Steve Mensing, Editor
♦When Ex Salisbury Policeman Kenny Lane, a twenty-two year veteran of the force, was terminated from the Salisbury Police Department for refusing to be TASERed, I was deluged with emails and phone calls from folks living throughout Salisbury and the county. They were shocked about Kenny’s surprising end with the SPD. Many knew Kenny from the community and had difficulty believing it happened. The outcry grew even more vehement after a story appeared about him in the city’s other paper. ”He’s a good guy – one solid cop,” said Rodney Cress, well known in veteran circles and former sheriff’s department employee. Policemen, sheriffs, businessmen – people from all over the county rushed to his defense. “Something’s haywire in Salisbury. You don’t let a guy of his caliber go like that. Kenny’s a solid sender – a straight arrow. Everybody knows he was done wrong.”
To a person, the very strong message was this: Kenny Lane was an outstanding cop, an all around good guy who got the rawest of deals. People we asked said he was a stand up guy – a cop’s cop. In the town’s other news, media cast Kenny in a very negative light. Not unexpected in a paper long known to spin just about anything the city government does in a positive light. The city could execute Santa Claus, and many are certain the city’s over-the-top supportive paper would print something about the dark side of Santa.
In recent weeks, stories were flying around the city about peculiar “resignations” and terminations of long time city employees. This raised our periscopes. I wanted to meet Kenny Lane and let him tell his side of the story. Two friends put me in touch.
Steve Mensing: Kenny, glad you could make it. Scoot up a chair. Readers want to know all about you.
Kenny Lane: I’m glad for the opportunity.
Steve Mensing: Tell us about growing up here and becoming a policeman.
Kenny Lane: I’m from right here in Rowan. Attended East Rowan High and UNC-Charlotte. After graduating college with a B.A in criminal justice, I started working at the Salisbury Police Department in 1990. Worked as a patrol officer, crime scene investigator and worked as the SRO at the alternative school. Twenty-two years with the Salisbury Police Department. I want to continue my career in law enforcement. I have several ideas of what I’d like to do, but haven’t settled on which one.
Steve Mensing: It must be tough suddenly falling into a vacuum after twenty-two years as a cop.
Kenny Lane: Yes it is. Very much so. I was pretty stunned by the way things played out.
Steve Mensing: Before we get to the specifics of your termination, what are your thoughts about the city’s motives for terminating you?
Kenny Lane: Motives? They believed it was easier to fire me than to correct departmental problems. My firing would also prevent anyone else from coming forward. My termination fits the city’s pattern of firing senior employees, which developed since Fibrant created a major financial crisis. These “cost-cutting” measures usually prove more expensive in the long run with police departments because of the time lost on training and liability issues arising from inexperienced officers without guidance and leadership from experienced officers. I assume this trend holds true for most other city departments.
Steve Mensing: I saw the Fibrant crisis in the budget and heard many city employees speak about the depth of it. Fibrant was dead in the water by June 2011, with their certificate of participation millions spent. The city tried to cover it up and scooped out millions from its reserve funds. The avalanche came fast. The city led the public to believe Fibrant was a success. The first signups were basically city workers and some beta-tester friends. Several hundred of them. Then the glowing reports. City employees were already telling us about being “urged” to subscribe.
Kenny Lane: Most everybody who worked in the city saw the Fibrant disaster coming. The people who ran Fibrant didn’t know what they were doing.
Steve Mensing: What about the specifics of your dismissal. What happened?
Kenny Lane: I was terminated for insubordination, truthfulness, and violation of Garrity (a question). Through the appeals process, this changed as Chief Collins and Ruth Kennerly dropped the “truthfulness” and substituted “failure to participate in training”. Then City Manager Doug Paris finally responded to the appeal (four months after initial termination, which is far outside the city policy’s mandated time for him to respond). He listed insubordination, truthfulness, and added an additional item after the termination process that I was never advised of or allowed to question or comment on. These included an allegation of an unknown co-worker advising them I had called a supervisor “stupid bitch” without providing any detail as to who made this allegation or when/where it was supposed to have occurred.
Mr. Paris stated I was insubordinate on August 15, 2012, but Sgt. Mahaley never wrote this incident up. No allegations of “insubordination” were even brought up until after I wrote a memo on Sept. 5 concerning the incident [A copy provided to RFP can be found by clicking here]. I was polygraphed on this memo and have provided a copy of the results to you [Click here to view Lane's polygraph documentation]. I was never advised of any investigation as required by policy. I was denied any opportunity to ask questions of anyone or witnesses I listed. They were not interviewed until after I was terminated.
Mr. Paris lists an incident on July 2011 for insubordination and states it is “specific and clear” on the reasons for suspension. I provided you a copy of this [The copy of this document can be seen by clicking here]. It states I made comments that were disrespectful and unbecoming without any date or what the comments supposedly were. All attempts for clarification were ignored. It states I didn’t help Detective Curry with “specific tasks associated with the crime lab”. It does not list the “specific tasks or dates? I believe it was when Det. Curry asked for assistance with learning to use the SPEX system (fingerprints), but it is not specified. I was unable to help for two reasons when she asked. First, I was performing another job, as directed by the chief. Second, I did not receive all the training myself as Captain Lingle arranged the training during a week we were not available for the entire block of training – despite repeatedly being advised of this scheduling conflict. Det. Curry is also not in my chain of command, and the policy for insubordination specifically refers to refusal to follow a lawful order from a supervisor. Chief Collins refused to answer any questions on this and refused to hear an appeal. I was never advised of anything on this investigation until the disciplinary report was given to me. I have no idea what the “clear and specific” actions were that Mr Paris claims and challenge him to explain what part of this paperwork is in anyway clear or specific. Instead, Mr. Paris and Mr. Kyle repeatedly claim I signed the paperwork and that means I agree despite explaining to them refusal to sign as a receipt is insubordination and will not give any answer on why policy was not followed or why to this date specific accusations cannot be made.
Steve Mensing: No doubt you sensed where this was headed.
Kenny Lane: It was incredible. Mr Paris stated Mr Kennerly said he did not make the statements about excessive force listed in the Sept 5, 2012 memo. However, Mr. David Shelby, my attorney, spoke with him and he stated he was unable to remember if he had done so. I recorded my meeting with Mr Paris, and during this meeting Mr Kyle stated they could not determine if the statements were true or not. I listed several retired officers familiar with the memo and also Mr William Peoples who saw the memo, but the city has steadfastly refused to even speak with them about it.
Steve Mensing: What about the TASER training? Tell us about it.
Kenny Lane: During the course of the interviews, I repeatedly pointed out we were told until the day of the incident the TASER shock was voluntary. On the day we went into the training, Sgt. Mahaley changed this to all patrol officers would be shocked although Admin did not have to be shocked to be issued a TASER. Obviously, believing it was voluntary who would seek a doctor’s note as they weren’t required to be shocked? TASER does not require shocking to be certified, and this was Sgt. Mahaley’s choice. The company does not even require a TASER instructor to be shocked. TASER has been listed on over 300 medical examinations as cause of death; the company’s own manual states it is not risk free and lists the “dry shock” as having only pain compliance value. It makes no sense to take this risk for pain compliance purposes only. There have been a large number of injuries during properly administered training that include a permanent disability from spinal injury. This was done following the established method advised by TASER; this established method was not followed during the class at the PD – where officers were shocked without spotters. Mr. Kyle stated I was not an instructor and had no right questioning the safety, but the TASER manual clearly states all participants are safety officers, and training can be stopped at any time when concerns are noted. Obviously, our training was not conducted within their listed guidelines, and the company’s own manual states all involved have the responsibility to point this out.
I should mention this: At the end of March, about three weeks after finally making decision on my termination, the Post ran the story of Mahaley being terminated for a “training” incident where he got into altercation with a minority officer. Like they’d been previously warned about. Makes you wonder.
Steve Mensing: What about the Garrity question? That had some weight in this.
Kenny Lane: The city has repeatedly stated I violated Garrity by failing to answer a question by Ruth Kennerly. Garrity rights are to protect employees from being compelled to incriminate themselves during investigatory interviews conducted by their department. The city has steadfastly refused to state what criminal conduct I have been accused of and will not answer any questions, including during the interview with Ms. Kennerly. The Garrity rights were given to me on October 12, 2012 by Lt. Wilsey and not the professional standards Lt. (Efird), who is the intermal affairs investigator. I never spoke to him concerning any of this incident. The interview in question was not conducted until October 16, 2012, and then it was conducted by Ms. Kennerly – despite the city policy which states the process is conducted by your department and can be appealled to Human Resources. The city has an established history of misunderstanding Garrity and released a Garrity statement made by Lt. Armour when he was charged with assault by Mr. Scott Teamer. Obviously, the city is unfamiliar with Garrity and refused to clear up the matter when requested.
Steve Mensing: What’s going on with the city’s pattern of dismissals? For weeks now I’ve I heard about heads rolling in mysterious ways, former employees receiving large settlements.
Kenny Lane: Since the city’s decision to enter into Fibrant and its widely known failure, contract employee raises have stopped and disciplinary decisions appear to be made directed at eliminating older employees in effort to not pay retirement benefits and higher salaries. An example of this is the decision to terminate Officer Hodgson when he forgot evidence and left it in his car. It was found in the vehicle several weeks later, and he was terminated; Sgt. Mahaley had a gun turned over by the court system in his vehicle, loaded, and forgot it. The vehicle was sent to the prison for painting at the work program there and was located by a prisoner, loaded and without any of the evidence tags. Sgt. Mahaley was promoted to sergeant a few months later (He was a detective at that time). PD policy states no promotions within one year of a write-up; either Chief Collins did not write him up at all or it was waived to allow the promotion – while Officer Hodgson was terminated.
Steve Mensing: I understand the city withheld some money due you?
Kenny Lane: The city has refused to pay my annual leave despite policy stating they pay your annual leave (523 V.E. 1 ). The city instead made a policy [Click here to view a copy of the policy change statement] that they can keep your money. They did not do this to Sgt Mahaley, who received a separation and payment for his leave time.
Steve Mensing: What was your experience with Salisbury’s media?
Kenny Lane: I provided the copies I provided to you to the other local media. They did not appear to investigate any points I made or make use of the copies for their readership. They reported the incident only after WSOC contacted me and ran a story on it. When the appeal was finally decided by Mr. Paris, I was not contacted by the city until after the local media called me asking for a comment. I advised them I had not seen the decision and the response was listed as “no comment”. This was inaccurate. I had not seen response and did not until after the story was run that morning in the media. This is the norm for incidents regarding the city. Reports about the city are presented in the best light or stories are not run at all.
Steve Mensing: A number of policies appear to have been violated in the information you provided. What were they?
Kenny Lane: For starters: Internal affairs policy (506 V A 7) requires written statement of allegations. I have never received such. Policy (506 V A 8) allows for polygraph by outside investigation and policy (506 V A 7 a) directs professional standards lieutenant investigate allegations or refer to SBI on serious criminal, the professional standards lieutenant was never involved and to my knowledge seldom works any complaint. Policy (506 V C 1) states supervisory investigations are incidents or complaints of a minor nature, but Lt Wilsey was who directed me to speak with Ruth Kennerly and gave me the Garrity rights (provided). Part of this investigation was also conducted by Deputy Chief Steve Whitley, but I could not receive any answer as to why this would be divided. Policy (506 V D 2) allows legal representatives in any interview, but this is ignored and representation refused. Policy (506 V D 3 b) states members may request breath, urine, psychologial, polygraph or medical assistance to their defense, but this was refused and the provided polygraph was done at my expense. Policy (506 V D 4 a) states prior to internal investigation members will be provided written notification of the complaint to include a copy of the original complaint or summary listing relevant facts and members responsibilities during investigation. This was never done. I was written up and given the paperwork and ordered to sign it without any notice. To my knowledge, this provision was never followed in any incident. Policy (506 V D 4 e) states members will be provided an opportunity to explain their actions to the professional standards lieutenant prior to imposition of any discipline. Again, this was never followed, and I was told I could not ask questions.
Steve Mensing: You supplied all the paper work. We’ll post it for folks to see. (All documents submitted to RFP by Kenny Lane can be accessed and viewed by clicking here)
I’m curious. There are a few questions I have about crime here in Salisbury. Several local attorneys have told me Salisbury stands near the top of the per capita violent crime rates in the state. I’ve heard it’s awfully high.
Kenny Lane: If you visit the per capita rates of violent crime for the state, Salisbury always has one of the highest rates. Obviously with its higher violent crime rate, the less safe Salisbury is.
Steve Mensing: How about police response time? How is that throughout the city?
Kenny Lane: The busier patrol zones usually have a slower response because they have the same number of assigned officers as the slower zones. When the primary officer is busy, which is more frequent in busier areas, the response is pulled from another area causing longer response for the drive time. Also, non-priority calls that don’t divert another officer will pend longer as the zone officer will be tied up longer. We also normally work at minimum staffing and sometimes below, which further complicates meeting calls in a timely manner.
Steve Mensing: Really appreciate you taking the time for this interview. I hope you get justice and get back to work somewhere in police work.
Kenny Lane: Thanks, Steve. It’s been a pleasure.
To view Kenny Lane’s documentation:
All documents are found in the folder you can access by clicking here.
Lane’s initial write up, appeal, and the City’s denial of appeal can be accessed by clicking here.
Responses to the appeals can be accessed by clicking here.
Documentation on pay that was withheld from Kenny Lane can be accessed by clicking here.
Polygraph documentation can be accessed by clicking here.
Documents on termination can be accessed by clicking here.
Kenny Lane’s appeal of termination can be accessed by clicking here.
