Officer’s $70K severance deal says Overland Park would report he resigned voluntarily
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John Albers shooting
Overland Park police were called on Jan. 20, 2018, for a welfare check on 17-year-old John Albers. Former Overland Park police officer Clayton Jenison fatally shot the teen as he backed out of the driveway. The Johnson County District Attorney’s Office did not file charges on Jenison, who was given a $70,000 severance for leaving the department.
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A severance agreement given to a former police officer who killed a teenager in 2018 shows the city of Overland Park agreed to report to a statewide oversight agency that the officer left “voluntarily” and for personal reasons.
The document, released by the city on Friday, says the city would report the separation to the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training as being a “voluntary resignation under ordinary circumstances.”
The release of the record comes after a Johnson County District Court judge on Thursday ruled in The Star’s favor in a months-long court battle with Overland Park over its interpretation of the state’s open records law.
The Star’s lawsuit, filed in October, argued that the severance agreement for Clayton Jenison, the officer who fatally shot 17-year-old John Albers, is public record under the Kansas Open Records Act.
Attorney Bernie Rhodes, who represented The Star in its lawsuit for the records, said the detail about how the city reported Jenison’s separation to the Kansas CPOST is “why they’ve been hiding this document.”
“The severance agreement confirms the cover-up that so many people in the community have thought has been occurring,” he said.
In January 2018, police were called to Albers’ home for a welfare check because he was believed to be suicidal. Jenison shot Albers six times as the teenager backed out of the driveway of his family’s home.
Jenison was paid $70,000 in severance when he left the department. He faced no criminal charges and his actions were deemed a “proper use of force” under Kansas law by Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe.
In a news release Friday, Overland Park officials wrote that the agreement “allowed the City to end Jenison’s employment quickly and decisively without a lawsuit, which could have resulted in Jenison remaining an employee of the City and the additional costs of litigation.”
Because the city approached Jenison through his attorney to initiate a discussion and negotiate the severance agreement, as the city’s statement described, the police department should have told CPOST that Jenison involuntarily resigned to avoid legal action, Rhodes said. In receiving the $70,000, the agreement said Jenison would not take legal action against the city.
When an officer’s employment status changes, a form is sent to CPOST, which oversees the licensing of law enforcement officers in the state, explaining the circumstances.
An officer can voluntarily leave under ordinary circumstances, voluntarily leave under questionable circumstances, involuntarily resign or be terminated.
Permitting Jenison to resign under ordinary circumstances meant he could be hired by a different police department especially since at the time, his name had not been released.
Jenison’s current certification status is in good standing and inactive, said CPOST commission counsel Michelle Meier.
The CPOST form is signed by the head of the police department under penalty of perjury.
Meier said if there were grounds to believe a law enforcement officer knowingly submitted false or misleading documents, it could be investigated.
The city maintains that Jenison voluntarily resigned and was not being investigated when he entered the agreement on Feb. 15, 2018.
“The Police Department agreed that this was the accurate choice in the CPOST document,” city spokesman Sean Reilly said in an emailed statement Friday.
In a 2018 interview with FOX4, Overland Park Police Chief Frank Donchez had said Jenison was never encouraged to leave the force.
“He left before we even had those discussions,” Donchez said.
The agreement also says the city agreed to not provide any information to media about Jenison’s status before the district attorney decided on criminal charges and to tell media after the decision that Jenison resigned for “personal reasons.”
The city promised not to release records related to Jenison’s employment unless required to by law.
It remains unclear what “personal reasons” Jenison may have had for leaving the department.
Sheila Albers, the teen’s mother, told The Star in an earlier interview that the order to release the severance agreement allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief as she continues to seek justice for her son.
Lingering questions surrounding his death prompted her to become an advocate for changes in state law aimed toward casting more light on the disciplinary actions taken against law enforcement officers.
“My first thought was this is a huge win for sunshine and transparency,” Sheila Albers said of the court’s decision at the time. “That was my initial gut reaction. That the government doesn’t get to hide documents that are public record.”
In January 2019, the Albers family settled a civil lawsuit against Overland Park for $2.3 million. The suit claimed Jenison acted recklessly and violated Albers’ constitutional rights.
The Star’s Katie Bernard contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 19, 2021 at 10:30 AM.
