Paris police officers suspended without pay; hearing scheduled for next week

Five Paris police officers who have been suspended without pay intend to challenge charges brought against them by the chief of that Central Kentucky department, their attorney said Wednesday.

A Paris City Commission hearing has been scheduled for Monday morning to hear allegations against Lt. Jon Luke Humphries, Lt. Robert Puckett, and officers James Primm, Kevin Anderson and Abdullah Bholat, said Lexington lawyer Luke Morgan.

A sixth officer, Lt. Michael Dempsey, resigned when he and the other five were suspended last week, Morgan said. The six represent between one-fourth and one-third of the Paris police force, he said.

Chief Rob Williams suspended the officers on charges of conduct unbecoming an officer, failure to conform to rules and regulations, insubordination, inefficiency, and dereliction of duty, Morgan said.

Williams could not be reached for comment Wednesday night. Mayor Michael Thornton said he could not comment on the matter.

“Essentially, it boils down to a claim that these officers spent too much time at the police station in the dispatch room,” Morgan said. “All of these officers work second or third shift, and the officers don’t deny that they were in dispatch. They are there because that’s a central location. It’s the police station. It’s a place where they can go fill out reports. It’s a place where they can be in the center of Paris and be able to respond quicker to a call.”

In December, a memo directed officers not to “hang out in dispatch,” Morgan said. From that time forward, the officers did not linger there.

“What the chief is doing here is going from zero discipline to termination of their employment,” Morgan said. “The policies and regulations of Paris city police are real clear and are consistent with best practices around the state and around the country that discipline should be progressive and not punitive, and should not be designed for the chief to get rid of people he doesn’t like.”

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 8:28 PM with the headline "Paris police officers suspended without pay; hearing scheduled for next week."