Investigation: NC town council member fostered ‘pervasive fear’ in police department
The Pineville Town Council on Tuesday voted to censure one of its members, including barring interaction with town staff without supervision, following an investigation into interference with the Pineville Police Department.
The third-party investigation “revealed serious questions and evidence” about councilman Les Gladden intimidating staff and interfering with personnel management at the police department, the investigation found. That included pushing the department to hire an officer who had a history of drug abuse and eventually intervening when that officer reportedly drove his cruiser drunk while on duty, according to the town’s summary of the investigation.
His intervention and interaction with other officers fostered a sense of fear within the department, according to the town’s summary. The officers involved in the investigation were not named in the summary, which is available for public view on the Pineville government’s website.
What the censure does
The censure takes several actions.
▪ It prohibits Gladden from entering the police station without supervision of the town manager. If Gladden enters the building without Town Manager Ryan Spitzer, it will be considered trespassing.
▪ Prevents him from “using language and verbal communication in public that disparages the Police Chief and Police Officers of the Town of Pineville.”
▪ Restricts him from meeting with town department heads without the supervision of the town manager.
▪ Restricts him from communicating with any town employee except the town manager, or taking any action that could be interpreted as attempting to interfere with personnel matters.
“None of this is taken lightly,” Mayor John “Jack” Edwards said during Tuesday’s meeting.
Gladden was not at the meeting and did not respond to a request for comment.
The censure went into effect immediately and continues through the end of Gladden’s term. If he violates the terms of the censure, the council will attempt to remove him from office, the censure states.
The Charlotte Observer could not immediately verify what pathways might be available for the council to remove Gladden from office.
Edwards and the three other members of council approved the measure unanimously.
The censure says the “highest and best corrective” for elected officials is the ballot box, but “in some instances behavior is so egregious that a response is needed and deserved by the public.”
Details of the investigation
The investigation was performed by US ISS Agency, LLC. The company first met with Spitzer June 9 and began interviews June 14, according to the town summary of the investigation.
It interviewed 30 current and former employees, including Gladden, and reviewed documents, videos and text messages in its investigation.
The group found Gladden pushed the department to hire an officer, called Officer 1, despite knowing about the officer’s history of drug abuse.
When that officer was eventually placed on leave, Gladden met another officer, Officer 3, at his or her home. Gladden told Officer 3 to not side with his or her superior officer, who was in charge of discipline. Gladden told Officer 3 the superior officer “was going down” and was “not long for this world,” according to the town’s summary.
Officer 3 was in fear of losing his livelihood, the summary found.
Gladden told another officer, called Officer 5, he hoped to get their superior fired. He called another officer, Officer 6, “a whore” and another one, Officer 7, “stupid.”
When Officer 1 reportedly drove his police cruiser drunk to a SWAT demonstration while on duty, Gladden intervened in order to minimize punishment. The investigation found Officer 1 was protected from appropriate punishment and that Gladden fostered “a pervasive fear of retaliation.”
This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 9:36 AM.
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