Former Nashville Police Chief Heather Burris poses for a photo with her attorney, Charles Braun of Indianapolis, after a Nashville Safety Board meeting on Oct. 7 in which she resigned “under duress”.
Former Nashville Police Chief Heather Burris, who resigned from the department Oct. 7 “under duress and coercion”, had been put on notice that she would be considered an unreliable witness in criminal cases, local officials said.
The revelation came days after Burris’ attorney tendered her resignation to the Nashville Safety Board and said town officials had gone on a “warpath” against Burris, making it impossible to carry out her duties as a police officer. The attorney also told the board that the town was acting illegally in handling Burris’ disciplinary case.
Days later, Nashville town attorney Wanda Jones told The Democrat that Brown County Prosecutor Ted Adams had sent a letter to her, Burris and interim Nashville Police Chief Scott Bowling within the past two weeks. Jones said the letter indicated the prosecutor “found Heather an unreliable witness” whose testimony “could not be used in any prosecution.”
The letter said local prosecutors “consider her credibility to be an issue and that she is untruthful,” Jones said during a telephone interview.
Jones declined a request to provide a copy of the letter to The Democrat, as did the Brown County Prosecutor’s Office.
Prosecutor speaks out
Adams issued a press release Thursday in which he said Burris on Aug. 26 turned over to his office “what she deemed to be a criminal investigation, and requested that I screen the paperwork as such. This was a little abnormal as I had not seen Chief Burris in my office in, probably, well over a year. I also cannot recall (the) last time Chief Burris had submitted a report for criminal charges; it has, easily, been years. However, she was adamant that it be considered as such.”
Adams said he and chief deputy Rob Seet screened Burris’ paperwork to determine whether to file criminal charges. “We had a meeting over what we had read. The various papers submitted resembled that of an internal human resource investigation as opposed to a true police report,” Adams’ statement said. “Moreover, the alleged crimes … were either not criminal allegations or, to the extent there were any criminal allegations, could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Given the nature of the documentation, we sent the paperwork back to the Nashville Police Department as we viewed the paperwork as human resource documents.”
A couple of days later, interim Chief Scott Bowling “submitted additional paperwork based upon follow-up he had conducted concerning the investigation submitted by Chief Burris,” according to Adams. “The information provided to (Bowling) by witnesses interviewed by Chief Burris stood in direct contradiction with what Chief Burris had reported. I conducted my own, independent, interview of some of the witnesses to ensure there had been no misunderstandings. My interviews … confirmed, again, that the statements submitted by Chief Burris were in direct contradiction with what the witnesses were now reporting and what they claimed they had reported. Moreover, additional information led our office to conclude that certain material facts were omitted in the report submitted by Chief Burris.
“I have had experience in the past on how to handle the compromised or impaired credibility of a law enforcement officer. The law requires us to disclose any known acts of such compromised credibility to any future criminal defense attorney. This is to protect our citizens,” Adams’ statement said. “As a former criminal defense attorney, I can say that it is also the right thing to do. Our office informed both the Nashville Police Department and the Brown County Sheriff’s Office of our determination to protect the integrity of any future criminal investigations. Additionally, if we have any cases involving Chief Burris, we will make the same disclosure to the defense. This decision was not arrived upon lightly; however, the law requires us to set aside any personal feelings we have in the matter and to protect the integrity of both our criminal justice system and our law enforcement departments,” Adams wrote.
Jones said Burris’ case goes back to an investigation she conducted this summer, details of which have not been made public. “… That is the sum and substance of why we were having a meeting regarding Heather Burris on Monday (Oct. 7),” Jones said.
Town’s motives questioned
Burris appeared for that meeting before the the Nashville Safety Board, which had convened in executive session earlier “to discuss information concerning … alleged misconduct,” according to its official notice.
Before the board could act, however, Burris’ attorney, Charles Braun of Indianapolis, offered the board her letter of resignation, which he said was “under duress and coercion.
“She is being forced to resign,” Braun told the board.
“Ever since my client was demoted — unreasonably so, I might add — from chief of police, the town, mainly the town council, has gone on a warpath against my client to make it impossible for her to work anymore as a patrol officer here for the Nashville Police Department,” Braun told the board.
He said after Burris was demoted, she had her take-home car taken away but also “was ordered not to place herself on town hall property or police department property, against her First Amendment rights … and at every angle, (town officials) have tried to make it impossible for her to continue on as a patrol officer.”
The town council in August demoted Burris from her position as chief, citing several “performance issues.”
But Braun focused on the town’s performance in dealing with the former chief’s discipline.
“Not only did the town go on the warpath against my client, they decided to fire all of the merit board members — the town board did this — they eliminated the merit board altogether in an effort to further harass and intimidate those on the merit board that would support her interest in continued employment,” Braun said.
“It gets worse. The town council illegally creates this governing body, completely against state law,” he told the members of the Nashville Safety Board, comprised of Alyn Brown, Mike Rozzi, Arlene Moffit, Chuck Harper and chair Ric Fox.
He said under state law, when a town lacks a merit board, the town council itself becomes the safety board. “There is no option, there is no procedure where the town council can create a separate public safety board when you have a town marshal system,” Braun said. The town council adopted the town marshal system by ordinance last month.
“The only public safety board is the town council, and they are the ones that must consider all police discipline. It was clearly illegal for the town council to create this governing body. … State law has clearly been violated in terms of who decides her fate as a police officer.”
Asked to respond to Braun’s assertions that the Safety Board had been illegally established, Jones said of the argument, “I felt that it would have been better suited as a closing argument in a law case. … I think the statutes are not completely clear.”
She said the Safety Board was acting in an advisory capacity to the Town Council, which ultimately would have made the final determination on Burris’ employment status with the police department, had she not resigned.
Braun further said the town had only provided Burris notice of her disciplinary proceeding on the prior Wednesday, giving her just two business days to prepare a defense. Braun did not reply to a message seeking comment about the prosecutor’s allegations.
“It is a shame that this has happened. She loves working here for the community of Nashville. It’s a great community, and she thinks she has served with honor and dignity and has treated everyone with respect,” Braun said.
“It’s unfortunate it has reached this point. Obviously in a hostile workplace environment, there’s many legal issues that we are examining in terms of legal remedies … but she is not giving up.
“… This is an attempt to destroy her ability to be a police officer, not only here, but anywhere in the state of Indiana, so this is a very important, high priority for her, and this is not the last that you will see of her.”
At the conclusion of Braun’s presentation, Fox, the board chair, said, “If I could, I’d like to address some of this,” before he was advised against doing so, after which the meeting was adjourned.
Burris was met by several supporters after the meeting. With Braun at her side, she said, “I took an oath to serve and protect, and that’s what I’ll continue to do.”
