Fear and loathing in Darien
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An investigation into events at the Darien Village Hall now involves the Walworth County Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney.
DARIEN — It took village employees only a few seconds to discover that the cable sticking from the potted plant in the Darien Police Department lobby was attached to a surveillance camera.
It took them a few minutes more to find the second camera.
Weeks later, local and county officials—and their attorneys—still are hot on that cable's trail.
After employees discovered the video cameras Dec. 1, village President Bob Metzner immediately placed Chief Steve DeVoy on paid administrative leave.
Six weeks later, DeVoy still is not working, and he has hired an attorney to help him get reinstated.
DeVoy's paid suspension came after months of increasing tension in the village.
Things got so heated between Metzner and residents at a Dec. 1 board meeting—shortly after the cameras were found—that sheriff's deputies were called to keep the peace.
Metzner has since been investigated and cleared of allegations that he tried to defraud the village's insurance company for flood damage.
County officials have been bombarded with complaints and open records requests involving the village.
Is this normal behavior months before a municipal election?
Walworth County District Attorney Phil Koss suspects that's the case.
"In these political cases, sides are quickly chosen," Koss said.
Or does the bickering have a deeper history among officials in the village?
Finding the cameras
Late in the afternoon of Dec. 1, police and court secretary Peggy Moran found a camera in a plant in the police department lobby.
Then-village Clerk Connie Machi called municipal attorney Mark Hazelbaker, who advised her to pack the camera in a box and mark it "evidence."
Village Administrator Marc Dennison, who was working his first day on the job, followed the cables to a second camera in a plant on the credenza in DeVoy's office, said Machi, who has since retired. It looked like it was aimed at the chief's door, she said.
Machi called Hazelbaker back at 5:05 p.m. and told him about the second camera.
Hazelbaker told her to have the door to DeVoy's office sealed. In a pinch, public works Director Greg Epping used plywood, Machi said.
Metzner was called to join the small group of employees at village hall. Village attorney David Danz instructed them to keep the matter quiet because there was no place or time to inform board members of what was going on, Machi said.
When DeVoy got to village hall for a previously scheduled village board meeting, Metzner handed him a letter stating he was suspended with pay, Machi said.
The letter stated that the matter of the cameras was of grave concern because they were installed without the village board's or Danz's knowledge.
During the meeting, which included time for public comment about the proposed 2009 budget, residents demanded to know what happened to DeVoy, said Evelyn Etten, who is running against Metzner for village president in April.
Metzner refused to talk at the meeting about why the chief's door was boarded or what was happening with the chief's position, Etten said.
During the meeting, two people called 911, and sheriff's deputies came to the village hall to keep the peace until the meeting was over, according to sheriff's office reports.
When asked by the Gazette, Hazelbaker said Metzner was acting in an emergency capacity on the village board's behalf when he put DeVoy on leave. The village board unanimously upheld Metzner's decision at a board meeting 24 hours later, Machi said.
The chief's leave
The village has asked Hazelbaker and Danz to investigate the legality of the cameras installed in the police department, Metzner said. Until the village knows if it could be liable for potentially illegal activity, officials cannot share details, he said.
And DeVoy needs to remain on leave until the investigation is done, Hazelbaker said.
DeVoy said he had to read the newspaper to find out why he was suspended.
As of Tuesday, village officials had yet to explain it to him, he said.
DeVoy has worked at the Darien Police Department for more than 20 years and has been chief since 2003.
Koss said the sheriff's office installed the cameras at DeVoy's request. But it's not clear why DeVoy wanted the sheriff's office to conduct an investigation in the Darien Police Department. Koss said deputies did not need a warrant to install the cameras because it was understood that DeVoy had authority to monitor his own department.
The sheriff's office brought Koss in to review the results of the investigation into what the cameras recorded.
But Koss said nobody has asked him to look into the legality of the cameras.
"I don't see that as a crime," Koss said. "Nobody asked me to look at anybody criminally."
But Hazelbaker said he isn't so sure.
Cameras in public places are common and can be legal, Hazelbaker said. Depending on the situation, however, cameras could violate someone's rights, and a warrant would be necessary for their installation, he said.
"If you (an employee or member of the public) have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and the purpose of surveillance is to investigate a wrongdoing or crime, the Fourth Amendment says you need a warrant unless there are exigent circumstances or an emergency," Hazelbaker said.
Whatever the case, DeVoy's leave is not a punishment, Hazelbaker said. Removing DeVoy is necessary to keep the investigation neutral, he said.
Camera installation
Separate from the village's investigation of the legality of the cameras is the sheriff's office's investigation of what the cameras recorded.
It is not clear why DeVoy asked the sheriff's office to install the cameras. The chief might have had concerns that people were illegally accessing police documents, Koss said.
The sheriff's office last week closed its investigation of what the cameras recorded and forwarded the reports to Koss, but Koss last week instructed an assistant district attorney to send the report back for more detailed information. Therefore, the investigation still is open, and the records are not available to the public, Koss said.
The report names the village board as the subject of the investigation, but the law requires individual names listed for charges, Koss said.
"I can't charge a whole board," Koss said.
"The sergeant thing"
Months before the cameras were found in the police department, tension between the chief and village president was rising.
Neither Metzner nor DeVoy would talk about the history of their relationship, but village board member Kurt Zipp said Metzner and DeVoy used to be "bosom buddies."
Things went downhill fast, Zipp said, when the village board in June promoted officer Mike Maltese to sergeant against the chief's wishes.
"All this started after the sergeant thing," Zipp said.
An ad hoc committee interviewed Maltese and two other full-time department employees for the sergeant position, said Zipp, who was on the committee with representatives of local police departments.
The village did not take minutes during the interviews. No one was able to produce for the Gazette a list of committee members or the results of the interviews.
Machi and Metzner said Maltese had the highest score in the interviews.
Based on the scores and Maltese's previous management experience, the village board chose to promote him, Zipp said.
But Maltese wasn't DeVoy's choice for sergeant, many village officials have said.
"From an outsider looking in, the chief was not happy with Maltese as the choice," Zipp said.
Maltese was the police chief in the village of Albany until 1998 when he resigned because he was frustrated with "local petty politics," according to a Wisconsin State Journal report.
At the time, he was offered his former job in Orfordville.
Most recently, he left a part-time position in Evansville on good terms, Chief Scott McElroy said.
A flood of tension
As the summer wore on, the frustration that became obvious when Maltese was promoted only seemed to get worse.
Then the rain came, and several village buildings, including village hall and the police department, sustained water damage. DeVoy and Metzner disagreed on the extent and the cause of the damage, according to a letter written to the village board by DeVoy's former attorney, Steve Harvey.
In October, DeVoy filed a complaint with the sheriff's office, saying Metzner had attempted to defraud the village's insurance company and the Federal Emergency Management Agency over the damage, according to sheriff's office records.
After the complaints were filed, Metzner used his authority to harass DeVoy, according to Harvey's letter. Metzner made numerous requests for police documents and asked more than once for copies of DeVoy's medical slips, the letter states.
The sheriff's office forwarded the case to Koss. In December, Koss said he found no evidence of fraud and no basis for criminal charges.
Tension clicked up another notch when DeVoy banned "ride-alongs" with police officers. Metzner commonly rode with officers, and Metzner's "erratic" behavior was one reason DeVoy stopped the practice, the letter states.
DeVoy soon wrote a memo stating that village board members were not allowed in certain areas of the police department or the police garage, Machi said.
"Bob (Metzner) enjoys police work," Zipp said. "He would do ride-alongs with different guys, even during the process of picking sergeant. The chief was fine with that."
After the sergeant's selection, nobody could ride with officers, and village board members were not allowed in police work areas without DeVoy's permission, Zipp said.
In November, village board members met in closed session to discuss DeVoy's restrictions. But before the board settled on a response, employees found the cameras.
What's next
Residents and board members could learn more about the cameras—and the future of the police department—Monday night.
Hazelbaker and Danz might be ready to present the results of their investigation, Dennison said.
At the same time, an ad hoc committee will present a draft referendum question that could end up on the ballot in April.
The committee will suggest that the board ask residents if they want the Darien Police Department to keep providing 24-hour coverage in the village, Zipp said.
It's not a matter of ending police protection but of determining whether residents want village police or sheriff's deputies to provide the service, Zipp said.
If residents don't feel strongly that the village's police provide protection, that could give the village options when it is cutting the budget, Zipp said.
The village budgeted $540,000 for police protection in 2009, Dennison said. Total operating expenses for the village are budgeted at $1.49 million.
The committee's recommendation is advisory to the board, and the referendum results would be non-binding.
"If they're (voters) flexible and might be willing to use sheriff department support for portions of the day, we have different options," Zipp said.
