During her job, DePaepe has said she discovered — during random maintenance of the recording system — police officers within the department “engaged in serious acts of misconduct.” That allegedly included the potential commission of criminal offenses, to serious breaches of city policies and procedures.
The claim continued: “The content of some of the conversations contained racially derogatory statements relating to other ranking officers (including Boykins).”
The tapes, Duerring said, also contain discussions by the officers about schemes on how to influence then incoming mayor Pete Buttigieg to place certain individuals in positions of power within the police department. That, he said, included the ouster and replacement of Boykins.
DePaepe reported her findings to Boykins, and was later fired for doing so, Duerring said.
DePaepe’s firing has caused her to “suffer grievously,” according to the tort claim. Duerring added she was a 25-year veteran with no blemishes on her employment record.
The extent of damages cannot yet be determined, he said.
“Given the grievous and outrageous conduct of the city and the extent of the financial and emotional impact suffered by Ms. DePaepe, we are seeking damages,” including for loss of income, benefits and damages to her reputation and character. Duerring claims the investigation and firing has violated DePaepe’s constitutional rights and caused her “public humiliation.”
In making the decisions to fire DePaepe and demote Boykins, Mayor Buttigieg has suggested he was only acting on the advice of federal authorities; however, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Indiana announced three weeks ago that it would not be filing charges in the case. Boykins is also suing the city, claiming his demotion was racially motivated. A total of seven South Bend employees have filed tort claim notices over the incident.
2 comments:
-am I missing something here? Isn't it common knowledge that all 911 calls are recorded?
The problem isn't with the 911 calls; it's with the recorded phone conversations between police officers that were not not made on the 911 call line as I understand it.
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