Overland Park lied and may have committed a crime in coverup of police officer’s exit
The city of Overland Park flat-out lied — under penalty of perjury, and to the state agency that oversees law enforcement officers, no less — about why the police officer who shot and killed a teen left the force.
The Star and the family of 17-year-old John Albers, killed in his driveway during a police welfare check on him in January 2018, have been after the officer’s severance agreement for months.
On Thursday, a judge ruled it was an open record. Friday morning, the city finally released it.
And now we know why the city spent so much time and taxpayer money playing hide-and-seek with it.
In the 2018 separation agreement with former police officer Clayton Jenison, the city agreed to tell the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training that Jenison’s departure was a “voluntary resignation under ordinary circumstances and describe it as being for personal reasons.”
In fact, the CPOST form in question says, “Officer resigned for personal or professional reasons and not to avoid potential disciplinary or adverse employment action.”
Yet the city admits in a “Frequently Asked Question” document that it approached Jenison about his leaving, not the other way around — and that “the city was sent a notice two days after the incident indicating the possibility of a lawsuit by the family.”
“That’s not a voluntary resignation,” says Kansas City Star attorney Bernie Rhodes, who also cited the city’s risk of lawsuit if it had moved to terminate Jenison. “He did not resign for personal or professional reasons. He was offered the opportunity to resign to avoid legal action.”
Jenison left with a $70,000 severance package.
Rhodes says the form the city submitted to CPOST — a copy of which has not been released — is signed under penalty of perjury.
What’s wrong with all this? Let us count the ways.
First of all, however badly the city wanted Jenison to go away, it’s a moral insult to the residents of Overland Park and to the Albers family to attempt to characterize the officer’s departure as being for “personal or professional reasons and not to avoid potential disciplinary or adverse employment action.”
Second, it just may be a crime. Remember, the mayor of Shawnee was arraigned on a felony perjury charge earlier this year for signing someone else’s name on a Kansas Open Records Act complaint.
The city’s deception to CPOST also allowed Jenison to retain his law enforcement certification — when the real circumstances of his departure might have been a matter of some interest to prospective employers.
The city is still playing games — pretending there was no black cloud over the officer when he resigned because there was no active investigation of him at the time. As if there were no cause for such an investigation.
“The fact the city is claiming that Jenison was not under investigation at the time the form was signed is a game of semantics. Jenison was under investigation,” says John Albers’ mother, Sheila Albers. “There was nothing voluntary about his resignation.”