UPDATE: The City of Elsmere released a statement on Wednesday challenging Maier’s account of things. It has been integrated into the brief below.
Joe Maier, the former police chief the Elsmere Police Department, filed suit against the City of Elsmere on Monday, alleging wrongful termination and seeking recompense for lost wages, emotional distress as well as punitive damages.
Maier was terminated on Aug. 2, 2023.
Court documents allege that Maier was fired after uncovering unethical behavior on the part of one of the city’s officers.
The suit says that Maier was informed by one his detectives, Eric Higgins, who’s known in the region for his work on human trafficking, that Elsmere Sergeant Alexis Day was having inappropriate contact with a parolee, Ryan Hill. Hill was convicted in April of 2023 after attempting to procure sex online from someone he believed to be a 15-year old girl.
The suit says that Maier launched an internal investigation to find out if this was true. He reviewed Day’s cell phone records and found she’d been corresponding repeatedly with Hill while on duty. She was also sending lewd photos of herself to Hill, the suit alleges. A press release from Maier’s attorney stated that Day had communicated with Hill “over 3,845 times.”
Maier also pulled the records from the electronic location tracker on Day’s police cruiser and found that it had traveled to Hill’s address while Day was on duty.
Maier’s suit alleges that he repeatedly emailed and phoned these issues to Mayor Marty Lenhof in an effort to begin disciplinary action. “Lenhof never responded to Maier’s email requests and suspiciously made himself unavailable,” court documents state.
Finally, on July 31, 2023 at around 11 a.m., the suit says, Maier took matters into his own hands and informed Day she was under investigation and that discipline was forthcoming.
The same day, Day went into City Attorney Greg Voss’ office. The suit names former City Administrator Matthew Dowling as witness to this.
At 3 p.m. Maier was ordered into Lenhof’s office. The suit states that Maier was offered one month’s severance pay to resign. He declined and was fired on Aug. 2.
The termination letter sent to Maier is included in the court documents (you can read it as well as a portion of Maier’s employment contract here). It characterizes Maier’s tutelage of the department as shoddy and Maier himself as “insubordinate.”
In addition to several decisions related to department operations, a failure to report a shooting in the Heartland Point Neighborhood and his initiation of disciplinary measures without Lenhof’s input are cited as reasons for his termination. Although the personnel matters mentioned are described as being of “extreme significance,” it does not state directly that they were related to Day.
On Wednesday, the City of Elsmere released a brief statement challenging Maier’s allegations.
“The premise of the lawsuit is completely unfounded,” the statement reads, adding that it had no interest in litigating the matter in the media.
“We look forward to vigorously defending the mayor and the city,” the statement goes on to say. “The city will have no further comment at this time.”
Read the full court documentation below. This is a developing story, and LINK nky will report on it as information becomes available.