Bloomington's city manager is pushing back at allegations the city suppressed efforts to investigate former Assistant Police Chief Paul Williams.
During an interview, Jeff Jurgens provided documentation indicating Williams was due to be questioned about his behavior during a June traffic stop. That interview never happened.
A copy of the Aug. 6 memorandum comes from Police Chief Jamal Simington, notifying Williams of an “official, formal investigation and interrogation,” and requesting his appearance at the Bloomington Police Department on Aug. 14.
Jurgens said city administration found out about the June 14 incident, in which DoorDash drivers were briefly detained and had their phones taken, a few days after it happened.
“We were notified by the city attorney, and at that point I said I’d like to see the police report,” he said. “It initially came across as a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request, and that’s when our legal department got involved. That’s when I became aware of it.”
Jurgens said the gap between then and the Aug. 6 memo was because it takes time to get a police report and body cam footage, which he requested once he’d seen the report.
“As soon as I saw the body cam footage, I said I want to get an outside attorney involved in this and want this to be formally reviewed and get next steps,” he said.
That attorney, Benjamin Gehrt, specializes in labor matters.
“They have a lot of experience dealing with these types of issues,” Jurgens said. “My understanding is nothing that was alleged in the lawsuit was criminal. It wasn’t a criminal lawsuit, so this was all civil.”
That's true, although the lawsuit wasn’t filed in federal court until Aug. 10. The memo to Williams, signed by Simington, however, says the nature of the investigation includes allegations that Williams violated state law.
The memo alleges Williams “abused the power of [his] position to engage in an unsafe, unnecessary vehicle pursuit as the result of a handicapped parking violation, parked your personal vehicle behind the alleged offenders’ vehicle to prevent their departure, approached the alleged offender in a hostile and unprofessional manner and used your position in the Department to expedite a police response."
“You further attempted to use your position to effectuate an arrest of the alleged offenders, the warrantless seizure of personal cell phones and the tow of the alleged offender’s vehicle. You were either unaware or intentionally disregarded state law that prohibits a custodial arrest for the alleged offense. The only reason the arrest, tow, and seizure of personal property was stopped was because another officer on the scene alerted personnel the arrest would be unlawful under Illinois law.”
It’s not clear how some of these details were known to the city, which according to Jurgens had based the probe on the officers’ incident report and body cam footage. Both were previously reviewed by WGLT. They capture responding officers called to the scene by Williams after he tracked and pulled over two 21-year-olds alleged to have parked in an accessible parking space.
The only account of what happened before those officers arrived is Williams’, detailed in the same report in which he and his wife are the alleged victims. That supplemental entry was filed days after the incident and differs materially from the accusation in the memo stating he approached the alleged offender in a “hostile and unprofessional manner.”
Cell phone video of the altercation between Williams and the two men wasn’t requested from their attorney by Gehrt until Aug. 19, according to emails provided to WGLT.
Jurgens said Thursday morning “these would all be the types of issues that could be handled by somebody like Mr. Gerht.”
Jared Kosoglad, the plaintiffs' attorney in the civil lawsuit that followed, disagreed.
“Using a lawyer to investigate misconduct is a strategy to evade public awareness of what public officials have privately requested their hired guns to accomplish through the investigation. It is often used because public officials can hide behind attorney/client privileges when giving those directions that lawyers have ways of communicating to each other,” he said in a statement to WGLT.
WGLT requested email communications related to the June 14 traffic stop between Williams, Simington, Deputy City Manager Sue McLaughlin and Jurgens. WGLT received pages of redacted messages, citing attorney/client communications.
Asked for further clarification about why a criminal probe was not done, city attorney Chris Spanos provided a statement:
"The City's review was administrative in nature and not a criminal investigation. Whether facts support criminal charges is a decision for the appropriate prosecutorial authorities, not the City."
Retirement and lawsuit a wrinkle that forced a delay
Jurgens disagreed with the characterization that the investigation was ever "paused."
“I would not say we paused this at all,” he said, though he acknowledged there was a delay while the lawsuit was ongoing.
Jurgens said Williams had announced plans to retire on July 9.
“He didn’t give a specific date at that point, is my understanding,” he said. “This all unfolds; we start the investigation. Aug. 6 is when the formal investigation starts, and he is put on leave."
Jurgens said Williams’ attorney was not available Aug. 14 for the interrogation, and Williams set Sept. 2 as his retirement date before it could be rescheduled.
In a public statement announcing the lawsuit settlement, the city said it planned to renew its efforts to complete the internal investigation. Jurgens said Thursday the city is in the process of retaining another lawyer from the same law firm as Gehrt to conduct that review.
“Even after Paul retired, it was still my intent that I wanted to review this incident. I think it is very important to understand why this happened, how this happened, do we have the right policies in place,” he said. “I want to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again, and if there were processes that fell down, I want to know how to fix those.”
That review is unlikely to include the desired interrogation of the now former assistant chief.
“I don’t know that he would be willing to do that,” Jurgens said. “I’m not sure what our investigator is going to want to do or [who] he’s going to try to hear from. He may try and ask some questions. I just can’t speculate on how that investigation will go.”
'Institutional, potential power'
WGLT reported on a new legal filing alleging a coverup as it relates to a probe into Williams’ conduct before June 14. A former police sergeant who is suing the city alleges he was unjustly fired as a retaliatory response to raising concerns about what he perceived to be an illegal order to profile white drivers. That order came in emails from Williams sent to police lieutenants [obtained by WGLT via a records request] in response to media reports that officers were disproportionately pulling over Black drivers.
The filing intertwines that lawsuit with the more recent one related to the traffic stop in June. The lawyer for the latter has also called for an independent investigation which includes a comprehensive look at Williams’ career and alleges city officials cannot adequately take a sober look.
Jurgens said the city plans to look into those allegations as well but says it’s hard to review years-old allegations heard through a third party.
“But certainly, I want to find out about that to the extent we can,” he said. “And if there are other processes that need to be fixed, we’ll address them.”
Among the claims made by attorneys in both lawsuits is Williams' abuse of power within the department.
WGLT has spoken to numerous current and former police officers who back up that claim, noting anyone who didn’t “go along to get along” faced retaliation that, among other things, impacted their access to promotions or desired work assignments.
Even if none of that is true, subordinates clearly feared Williams, based on what they described to WGLT. One former officer said they personally did not experience retaliation or have any issues with Williams, but knew not to cross him.
Jurgens said the city has whistleblower policies and other protections for employees to come forward with concerns.
“I would hope no employee that’s going through something like that would ever feel like they can’t bring an issue like that forward,” he said. “I do not believe that’s the case in our current police department. Again, receiving these allegations, we’re going to make sure that’s the case. That’s not the expectation I have for our police department.”
Either way, Jurgens acknowledged Williams’ departure is perhaps a chance for a reset.
“Any time you have somebody that’s been with the city or any organization for almost 40 years — that’s a lot of institutional memory. That’s a lot of institutional, potential power. And so, we do have an opportunity now where we have new assistant chiefs coming in. We have younger people coming up the ranks. And policing has changed a lot over the last 40 years.”
Jurgens said one of the things he’s most proud of is the department’s community engagement unit.
“I think it’s one of the reasons our police department has been so successful,” he said. “They are out there engaging in the community. They are putting a lot of emphasis on that. They are solving crimes. They are making sure that we have a safe community. I cannot say enough good things about our police department and the men and women we have over there.”
WGLT reached out to the former police sergeant's attorney, Julie Galassi, and did not hear back by publication time.
