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Southlake police Sgt. Jayson Steele, a nine-year veteran, was fired May 9 for "untruthfulness and unbecoming conduct."
Police
Chief Wade Goolsby alleges that Steele used a retired officer’s name
without permission in January when he e-mailed confidential information
to Mayor Andy Wambsganss and City Councilwoman Laura Hill, according to
Steele’s personnel file obtained by the Journal from the city
of Southlake. Documentation in the file includes a statement from a
retired officer verifying that he did not authorize the use of his
name.
Steele’s attorney, Terry Hickey, disagrees.
"Jayson
[Steele] is firm that he had the individual’s permission. I believe the
individual may be disputing that because the city [of Southlake] may
have leaned on him because he may be running for office somewhere,"
Hickey said.
The city, in a surprising move, released about 500
pages of Steele’s personnel file, including such confidential items as
his marriage license and his birth certificate.
Last fall, in
contrast, the city consistently refused to comment on personnel matters
and referred document requests to the Texas attorney general, resulting
in delays of up to three months.
The documents released Friday
and Tuesday focus on two e-mails, one anonymous and the other taking
credit for the first and made to look as if it were from a Southlake
police officer who retired last fall.
Steele asked the officer if he could use his name in the letters, according to the city documents, and was told no.
Steele
admitted writing both e-mails and using the retired officer’s name on
the second, according to a letter by Police Chief Wade Goolsby that is
in Steele’s file.
The first e-mail, which contains allegations
of problems within the department, makes several references to Lt. Mike
Kenney, who was fired the same day the e-mail was sent. The tone of the
e-mail is emotional.
In the e-mail, Steele makes reference to
confidential information relating to a background investigation of a
new employee, an internal investigation and a related federal
investigation. Steele sent the e-mail to the Hill and Wambsganss, for
which he was also disciplined. Steele responded in the city-released
documents that because members of the City Council were part of the
city, he believed they were privy to such information.
In a
letter written by Goolsby to Steele, the chief says Steele’s actions
were "unprofessional and raise concerns about your trustworthiness."
There were other avenues Steele could have taken, the chief wrote.
Steele’s
e-mail raised questions of marijuana use by one of the new recruits
recently hired by Goolsby, calling it a "double standard." The
recruit’s name is blacked out. Steele questioned the message hiring
such a recruit would send to Southlake youngsters.
"We have the
Everyone’s Responsible and SPARKS [Students and Parents Against Risks
to our Kids in Southlake] programs where we try to tell the youth of
Southlake to stay away from drugs," Steele said in the e-mail to
Wambsganss and Hill, who founded SPARK.
According to the
internal investigation, the recruit disclosed his marijuana usage
during the application process and "was found to be within acceptable
limits as set in our policy." Steele submitted a hostile work
environment complaint on March 4. The documents show that he wanted an
independent investigator to look into his claims. He submitted
additional concerns on March 17.
The city hired Marigny Lanier to conduct interviews as part the Steele investigation.
Other
problems Steele cited in his hostile work environment complaint refer
to a "shift average" for writing traffic tickets, which he considered
to be an illegal quota, and enforcement of a no-left-turn sign in front
of Central Market.
In a letter, City Manager ShanaYelverton
says many of the issues in Steele’s complaint were mentioned in the
Tarrant County district attorney’s review of the department. On March
18, the City Council hired former FBI agent Tim McNally and Larry
Landberg of McNally & Associates to review the district attorney’s
findings, a process that is expected to be completed by the end of the
month. The city had already paid the California consultants $20,000
before the council authorized an additional $49,900.
"I am
confident that any problems identified in their report or in our
continued dialog with members of the department will be resolved,"
Yelverton wrote in the letter.
Steele is among three ranking
officers disciplined since original complaints were taken to the
Tarrant County district attorney’s office last year, and several police
sources, who remain unnamed for fear of their jobs, brought their
concerns to the Journal in August 2007. One sergeant was
demoted two ranks, Kenny was fired and reinstated with punishment, and
Steele was fired. Kenny filed a lawsuit for damages on April 3, and
Hickey said her client is considering doing the same.
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