Greensboro police Officer MD Royal, who had been suspended without pay and had faced the possibility of termination, was reinstated without disciplinary action late yesterday afternoon, Chief Ken Miller confirmed today.
The chief said he made the decision to reinstate Royal after reviewing the case file, including video and audio recordings, and interviewing the officer and other staff members. Royal had been placed on suspension and recommended for termination by interim Chief Dwight Crotts in August, prior to Miller’s first day on the job.
Royal is an African-American officer. Among the handful of black and Latino officers who have face disciplinary action in the interim period in which Crotts ran the department, Royal is exceptional in that he is not a plaintiff in a federal discrimination lawsuit and has not filed grievances alleging adverse impact from discrimination and retaliation.
Royal had been placed on suspension because of an allegation that he was untruthful after he was drawn in as an unwitting bystander into a conflict between command staff led by Crotts and a group of dissident officers led by Capt. Charles Cherry, a former commander of the Eastern patrol division who is currently appealing a termination decision up to City Manager Rashad Young.
Royal’s disciplinary troubles began, according to a memo from Cherry to Young, when Officer Robert Reyes overhead another officer remark in June during a Western patrol division lineup that Cherry had been fired and turned to Royal and said, “That’s how rumors get started.” At the time, Cherry was merely on administrative leave. After checking with Cherry and ascertaining that in fact he was still employed by the police department, Reyes privately confronted Officer DA Pinson about the alleged remark about Cherry’s employment status.
In reaction to Reyes’ intervention, his supervisor found him in violation of the department’s directives on truthfulness and malicious gossip. Neither of those violations was sustained during Reyes’ General Board of Inquiry hearing on Aug. 27, but Crotts imposed a division-level reprimand based on violations of conduct towards public and employees and discretion, neither of which were part of the original administrative charges.
Supporters of the dissident officers have questioned whether the administration of polygraphs in the investigation of the incident was rigged to achieve a predetermined result of Royal and Reyes failing while Pinson passed. Reyes alleged in an appeal of his reprimand that he and Royal were subjected to lengthy, stress-inducing interrogations while Pinson was allowed to take anti-anxiety medication to relax his nerves before taking the polygraph.
“Sergeant Isom and Captain Smith allowed a ‘Gestapo-style interrogation’ of Officer Royal (which was administrative in nature), which included a total of six (6) hours, Officer Royal, body limp, was called a lie [SIC] approximately twenty (20) times, Officer Royal’s job was threatened, asked the same question approximately thirty three (33) times, Officer Royal was lied to in attempts to get Officer Royal to change his (Officer Royal’s story), Officer Royal was called ‘lynchman’ by Corporal Oligmueller during Officer Royal’s polygraph. Assistant Chief RE Rogers and Captain BL James can attest to the inhumane treatment of Officer Royal. The polygraph of Officer Royal is on video.”
Crotts has said that the results of the polygraph were discarded as evidence in Reyes’ hearing and ultimate disciplinary decision.
Miller said today that he does not intend to investigate the manner in which the polygraphs were administered, but said the department needs to have some internal “dialogue about when and how we use polygraphs.”
“I have an opinion about how a polygraph should be administered,” he said. “They didn’t do anything wrong, but it was inconsistent with the way I think it should be if we’re going to treat employees the way they deserve to be treated.”
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