By Dash Coleman
A Savannah-Chatham police
officer whose alleged affair with the department’s former chief was the subject
of a sexual harassment complaint filed against the chief and a captain in the
department was suspended Friday prior to dismissal.
City spokesman Bret Bell said
Trina Mayes was suspended for violations of the department’s general standards
of conduct.
A notice of suspension provided
by the city cited lack of truthfulness in two undefined incidents and
associating with criminals as explanation of violations.
Her attorney on Friday night
said the disciplinary action was taken over something that was investigated and
cleared in 2007.
Bell said Mayes has the right
to appeal. If her appeal is not sustained, she will be fired.
Mayes’ husband, metro police
Sgt. LaPrentice Mayes, on Sept. 20 complained to city human resources officials
that Trina Mayes revealed to him that she had an affair with former police
Chief Willie Lovett and that police Capt. Cedric Phillips helped bring it
about, according to previous stories in the Savannah Morning News.
(Trina) Mayes “said they had an
affair numerous times and once we got back together (Lovett) became upset and
wanted her to leave me,” LaPrentice’s complaint stated.
“Once my wife refused to
divorce me, (Lovett) then started punishing her and me about her decision.”
Lovett retired abruptly Sept.
27 after city officials revealed a metro police officer had filed sexual
harassment allegations against him and that a law firm was investigating those
allegations.
After LaPrentice Mayes’
complaint, an attorney for Trina Mayes sent a notice known as an ante litem
letter to city and county officials concerning alleged injuries she suffered as
the result of conduct by Lovett, police and government officials.
Included in that conduct was
“harassment, sexual and otherwise, failure to promote because of gender, including
refusal of sexual advances, defamation ... (and) placing Ms. Mayes in a false
and negative light.”
Such letters are required
before someone can sue a governmental agency.
The Mayes’ attorney, Will
Claiborne, also filed an ante litem letter to include LaPrentice Mayes.
Phillips was placed on paid
administrative leave Oct. 3.
“To fire a woman who had the
strength to come forward is truly despicable,” Claiborne said Friday night,
calling the act retaliation.
Trina Mayes joined the force in
April 2006.
She was given a medal of merit
on Nov. 25 by Interim Police Chief Julie Tolbert for her role in the events May
17, 2012, that led to a standoff at the Olde Pink House.
She was suspended without pay
for a day in January 2010 after getting in a confrontation at Gould Elementary
with another officer who had allegedly texted her husband, internal
disciplinary action records show.
In 2012, both she and
LaPrentice Mayes were involved in a domestic violence incident that turned
physical, resulting in both of them being suspended for two days and being
ordered to attend counseling and/or the city’s EAP, a human resources
employment assistance program, according to previous stories.
LaPrentice Mayes, who joined
the Savannah police force in January 1996, returned to duty last week after
being placed on administrative leave in December. He was placed on leave with
pay Dec. 20, but a department spokesperson did not say why because it involved
personnel actions
Sheriff reacts to arrest of
school officer
Investigators arrested a
Balfour Education Center school resource officer on three felony charges of
having sex with a 16-year-old student after the Sheriff's Department received
allegations of inappropriate conduct, the Henderson County Sheriff's Department
said in a news release.
Deputy Daniel Lindsey, 27, was
arrested without incident shortly after midnight at his residence in Mountain
Home. Lindsey was charged with three felony counts of Sex Offense With a
Student. Arrest warrants charged that Lindsey had intercourse with a female who
was a student at Balfour two times in October and once in December.
The Sheriff's Office learned of
the allegations shortly after 5 p.m. on Friday.
“Unfortunately, the preliminary
investigation quickly revealed evidence supporting probable cause to obtain
warrants for the arrest of Deputy Daniel Lindsey, a school resource officer at
the Balfour Education," the sheriff said during a 13-minute news
conference at the Law Enforcement Center.
“Once we started with the
investigation, things rolled around pretty quickly,” he said. “Once we saw
certain evidence I felt like time was of the essence and we continued around
the clock. Most of the officers finished about 6 o’clock this morning.”
McDonald, who has given news
conferences infrequently, reacted quickly to the public relations side of the
story in the context ot a sheriff's race that is starting to heat up and his
own characterization of his administration as one of reform, professional
standards and integrity. Even with personnel safeguards in place, he said,
misconduct can occur.
“At 12:45 a.m. I terminated Mr.
Lindsey from the position of deputy sheriff and from employment by the
Henderson County sheriff’s office,” he said.
Deputies arrested the fellow
officer and transported him to the sheriff’s office, where they served him with
three felony warrants.
Investigators are unaware of
any contact the SRO had with any other Balfour students, he said. The sexual
offense did not occur on the campus, he said.
Asked whether the sexual
intercourse was consensual, McDonald said, “Yes, but in the situation where you
have office or somebody in a custodial situation like that that has no bearing
on the case. In fact that particular statute was put in place to help prevent
situations like that — teacher-student, law enforcement officer, any custodial
official.”
A native of Asheville, Lindsey
had been with the department since 2008. He was also a DARE officer. McDonald
said the sheriff's office will assign a deputy to work at Balfour school on
Tuesday.
The investigation is
continuing.
“I do not doubt that there may
be some other charges but I suspect those will relate to the same victim,” he
said.
The sheriff said the department
has safeguards in place for hiring officers.
“We do extremely thorough
checks. Not to pass the buck. This was an officer who had worked here before
(McDonald became sheriff),” he said. “Had no reason that I’m aware of to doubt
his competence to be a school resource officer. At this point in time all of
our background checks yield about an 83 percent washout rate just hiring
deputies in general. But certainly this is a very sensitive position — any law
enforcement officer but particularly those that are for the welfare of
students."
Deputies transported Lindsey to
the Transylvania County jail, where he was booked under $45,000 bond. He bonded
out Saturday morning, the sheriff said.
“It keeps things above board as
far as the community," he said when asked about jailing Lindsey in
Brevard. "It also keeps us from putting other officers who have worked
with this officer in a situation where they don’t really need to be in having
to keep in custody somebody that worked with."
McDonald said he considered
calling in the SBI but wanted to move quickly and decided against that. He
stayed in contact with District Attorney Greg Newman about the situation, he
said.
“Certainly nothing’s
foolproof,” he said when asked how the arrest squares with his focus on
professional standards and tough background checks that reject 83 percent of
job applicants. “As I said today most of the officers working for me were
working here when I got here. However, I can tell you with great confidence,
the integrity of this department certainly is intact,” he said. “We do a lot
now as we hire. Certainly one of the hallmarks is our dedication to the oath of
office, to integrity, to the badge and honor. Truly we’re all sickened by this.
We work so hard and we’ll continue to work hard to keep the public’s trust.
It’s in everything we do, it’s in our training.”
He said the department would
review SRO standards to see if anything needs to change.
“We’re going to go back and
look at it,” he said. “We can ever go through something like this and say
there’s nothing to be learned or changed. I feel good about the oversight we
have with SROs but they are out there by themselves, at times. We do have
supervision for them. We’ve got training. Obviously we’ve got policies.”
