Erie's fired police chief sues township

Erie Township's former police chief has filed a federal lawsuit against the municipality claiming his right to due process was violated and he was discriminated against due to his age when he was terminated last July.

Attorneys representing Dean Ansel, 58, filed the 17-page lawsuit on May 23 in the Unites States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan - Southern Division.

Ansel, who has over 30 years of law enforcement experience across Monroe County, alleges that township officials conspired to oust him after he filed a formal complaint regarding what he says were unsafe working conditions at the township hall that led to the back and neck injuries he suffered while on the job in June 2019, and that kept him on medical leave up through his termination.

In the incident, Ansel fell down a flight of stairs inside the township hall while he was carrying a box of copier paper. He subsequently filed a complaint with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) saying the stairway was illegal due to its improper hand railings, and the fact that the downstairs police department was not handicap accessible.

Ansel said that he understands the stairs have since been made safe, and he added that he was required to drop his complaint with LARA in order for him to file the federal lawsuit. He also dropped an age discrimination complaint he filed with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights against the township for the same reason.

"I guess either you handle things through the state, or go through the federal (level)," Ansel said. "If you handle it through the state, you have to cut through a lot of red tape. So ultimately, you've got to go the federal route."

The township’s board of trustees voted unanimously last July to terminate Ansel’s contract and appoint Officer Tim Ames as interim chief.

Ansel — who joined the township as an officer in 2007 before becoming chief in 2013 — told The Monroe News at the time that he received a letter from Township Attorney Phil Goldsmith inviting him to the board meeting to discuss his contract and look at possibly dissolving it.

Ansel said the letter told him he could bring an attorney to the meeting, which he did. It also said he’d have the option to request the board go into closed session to discuss his contract, which he chose not to take advantage of when given the chance by Goldsmith during the meeting.

The board then voted to terminate Ansel's contract without giving him or his attorney a chance to speak further on the matter.

"When they fired me, they didn't go through due process," Ansel said. "They just moved right into the vote to fire me."

The suit says that about a month before Ansel's termination, he met with the township's personnel committee, which consisted of Goldsmith, Supervisor Gary Wilmoth and Trustee Paul Perry. At that meeting, Goldsmith read from a typed, two-page letter to Ansel that listed several alleged policy violations that the attorney reportedly said were brought to the township's attention by interim Police Chief Dave Meyer, who served in that capacity during a portion of Ansel's medical leave. The events Goldsmith referenced allegedly took place before Ansel's work-related injury and the commencement of his leave of absence resulting from that incident.

Ansel told The Monroe News that the alleged policy violations "were made up" and "are trumped up and taken out of context." Goldsmith declined to provide The Monroe News with a copy of these violations, citing attorney-client privilege.

In the suit, township officials are also accused of encouraging an environment in which younger police officers would circumvent Ansel and go directly to them with departmental issues. In addition, they allegedly peppered their police chief with derogatory comments about his age throughout his eight-year tenure leading the department.

"Part of the sad thing is I was always fighting township officials for more police protection, for later hours, for more hours," Ansel said. "Since I've left, they've cut the protection almost in half; they've doubled the staff but they've cut the protection in half. They've got a police chief now who is part-time and does not take any calls, and then they've got guys working Mondays through Fridays, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., which makes no sense, and then weekends they have no coverage..."

Speaking on behalf of the township, Goldsmith declined to comment on the lawsuit beyond saying that it "will be vigorously defended and the allegations raised will be addressed throughout discovery and in the courtroom."

The lawsuit says that Ansel is seeking "back and front pay for damages for lost earnings in the amount he would have earned, with interest, from the date that he last worked and continuing; an award for compensatory damages sufficient to compensate him for his mental anguish and emotional distress, loss of health, embarrassment and humiliation, and damage to his professional reputation as a result of (the township's) actions; ...(and) punitive damages against (the township) as a result of the reckless indifference with which (the township) violated (Ansel's) right to due process of law."

Ansel said that he still lives with the injuries sustained in his fall down the stairs at the township hall. He says he has struggled to find any doctors willing to treat the ailments after losing his health insurance upon termination, due to the trauma being related to a worker's compensation case.

Beyond that, Ansel said he has become a recluse, traumatized by the entire saga and embarrassed to be seen in public for fear of being recognized by the residents he once served.

"I just don't want to run into people and have to share this story, and be looked at as tainted material, a disgrace," he said. "People say 'Well they must have fired you for some reason, they had to have a reason to fire you.' They didn't, other than the Michigan at-will employee (law). But everything they did, everything they said, everything I have recorded, it does boil down to age discrimination."

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Erie's fired police chief sues township