– Civil Service Commission hearing, Nagel testifies

Jamestown (CSi) A three member panel, was sworn in Wednesday morning, at the lower level meeting room at City Hall, as the Jamestown Civil Service Commission followed by an appeals hearing.

They include: Amie Aesoph, Kevin Gebhardt, and Jon Lillejord (Chairman)

The hearing stems from the termination of Jamestown Police officer Thomas Nagel.

He was represented at the public meeting by attorney Joe Larson, who gave opening statements.

Larson, said the case was about Facebook and how easily it could be hacked or manipulated.

Scott Forsberg, the attorney Representing the city of Jamestown, said the issue was not the Facebook page but about the deceptive way Nagel responded to questions about the incident.

A computer forensic examiner, Don Meinke testified that the information he had seen could not be verified as coming from a specific Facebook account.

Larson called five witnesses through the morning, including two polygraph experts who testified that Nagel truthfully answered “no” to questions about being the source of the information to KVLY News, Whistleblower segment or that the information was discussed with another officer or discussed by the Fraternal Order of Police.

During the afternoon session, called Nagel to the stand. Nagel testified that he had never told anyone that he knew who had made the anonymous tip or violated any JPD policies or the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics.

Nagel testified during rebuttal that the others were “confused” and everyone had been pointing a finger at him.

He said he hoped he could be reinstated to the Jamestown Police Department.

On the stand, Jamestown Police Chief Scott Edinger, testified that Nagel had told him and at least four other police officers that he knew who had sent the tip but would not tell them. Edinger said he also placed no value in lie detector testing.

City Attorney Leo Ryan, who served as counsel to the Civil Service Committee and presided over the hearing, said the committee can either affirm the termination, reinstate Nagel to who his former position or take any other action it deems justified.

Both sides of the case have one week to submit written closing arguments and a proposed finding of fact for the Civil Service Committee to consider. The committee will likely reconvene in about two weeks to deliberate and make a ruling.

Nagel was terminated on March 9, 2016, with letter of termination signed by Jamestown City Administrator Jeff Fuchs and Jamestown Mayor Katie Andersen. Andersen and Fuchs hold the “appointing authority” under the Jamestown Civil Service ordinance and was based their letter of termination and on Police Chief Scott Edinger’s and the review board’s recommendations.

The review board, consisting of four police officers and one private citizen, recommended terminating Nagel for violating 19 policies.

The termination resulted from internal investigations conducted by the Jamestown Police Department and the Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office after an anonymous tip was made to the KVLY Valley News Live Whistleblower Hotline alleging a sheriff’s deputy and the son of the sheriff were improperly using a Jet Ski owned by Stutsman County. Stutsman County does not own a Jet Ski, and the allegations were proven to be false. The investigations attempted to ascertain who made the allegations and if any violations of department policy or of the North Dakota Peace Officer’s Code of Conduct occurred.