Kansas Highway Patrol, facing culture change, roiled by alleged harassment, retaliation

The Kansas Highway Patrol was a troubled agency when Gov. Laura Kelly named Herman Jones Superintendent in April 2019.

The predominantly white and male 800-member department, organized in 1937, has struggled to enter the 21st century. In the words of one state lawmaker, it remains an “old boys” club filled with family connections.

Col. Mark Bruce, Jones’ predecessor, was forced out amid questions about his handling of an alleged domestic violence case involving another high-ranking officer, Lt. Col. Randy Moon. He also resigned. Bruce has since filed two lawsuits seeking reinstatement.

Kelly tasked Jones, the former Shawnee County Sheriff and the Highway Patrol’s first Black leader, to clean the agency up.

Within months, however, Jones was facing allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination against female troopers. Two separate investigations said the claims were unsubstantiated. One found that Jones faced an “interconnected network” of agency staff still loyal to Bruce.

The probe led by the Kansas Department of Administration reported that one of the women filing a complaint acknowledged she was part a “coup” to remove Jones and other senior commanders.

The attorney representing several of the women said the suggestion of a coup is false. The leader of a nationwide association of women in law enforcement said it would be “a bit of a reach” to believe that female officers would lie or exaggerate claims in coordination to push out department leadership.

Two majors, ousted following the investigations, have since filed a lawsuit claiming they were retaliated against by Jones and his second-in-command for speaking up in support of women in the agency.

The Kansas Highway Patrol said it could not comment on pending litigation. Kelly’s office declined to discuss the particulars of the situation, although Kelly said last month that the attempted culture change had “stirred up some things.”

“There were a number of issues that we began to address as I got into office,” Kelly said. “I’m pleased with the progress that they’ve made to address some of those deep seated issues and are continuing to move forward on that. Has that stirred up some things? People don’t like change and will push back against change.”

Kelly’s spokeswoman, Lauren Fitzgerald, said in an email that Jones had made several changes, including prioritizing diversity in recruitment, improving agency-wide communication and implementing a three-week leadership training course.

‘Shake it for me’

The two dismissed majors, Scott Harrington and Josh Kellerman, alleged in a lawsuit last year that in June 2019 they began to receive reports from women in the agency that Jones had engaged in unwelcome touching and made inappropriate comments .

Harrington and Kellerman said they encouraged the women to report the incidents to the agency’s human relations officials. They also reported the conduct themselves.

The two were ousted by Jones the following month, in what they said was retaliation for calling attention to his behavior. A legislative audit determined that Jones broke no laws in dismissing the majors. The audit, however, only reviewed state personnel laws and policies — not the merits of the sexual harassment or retaliation charges.

Kelly’s office said Harrington and Kellerman were dismissed in an effort to improve the department. According to the Dept. of Administration report, both were strong supporters of Bruce, who has voiced opposition to Jones’ leadership.

Female troopers described several incidents to the Department of Administration, including: Jones standing behind a female employee, placing a hand on her back and asking if she was uncomfortable; sending a “nasty” email to an employee who needed to take time off because of a sick child, and holding a female employee’s shoulders while singing “shake it for me,” a lyric from a popular country song.

Such episodes were common, the women alleged, and constituted a hostile work environment. They said at least one long time employee left because of the conduct.

The Department of Administration concluded in the summer of 2020 that Jones had likely touched some of the women, but that the interactions did not rise to sexual harassment. Similarly, the investigation determined that Jones had made several “questionable statements” in an attempt to be funny, not out of malice.

The investigators, however, noted that several women described the same incidents but with different details, creating suspicions that they had coordinated stories prior to being interviewed.

Morever, the report described an “interconnected network within the staff of the KHP that continue to support …. Bruce and dislike Col. Jones and those that he promoted to his command staff.”

The inconsistencies, the support for Bruce, and preexisting bias of the women toward Jones made it impossible to fully substantiate their allegations, the report concluded.

Kelly’s office hired a private law firm, Fisher, Patterson, Sayler and Smith, to conduct another investigation. It made the same findings, according to a news release in July. The report was not public record because of attorney client privilege between the firm and the subjects of the investigation.

Kelly Trussel, an attorney representing some of the women and Harrington and Kellerman, called the Department of Administration investigation’s conclusion that the women were part of a coup “flatly wrong.”

The women, Trussel said, told investigators they wanted Jones gone because of the harassment they’d faced.

As a result, she said, investigators came to a “convenient” conclusion when they determined that the womens’ stories didn’t line up.

“If they’re telling someone else’s story and they’re off by a month as to when that happened to that person I don’t think that proves that anyone is choreographing. I think if they’re choreographing it would all match,” Trussel said.

“The conclusions are essentially, ‘It’s okay to have inappropriate touching even if it’s unwelcome, it’s okay as long as it’s not sexual harassment’.”

Trussel said none of her clients were willing to speak to The Star out of fear of retaliation. That reticence, she said, is further proof of the agency’s deeply-rooted problems.

The Kansas Troopers Association said it was concerned about the reports against Jones and a culture of “intimidation” and “retaliation” which he fostered.

“The KSTA fears that if immediate action is not taken to rectify this growing problem, the KHP will not be able to recover from the leadership vacuum of the current administration.,” it said in a statement. “We hope that immediate changes are on the horizon and look forward to a time where we can begin to repair the Agency’s now tarnished reputation.” A subsequent statement called the suggestion of a “coup” unfair.

Jones, a former state trooper and senior agency official who was twice elected Shawnee County Sheriff before rejoining the highway patrol, has no public record of lawsuits against him for sexual harassment or gender discrimination.

However, Deborah Friedl, president of the International Association of Women Police, said the suggestion that female law enforcement officers would collude to fabricate or exaggerate sexual harassment claims in an attempt remove leadership from their agency to be “a bit of a reach.”

Because of the existing stressors on women in law enforcement, the risk of ostracization and likely difficulty in finding comparable work elsewhere, Friedl said, it is very difficult for women to come forward about harassment.

“You’re really talking about people’s character, and suggesting that a group of people got together to expose themselves to internal scrutiny and internal ridicule in some way and jeopardize their integrity all for the purpose of getting a new boss,” Friedl said.

An agency divided

The investigations and lawsuits paint a picture of an agency in turmoil.

Trussel acknowledged divisions in the department, saying the agency had many problems but she was focused on the one involving her clients.

“I think there are factions inside KHP right now, there are many employees that are trying to do something about these allegations and make it stop, there are others who are perpetuating it,” she said.

Bruce, the former superintendent, said he believed there were people still in the agency who were loyal to him. Harrington and Kellerman, he said, were the last two majors in leadership held over from his administration.

“It’s not just because it’s me necessarily, we have to go back to the administration prior to mine and there were significant problems in the agency,” Bruce said. “We took a different approach.”

According to a lawsuit Bruce filed against Jones and Kelly’s Chief of Staff, Will Lawrence, Bruce continued to email staff members at the agency after he’d resigned to voice his concerns about Jones. The state ultimately sent him a cease and desist letter.

John Carmichael, ranking minority member of the Kansas House Judiciary Committee, said the Kansas Highway Patrol is an old school and “old boy” network, with troopers whose family ties to the agency reach back generations.

When former Gov. Sam Brownback placed the inexperienced Ernest Garcia in charge of the agency, Carmichael said, a culture formed in which troopers and management clashed. By the time he took charge, Bruce said, there was a sense that the Kansas Troopers Association was running the patrol, not the superintendent.

“It was very clear to me that when Col. Garcia arrived that backbiting and undermining of the command staff became very common,” he said. “That type of a situation I believe has undermined the decor of the patrol.”

The report, Carmichael said, indicated that individuals unhappy with new leadership and resistant to change were attempting to push Jones out. Susan Pfannenstiel, a human resources professional for the agency, told investigators that it was filled with people who “didn’t like their cheese moved,” a reference to Harvard Business School Professor Deepak Malhotra’s book about organizational change.

“If that is what’s going on at the agency then the Governor and the superintendent have to take a hard line because there can be only one chain of command,” Carmichael said. “If on the other hand there is harassment of employees based on sex that’s something that cannot be tolerated.”

Change, Carmichael said, has come slower to the patrol than other law enforcement agencies because of it’s militaristic chain of command and training practices.

The patrol, he said, needs to enter the 21st century. One way to do that, Carmichael said, is appoint someone from outside the ranks as superintendent when Jones retires.

Based on the inconclusive investigations, Friedl said the agency needs to at a minimum renew anti-harassment training. The highway patrol, she said, will need to find a way back to some sort of harmony but that will be very difficult as lawsuits are still working their way through the court system.

“It’s unfortunate for the agency because they will be dealing with this for a long time,” she said.

This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.