The room was tense Wednesday night at the regular scheduled Washington Court House City Council meeting after the fight involving three off-duty city police officers was publicly revealed. The Guardian has also received a copy of a letter from City Manager Joe Denen addressed to city council that recommends the firing of one police officer and the suspension of another.
City councilor Caleb Johnson questioned city manager Joe Denen and police chief Brian Hottinger on the fight by asking a series of questions before being cut-off by city attorney Mark Pitstick and council chairman Jim Chrisman.
“It seemed to me you were conveying to council that it appeared to be a verbal fight, is that correct?” Johnson asked Denen. “Yes,” Denen replied.
“Is that what you were told entirely by the police department?” the city councilman asked.
“At that time, I not had the opportunity to look at the video; I since have. There is an ongoing disciplinary process with both police officers,” said Denen.
Johnson continued his line of questioning asking Denen if there had been a recommendation from the police chief and the city manager for what discipline, if any, would take place for the off-duty officers. Denen quipped back that the police chief has made recommendations. The city manager went on to say that he had met with one of the officers on Tuesday and plans to meet with another officer on Thursday.
In a letter exclusively obtained by the Guardian through a public records request, Denen says that Hottinger has recommended the employment termination of officer Logan George and a 3-day suspension of Sergeant Derek Pfeifer. You may recall, the Guardian broke the story last week that the two were involved in an off-duty fight after George was called names by two women who later went to Pfeifer’s house. George admitted to following them and questioning the women, and things escalated from there.
In the council meeting Wednesday night, things centered around evidence.
Johnson asked if any 9-1-1 calls existed for the June 22 fight, and before Denen could answer, the police chief spoke up and said the recording device for phone calls and police radio transmissions had been broken for two months; it has since been repaired, the chief said, but as a result of the broken equipment, no audio of 9-1-1 calls placed or any other audio files were available.
“That’s a lot of evidence not collected,” Johnson said as he shook his head in disappointment. Seconds later, chairman Chrisman interjected and attempted to shutdown Johnson’s line of questioning.
“Since we have one more hearing, we don’t want to talk too much about it [the fight],” Chrisman said, but Johnson was not done.
In the dashcam video of on-duty officers responding to the fight call, off-duty Pfeifer threatened on-duty Sergeant David Page with intimidation by invoking Hottinger’s name when Pfeifer was not getting the desired results of a police report, telling Page that he was going to call the police chief since Page was not doing what Pfeifer had asked.
Johnson asked Hottinger if Pfeifer, indeed, did call him, and the chief replied, “Yes, and so did the on-duty supervisor.” That’s when the city attorney, Mark Pistick spoke up and tried to shut Johnson down.
Pitstick said, “We don’t want to go on any further with this because we have an ongoing administrative hearing and we are jeopardizing any disciplinary action taken.”
The meeting progressed onto regularly scheduled items, but later in the meeting, during the portion reserved for council members to talk “freely,” Johnson brought the issue back up.
“I don’t like talking about police issues, I want to talk about the master gardeners…but sometimes bad things happen,” Johnson said. “Nobody is perfect, and I know our police officers try to be perfect, and they do a damn good job, but sometimes, we aren’t perfect, but you know what, I am thankful for the opportunity to look at how we can get more perfect.”
“I saw the video online like a lot of people….I saw a lack of respect for on-duty officers, I thought on-duty officers were not treated the way they should have been that night, from what I saw,” he said.
“In my own heart, I think Chief Hottinger; people online try to attack him, and I think he is a good public servant. I don’t like the fact that someone tried to use his name that night. That makes me more uncomfortable…it’s not right. None of the citizens from Washington Court House should have to put up with that crap.”
Johnson went on to say that he would have liked more information from the city manager and department heads, instead of learning more of the story on social media.
“I think in the future, we should think about more clear policies….better training we can go through….maybe we have a policy so people aren’t rushing to their cell phones calling you [the police chief] at night.”
Fellow councilwoman Kendra Redd-Hernandez spoke up and said that Johnson was told to be quiet by the city attorney and that he should listen to the legal advice.
“The reality is, I had a conversation with Mark, our city attorney….we are following [procedure] and it should not be discussed until that is finished,” she said. “So, really, no conversation should be happening and they told you that and you continue to do that, so I’m finding it disrespectful.”
“There is a lot more I could have commented on tonight, but I didn’t out of respect for the process. Everything talked about here tonight was a matter of public record available through official legal channels,” Johnson said to Hernadez as he rose his voice in a stern manner. “I want to make that clear: legal channels. It is a matter of public concern, and yeah, sometimes it’s more comfortable not to say anything.”
That’s when the meeting moved on and concluded a short time later.
This article was updated to reflect that the recording system inside the police department was broken for “two months” and not “a few weeks.”
