Metro Transit police official was demoted for violating gift policy; now working in St. Paul, she disputes findings

Mara H. Gottfried, Pioneer Press
·5 min read

At an event for a charitable organization a year ago, youth leaders were rewarded with laptop computers.

It was part of Seeds to Harvest Coalition’s focus on kids and community, but co-founder Brett Buckner says what happened after the event instead eroded efforts of trust-building between community, police and other institutions.

Metro Transit police launched an internal affairs investigation into the police department’s second-in-command, Brooke Blakey. She and Buckner say Blakey’s daughter, who was then 12, has been a Seeds to Harvest volunteer and was among the youth who received a laptop.

But a joint investigation by a Metro Transit police internal affairs sergeant and an external investigator concluded that Blakey violated the Metropolitan Council’s ethics policy about accepting gifts, according to a just-released internal affairs investigation. They say Blakey “received an indirect benefit,” in violation of the policy. Then-Police Chief Eddie Frizell demoted her two ranks from captain to officer.

Blakey’s attorney, A.L. Brown, says he sees more underlying the situation. Blakey was the first African-American woman to become a full-time Metro Transit police officer, and she wanted to have the option of applying to be the department’s police chief. Frizell was on his way to being named U.S. marshal for Minnesota.

Brown says the policy of the Met Council — of which Metro Transit is a division — was wrongly used to demote Blakey and besmirch her name.

“She had a spotless career with nothing but promotions in her record,” Brown said. “… It wouldn’t be difficult to conclude that they didn’t want a Black woman as chief.”

The internal affairs report says the union representing officers filed the complaint against Blakey, but specific officers aren’t named. The report says Metro Transit police staff who were at the event last August “recognized that Captain Blakey’s accepting a donated backpack and computer in light of the captain’s MTPD employment and the department’s partnership with Seeds to Harvest, is improper and a lapse in professional judgement by an MTPD Captain.”

Drew Kerr, Metro Transit police spokesman, said Monday that it’s the agency’s “responsibility to fully and fairly investigate any complaints involving staff, which is what happened in this instance.”

Blakey resigned from Metro Transit police in February. She said it was not because of the demotion, but because an opportunity arose and she believes in the mission. St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter appointed Blakey as director of St. Paul’s first Office of Neighborhood Safety.

COMPUTER RECIPIENTS

Blakey, the daughter of the late, longtime Minnesota State Fair Police Chief Art Blakey, previously was an investigator for the Ramsey County Public Defender’s Office and joined the Metro Transit Police Department in 2014. She became a sergeant and Frizell promoted her to captain in March 2021.

Last August, Blakey was in uniform, but off duty, when she attended a Seeds to Harvest community event in Minneapolis. She was representing Metro Transit police at the time, according to a summary in the internal affairs case.

At the event, Comcast was partnering with Seeds to Harvest to give 100 computer to “youth service leadership members,” the summary said.

Blakey’s daughter received a donated backpack that contained a Dell laptop “intended for underprivileged children (identified as youth leaders) participating in Seeds to Harvest events,” the summary said.

Brown said he told the internal affairs investigator that the laptops were not for “underprivileged kids.”

“Community service isn’t reserved for the underprivileged and it’s an insult to suggest otherwise,” Brown said.

Buckner of Seeds to Harvest said the laptops were for kids who participated in the program, which Blakey’s daughter did and still does.

He said he wrote an email to Frizell and tried calling to tell him that both Blakey’s child and another Metro Transit police staff member’s child properly received laptops for their community service, but he said he never heard back from the police department. The internal affairs summary referenced Buckner’s email.

Buckner said Monday that he believes “a political hatchet job” was done on Blakey, whom he called “a great leader and an officer who was helping bridge the gap between police and community at a very critical time.” The Seeds to Harvest Coalition started doing community service projects and volunteering with youth just before the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin.

SUSPENDED AND DEMOTED

Met Council code of ethics policy bars employees “from directly or indirectly receiving any compensation or gift for any activity related to their duties” according to the internal affairs summary. They are allowed to accept gifts or textbooks “of nominal value,” plaques or similar mementos, and some other items, which are described in policy.

Frizell wrote in a December letter to Blakey that he was suspending her for 160 hours and demoting her for policy violations in the August 2021 case and one from July 2021. He wrote, “Your actions surrounding these incidents leave me disappointed in your behavior.”

Last July, a citizen contacted Eagan police to report a police vehicle was in the Eagan Walmart parking lot. Eagan police informed Metro Transit police that Blakey’s “take-home” police vehicle was in the lot, and the Met Council also received an anonymous complaint about the matter, according to the internal affairs summary.

The internal affairs investigation found that Blakey violated department policy of off-duty use of her police vehicle “for a personal errand and to transport two family members,” according to the internal affairs summary.

REPORT JUST RELEASED

Blakey said she and her daughter continue to volunteer. After not speaking publicly during the internal affairs investigation because Blakey said she was “respecting the process,” she said Monday she wants to be able to clear her name in a situation in which she was wrongfully accused.

The information is becoming public now because Metro Transit released the internal affairs summary late Friday, after the Pioneer Press previously requested public information about the matter from the agency. KMSP-TV, which initially reported on the allegations last year, indicated it filed public records requests for nearly a year.

The Met Council requested an advisory opinion from the Minnesota Department of Administration about whether the case reached final disposition of a disciplinary action against a public employee, at which point information becomes public under state law. The administration department’s commissioner wrote in an opinion dated July 25 that the final disposition had been reached.

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