Remember the officers who were disciplined for calling members of the public “assbags” and “gloryholing nincompoops”? Well, apparently they were also disciplined on multiple occasions for other things including Sexual Harassment, False Reporting, Firearms Safety, Misuse of Communications System, Insulting, Defamatory, or Obscene Language, Excessive Use of Force, Failure to Respond to a domestic disturbance and another call. And that’s just the first officer . . . this is creepy. Very creepy. Together they have been suspended for 42 days without pay and gotten 3 reprimand letters for at least 13 incidents, some of the suspension days were held in abeyance and of course, I don’t think we know if they ever served them from these records. Can you believe Chief Mike Koval defended these guys? Wonder what the records of the 4 officers disciplined for the whiteboard incident look like? It’s like the deeper you dig, the uglier this gets. Peeling back the layers of the rotten onion of the Madison Police Department is disturbing. Madison WI can do better than this, right?
The full memo explaining what they will and will not release is here (Response Letter to Konkel), and I should note, they didn’t release all the records . . . only those that were sustained.
Officer Scott McConnell discipline history
Original document is here: Officer Scott McConnell discipline history
In case you need a reminder, Koval’s diclipine for calling us “assbags” was:
Officer Scott McConnell was found to be in violation of the following:
• Madison City APM 3-9, #10 (Appropriate Use of Computer Network Resources)
Sustained – Documented Counseling
• MPD Standard Operating Procedure – Social Media, Off Duty Use Sustained – Documented Counseling
1. 1993-PSIA-0015; Received two days suspension without pay for False Reporting. He had completed an overtime slip claiming to have earned overtime for a time frame when he was not assigned to a call or doing work on the case number which he had written down on his overtime slip. On that slip he had put down for the reason for the overtime “No apparent reason, fell asleep in my squad car till 7:30a.m.”.
2. 1993-PSIA-0016; Received a letter of reprimand for Sexual Harassment. A complaint was filed by other officers after he and another officer took a toy animal that was in the property/radio room and placed it in a chair on which they put a note on saying “sit on me”. Then the other officer placed a 6-8 inch orange flashlight wand between the legs of the stuffed animal. This was viewed incidentally by another officer, who filed an internal complaint.
3. 1994-PSIA-0034; Received a one day suspension without pay for Firearms Safety. He reported that he had an accidental firearms discharge while off-duty. A handgun he had been holding slipped out of his hand and discharged upon striking the ground. There was no apparent damage or injuries.
4. 1996-PSIA-0023; Received letters of reprimand for violating the policies of Response to Calls or Circumstances and On-Duty Business. An internal review of two incidents found that on one occasion he failed to respond at all to a reported domestic disturbance as a backup officer. On the second occasion he was delayed approximately 50 minutes in responding to a retail theft call he had been dispatched to. He had gone to assist another officer on a call without informing the dispatch. He had also been found to be spending an inappropriate amount of time while on duty at a nightclub that was not in his beat, without there being legitimate police business for him to be there.
5. 1998-PSIA-0039; Received a 12 day suspension without pay with eight of those days held in abeyance for Misuse of the Communications System; On Duty Business; and Insulting, Defamatory, or Obscene Language. An audit of Officer McConnell’s MDT (Mobile Data Terminals) messages over a period from 1/1/98 through 5/31/98 found that he had sent a large number of messages that were unrelated to official duties, many of which were inappropriate for the workplace.
6. 2001-PSIA-0039; Received a 10 day suspension without pay with all 10 days held in abeyance for Excessive Use of Force. Another MPD officer had complained about the level of force Officer McConnell during the course of an arrest. The suspect was wanted for operating a stolen vehicle and after being involved in both a vehicle and foot pursuit was tackled by the officer who ended up filing the complaint. That officer was on top of the suspect when Officer McConnell arrived to assist in securing him. Officer McConnell struck the suspect several times to the head area. As the suspect was lying on the ground being handcuffed Officer McConnell placed his knee to the back head/neck area of the arrested person and applied pressure.
7. 2007-PSIA-0038; Received a two day suspension without pay, both of which were held in abeyance, for violating the policy Use of Non-Deadly Force – Electronic Control Devices. He and other officers were in a foot pursuit with a suspect. After the suspect had climbed over what was described as a fence-like object Officer McConnell deployed his ECD into the suspects back before he could start running away again. The suspect was then taken into custody. The policy said that ECD’s could not be used against subjects fleeing on foot unless exigent circumstances were present. After an investigation into the circumstances it was determined exigent circumstances were not present to justify the ECD deployment.
Officer Dean Baldukas Discipline History
Original document is here: Officer Dean Baldukas discipline history
In case you need a reminder, Koval’s discipline for calling us “gloryholing nincompoops” was:
Officer Dean Baldukas was found to be in violation of the following:
• Madison City APM 3-9, #10 (Appropriate Use of Computer Network Resources)
Sustained – Documented Counseling
• MPD Standard Operating Procedure – Social Media, Off Duty Use Sustained – Letter of Reprimand
1. 2010-PSIA-0003; Received a suspension totaling 12 days without pay for three sustained counts of Sexual Harassment, involving both an internal and external complaint. Two of the sustained counts were in reference to conversations he had in the workplace and he was given three days suspension without pay for each one. One of those was due to a sexual comment he directed to another officer about their partner. Another was for an overall pattern of comments of a sexual nature that were deemed to fall within the City of Madison’s APM 3-5 (Prohibited Harassment and/or Discrimination policy). He was given six days suspension without pay for the external complaint. A bank teller who had been the victim of a robbery filed a complaint after during the investigation he suggested to her that she go home and engage in sexual activities to relieve the stress and tension from the incident rather than do what some people do which is to drink and/or consume drugs. There was no evidence to suggest that Officer Baldukas had propositioned the complainant in any way.
2. 2011-PSIA-0006; Received a letter of reprimand for violating the policy Insulting, Defamatory, or Obscene Language and Intra-Departmental criticism. An officer had been injured in an off-duty accident and a get well card was passed around the district where he worked so personnel could write notes on it before giving it to the officer. Officer Baldukas wrote a note on the card which used obscene language. After the District Operations Lieutenant had started to investigate the matter Officer Baldukas used derogatory language about the Lieutenant in an internal email as well as in a conversation with the injured officer.
3. 2016-PSIA-0007; Received a three day suspension without pay for violating the MPD Code of Conduct of Courtesy, Respect, and Professional Conduct. Two of these suspension days were held in abeyance. Another officer had been trying to reach Officer Baldukas via the squad mobile data computer without success. Shortly afterward the officer saw Officer Baldukas in the district station talking to others. After the officer explained to Officer Baldukas that he had been trying to contact him and why, Officer Baldukas responded with a derogatory comment that was demeaning to the officer and embarrassed him in front of others.
