This column has been updated to say the June 2012 performance review of Sgt. Dan O’Neil was signed by Lt. Rick Hayes, but prepared by a different superviser.
There’s a song in the hit Broadway musical that does a fine job describing the ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Police Board’s decision this week to reinstate Lt. Patrick “Rick†Hayes to the police force as a demoted patrolman.
Hayes had been fired by former police chief Tim Fitch in 2013 after Hayes was accused by Sgt. Dan O’Neil and eight other officers of using racist language and targeting blacks for arrest at and around the South County Center.
“Everyone’s a little bit racist, sometimes†sing the puppet characters in Avenue Q.
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That’s the sentiment taxpayers are left with in trying to sift through the Hayes decision.
Apparently, the police board thought not to lead other police officers, but not so bad that he couldn’t be a cop anymore.
Like almost every decision since an anonymous county police officer who called himself “Lonewolf†first raised attention to the allegations against Hayes, this one is a head-scratcher.
So is this: The whistleblower in the case — Sgt. Dan O’Neil long ago outed himself as Lonewolf — is now seen by some as the scapegoat.
As the Post-Dispatch’s Christine Byers , the hearing officer who presided over a closed police board trial over Hayes’ firing, determined that O’Neil and the eight officers who testified that they heard Hayes make racist comments or direct officers to target blacks, were allegedly just disgruntled because Hayes was a disciplinarian sent to their South County precinct to clean things up.
“One hearing this testimony is left with the impression that B Platoon, for the most part, was run like a disorganized group of cub scouts under the direction of Sgt. Daniel O’Neil,†. At one point, he referred to O’Neil as the “Pied Piper of a sergeant,†implying that he was leading his platoon astray in early 2012 when Hayes was called in to clean things up.
But there’s a problem with that bit of revisionist history.
In mid-June, after Hayes had been on the job for a couple of months, he signed off on O’Neil’s glowing review.
O’Neil’s attorney, Jerome Dobson, sent me a copy of that review Wednesday, after reading Flynn’s comments about his client. O’Neil is suing the county, alleging that he has been retaliated against inappropriately by the county police department for being a whistleblower. The retaliation O’Neil alleges didn’t start until after it became public that he was “Lonewolf.†Until then, at least until June 2012, according to his evaluations, he was a model police officer.
Every category in O’Neil’s June 2012 performance evaluation was ranked “exceeds standard†or “superior,†the two highest categories.
“Sergeant O’Neil continues to arrive early for the upcoming shift and be informed and prepared,†the report says in the ‘strengths’ section. “He has recently been assigned many of the senior Sergeant responsibilities for the platoon and has worked hard to become knowledgeable in these areas of administration.â€
“Sergeant O’Neil is very helpful,†the report continued. “Sergeant O’Neil is well-liked by the officers of the platoon and district.â€
The report recommended a merit raise for O’Neil. It was signed off on by the precinct commander, Capt. James Schneider.
Neil Bruntrager, who is Hayes’ attorney, said the report was prepared by another officer and that Hayes signed it as a matter of protocol.
“It’s impossible to square the glowing report from Lt. Hayes and Capt. Schneider with the hearing officer’s report,†Dobson said. “They simply don’t coincide.â€
Indeed, such is the nature of this increasingly bizarre cop vs. cop case. Hayes and O’Neil are both suing the county. The hearing officer finds fault with the testimony of the nine officers who corroborated the allegations against Hayes, and he criticizes both the internal affairs investigation and Fitch. The police board seems to want to make it all go away by splitting the baby.
That’s unlikely to work.
If O’Neil’s case ever comes to trial, there are likely to be fireworks.
Before he ever made the allegations against Hayes, O’Neil reviewed racial profiling and arrest records in the precinct, Dobson said. “Those records confirmed that at least two officers were engaged in arrest patterns that were consistent with Lt. Hayes’ directions,†he said.
The department has denied any officers ever followed Hayes’ directions to target blacks.
So where are we today? Hayes has his job back, but is demoted because he’s a little bit racist.
A hearing officer who held a secret trial believes nine county police officers could be willing to lie to internal affairs and put their jobs on the line. The former police chief stands by his firing of Hayes, but says nobody listened to Hayes’ orders. The new police chief said that none of this has anything to do with him, but by goodness he’s going to look into it. The whistleblower is now the scapegoat, even though the paper trail says he was doing a great job.
About the only thing that’s clear is this: Everyone lies a little bit, sometimes.