Politics & Government

Shelby Police Lieutenant's Report Outlines Complaint Against Township Supervisor

The Shelby Township Board of Trustees dismissed a harassment complaint filed by a high-ranking Shelby Township police officer against Supervisor Rick Stathakis, accusing him of bizarre behavior during an unexpected conversation. Read the full report on Pa

A Shelby Township police lieutenant describes a bizarre midnight encounter with the township supervisor in which he unexpectedly berated her inside the police station, according to a harassment report obtained by Patch Thursday under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Shelby Township Board of Trustees agreed during a closed-door session Tuesday evening to dismiss Lt. Virginia Kovalcik's Dec. 7 harassment complaint against Rick Stathakis.

After reviewing the lieutenant’s complaint and subsequent report submitted by Shelby’s labor relation’s attorney, Craig Lange, the Board found the complaint “unfounded.”

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Stathakis said he dismissed himself from the closed-door session.

Kovalcik submitted a written complaint to Capt. Roland Woelkers hours after the encounter occurred.

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In her report, Kovalcik stated that Stathakis came to the station unexpectedly just after midnight, and since the officer stationed at the front desk was gone, Stathakis let himself into the police department through an unlocked door in the police records department.

The report said Stathakis followed Kovalcik back to the lieutenant’s office and sat in a chair opposite her and started asking her questions.

“It became obvious that Mr. Stathakis wanted to have a ‘regular’ conversation, so I turned to face him and started answering a series of questions he put me to,” said Kovalcik in the report.

The lieutenant said the questions ranged in nature from personal, about her family, to how the morale at the police department had been.

Kovalcik openly discussed her opinion on why morale was low, suggesting the Township has a very “non-police friendly board.” She went on to make comparisons of unfair treatment the police department received over the fire department.

At one point in the conversation, Kovalcik asked Stathakis to clarify a rumor. She asked Stathakis if it was true that he attended a holiday party the fire department last year -- which included the entire force -- at one of the stations and even brought cookies.

Earlier this year, Stathakis expressed in a letter to Human Resources that he reprimanded former Police Chief Robert Leman for allowing the entire department to attend a breakfast because all the officers were off the streets.

Stathakis was quoted in Kovalcik's report as sounding “uncomforatable” about the accusations, and further explained that not all the firefighters were present and he unexpectedly dropped in during the party.

“…Then he went on about how his daughter had made a batch of cookies and they had brought some here to the police station and then on to the fire station,” Kovalcik stated.” I was sitting in my chair listening and I could tell Mr. Stathakis was getting uncomfortable talking about the incident.” 

Kovalcik said within an instance, Stathakis began yelling, accusing the Lieutenant of bringing his daughter into the coversation. When Kovalcik assured Stathakis she never mentioned his daughter, the Supervisor got out of his chair, took two steps closer to the officer, and pointed his finger at her, the complaint states.

“He seemed to just snap, accusing me out of nowhere of 'dragging' his daughter into this (whatever this was, and I never even knew he had a daughter), such as I have observed a manic person do many times over my 25+ years of law enforcement,” said Kovalcik in the report.

Stathakis continued to argue with Kovalcik as he headed for the door, the report states.

Kovalcik said Stathakis' behavior continued to “through her off” because he started making jokes on the way out about her just being upset because she didn’t get any cookies.

“At that moment, I began to wonder if Mr. Stathakis was having some kind of breakdown. … “The whole incident was very bizarre,” she added.

Kovalcik said the incident caused her to feel threatened, harassed and physically intimidated.

"What I witnessed tonight leads me to believe Mr. Stathakis either has some very serious anger issues or has some other ulteriour motive that caused him to jump into these false allegations me and to sidetrack the real issue at hand and accuse me of inappropriate behavior," said Kovalcik.

Lange said in his report that while reviewing police video surveillance there was no indication that Kovalcik appeared to be threatened by Stathakis because the two walked side-by-side toward the door as Stathakis exited.

“It’s my conclusion that Supervisor Stathakis’ interaction with Lt. Kovalcik does not evidence a violation of the Township’s (harassment) policy,” said Lange.


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