Official Report: No workplace misconduct in police department

Jake Jacobs

An investigative report released Friday stated allegations of misconduct at the Warner Robins Police Department were unfounded.

The report, prepared by Jennifer Keaton of One Mediation in Atlanta and released last week to city officials, states the charges from Police Sgt. Julius Wilcox alleging harassment, racism, hostile work environment and intimidation in the department did not take place.

Wilcox filed a written grievance in April outlining his five complaints in a letter to city Human Resources Manager Bryan Fobbus. The city turned to One Mediation as an outside investigator, and Keaton led the effort. Her investigation covered about 10 weeks of research and interviews.

Wilcox’s complaint stated there were violations of city policy:

• Improper bonding of a prisoner last October;

• Political activities within the police department during the 2009 mayoral election;

• Retaliation associated with Wilcox’s appointment this year to provide security at City Council meetings;

• Racial discrimination affecting the October 2009 promotion process for lieutenants in the department; and

• “Retaliatory animus” that affected the promotion process and other actions taken by Police Chief Brett Evans.

The Warner Robins Patriot obtained a copy of the report earlier this week, minus pages pertaining to interviews for the October 2009 promotion process.

City council members contacted said they had read the report but would not comment on it, or referred questions to City Attorney Jim Elliott.

Wilcox employment record

The police department initially hired Wilcox in 1991. He left in 1993 after filing, then retracting, a racial discrimination complaint. He resigned and went on active duty with the Marines, then returned to the police department by invoking the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 that required the city to rehire him after military service. He was awarded a 15-year service pin by Mayor Donald Walker in 2006.

In his complaint, Wilcox cites events beginning last year after Walker’s suicide in September and the heated mayoral race that saw a run-off between Chuck Chalk and the winner, Chuck Shaheen. He also cited the promotion process of October 2009 where he failed to earn promotion to lieutenant.

Improper bonding complaint

Wilcox said Lt. Billy Styles improperly required a “cash only” bond from a prisoner arrested Oct. 31 and charged with having an open container in their vehicle. Wilcox’s complaint states he felt Styles did not have the authority to require the cash-only bond and the $1,000 amount was excessive.

Keaton’s report states that under city policy Styles did have the authority for his action. Wilcox also said his complaint on the matter was ignored, but the report stated the department did not see the matter as requiring further action. “Such a difference in opinion fails to suggest wrongdoing by the department,” the report stated.

Political activities complaint

Wilcox’s complaint states city employees Evans, Styles, Lt. Danny Hicks and Officer Darren Johnson in effect campaigned for Chalk in violation of the city charter and ordinances.

The report states Evans believed Chalk supported his ideas and goals for the department more than Shaheen, and that Shaheen would replace Evans after being sworn in. Yet Evans is still police chief and the proposed new law enforcement center has earned council approval. “As such, many of the election issues appear to have some resolved though the professional relationship between Mayor Shaheen and Chief Evans outwardly appears strained,” the report stated.

Comments made by Evans at some supervisory meetings during the campaign repeated the phrase “best interest of the department,” and became synonymous with Chalk’s candidacy, the report stated.

Wilcox said he met with Evans for two hours the day after the November election, and Evans used words “to the effect that candidate Chalk would be a better mayor for the department’s interests than candidate Shaheen,” according to the report. Wilcox believed the comment was an attempt to influence his political opinion or test his loyalty to Evans, the report continued.

Evans denied trying to influence Wilcox or test his loyalty, according to the report. The report concluded that Evans’ comments “appeared” to be political activity prohibited by the city charter and ordinances.

The day of the run-off election, Hicks had called Johnson at the firing range and asked him to remind the others there to vote, the report said. Styles, Wilcox alleged, campaigned for Chalk and asked subordinates to man a Chalk phone bank. But the report concluded Styles, Hicks and Johnson did not engage in political activity.

Retaliation for council security assignment

Wilcox said he has suffered retaliation for raising concerns about political activities and race discrimination after he was assigned to provide security at pre-council and council meetings upon Shaheen taking office in January.

Police department personnel had rotated in providing security beforehand, and Shaheen had requested that Wilcox be assigned the duty “because he believed Sgt. Wilcox’s physical presence and personal demeanor was well suited” for the task, according to the report. Shaheen “did not harbor any ill will towards Sgt. Wilcox when selecting him for this assignment,” the report stated, and since his reasons were legitimate there was no violation of city policy.

The report went on to say the change in Wilcox’s work hours on the days the council meets were not based on retaliatory motives on the part of Evans.

Shaheen did not consult Evans before asking for Wilcox to provide security at the council meetings. After Evans asked Shaheen about overtime compensation and explained how it was handled in the past, he heard no more from the mayor on the subject and assumed the past’s policies were still in effect: changing Wilcox’s shift hours from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. to 8 a.m.-8 p.m. on meeting days so that no overtime would be incurred. This, the report concluded, did not constitute violation of the city’s harassment and/or retaliation policies.

Wilcox also said a comment from Evans to him before a city council meeting in April along the lines of “Did you get your marching orders?” amounted to retaliation with the suggestion Wilcox was evading the chain of command and taking orders directly from Shaheen. Evans denied making the comment, which he told Keaton, would have exacerbated an already tenuous relationship between him and Shaheen. The report concluded, “the comment, as alleged, was unlikely to have been made, and no policy violation or retaliatory animus is substantiated.”

Promotion process complaints

The last two allegations centered on the promotion process last year when Wilcox applied for promotion to the rank of lieutenant. Wilcox alleges considerations of race played a part in his failure to be promoted. The report notes that one of the eight officers promoted was African American and that three African Americans applied for the promotion. In addition to Wilcox there were other sergeants not promoted who said they believed the selection process was unfair and lacked objectivity.

Though Evans knew what he wanted in a lieutenant, he did not write down the qualities he was seeking or the selection criteria for the interview panel, the report stated. What Evans did write down was a single question asking applicants for their philosophy of leadership, and they were given 15 minutes to respond.

The report concluded there was a lack of transparency in the process but race did not play a part in the failure to promote Wilcox.

After Evans had announced the promotions on Oct. 30, Wilcox tried to find out from Evans and Maj. John Wagner why he did not make the grade, but said he found their answers evasive. The report stated that Evans knew what qualities he wanted from each candidate but did not convey that to the panel which interviewed the applicants. And in answering Wilcox’s queries, Evans raised his suspicions, the report stated.

Items that factored into the consideration for promotion included respect, decisiveness, productivity, willingness to take on extra details or projects, and loyalty to the department. Evans apparently found Wilcox wanting in these qualities, the report stated, while others who had less seniority had more of them.

The report further noted that Evans promoted Wilcox to sergeant from patrol officer, and had Evans harbored racial animus there were other opportunities for him to discriminate against Wilcox because of his race but there is no evidence of that.

The report specifically cited a 2006 incident where Wilcox violated the city’s policies regarding use of the Georgia Crime Information Center database. The center provides criminal justice information to the state’s various law enforcement agencies. Wilcox, the report stated, searched the database to obtain information for a friend, and “his conduct could have resulted in criminal charges.” Evans instead suspended Wilcox for three days and had him write a letter of apology, and those actions satisfied GBI investigators. Several officers interviewed by Keaton said they felt Wilcox should have been terminated for the offense, but “Chief Evans believed in second chances, almost to a fault.”

The report concluded that race did not play a factor in Evans’ failure to promote Wilcox, and that Evans’ conclusion that Wilcox was not as strong a leader as those who were promoted was “legitimate and sincere.”