Female cop demotion is upheld

Cathy Scott

Wednesday, March 25, 1998 | 9:43 a.m.

The Civil Service Board has upheld the demotion by Metro Police of a female officer from lieutenant to sergeant after claims that a male subordinate was retaliated against for filing a complaint against her.

At the end of a 13-hour hearing Tuesday that lasted past midnight, the five-member Civil Service Board voted 4-1 to not give Debra Gauthier back her lieutenant's bars. Chairman Elgin Simpson cast the dissenting vote.

Gauthier had appealed to the Civil Service Board her July demotion by Metro's Diversity and Equality Board.

It was the fourth day of hearings that began in December and were continued three times. Also, the board included in its vote not to promote Gauthier to captain. Gauthier last year place No. 1 on the captain's list for promotion. In January, Metro promoted the No. 2 and No. 3 candidates, bypassing Gauthier pending the outcome of her hearing.

Earlier in the hearing, Undersheriff Richard Winget painted a picture of a vengeful, 17-year veteran out to get her subordinate. He said the department had been "more than fair" in its treatment toward Gauthier. When pressed by Gauthier's attorney, Tom Beatty, Winget said he didn't believe there was any disciplinary documentation to support those allegations.

He said that witnesses "repeated what people supposedly saw or heard or concluded. They don't have any personal knowledge of this."

Beatty said there was no documentation to support the negative testimony, which he called hearsay. Testimony included alleged incidents based on memories of witnesses dating back to when Gauthier was a patrol officer. Beatty protested but Simpson allowed the testimony into the record.

Winget said Sgt. Chuck Jones, who covertly tape-recorded Gauthier and admitted under oath before the board that he lied to the department about the tapings, was "ingenious" in "surreptitiously tape recording" her. Jones has not been reprimanded for that behavior, officials said.

Five days after Gauthier's demotion, Winget implemented a new department policy, effective Sept. 18, that banned covert taping without his direct permission.

Norma Phillips, a board member, said after the hearing that she didn't take much stock in Jones' tapes.

"I gave no credence whatsoever to the tapes," Phillips said. "What I gave credence to was that it was a cry for help by Chuck Jones from retaliation by a supervisor."

Phillips added that she believed the conflict was both Jones' and Gauthier's fault -- a personality conflict. But, she said, Gauthier "was the supervisor. She should have taken responsibility."