NIU Police Chief Don Grady was fired yesterday, February 19th, 2013. The dismissal comes more than three months after he was put on paid leave for his department’s alleged misconduct in a high profile rape case brought against one of his officers and five months after he asked the FBI for help investigating university finances, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“The university’s decision to dismiss Grady was made after an administrative evaluation, which included a review of the (alleged rape case), NIU police department records and Grady’s internal pre-termination hearing earlier this month,” according to an NIU news release.
In a letter dated Tuesday, February 19th from NIU’s Acting Director of Public Safety Bill Nicklas, Grady is told his contract is being terminated because of his mismanagement of the case against former NIU police officer Andrew Rifkin. Specifically, Grady is accused of not handing over evidence and not properly supervising his department. In the dismissal letter to Grady, Nicklas writes “…your credibility and the credibility of the Department has been compromised to the extent the University believes termination is appropriate.”
Grady’s attorney Michael Fox has told the Chicago Tribune that he plans to appeal the dismissal and can prove the allegations against Grady are baseless. As NIU’s police chief, Grady was earning more than $206,000 per year.
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4 Comments
At some point between this case, the “coffee fund” and stories of at least unauthorized use of government property by employees paid enough to know better there was supposed to be a state police investigation, or so I thought. The public deserves to review a full report from an independent investigation. If the police officer who had the evidence in his possession has not been fired he should be. But so should have Grady. The buck for such a grievous error must stop only after it has made its cut at the very top.
Mac, I completely agree with you. When we only look at one hand, without looking at the entire hand, we come up with not only a different result, but an inaccurate result at that. For example, and another case in point is the claim Chief Grady threatened and bribed the NIU, Northern Star student editor in chief. This has been stated and restated as fact, and by the media. The State Police and an independent review panel, two separate investigations, found that the student lied. Yet, the media, journalists who also have a code of ethics, continually repeat the bogus allegations, the lies, as fact. That, in turn, is continually repeated by average citizens as fact.
Taking a colorless look at the facts, a judge ruled that evidence deliberately withheld from the courts was cause for the dismissal of rape charges against a member of the NIU Police Department. The police chief and any other officer or staff member involved or with knowledge that evidence was being withheld should be terminated. End of story.
But ex-Chief Grady’s written response to his termination letter reminds us that the public really doesn’t yet know what fully happened between the quotes of “The Coffee Fund.” Mea culpa for some but just not this one is beneath an institute of higher education. Or it should be.
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Race has been the only reason for Grady’s termination. Look at the facts. The police officer who had the evidence in his possession has not even been fired yet but because Grady was his boss he was fired?