ST. LOUIS - A St. Charles County man sued the county, its police department and officials for alleged retaliation and wrongful termination, according to documents filed on March 10 in St. Louis federal court.
Other defendants are the St. Charles County Chief of Police, the St. Charles County Police Captain of the Internal Affairs Division and the St. Charles County Police Operations Administrator
Plaintiff Dave Adams was a police officer for the St. Charles County Police Department for 16 years and had an exemplary work history, the lawsuit said.
In October 2019, Adams was assigned to patrol Kisker Road Park. Adams left his post for about 30 minutes to meet a woman at a park about five minutes away.
Adams was followed by a different member of the department to the meeting with the woman, and an Internal Affairs investigation was opened, the suit says.
The Captain of Internal Affairs, defendant Christopher Hunt, called the plaintiff into a meeting after the investigation had been completed. Hunt allegedly requested access to Adams' phone and was asked to undergo a polygraph test in regard to his relationship with the woman.
Adams was allegedly denied an opportunity to contact a union attorney and was falsely accused of assault by an officer at the meeting who allegedly tried to prevent Adams from leaving the room to contact his attorney.
Adams was placed on administrative leave and resigned six months later. He accuses the defendants of subjecting him to a termination for an issue that non-union officers would at most receive a one-day suspension for, citing a long history of non-union members receiving lax or special treatment.
The defendants are sued with one count of retaliation for exercise of First Amendment and one count of wrongful termination. A trial jury is demanded and the plaintiff is represented by Spector, Wolfe, McLaughlin and O'Mara LLC of Kirkwood.