A Jeffersontown assistant police chief is suing three subordinates and three City Council members on a privacy issue.
Lt. Col. Peggy Emington said in the lawsuit filed yesterday in Jefferson Circuit Court that the defendants violated a state law requiring all complaints against police officers to be handled privately until they reach a conclusion.
Police dispatchers Brad Silveria and Dee Adkins and Officer Melvin Kindle filed a complaint at the end of October alleging mismanagement by Emington.
Since then, Kindle and Silveria have twice addressed the City Council to request hiring an independent party to investigate their allegations.
The lawsuit cited those appearances and said Silveria spoke to The Courier-Journal and WLKY Channel 32 about the complaint, further violating Emington's due process rights. Council members Bill Dieruf, Carol Pike and David Olshansky are also named as defendants in the suit.
At the council's Dec. 4 meeting, city attorney Fred Fischer suggested the council hire a mediator to handle the complaint against Emington. But Dieruf and Pike wanted to more time to consider how to handle the complaint and walked out of the meeting, telling the newspaper they did so to prevent the council from taking action. Olshansky said later he agreed with Dieruf and Pike.Thomas Clay, Emington's lawyer, said the comments to the newspaper and in the city meetings violate Emington's rights.
Dieruf said the three talked only about whether the council should hire a mediator, a matter of city business.
"It seems strange that they're suing the three of us," he said.
Olshansky said the complaint should have been handled by the police department or mayor in the first place. Pike declined to comment.
Silveria questioned Emington's decision "to file a lawsuit and put it out in the public even more" if she wanted the matter kept private.
Adkins said she thinks the confidentiality law applies to the city government, but not to those making the complaint. Kindle could not be reached.