Broken Blue Line
“Murl, this is an unacceptable performance evaluation,” Nielsen had written. “There are a number of issues related to her performance which need to be addressed. Please revise. GN.”
But when he met with the Nielsen to discuss the matter, Harpham testified, the chief had been vague as to what issues he wanted addressed. “The only thing he really came up with was she wasn’t punctual and she tended to be sloppy,” he said. “And out of uniform sometimes.”
At the end of Tuesday’s proceedings the hearing was taken off-calendar pending an examination by a qualified medical expert into Owsley’s claims of physical and psychological suffering. The city’s attorney, Pat McAleer, has yet to offer up his defense. It is uncertain when the case will continue.
In the meantime, another local blog — the Humboldt Herald — reported Monday the hitherto unnoticed fact that Hansen has filed suit against Wilson and other as-yet unnamed defendants, alleging that they were behind the Above the Law blog, and had therefore spread false rumors about Hansen. The case also accuses the defendants of “sending [Hansen] flowers and other purported gift items addressed to Tawnie Nielsen, a name which combined her first name with the last of the EPD chief.”
The case was first filed late last year; Wilson was added as a defendant in early May. The suit alleges that the defendants libeled Hansen and intentionally caused her emotional distress, and asks for $25,000 in compensation as well as punitive damages. In it, she flatly denies any improper or intimate relationship with Nielsen.
“Hansen has suffered and will continue to suffer mental anguish and emotional distress, including anxiety, anger, depression, irritability and loss of sleep,” the suit reads. The next pretrial hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 12.
Now, it would seem, at least one side of the argument is not content with the fact that the case has hitherto been confined to the courthouse and City Hall.
Last Wednesday morning (June 24), an e-mail from a person who called himself “John Smith” was sent to Eureka City Manager David Tyson and several members of the City Council. Attached to the message were two photographs taken the previous afternoon. One was of a closeup of a parked, city-owned car with police lights in the windshield. Travel trailers and a public restroom are visible in the margins.
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13 Comments
Comment / By pogo / July 2, 2009, 7:04 a.m.
why would you want to resuscitate malaise? Morale, maybe, but morale is always internal. Maybe you should avoid using French. And stick to short words.
Comment / By Hank Sims / July 2, 2009, 7:16 a.m.
Good point.
Comment / By Mike Goldsby / July 2, 2009, 10:48 p.m.
So this story on the Times Standard website, alleging internet harassment, attracts anonymous comments that eventually cause them all to be taken down?
Is that weird or predictable or sad? I feel like it resuscitated my malaise.
Comment / By Charles / July 3, 2009, 6:15 a.m.
Well, with removal of the last EPD chief, the city looked at bringing someone in who was not a local good ole boy to the city.
They were at war with him from day 1.
Comment / By Kate / July 3, 2009, 3:42 p.m.
Good Ole Boys in Eureka will dig in and be ferocious in order to keep their illegal and immoral activities secret. These people don’t care that poor people and middle class are getting poorer, they only care that they stay in power.
Comment / By Carol Conners / July 4, 2009, 8:08 a.m.
Having been a victim of anonymous blog comments, I find all this quite distasteful. Not your writing about it, Hank, but personal attacks on public figures regarding their private lives. Anyone with a computer can type absolute lies when they are anonymous. A friend of mine sent me a link to the Above the Law blog and I looked at it once. IMHO, it looked politically motivated. I felt like I need to take a shower after reading it. Yuk.
Comment / By Magdeline Pereira / July 4, 2009, 2:51 p.m.
EPD female officers/employees need to be treated with the utmost respect and kindness. Imbecile jokes and pranks from male chiefs, reveal unevolved lowlife exploiters, ejaculators and perpetraitors whos’ DNA need to be eradicated from the human genome.
Comment / By lol / July 5, 2009, 12:49 a.m.
When organizations change there are always people who find themselves unable to change with it. They tend to work themselves out of the organization in time.
I’m certain that this vocal group of anti-Nielson employees will be little missed when they eventually move on. Sorry folks, but if you spend the bulk of your time inciting lawsuits and creating drama within a team unit you are doing a bad job.
No matter how you feel about tactics, behavior or whatever it’s important to act in a professional manner and continue working toward your official job goals. Sabotaging the operations of the PD over petty, small-time fueds regarding a couple of people’s career stagnation is not called for.
Anyone with two brain-cells to rub together can see what’s really going on here.
Comment / By backstabbed / July 5, 2009, 10:51 p.m.
If anyone with a BRAIN had done a real background on Garr he never would have been hired. No one asks why a road deputy was shoved into a closet in a jail and left there until he found another job to go to–YOURS. Geezus, someone opened the door and this clown walked right in.
Comment / By john q public / July 6, 2009, 4:33 p.m.
To backstabbed/aka mcso: Poor baby. Still holding your little immature grudge after all this time. You need counseling bad. You apparently don’t know that it was more than 1 person with a brain who contacted the dept up there & did a background. I bet it really pissed you off when the council down here voted unanimously to give this guy a 5 yr contract because of his good work. You are probably still bringing embarassment to yourself up there. And, by the way, this paper was a little late in their investigating. A grand jury exonerated the chief from all the petty complaints that 2 folks filed, and 1 of them just quit. Get a life, you poor sap.
Comment / By Hank Sims / July 6, 2009, 4:51 p.m.
And, by the way, this paper was a little late in their investigating.
A little early, you mean.
Comment / By john q public / July 6, 2009, 8:47 p.m.
Yes, true, you’re right. NCJ just dredged up, sensationalized & exaggerated old news, did no new creditable research, certainly didn’t get all perspectives, and now they look silly in light of what the grand jury said.
Comment / By magdeline pereira / July 17, 2009, 3:10 p.m.
I nominate Lyn Soderberg for Chief of Police, Eureka, CA and may the Nacho chips fall to the Blessed Peacemakers, USA