A Portrait Of The Victim

Mrs. Emogene Thompson, a 51-year-old grandmother of one grandchild, lived with her then 26-year-old son, Michael Thompson, in a trailer park in Sugar Hill.

Emogene Thompson had worked hard all of her life and currently worked nights at an optical company in Norcross. If Emogene had one fault, it was that she had loved and pampered her son too much. She had denied him nothing, but Michael Thompson turned out to be a heartbreaking disappointment to his mother. He had dropped out of high school in the 10^th grade and since then had bounced from one dead-end job to another. At the time he worked several nights a week as a sandwich maker at the local Subway shop.

            Michael Thompson was a homosexual and transvestite and was rumored to be a male prostitute. He was well known at the nearby American Inn in Buford Georgia where he was rumored to bring his clients. Michael had dreams of “losing some weight, working out, and becoming a male club dancer. He was a drug user and a “wannabe” drug dealer, but did not have the capital to begin any such venture. Michael was seldom home, and lately spent much of his time at the trailer next door with Amy Parker, a female version of Michael Thompson, and Keith Seay who remained much on the periphery of their activities and these events. Keith’s father, Weldon Seay, owned their trailer.

            If Michael Thompson had one saving grace for his mother, it was that he had married several years before, and the union had produced a daughter, Perilee, then nine years old. Emogene loved the little girl, and her dream was for Michael to gain custody of Perilee so that the girl could come and live with them. Perilee was currently living with her maternal grandmother. Betty Singleton. Perilee’s mother __________________ had died sometime during the last week of March, only a few weeks before.

In contrast, Michael Thompson paid little attention to his daughter. Michael ignored Perilee as much as possible, and, at the time, he was more than $3,000 in arrears in his child support payments to his daughter. He showed little interest in the custody of hid daughter. Emogene, who had lately come into money made several appointments for them with an attorney, but Michael missed all of these appointments, the last on the Monday before the Thursday murder of his mother.

For some time, Emogene had been the girlfriend of one Kenneth Farmer, a well-known and respected member of the community and the Commander of the local American Legion Organization. Mr. Farmer died sometime during the fall of 1992, and left the proceeds of his insurance policies to Emogene Thompson, some $24,000, according to Michael. Out of this, Emogene paid her own debts and Michael’s, but not his back child support, and also bought an interest in a time-share investment.

Emogene’s bank account shows a deposit of $15,164.10 on 11/12/92, then normal checking activity again until she withdrew $7,000.00 using a bank check on 1/22/93. At some point, she became afraid of an attachment of her account by the holder, Tallasade River Resort, but she issued a check for $585.00 on 3/1/93 to the holder that apparently satisfied their demands. On 3/12/93, Emogene again deposited $10,116.18 but then immediately withdrew $9,618.18 in cash. Her account then shows normal banking activity, and on 4/15/93, the day of her murder, her account balance was $800.64.

According to Emogene and her son Michael, Emogene then had on hand about $14,000 in new hundred-dollar bills she secreted in a place known only to her in her trailer home. Some two weeks later, on or about April 1, 1993, Emogene discovered half of the secreted money, $7,000, was missing. She immediately suspected her son Michael especially since he had already admitted to taking several hundred dollars from her stash on two occasions already.

On April 3, 1993, just after 3:00 PM as Officer Michael Chapel came on duty, Emogene Thompson called Gwinnett County 911 and reported the theft as a burglary of their trailer home. Chapel responded immediately, and at once determined the theft to be not a burglary. The method of entry was not typical of a burglary, but mainly Chapel had never heard of a burglar taking only half of any money found.

Officer Chapel held separate conversations with Emogene and Michael. He advised Emogene that the theft was from inside her household, and her son Michael was the most likely thief. Outside the trailer, Chapel advised Michael Thompson of his findings and urged Thompson to give the money back before things became even more serious. Michael Thompson denied the theft, and his mother, Emogene, would not allow any further investigation or the arrest and prosecution of her son.

With nothing further to be done, Officer Chapel classified the call as a domestic dispute and left the home. Chapel immediately then met with his supervisor and friend, Sergeant Donald “Rooster” Stone. He explained the circumstances of the call and his determination to Stone who then advised Chapel to write a report of the incident. Chapel then began to write the report, but then became busy for forgot about finishing it. The incomplete report form was found in Chapel’s briefcase after his arrest.

The following day, April 4, 1993, Emogene Thompson called the Northside Precinct and asked for Chapel. Not yet on duty, The Day-Sergeant Winderwheedle passed the call information to Sergeant Stone when his shift came on duty at 3:00 PM. Given the message by Stone, Chapel was unsuccessful in returning Emogene’s call. A few hours later, after traffic stop a few blocks from her home, Chapel drove to the Thompson trailer, and on the porch in front, the two had a conversation of no more than 5 minutes.

Emogene asked Chapel if there was any other way to retrieve her money from her son other than arrest and prosecution. Chapel then outlined a strategy that he had successfully used in similar cases to retrieve stolen objects within a family. “Bluff the boy,” he told Emogene. “Tell him that we are working together on the theft, and the police are almost ready to make an arrest,” he continued. “Finally tell him that the police raided a crack house in Buford, and the had recovered several one-hundred-dollar bills that are probably from your stolen money.” Chapel then wished Emogene “good luck”, promised he would help her if he could, and then drove off.

There is some evidence that Michael Thompson may have secretly in the house and heard the conversation, but in any event Emogene went immediately to work on her plan. She not only told her son the contrived story Chapel had outlined, she also told the same basic story to three friends who also knew Michael. Indeed one of these friends had been Michael’s baby-sitter when he was young.

The friends were excited because Emogene was finally doing something about the theft. Another of these friends had gone through the same experience with Chapel when her stole some jewelry and Chapel had scared the daughter into returning that jewelry, and she praised Chapel highly. It became clear later that when the friends pressed her on the case, Emogene gave each of them different, imaginary details of the progress of the case, including imaginary contacts and proposed meetings with Officer Chapel.

On April 7^th, on a meal break, Chapel drove into the mall containing a favorite eating place. The mall also contained the Subway Sandwich Shop. Seeing Michael Thompson outside of the shop and remembering his promise to Emogene, Chapel confronted Thompson, again urged him to give his “mama” her money back. He said he was working on the case and expected an arrest soon. He described in the goriest detail all of the terrible things that can happen to a young-newcomer to the prison system, and that such experiences would break him miserably and would ruin his entire life. Thompson answered him with a blank stare and showed no fear. Chapel simply left to complete his meal break. On his return home, Thompson began a series of 10 panic telephone calls beginning at 11:53 PM and ending at 04:10 the next morning to 341-4224 a pager owned by one Sam Bradshaw, and to 925-4860 a land-line owned by Sandra Davis with whom Bradshaw lived in Norcross. It is with this couple that Michael Thompson spent the weekend before his mother’s murder and missing their attorney appointment about Perilee’s custody the next day.

When Gwinnett police investigated Chapel’s contacts with the Thompson family, in spite of subpoenaing literally thousands of telephone and other records, they could confirm only Chapel’s initial 911 response on the 3^rd. Chapel himself, Chapel himself volunteered information about his contact with Emogene on the 4^th and with Michael Thompson on the 7^th.