In an emotional Wellington City Council meeting on Friday evening, the council decided in a 3-2 vote to terminate Wellington City Police Chief Rory Bradley on the basis of retaliation against co-workers. Residents were able to attend in person as well as via Zoom conference and Facebook Live.

City Attorney John Schindler laid out the case against Bradley, who was originally placed on leave in March, and then suspended without pay as of April 1. Schindler started the meeting by asking Bradley’s attorney Nate Nelson if they would like to go forward with a public meeting or if they would like an executive session that would be closed to the public. After deliberation Bradley chose to go with a public meeting.

Schindler then began to read the Notice of Intent to Discipline from the Wellington City Council: “Notice is hereby given that Wellington City intends to formally discipline you by terminating your employment with Wellington City effective immediately. This notice of intent does not constitute a formal disciplinary action but outlines the reason that Wellington City intends to take disciplinary action against you”, Schindler stated.

Mr. Schindler then went into detail over the next half hour discussing incidents between Mr. Bradley and a female employee of Wellington City.

In September of 2019, the employee alleged that while attending a sexual harassment seminar Mr. Bradley touched her inappropriately and swatted her on the backside.

In March of 2020, in text messages between Mr. Bradley and the employee there was mention by the employee of a “package” to which Bradley replied, “Don’t talk about my package.” Bradley acknowledged that it was him that sent the text message. Other texts that were sent between the two of them in May, June, July and October of 2020 were read as part of the disciplinary action. Two of the text messages requested nude pictures of the employee. Bradley also acknowledged that those texts were sent by him.

Also in October of 2020 the employee alleged that she ran into Bradley at the Wal-Mart parking lot and when she rolled down her window the employee stated that Mr. Bradley said he wanted her to “flash him”.

In December of 2020, Mr. Bradley swatted the employee on the backside with a stack of papers and then placed her in a headlock in the Wellington City Offices. The actions were brought to the attention of Mayor Paula Noyes, who placed Bradley on probation and placed stipulations on him as part of the disciplinary action that took place on January 26, 2021. A complaint was sent to Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) on or about February 2.

Schindler then went on to lay out the city’s case for retaliation, reading from three separate letters that Bradley had sent to Mayor Noyes about the conduct of some of the personnel in the Wellington City offices. All letters were sent in February of 2021

The first letter that was submitted concerned the employee that the text messages were regarding. Bradley reported that the employee was hired to work for both the city offices and perform some work in the police department. She attended the paid training about inputting policy data in the National database, even having finger prints done and was given proper credentials to do the task. She continued to do the task for a few months and then stopped, not telling the mayor or Mr. Bradley. He also detailed how many times she would be sitting at her desk watching Netflix on city computers or playing on her phone.

Bradley also stated that in December of 2020 at a “Meet Santa Night”, he was dressed as the Grinch and the employee touched him inappropriately. He also claimed that she came on to him and when he denied her advances she vowed retaliation.

Another claim that Bradley made was that the employee turned the camera down and away from the petty cash drawer. He went on to talk about a resident who had paid her account with a check and paid the rest with cash, and that the cash was not applied to her account. Mr. Schindler then read the results of the investigation to his claims and all were ruled as unsubstantiated or false and retaliation.

In the next letter Bradley spoke of issues he had with the Wellington City treasurer. The first incident was in response to the employee speaking to the mayor about Bradley tailgating and following her in his patrol car. He then went on to talk about being locked out of city offices and her also leaving personal information (paychecks) sitting out in view. After reading through the letter, Schindler stated that all statements contained in it were unfounded, unsubstantiated or false and were considered retaliation.

In Bradley’s final letter to the mayor he discussed the Wellington City recorder. In the letter Bradley stated that the recorder makes it difficult for him to perform his job by removing his access to view the Wellington City camera system, and making false statements about the police department to other employees. He also stated that she takes long lunches, shows up late and comes and goes as she sees fit. All the complaints in this letter were concluded to be unfounded, unsubstantiated or false and considered retaliation.

After the city attorney talked, Mr. Bradley’s attorney Noah Nelson took the podium to speak. He openly condemned Bradley’s actions and started off by saying that policy at Wellington City for any employee that receives a notice of intent is that employee gets 10 days to prepare for the hearing and that in essence he was given less than one day to prepare for this.

“I’m not saying that it’s the correct way and I’m not dismissing my clients behavior, but what I’m saying is it’s being taken out of context, what you don’t have in the Notice of Intent to Discipline is her side. You don’t know what she is saying to any of that”, said Nelson.

Nelson went on to point out that after the initial investigation when Bradley was put on probation, all of that was put to bed and the all the issues were dealt with. Bradley then started to have issues with the front office at the city and he felt the only way he could remedy the issues was by sending letters to the mayor, the employees supervisor. Nelson then stated that since Bradley was not their supervisor, and since no disciplinary action had been taken against the front office employees, they can not claim that it was retaliation.

At this point, members of the community who were in attendance started to voice their opinions and were told that no public comments would be allowed at this time.

When Mr. Nelson concluded, Mr. Bradley spoke to those on hand first apologizing for what he did and admitting that he had done something wrong and that he is a better person than that. He went on to say he had made a mistake and asked the council to have an open mind stating he is not a perfect person and just wants another chance.

Before they put it to a vote Nelson stated that he was concerned because one council member, Garritt Pell was not there because of work reasons. And requested that the decision be made at a different time when all members could be present.

Mayor Noyes then called for a council member to make the motion.

Council member Bethany Perea made a motion to terminate Bradley on the grounds of retaliation. When the vote was taken, council members Perea and Glen Wells voted for termination, and Bradley and Dirk Bradley both voted against. The mayor then voted to break the tie, ending Bradley’s employment by Wellington City.