5 Quartzsite officers are put on suspension

Official: They falsely accused chief

William Hermann - Jul. 22, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

The assistant town manager of Quartzsite said Thursday that he had suspended five members of the 14-member police department.

Quartzsite is about 130 miles west of Phoenix on Interstate 10 and has a population of about 3,600.

Assistant town manager Al Johnson, 56, said several officers on the force had continued to make allegations against Chief of Police Jeff Gilbert "even though the officers who made them knew the allegations were false when they were made in May."

In May, 10 of the town's 14 sworn officers passed a no-confidence vote against the chief, alleging in a written statement that he uses "bully tactics" to intimidate members of the community "if they disagree with his methodology and political affiliation."

Johnson said complaints against Gilbert included "that the chief had improperly taken time off from work and had violated the town's vacation and sick leave policy."

Allegations also included that he had misused a national crime data bank, Johnson said.

Sgt. Will Ponce, 36, who has served on the Quartzsite force for 10 years and is president of the local police association, on vacation and not in Quartzsite.

"If I were there, I think I would have been suspended," he said. "The town is broken into two factions, and we on the force are caught between. We have been asked by Chief Gilbert to target some individuals and we don't want to violate people's rights and we have complained. It's as simple as that."

Johnson said that there were indeed deep divisions in Quartzsite over how the town should be run and over police-department policies and that those divisions had been manifested in the current controversy.

"Nevertheless, an outside law firm we hired determined the allegations against Chief Gilbert to be unfounded," Johnson said.

Johnson said he would continue to investigate whether officers were making false allegations against Gilbert, "and it's possible more people will be suspended."

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