Whatever the Valparaiso Police officer expected when she walked into a room for an interview with the Porter County Multi-Enforcement Group, it wasn’t what she got.
The officers conducting the interview, representing police departments from throughout the county, asked her whom she would kill; have sexual relations with, though her interviewers used an expletive; and marry if given the choice between the sheriff and the Valparaiso and Portage police chiefs.
They asked her whether she had ever filed a sexual harassment lawsuit and what type of porn she watched.
She said in an interview with the Post-Tribune that she was told not to tell anyone about the interview questions and she complied at the time, figuring they were all part of the process to test her mettle while working undercover, to see whether she could keep the information confidential and not react to unsettling questions.
The woman, 37, a veteran police officer whom the Post-Tribune is not identifying because she is a victim of sexual harassment, qualified for the enforcement group, which according to the woman has an expected commitment for officers of five years. Her interview took place in November 2021 and she served on PCMEG from January through August of the following year.
PCMEG conducts undercover drug investigations in Porter County and sometimes with other agencies. At the time, the Valparaiso woman was one of two on PCMEG and is one of six female officers with the Valparaiso Police Department.
The officer, who remains on the Valparaiso Police force, resigned from the task force in less than nine months after enduring pressure to drink with fellow officers and being bullied when she refused; group texts that included a picture of another officer’s genitals; and racist jokes from her peers on PCMEG, according to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint her attorney filed on her behalf.
Four officers assigned to PCMEG, including another woman, were disciplined by their respective departments for how they treated the officer.
The woman’s experience, experts said, is not unique, and more agencies need to recognize what harassment means for recruitment and retention of a diverse police force.
‘It’s disheartening’
Frustrated by what she saw as a lack of action following her complaints by her supervisors, the woman filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on April 20, 2023, against the Porter County Sheriff’s Department, PCMEG and the Valparaiso Police Department claiming discrimination based on her sex and retaliation.
The woman chose to share her experience with the Post-Tribune because, she said, she didn’t want what happened to her to get buried.
“It’s disheartening,” the woman said in an interview, that she had to take her case as far as she did and the officers involved in the actions against her are still with their respective police forces. “How does it help to hide it?”
After mediation on her EEOC complaint, she received a $130,000 settlement from the county and a $30,000 settlement from the city; both were signed and dated in December 2023.
Neither municipality admitted wrongdoing, according to the settlement agreements. The city and county released the settlement agreements after an Access to Public Records Act request by the Post-Tribune.
“The extent of sexual harassment in the marketplace in general, it’s very common in the workplace and outside the workplace as well. And police officers are not immune to that,” said Bruce Taylor, a senior fellow and corresponding author with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.
Taylor co-authored a national study on sexual harassment and assault within law enforcement two years ago in which the abstract notes, “Our combined measure of non-physical sexual harassment and sexual assault of female officers (71%) was in the range found in prior research and our 41% rate for male officers is also not trivial and requires attention from law enforcement leaders.”
The U.S. Department of Defense started to tackle its problems surrounding similar behavior with the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military, or IRC-SAM, because the culture was affecting recruitment and retention, Taylor said.
“I haven’t seen a whole lot of effort by police departments,” he said, adding later, “There’s nowhere in the civilian world where this level of attention is addressing the problem.”
Three sheriff’s deputies and a Portage Police officer received letters of reprimand and/or were disciplined by their departments for their actions against the woman during her time with PCMEG, which were detailed in an internal investigation report ordered by Sheriff Jeffrey Balon in the days after he took office in January 2023.
Balon had been Valparaiso’s police chief before he was elected as sheriff. Early in his term, after the internal investigation of PCMEG was complete, Balon restructured PCMEG and set new standards for training on bullying and harassment within the sheriff’s department.
County Attorney Scott McClure declined to release the internal investigation report of PCMEG because, according to an email from him citing Indiana Code, it was an internal department document; it involved personnel files of public employees; and the report was investigatory in nature.
A source provided that and other documents to the Post-Tribune.
The woman’s Indianapolis attorney, Daniel Bowman, confirmed the authenticity of the internal PCMEG report, dated Jan. 23, 2023, and conducted by Porter County Sheriff’s Capt. Erik Wiseman, along with the woman’s EEOC complaint, and screenshots of texts between the woman and other members of PCMEG. Included in the material is a group text sent by a Portage officer on PCMEG to its six other members which is a picture of him holding his genitals.
‘Absolutely shocking’
Multiple officers confirmed most of the woman’s allegations, according to the internal investigation report. She, too, admitted in an interview to anonymously sending a glitter bomb and male genital-shaped chocolate to the officer who sent out the crotch shot. She thought maybe the harassment would stop if she turned the tables, she said.
“(The woman’s) was one of the most egregious sets of facts I’ve ever been told about,” Bowman said in an interview. “My first thought is, I have to see some proof. These are some serious allegations. And she had it, and it was shocking. Absolutely shocking.”
After Bowman filed the complaints with the EEOC on behalf of the woman, Porter County and the city of Valparaiso had the opportunity to file a response. A private mediator later negotiated the settlements on behalf of the woman.
The woman said Bowman told her the case could take years to go to trial and Bowman had to “talk me into it a bit as being the better option,” but she said she didn’t want to continue the high level of stress she was under from taking action against her employer.
When informed about the questions allegedly asked of the woman during her job interview for PCMEG, Taylor, with the National Opinion Research Center, had this to say: “Most places, that would be grounds for termination, you would think.”
Tanya Meisenholder, director of gender equity for the 30×30 Initiative, which is focused on advancing women in policing so that 30% of recruits will be women by 2030, said she had heard stories similar to that of the Valparaiso officer.
She spent almost two decades in law enforcement with the New York Police Department before joining 30×30.
“As unfortunate as it is, it doesn’t surprise me,” she said.
As of 2021, women made up only 12% of sworn officers and 3% of police leadership in the U.S., according to 30×30. Law enforcement agencies in Indiana that have joined the 30×30 Initiative include those in Bloomington, Carmel, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and Noblesville, according to the nonprofit’s website. There are no participating agencies from Northwest Indiana.
Cases are “very difficult” to discipline in law enforcement, Meisenholder said, and additionally, data about harassment cases isn’t transparent so the public doesn’t know about them.
One of the challenges comes in reporting the harassment because allegations can be difficult to keep private, particularly with smaller police agencies.
“In my experience, once people found out you made an allegation, it creates a stigmatizing effect,” which could lead to the person reporting the harassment being reassigned or facing other retaliation, Meisenholder said.
‘In hindsight, you’re uncomfortable’
During interviews at a cafe in downtown Valparaiso and the kitchen table of her rural Porter County home, the officer said she started in law enforcement in 2008. She worked at Indiana University Northwest in Gary, for the Michigan City Police Department starting in 2013, and then moved on to Valparaiso.
While she was at IUN, the woman’s National Guard unit was deployed to Iraq. She also served on Michigan City’s SWAT unit.
In her varied law enforcement career, the woman said she’d never seen anything from other officers like she did when she was a member of PCMEG and never believed that it wouldn’t be taken seriously.
“All these things, in hindsight, you’re uncomfortable but think maybe it’s OK,” she said.
Toward the end of her tenure with PCMEG, the woman received a written reprimand for not wearing a bulletproof vest to a felony warrant call; the reprimand did not include disciplinary action. She also, according to the internal investigation, tangled verbally with other members of the task force, sometimes being told to shut up by her fellow officers and storming out of group meetings where she felt she was being disrespected.
On May 31, 2022, according to the EEOC complaint filed by the woman’s attorney, the woman told PCMEG’s commander “that the other investigators had crossed the line with their treatment of her as well as their persistent pressure to consume alcohol and party with them.”
The commander, David Murray, according to the EEOC complaint, allegedly “replied that refusing to drink outside of work with the other officers would negatively affect her relationship with the team. He further said that he would address any instance where an officer’s behavior crossed the line; however, he failed to take any action against the other investigators, and his promise was meaningless anyways as he was present for most of the harassment that had occurred over the preceding months.”
Murray, according to the internal investigation report, “did step in when the guys were making fun of (the woman) but it was shown that he did not address it in a timely fashion and knowingly or unknowingly continued to allow it to happen to where it reached a point that she resigned…. I also advised Det. Murray that part of his job as the MEG Unit boss was to make his employees feel safe at work.”
As the harassment and bullying continued, the officer said she confided in Balon, then the Valparaiso Police chief and the Republican candidate for Porter County Sheriff. The sheriff then, David Reynolds, was winding down his second consecutive term and couldn’t seek another term per state statute. His son, David Reynolds II, was running against Balon.
Reynolds, who as sheriff oversaw PCMEG, did not return multiple requests for comment about the woman’s settlement or the actions of the officers as reported in the internal investigation.
‘Culture Change Initiative’
In a written statement prepared for the Post-Tribune, Balon confirmed that the woman approached him with allegations of sexual harassment while she was a member of PCMEG but he was not in charge of the unit at the time.
As a result of the internal investigation of PCMEG, Balon disciplined three Porter County officers and a fourth was disciplined by the Portage Police Department.
Additionally, according to Balon’s written statement, he instituted anti-bullying and anti-sexual harassment training for all sheriff’s department employees – something he found out wasn’t taking place through the internal investigation – and employees receive refresher training every three years.
He said he also created a policy that forbids bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace and appointed a member of his command staff as the commander of the PCMEG to oversee the unit’s daily operations and communicate regularly about the status of the PCMEG. Balon calls the measure the “Culture Change Initiative.”
“In addition to the mandated training and a new updated policy, I have created a culture of inclusion and openness which does not tolerate any form of sexual harassment in the workplace,” Balon said in his statement, adding he also ensured that supervisors receive proper training and understand that any form of harassment is to be taken serious and to be reported to division commanders immediately.
Balon said in his statement that he also appointed a formal internal affairs investigator to his command staff who reports directly to him and specifically investigates such complaints or other major allegations.
“The type of behavior that took place in the PCMEG is not acceptable nor will it be tolerated at the Porter County Sheriff’s Office,” Balon said in his statement.
Though the woman initially approached Balon, she said she asked that he keep her allegations to himself. She hoped to stay on PCMEG and also hoped that, if Balon were elected sheriff, she could stick things out until he made changes to the task force since he would be overseeing it as sheriff.
Between what was going on with the task force and other personal matters, the woman decided she couldn’t remain on the task force any longer and submitted her resignation to Balon.
“It was too much,” she said. “It was so hard for me to give up this position that I had wanted for so long.”
The woman is still with the Valparaiso Police Department working as a patrol officer, as she was before her brief tenure with PCMEG. She has applied twice for promotion to detective and so far has been unsuccessful but remains committed to her career.
“People who do the right thing should stay in the profession, not the people who do the wrong thing,” she said. “I shouldn’t have to quit because people have a bias against me. They don’t deserve to win on that.”
Meisenholder, with the 30×30 Initiative, said some harassment victims leave departments because of how they’re treated while others, like the Valparaiso officer, stay because they love their careers and face giving up pensions and seniority if they move on.
Other women in policing also may go along with their male counterparts’ harassment of other women on the force rather than stepping up to prevent it, she said.
While the 30×30 Initiative’s ultimate goal is to increase the representation of women in law enforcement, the organization doesn’t want to see women brought into positions that aren’t a good fit.
“We’re well aware that increasing representation is not going to solve all the problems in police departments,” Meisenholder said, but perhaps if more women have jobs in law enforcement, they will be more likely to speak out when they are the victims of harassment.
One of the keys to combating harassment, she said, is making sure departments have policies in place against it, and for leaders in those departments to listen to the women who work there.
“Maybe from this situation, some actual change will take place,” Meisenholder said.
Four officers disciplined
Following are descriptions from the internal investigation report of the roles of the four officers in harassing the Valparaiso officer while she was on PCMEG, and the disciplinary action they faced from their respective departments. All of them declined the opportunity to comment.
*According to the report, Bryan Slatton, a master patrol officer with the Portage Police Department, admitted that he had sent a picture of his genitals in a group text to PCMEG’s seven members, and also admitted to making racist jokes, as well as “joking around” with the woman despite her discomfort.
Slatton was also asked about “why he gave her so much grief and (if that) was his way of getting her to quit and he advised it was.”
Slatton, according to the response to a public records request to Edward Graham, the Portage city attorney, agreed to remove his name from the promotional list through Jan. 1, 2024; agreed to attend a minimum of three employee assistance program sessions performed by a representative from a healthcare system; attend diversity and sensitivity training “and any other topics the instructor deems necessary;” and to be temporarily removed from the SWAT unit until he completed his EAP and sensitivity training.
Per Portage Police Chief Michael Candiano, Slatton could not respond to a request for comment from the Post-Tribune because of internal department policy regarding the media.
*The report identified Murray as a sheriff’s sergeant and commander of PCMEG at the time of the woman’s allegations. In the report, he admitted he asked the woman the questions during her job interview.
“Det. Murray attempted to justify the questioning by advising they ask them to see how that potential candidate would fit in the group,” the investigation noted.
He also, per the investigation, “advised that everyone would make jokes toward (the woman) due to her being socially awkward” and that Slatton was not the only one.
“Det. Murray was asked about (the woman’s) complaint about harassment and the constant jokes and he advised he did notice it and addressed the group a few times. Det. Murray advised that after addressing the group he felt as though the group heeded his orders.”
Murray, according to a public records request response from McClure, the county attorney, was reassigned to the patrol division and removed as commander of the PCMEG “due to his lack of leadership and action due to this investigation. He was later reassigned as a result of disciplinary actions due to a separate incident, but as progressive discipline in part because of this investigation.”
Murray, who was demoted to a first-class patrolman in the disciplinary action taken against him by the sheriff’s department, also received a letter of reprimand and had to undergo sexual harassment training, according to McClure.
*Sheriff’s Cpl. Joshua Crayne was given a letter of reprimand, removed from PCMEG and reassigned to the patrol division, and ordered to partake in sexual harassment training as a result of the investigation, according to the information provided by McClure.
Crayne, according to the report, also participated in joking with the woman, among other allegations.
“(An investigator) asked Crayne about making comments about her underwear and he admitted to making the comment. I asked him if he remembered making any comments about her skinny jeans and he advised he may have made the comment about her skinny jeans but doesn’t remember,” the report stated.
*Porter County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Meredith Brockman also was named in the internal investigation as a member of PCMEG. She was voluntarily reassigned on July 1 to a new traffic unit and was given a letter of reprimand and ordered to participate in sexual harassment training as part of the disciplinary action taken against her, according to McClure.
“Det. Brockman advised that she could tell that (the woman) was not all that happy and could tell the jokes weren’t welcome,” the report notes of the officers’ actions during an Indiana Drug Enforcement Agency conference in Indianapolis in February 2022. “Det. Brockman advised she made no attempt to stop Slatton or Crayne from continuing their behavior towards (the woman). Det. Brockman stated she was laughing at most of the jokes.”
The three Porter County officers declined to respond publicly to a request for comment about their actions and the subsequent investigation, according to an email from Balon.
None of the officers contested the disciplinary actions taken against them, according to McClure.
alavalley@chicagotribune.com
