City, Police Department In Turmoil Over Phone Tapes

The mayor of South Bend (Ind.) has demoted the police chief and fired the public safety communications center director after meeting with federal Department of Justice officials about telephone logging tapes, but his explanation of the incident is contradictory, and the statements of others raise questions about the mayor’s real motives for taking action. The situation began small, but has now swirled into a public controversy that includes the city council, the mayor, the DOJ, the press and teams of attorneys for all sides. The situation began in April 2011 when comm center director Karen DePaepe says she was performing a routine tape review,  and heard remarks on a recorded line that were inappropriate. The tapes haven’t been released and no one will characterize the inappropriate remarks, believed to be racial in nature. DePaepe reported the conversations to the chief, but nothing happened publicly until January 2012, when DePaepe was contacted by a federal investigator as a witness in an investigation about the tapes. Then in March, mayor Pete Buttigieg began a personnel action against police chief Darryl Boykins, and the city asked DePaepe to resign. However, DePaepe declined to quit, and was then fired—without the appropriate notice or paperwork, DePaepe claims. Since then Buttigieg has refused to explain the matter, saying only that the DOJ officials were threatening to file criminal wiretapping charges DePaepe. Other sources dispute that the DOJ intended to file charges, and that the agency never trades personnel actions for the prosecution of a federal criminal case. DePaepe’s attorney said DePaepe is considering a federal lawsuit over her firing. Read a timeline here, DePaepe’s account of the incident to a reporter here, and Buttigieg’s justification for the personnel actions here.