{"id":21479,"date":"2019-07-07T12:47:04","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T16:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flightsafetynet.com\/?p=21479"},"modified":"2019-07-08T05:53:24","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T09:53:24","slug":"cops-and-dispatchers-sex-scandal-leaves-city-forever-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flightsafetynet.com\/cops-and-dispatchers-sex-scandal-leaves-city-forever-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"Cops and Dispatchers Sex Scandal Leaves City Forever Changed"},"content":{"rendered":"

MAULDIN, SC<\/strong> \u2014 The letter that would go on to rock this Upstate city\u2019s police department arrived unsigned and addressed to a longtime city police captain.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As reported by the Post and Courrier<\/a>, a Mauldin dispatcher and three married officers were \u201csleeping with\u201d each other or \u201cjust messing around,\u201d the writer said. Someone had even accidentally walked in on the dispatcher and one of the officers at work, the letter said, \u201cwhich is absolutely disgusting and uncalled for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naming names and suggesting leads, the writer left it up to the captain to pursue the salacious allegations in the January letter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s proof, you just need to look for it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The letter, and the subsequent firings and resignations of five officers and two dispatchers from the Mauldin Police Department, were made public last month, bringing unwanted headlines to this suburb of Greenville that is home to 25,000 people.<\/p>\n

A department investigation found that the officers and dispatchers were taking part in \u201cinappropriate sexual activities\u201d while they were on duty and on city property, city officials said. The acts were consensual and occurred over several years. Two people involved, a police officer and dispatcher, were not \u201ctruthful during the investigation\u201d and were fired for misconduct, according to the city.<\/p>\n

City officials asked the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate, but the agency declined the request after discussing it internally and with local prosecutors, a SLED spokesman said. That\u2019s left Mauldin officials with the task of moving on as they try to fill the open positions caused by losing more than 10 percent of its police force.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the inappropriate actions of seven city employees has garnered a great deal of attention we should not overlook all the other dedicated, professional employees across all departments in the city that continue to provide excellent customer service in their daily routines,\u201d Mauldin City Administrator Brandon Madden said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe city values the members of its hardworking police department.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the scandal has generated crude jokes and frustration with the department on social media. One woman recently commented on the police department\u2019s Facebook page: \u201cYou haven\u2019t made any posts the entire month of June. Did your social media person get fired as well?\u201d the woman wrote. \u201cGive us Mauldin residents a update on what\u2019s going on now in our town please & thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite those and other comments, several\u00a0local residents interviewed last week said they weren\u2019t aware of or weren\u2019t closely following what had happened. When the police department broke its Facebook silence with a message ahead of the July 4th holiday, users shared supportive and positive words.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for all you do,\u201d one woman wrote.<\/p>\n

Reduced force<\/h4>\n

When applying for a Mauldin police officer job in 2014, Christian Balsiger was asked what he would do if a colleague, of the opposite sex, asked him to come over to her apartment to discuss training and get to know each other.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d been married for a couple of years then, he said, and he would not compromise his integrity or do anything that would let the relationship go from professional to inappropriate, according to notes an evaluator wrote.<\/p>\n

Balsiger, however, was among four department officers found to have been \u201cinvolved in inappropriate sexual activities\u201d with dispatcher Calandra Dawson, according to details put out by city officials. The other officers were identified as\u00a0Christopher McHone, Kyle Quin and LaQuendin Counts.<\/p>\n

Officers Quin, Counts and Adam Lawrence were all involved in similar activity with dispatcher Amy Ketchum, the city said. All of the officers and dispatchers were in their 20s and 30s, records show.<\/p>\n

Balsiger and Quin declined to comment. Efforts to reach the other former employees were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

Counts, who received the city\u2019s 2017 officer of the year award, and Dawson were interviewed at least twice during the investigation and were found to be dishonest, according to records provided by the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy. Both were fired on June 4. The remaining five employees resigned the same day.<\/p>\n

Mauldin isn\u2019t the only police agency in the Upstate, or South Carolina, that has faced a scandal in recent months.<\/p>\n

In March, a\u00a0grand jury indicted suspended Greenville County Sheriff Will Lewis\u00a0on charges that he abused the \u201cpower and authority of his office for the corrupt purpose of pursuing or facilitating an adulterous relationship,\u201d illegally disposed of seized assets and intimidated employees who were potential witnesses in an investigation into his conduct, among other allegations.<\/p>\n

The charges were just the latest in a string of scandals involving South Carolina sheriffs, which was detailed in a\u00a0Post and Courier investigation this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n

[divider style=”10″]<\/p>\n

Interested in learning more about how to get started as a Flight Medic, Flight Nurse or EMS Pilot?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Join our Future Flight Crew Private Facebook Group. Answer 3 simple questions to join, takes less than a minute.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CLICK THE BANNER to Sign Up:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[arrows style=”arrow-red-11.png” align=”left”]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MAULDIN, SC \u2014 The letter that would go on to rock this Upstate city\u2019s police department arrived unsigned and addressed to a longtime city police captain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":621,"featured_media":21491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[654,51,48],"yst_prominent_words":[262,1525,190,1099,717,1528,1524,448,1521,1522,1527,590,1526,277,299,577,1529,1530,409,1531],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flightsafetynet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21479"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flightsafetynet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flightsafetynet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flightsafetynet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/621"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flightsafetynet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flightsafetynet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flightsafetynet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flightsafetynet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flightsafetynet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flightsafetynet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21479"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flightsafetynet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}