, to discuss the findings of his investigation.

"At this meeting, to my utter astonishment, Officer Murn told Ms. Barksdale that her son, Khaleaf, was the perpetrator of the assault," Hampton said at the press conference, adding that the video showed Ali taunting the other boy."He further said Khaleaf's posture, sitting with his legs across the aisle, blocked the boy's exit, suggesting that the reason Khaleaf was the perpetrator was because he teased the other boy and he could not have moved away if he wanted to."

Hampton called that statement "outrageous," adding that Khaleaf is not a large boy and that he faced away from his alleged attacker.

"Taunting and teasing, if that happened, is not the same as punching someone repeatedly in the head and the neck," Hampton said.

Hampton questioned Murn about his conclusion and said the officer reiterated his position that despite all visual evidence to the contrary, Khaleaf was the perpetrator of the assault.

"When I continued to ask him how this could be, he became openly hostile and angry," she said.

According to Hampton, the reaction from school officials was not much better. Although Klena had seen the video, the principal used the police report to justify her decision that Ali was responsible for the assault.

Due to these actions, Barksdale said she lost faith in Herndon Middle School and sought, but failed to achieve, any recourse from FCPS.

Barksdale was joined at the press conference by Hampton and Fairfax County NAACP President Sean Perryman. Since October, the group has been trying to assist Barksdale, but has hit a brick wall with both police and school leaders.

"We are here today to demand that the school provide the classes that Khaleaf needs that he missed during the school year," Perryman said. "We're also asking that the officer involved apologize and that he be removed as an SRO if it is shown that the video and police report do not match up."

The Fairfax County NAACP filed a Freedom of Information request for the school bus video.

"This is part of a pattern that we're seeing at FCPS when children of color complain about something, it's not taken seriously," Perryman said.

Herndon Police Chief Responds To Accusations

Chief DeBoard responded to the accusations from Barksdale and the Fairfax County NAACP Tuesday afternoon in a press conference that was streamed live on Facebook.

DeBoard defended the actions and reputation of the school resource officer involved.

"I could not be more outraged and disgusted about the false narrative being perpetuated by Ms. Barksdale and the NAACP to further an agenda to remove SROs from the schools as communicated at a press conference earlier today at Herndon Middle School," DeBoard said.

During the press conference, Perryman confirmed that one of the reforms the Fairfax NAACP supports is removing SROs from county schools.

"We put out a list of eight police reforms that we are calling for and that's one of our items," he said. "The reason for that is we see the same disproportionality that we see nationwide where Black students, disabled students, Latinx students are disproportionality arrested by the police and punished by them. ... So we don't believe the SROs need to be in the school system."

DeBoard added she would not let the Herndon Police Department nor Murn, who she said has spent a large part of his career helping the youth of the community and in the schools, be falsely accused.

DeBoard reviewed the facts of the case:

"My officer conducted a thorough investigation and reviewed both video footage from the bus and that footage from the bus does not contain audio, as well as interviewed numerous other students who were on the bus and in a position to witness the incident.

"The school bus video is only one piece of this investigation and it does not give the complete picture of what occurred. In fact, it only shows a visual picture of the events leading up to and the incident itself.

"The facts indicate that Ms. Barksdale's son was actually determined to be the initial aggressor in this incident and initiated physical contact with the other students after inciting him to fight, calling him several derogatory names, including racial slurs. All the witnesses interviewed who were on the bus described the events of the incident in a similar fashion. All witnesses interviewed indicated that Ms. Barksdale's son was bullying the other student, which is what led to the physical altercation between the two kids."

Following its investigation, HPD presented all of its findings to an Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney who decided the incident did not rise to a criminal level, DeBoard said.

In addition, the attorney said she would not prosecute either of the boys involved in the altercation due to their ages and the facts involved in the case, DeBoard said.

"The allegations presented by Ms. Barksdale do not align with the facts of this investigation," DeBoard said, adding that Ali was never charged nor arrested. "Nor was there any intention by the officer to arrest him."

By the time Barksdale and Hampton met with Murn on Oct. 15, the case was closed, according to the police chief.

DeBoard said Barksdale never notified police that her son had been injured due to the altercation.

The chief confirmed that Hampton asked the majority of questions at the Oct. 15 meeting and was treated in a professional and polite manner.

"Nor did the officer point his finger in her face in a controlled rage," DeBoard said, adding that the interview was recorded on Murn's body-worn camera.

DeBoard said she would release the video of the interview later on Tuesday, once HPD finished redacting references to the juveniles involved in the altercation.

"What is most upsetting to me as a police chief and a leader in this profession and certainly throughout this state is this false narrative is distracting from the really real issues that demand our attention for meaningful reform throughout our profession on a national level," she said. "That's where our attention needs to be. It is false allegations like this that truly hinder our ability to make progress. Progress both sides need to achieve."

After reading her statement, DeBoard confirmed that she has not seen the school bus video, because it is maintained by FCPS.

When pressed about how she could make these statements in support of her officer without seeing the bus video, DeBoard said the video only provided visual support for the statements made by the witnesses. She later added Murn spoke to eight witnesses, who were all in the same age group as Ali and were from different racial backgrounds.

When asked how Murn could view the video and the chief couldn't, DeBoard said he was able to access the video as part of his investigation with FCPS.

FCPS Responds To Incident

Patch contacted FCPS for comment and received this statement from an FCPS spokeswoman:

The school investigated the incident and assigned appropriate consequences under the SR&R (FCPS student discipline policy). The bus video was shown on at least three separate occasions to the parent of one of the students involved, at her request.

At the request of the same parent, the school referred the case to Herndon Police. Herndon Police investigated and determined it was a school matter and no criminal charges were recommended.

FCPS does not release bus video to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law designed to protect student privacy, since bus videos usually depict multiple students, each of whom have privacy rights under FERPA.

The FCPS Region 1 office – which oversees Herndon Middle School — believes the school handled their investigation appropriately.

NAACP Herndon Police 2019 03416 by Michael O'Connell on Scribd