Lawsuit against former City of Alexander police chief moves forward

An appeal filed by former City of Alexander Police Chief Horace Walters has been denied by a three-member Federal appeals court in St. Louis. This ruling allows the civil rights lawsuit filed by former City of Alexander Assistant Police Chief Brad L. Williams to continue. The lawsuit stems from incidents involving a paycheck, police car lights and a contentious relationship between Walters, Williams and former Mayor Paul Mitchell.

In 2011 Williams was leaving the Alexander police force for another job. According to court documents Walters claims Williams purposely attempted to steal an extra paycheck and stole a set of blue police car lights from a locked storage area. Williams submitted his resignation on September 27, 2011. Walters charged Williams with "theft of city property" in December, 2011.

Williams lost the paycheck he received on September 3, 2010. Then Mayor Shirley Johnson approved issuing him a new check, which he cashed on September 8, 2010. About one year later the original check was found in a friend's car. Williams claims he did not realize the check was the one lost a year earlier. After cashing the check the error was discovered. The city council decided to not press charges and allow Williams to repay the city for cashing the extra check, which he did.

In the early summer of 2011 Williams borrowed a pair of blue lights from Tim Dudderar of the Saline County Sheriff's Department for a special assignment. Williams claims he discussed the plan with Chief Walters and received his approval.

After that Walters claims he told City of Alexander Police Officer Jeff Watson, "to locate a set of blue lights and install them into," the department's Dodge Durango. Officer Watson took the blue lights from Williams, who told him they belonged to Dudderar, and installed them on the Durango, court documents indicate.

Williams wrote Dudderar’s name on a piece of tape and put it on the lights. He then told Dudderar where he could retrieve the lights, which Dudderar eventually did. Williams contends Dudderar’s blue lights were the only blue lights ever in his possession, court documents state.

In his deposition Chief Walters claims Williams was involved in the disappearance of a second set of blue lights that were a gift to Alexander from the City of Benton. In court documents Chief Walters describes these blue lights as round and without serial numbers. However, according to court documents the transfer papers provided by the City of Benton that accompanied the lights did include serial numbers.

On December 20, 2011, Walters swore out an affidavit charging Williams with "Theft of Property" in regards to the cashing of the extra paycheck; four months after the city council decided to not press charges and allow Williams to repay the value of the extra paycheck. In the same warrant Williams was also charged with "Theft of Property" in regards to the police lights.

After Williams was arrested and spent a night in jail the new mayor, Paul Mitchell, had the prosecuting attorney drop the case because he knew it was part of a personal vendetta being perpetrated by Walters. Mitchell defeated Johnson in her attempted re-election in November 2010 and Williams was a supporter of Mitchell.

The appeal filed by Walters claims as a city official at the time he is entitled to qualified immunity from prosecution. According to the court ruling, "Because a reasonable official would understand that including false information in and omitting relevant information from an affidavit in an effort to punish someone for supporting one’s political opponent would constitute a violation of clearly established constitutional rights, Walters is not entitled to qualified immunity."