The commander of the Saint Joseph County Metro Homicide has been suspended for 5 days without pay following an investigation into a phone call made to a South Bend Police Department officer.
The Board of the County Metro Homicide Unit met Wednesday morning to talk about reports from a special investigator on an Officer's Report filed by South Bend Corporal Jack Stilp.
Stilp says Metro Homicide Commander Tim Corbett threatened him during an April phone call. A special investigator was appointed in June.
Prosecutor Michael Dvorak held a media conference to announce the board's findings Wednesday. "It was a personal verbal conversation by telephone that was not courteous, but it didn't call into question his (Corbett's) performance of what he's doing as a commander of the unit."
According to a disciplinary action notice from the Saint Joseph County Prosecutor's office, Corbett called Stilp on April 24 on what the report says was a personal matter. The notice says Corbett advised Stilp that Corbett could no longer perform free investigative work for Stilp and his wife. They then switched topics, which led to the incident in the Officer's Report.
According to the notice, Corbett acknowledged telling Stilp, "that I was tired of a couple of day shift m***** f***** running their sucks about us in roll call." He says he told Stilp, "if they keep it up that there would be some s*** coming down in the form of a law suit. I then told him I was not going to be f***** with."
The notice says Stilp filed the Officer's Report so his personnel file would contain Corbett's comments and Stilp's concerns about the County Metro Homicide Unit investigating anything, on duty or off, which Stilp could be involved with.
According to the Board of the County Metro Homicide Unit, the findings of the investigation found there is no indication the statements made by Corbett rose to the level of intimidation, harassment or a threat.
The Board does say Corbett's actions were a violation of County Policy #504, which deals with customer and public relations by county employees, leading to the 5 day suspension without pay.
This is not the first time Commander Corbett has been suspended. The notice says Corbett was suspended for one day following a July 2006 incident.
Complete Text of Saint Joseph County Policy #504
Policy Name: Customer and Public Relations
It is the policy of the County to be customer and public service oriented and to require employees to treat customers and citizens in a courteous and respectful manner at all times.
Policy:
All employees have an obligation to represent the County and their department in a positive fashion and to make customers and citizens feel as comfortable as possible in dealing with the County and its respective departments.
Employees with customer and citizen contact are expected to know and execute their responsibilities and to learn the wants and needs of customers and citizens they come in contact with.
Employees should be prepared to listen carefully to customer and citizen inquiries and complaints and then deal with them in a responsive, professional manner. If a controversy arises, the employee should attempt to explain County and department policies in a clear, yet concise manner. If a customer or citizen becomes unreasonable, abusive or harassing and the employee cannot resolve the problem, the customer or citizen should be referred to the employee's supervisor or manager. Also, employees are encouraged to report recurring customer-related problems to their supervisor and to make suggestions to solve problems they encounter.
