NEWS FLASH! - Police EEOC director resigns amid scandal over bogus memo

Wednesday, 21 October 2009 14:16

By Stephen Janis

The director of the Baltimore Police Department’s EEOC division resigned today, amid allegations that falsified evidence was placed in the file of an African-American officer who had filed a discrimination complaint.

The resignation of Kim Johnson, the department’s EEOC director, comes after Investigative Voice first reported that a fake “95 report” -– an official interdepartmental memo -– was authored by a member of the department’s EEOC unit and placed in the file of an officer who had filed an EEOC complaint, only to be later suspended for his behavior at a recent police meeting.

"The Commissioner and Mrs. Johnson did have a discussion today and it was decided that she would leave the agency,” police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi wrote in an email. “At this point, I have no information regarding claims that Mrs. Johnson was terminated or fired by the Commissioner. It is my understanding that she has resigned," Guglielmi said.

Knowledgeable sources said Johnson admitted to writing the memo, and told police officials she had made what she described as several “errors.”

The fake memo was placed in the EEOC file of Lieutenant Therman Reed, who was suspended during a COMSTAT meeting last week for insubordination.

But Vanguard for Justice Society, an organization that represents African-American police officers, questioned the timing of Reed’s suspension, revealing that he had recently filed an EEOC complaint alleging he could not staff the K-9 unit he runs.

Late last week Investigative Voice obtained a copy of the fake 95 report placed in Reed’s EEOC file. The memo was addressed from Reed to Johnson, but his first name was misspelled and a fake phone number was listed at the end of the memo.

Reed did not author the memo, officials from the Vanguard said, a revelation that prompted an internal affairs investigation.

(EEOC is the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; COMSTAT is police shorthand for “computers and statistics.”)

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Comments (18)

She should be CRIMINALLY CHARGED. It is time that the State Prosecutors Office, or some other agency investigate what the hell is going on here. If it is determined that she did it on her own..STILL CHARGE HER. If she did this at the behest of another superior officer THEY ALL SHOULD BE CHARGED.fake watches

Blacks such as Dpt Commish Barksdale and Internal EEOC Director Kim Johnson was placed in their positions as Jus mentioned in his comment below to screen for the racist initiatives authorized by Upper Management (Bealefield). Then when Blacks are screwed they can say "this can't be discrimination because Barksdale and Johnson is black." With Barksdale selling out on his own people, this make the Black Officers stuck with no one to turn to in the BPD.

Interestingly, starting with Schaefer (sp) and continuing throught Dixon, all type of review panels and boards, that exist in most other cities (police board, fire commission, school board, water board, housing authority board) have been disempowered and or become home to mayoral loyalists who don't rock the boat....these goes to the core of our democracy being at risk here in Baltimore and something that has hurt our fair city......i imagine that empowered boards would be far more agressive then our admistrations have

There appear to be some problems with the shortage of available Baltimore Police K-9 officers on the City Streets of Baltimore. I know that the Lt of that unit works directly under the supervision of Colonel Paul Sheppard, and what is his involvement with this WHOLE complaint. EEOC Kim Johnson is now gone and it is only fair to include Col Paul Sheppard, Barksdale, and Bealefeld in ONE package deal, out the door with walking papers. Was Sheppard ordered by the higher ups to behave in such fashion??????????? he is also a piece to this puzzle.

I'd like to know the exact contents of the memo. What or who did the forged memo benefit? There is smoke on this one and where there is smoke, well you know the rest. Who benefits from the forged document will expose the reason for the forged document. If the "who" is who I think it may be, the why will be exposed, and not just Vanguard but EVERY honest cop out there must unite and call for a federal inquiry or a non-bias (state prosecutor) review. I don't want to jump to any conclusions so that's why the contents of that admin report need to
come out.

By the way, The Sun gave props to IV, way to go Stephen and staff!

Jerome my friend, it is the most dreaded three words in American Law Enforcement....Citizens Review Board

The caveat to my comments is that there are good cops who mean well, but as we have seen in a lot of other situations and occupations, bad apples do spoil the bunch.......what isn't said in any of these comments explictly, that a culture of corruption ingrained throughout the Baltimore City Police Department and most other departments. We are talking about a group of men and women assigned to make our city protected and safe, but we also trust that they won't abuse the signficant power and authority they are given as officers (they can cuff you, shoot you, arrest you, and beat you with little repurcussion). When a climate is created where the law itself is semi-lawless then we are in major trouble......how big of a leap is it to doctor overtime time cards to stealing cash or drugs off of suspect? What about using excessive force on the job and getting into domestic violence situations at home (Kevin Clarke)....the point is the way we are recruiting, selecting, and training officers is not working, this isn't just a Baltimore problem, but an American problem. How do we actually deal with that?

Trust me. Darryl Massey and friends at the Vanguard are no strangers to back door deals. It is the way it has always been done. Owens could not make a pimple on the ass of any decent Police Officer, she never could before..why would she now? This habit of dropping one charge to cover another has been going on forever. Why? Because all of these fringe political groups within the Department try to out-screw each other to gain ground for their members ( although its mostly for the leaders of these organizations to benefit ) If you say the Vanguards are wrong, you risk being labeled a racist, but find me one person who worked during that time who says Lou Hopson and his horse manure was anything but a concerted effort to cover up his own misdeads and I'll kiss your butt. Now He is some champion of Justice? Give me a break. Anyone out there remember when a Detective who had never even been a supervisor to one person was made Chief of Police for the Toll Fac. Police? Just because the organization that he was President of backed a winning candidate. NO POLICE organization, FOP, Vanguard, any..should ever publicly back a political candidate..it is just bad business..why do they do it? For the benefit of the upper officers of that organization. What is the real shame? The Police department is supposed to be serving the needs of the citizens of Baltimore..not the high rankers within and their sub-organizations. Politics in Baltimore makes Chicago look like Shang-Gri-La, and its the poor hardworking mutt on the street who suffers. BCPD will never change until they restructure everything with the premise that Preventing and Fighting crime is the MAIN JOB. Until then race, politics and greed will carry the day, and you the citizen will suffer, not me the retired guy..I got out while the getting was good. I did 25 plus years and believe me..the people of Baltimore deserve a better agency.

Ms. Johnson will not be charged because the states attorney office is working with Belefeale and Dixon, what a team.

if DP Owens is involved than she should be fired. Stop protecting some BPD officers and firing others. That's wrong. Shame on you DP Owens and shame on BPD.

root and quid pro quo
add these to the previous comment, it will help. One actually took me a few minutes to figure what was meant. I'll Bet your reports are fun to read "sick and tired".

Now the BPD have two African American female Directors fired (Joanne Woodson Branche and Kim Johnson) for taking orders from above, where do we go from here. But, lets get to the route of the problem. Deputy Commissioner Debbie Owens ran both of the Directors units and with Owens back door deals she was able to convince City Hall that the two Directors were the blame. It was Owens who made the quick pro co deal with Vanguard President Darryl Massey to get rid of of a high profile racial discrimination case involving three white officers in homicide. In return, Massey;s overtime theft case was allowed to be dumped and Branche was subsequently fired. The reason the BPD used to fire Branch was that she was back dating cases that was later proven to be not sustained by internal affairs. Then there was Kim Johnson who complained that Owens repeatley tried to run her unit to keep bad officers on the job. What will Owens do next?

why are the upper command allowed to do this kinda crap and just walk away ??? IV can you post the intire 95 report ?

She should not be allowed to resign. She should be CRIMINALLY CHARGED. It is time that the State Prosecutors Office, or some other agency investigate what the hell is going on here. If it is determined that she did it on her own..STILL CHARGE HER. If she did this at the behest of another superior officer THEY ALL SHOULD BE CHARGED. To allow this type of nonsense to continue, and the responsible party be allowed to resign, will only cause a continuation of the same old crap. The citizens of Baltimore should DEMAND a criminal investigation, and then hang anyone responsible ( figuratively of course ) Bealefeld was a top notch cop once, but if he has any knowledge of this..HE should go too. To forge a memo and try to hang any cop on its content ( wether a great cop or lousy one) is a real clue that the BCPD has gone completely NUTS. I could not be more ashamed.

IV strikes again!

The BPD should re-evaluate their scheme to use Blacks against Blacks. This scheme use to work, but now it sets off red flags by the EEOC Commision that saw it occur in the 1980s in the private industry. Blacks such as Dpt Commish Barksdale and Internal EEOC Director Kim Johnson was placed in their positions as Jus mentioned in his comment below to screen for the racist initiatives authorized by Upper Management (Bealefield). Then when Blacks are screwed they can say "this can't be discrimination because Barksdale and Johnson is black." With Barksdale selling out on his own people, this make the Black Officers stuck with no one to turn to in the BPD. This is an outdated practice that was prevalent in the 1980s and outdated BPD is still holding on to this old trick. I hope that Barksdale is NEXT!

Yet again the IV scoops the Sun....wonderful reporting and congrats on rooting out corruption in Baltimore City

Good to hear that Mrs Johnson owned up to the fake report and left with the liitle dignity she has left. The shame of it is that she isn't the only one that should lose her job. Mrs. Johnson was only carrying out the discriminatory mission of the current top Cops Barksdale (who's only black on the outside) and Belefeale. What a shame!