Police chief of small Missouri town faces state discipline after years of complaints
The police chief of a small Northland village is facing discipline from the state for writing false information on citations, possibly jeopardizing his law enforcement license.
In an order this month, the state’s Administrative Hearing Commission found Daniel Clayton, police chief in the Village of Ferrelview, should be disciplined by the Missouri Department of Public Safety for tampering with a public record.
Three years ago, Clayton left two citations at the door of a woman who was a passenger in a car he pulled over more than a week earlier. The citations — one for failing to obey a lawful order and the other for resisting arrest — said the woman refused to sign the paperwork.
But the woman was never afforded the chance to sign the paperwork, a commissioner found, and Clayton backdated the citations to nine days earlier.
The village of about 450 people, just east of Kansas City International Airport, has been riven by controversy in recent years. City meetings at times have broken out in argument and Clayton has been at the center of much of it. The village’s former board chairwoman attempted to oust Clayton and the community has debated whether it can afford a police force.
Several complaints have accused Clayton of treating residents roughly, though none of those have been officially substantiated. One lawsuit accuses him of false imprisonment, among other things.
Clayton told The Star on Monday he could not comment on the commission’s disciplinary decision because the case was pending. He said he was not concerned about the decision and planned to remain in his role as chief of the town. He referred questions to his attorney, David Barrett, who did not return a call or email seeking comment.
Public record tampering
In January 2016, Clayton arrested the driver of a car he stopped for failing to signal a turn and subsequently arrested the passenger, who was taken to the Platte County Detention Center, state records show. The passenger was not issued a citation and was released a day later.
Eight days later, Clayton drove to the passenger’s apartment and left two citations near the woman’s door. At the bottom of the citations, Clayton wrote on the signature line: “Refused in custody.”
The commission determined Clayton prepared the citations shortly before he went to her apartment Feb. 3 but he dated them Jan. 25. The woman was never given the chance to sign the citations because they were prepared days after she was released from the jail.
Clayton “impaired the verity” of the citations because readers of it would believe something happened on a different date, according to the decision.
During an interview with a Platte County sheriff’s detective, Clayton admitted he wrote the citations after the woman was arrested, according to state filings. The detective asked Clayton twice if the “refused in custody” statement was a lie. The first time he was asked, Clayton said it was not a lie. He did not answer the question the second time, according to the commission’s decision.
The detective, Nancy Penrod, testified Clayton should have dated the citations for when he wrote them. Clayton explained he dated the summonses in “accordance with his training and experience,” his attorney wrote in a filing.
The woman Clayton wrote the citations for pleaded guilty to peace disturbance and was fined.
News of the state commission’s decision was first reported by The Platte County Landmark.
Clayton has a valid Class A peace officer’s license. Within 30 days of the decision, the director of the Department of Public Safety will hold a hearing to determine Clayton’s discipline, which could range from a letter to revoking his license — the most severe move, which would prevent him from working in law enforcement in the state.
Dennis Rowland, a Kansas City attorney whose son claimed to have been harassed by Clayton, said the commission’s decision will severely harm Clayton’s credibility in court. Any defense attorney, he said, will now accuse Clayton of lying.
Previous complaints
The decision comes two years after the village was in turmoil over its future, including questions about whether it could support a police force. The debate upset some residents who supported Clayton, one of whom called him a “darn good cop.”
Tensions rose in 2017 during a long-running feud among the board trustees and residents over Clayton’s employment. One town hall meeting — described as almost becoming “a barroom brawl” — ended with his suspension and the city attorney’s resignation.
The chairwoman at the time led an effort to oust Clayton, who investigated her son in a statutory rape case. Some residents believed the chairwoman’s effort was a conflict of interest, but she said Clayton was under fire because some citizens thought he was heavy-handed. And, she said, Ferrelview was in financial distress. Her son later pleaded guilty in the case.
The initial state complaints against Clayton, filed in August 2017, also accused him of excessive use of force, assault and a pat-down described as “sexually aggressive.” Those counts were later dismissed or not set out in amended complaints.
Previous complaints claimed multiple people saw Clayton handcuff and forcibly push a 16-year-old boy against his patrol vehicle in October 2015. He screamed at the boy to “shut the f--- up” and for his mother to “get your a-- back in the f------ house,” according to the complaint. He was also accused of unnecessarily forcing a 14-year-old girl into the backseat of his vehicle.
In filings, Clayton said he was investigating a missing child case that became a criminal investigation. Clayton held the teen against his car, but called it an exaggeration to say he pushed him.
Clayton also said he did not use foul language against the woman, but noted he cited her for lying to him during his investigation. He denied handling the teenage girl in a rough manner.
A month later, Clayton pulled over a woman and interrogated her and her daughter, threatened to use a Taser on them and “make [their] life hell,” according to the complaint. He was accused of rubbing his hands up the handcuffed woman’s legs and over her genitals. He shoved her in the backseat of his car, causing her to hit her head, the complaint stated.
In a response, Clayton said he stopped the woman because she was driving recklessly. There were no female officers in the area, he said, and he checked her for weapons using the back of his hands as part of an approved technique. He denied she hit her head. He said the woman was known to him as someone with racist beliefs. She had used a racial slur in referring to him, he said.
In another incident, Clayton was accused of pulling over a man in April 2016 for a turn signal violation. During what was alleged to be an unlawful search, Clayton confiscated a gun in the vehicle and dismantled it in an “unsafe manner,” according to the complaint.
Clayton gave the man back his firearm “in pieces” and told him to leave town, the complaint stated. In his response, Clayton said he field-stripped the firearm using a common police procedure, and denied telling the man to not return to Ferrelview.
And in a fifth incident, Clayton was accused of stopping two people with whom he had a dispute and preventing them from leaving the village, according to the complaint. One of those people, Derrick Hayes, claimed Clayton grabbed his wrist and caused him pain, a characterization Clayton disputed. Clayton said he stopped them while they were trespassing and denied blocking their car.
A lawsuit filed against Clayton by Hayes, claiming false imprisonment and malicious prosecution, among other counts, is pending.
In a response to the state complaints, Clayton’s attorney said a referral to investigate Clayton was denied by the FBI and the Platte County Prosecutor’s Office.
Clayton has also worked in police departments in Mosby, Randolph and Cleveland, Missouri, according to records.
This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
