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| NEWS > 21 February 2007 |
Other related articles:
Top officer's retirement 'wron
The decision to allow a chief constable to retire before an inquiry into his misconduct has been strongly attacked.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has upheld claims that Terry Grange misused e-mails and a credit card when head of Dyfed-Powys Police.
Welsh Assembly Members Alun Davies and Helen Mary Jones said it was "wholly wrong" for him to go "scot-free" and Kirsty Williams called it a "disgrace".
But MP Lembit Opik said Mr Grange had "suffered enough".
The married police chief retired suddenly last November
The Crown Prosecutio... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Chippewa Herald - Chippewa Fal
21 February 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Bloomer police officer fired
Bloomer police officer Chris King has an eight-day-old baby. He also just moved into a house he built within the Bloomer School District, as required of city employees by local ordinance.
And now he’s without a job.
Acting Bloomer Police Chief Randy Summerfield — who is Bloomer’s mayor — called King into the police department Tuesday afternoon and summarily fired him.
Summerfield read from a prepared letter that did not spell out a reason for the termination, King said.
“This is just about as devastating as it can get,” King said Tuesday afternoon, shortly after losing his job. “I’ve got a brand new baby, a brand new house, and no way to pay for it.“
Because King was terminated a few days short of the end of his year-long probationary period, he has no recourse under state statutes to appeal the firing.
King said he had a spotless employment record until a Jan. 14, 2007 incident involving Bloomer’s police chief, Michael Bungartz.
King, who was on-duty that day, responded to a call of a restraining order violation at a Bloomer bar. What happened afterwards resulted in four charges filed against Bungartz by the Chippewa County District Attorney’s office. It alleges that the off-duty Bungartz, who was attending a graduation party at the bar, inappropriately interfered with efforts by King and county Sheriff’s Deputy Nick Gardow to handle the matter.
After charges were filed, Bungartz voluntarily accepted a paid leave. Following city procedure, Summerfield stepped in as acting police chief in Bungartz’ absence to handle administrative matters.
Facing a ticking clock, Summerfield made the decision to terminate King.
On Tuesday, King said Summerfield told him to report to the Bloomer Police Department at 2:30 p.m. King brought with him Officer Jared Zwiefelhofer, president of the police union, Officer Mark McElroy, secretary of the union, and Officer Larry Szura as a witness. McElroy and Szura were off duty, and Summerfield was the only one present representing the city, said King.
“He just read through the letter that had been typed up, and at the end of it, said I was terminated,” said King.
The letter did not specifically refer to the incident involving Chief Bungartz, said King.
However the incident hangs over King’s firing like a cloud. During the incident, Bungartz allegedly made statements to King threatening his job status.
In the restraining order incident, Bungartz did not want King to take into custody a woman who was reportedly in violation of a restraining order.
According to law enforcement reports, King, feeling a conflict between what he felt Bungartz was ordering him to do and what he felt was his duty, asked Gardow to take over handling of the incident.
Gardow then arrested the woman over Bungartz’s strenuous objections.
The criminal complaint filed against Bungartz by District Attorney Jon Theisen states that King was in a mandatory arrest situation and was in fact under court order to arrest the woman in that situation.
According to Gardow’s report on the incident, Bungartz told King to “remember who he works for” and said if King ever made an arrest like that he would fire him from the department and make sure he did not work in Bloomer.
The termination may be the end of the line for the rookie police officer.
King graduated from Chippewa Falls Sr. High School, then earned a four-year bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He later attended the Chippewa Valley Technical College to get his certification as a Wisconsin law enforcement officer.
He began his career working part time in Bloomer as a police officer in 2005. After eight or nine months, he was hired as a full time officer on Feb. 23, 2006. If King had made it to Feb. 23, 2007, he could not have been terminated without receiving special protections from Wisconsin Statute 62.13.
Since he fell three days short of completing the probationary period, he could be fired without showing cause.
“Since I am a probationary employee, I have no access to the grievance procedure for termination,” said King. “I have no recourse.”
What makes this particularly difficult, said King, is his unblemished work record prior to the Bungartz incident.
“I’ve never been addressed for any type of problem with me,” he said. “I just have no idea how this can happen.”
Asked if he would change anything he did while attempting to enforce the restraining order back in January, King replied “absolutely not.”
“I believe I have done nothing wrong. I just can’t emphasize enough that this is wrong. I love my job. I believe I treat people fairly. That is a signed court order telling me to do something, and when I was interfered with, I believe I did the right thing in forwarding it over to the deputy who was with me.”
"I would thank the people who have supported me through this time in my life. I wish I could have my job back, but it’s not up to me.”
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