Chapter 4 - The database query
State investigators obtained audit logs quickly.
Restricted law-enforcement databases record access.
Not perfectly.
Enough.
Daniel had searched my name seventeen times in forty-six days.
Different systems.
Driver-license information.
Vehicle registration.
State criminal-history inquiry.
A federal law-enforcement query interface available to authorized agencies.
One search attempted to locate:
Federal law-enforcement credential information.
It returned no such credential.
Of course.
I was not an FBI agent.
Not a deputy marshal.
Not federal law enforcement.
I was an Army general officer.
Daniel treated absence from the wrong database as proof.
Then the purpose codes.
Officers are required to use law-enforcement systems for authorized purposes.
Daniel entered case references.
Three referenced actual sheriff-office case numbers.
None involved me.
One belonged to:
A stolen trailer investigation.
Another:
Domestic disturbance.
Another:
Identity theft complaint.
Investigators asked:
Why was Major General Carla Mitchell queried under unrelated files?
Daniel’s attorney initially said:
Data-entry error.
Seventeen errors?
Harder.
Then his internal messages.
Daniel to Chief Deputy Alan Brooks:
Need you to verify someone claiming federal authority.
Brooks:
Who?
Daniel:
Family matter. I’ll handle it.
Brooks:
Then don’t use county systems unless there’s a complaint/case.
Daniel:
There will be if I’m right.
There.
He knew the rule.
Then dispatcher Megan Price.
Daniel ordered her to run my license plate.
She asked:
“Case number?”
He said:
“Sheriff request.”
She entered supervisor override.
Later she told investigators:
“I assumed he had a reason.”
Another authority fog.
Then why check me?
Daniel claimed:
Concern I was impersonating a federal officer.
But when did that concern begin?
Before I arrived with secure phone.
Audit logs started six weeks earlier.
Why?
My promotion article.
A county newspaper ran a small piece:
Local native Carla Mitchell promoted to major general.
Daniel searched the next morning.
Then again.
Then again.
His browser history showed searches:
“how to verify military general rank”
“fake general officer credentials”
“federal impersonation military penalties”
Could a skeptical family member search the internet?
Yes.
Could a sheriff use restricted systems to settle that skepticism?
No.
Then something more serious.
The state fusion center had received one of Daniel’s inquiries because he requested verification of my “claimed federal authority.”
A liaison officer responded.
Date:
Twelve days before the kitchen attack.
Message:
Maj. Gen. Carla J. Mitchell is confirmed as an active-duty U.S. Army general officer. No basis identified for impersonation concern. Please route any specific criminal allegation through appropriate military/federal liaison.
Daniel received it.
Read receipt.
May you like
That should have ended everything.
It did not.
