Affidavit: New details revealed in alleged info leak by Wichita police employee
Wichita police launched an investigation into an employee now charged with leaking classified information after hearing her name and confidential crime details mentioned in inmate phone calls recorded at the Sedgwick County Jail.
A police detective discovered the calls on Jan. 10 while reviewing recorded conversations between an inmate and his ex-wife, who is related to the city employee, according to an affidavit released earlier this month by a Sedgwick County judge.
Mia R. Turner is mentioned in at least two recordings that were among the cache of reviewed phone calls. One call occurred on Jan. 6 and the other occurred on Jan. 10, according to the affidavit, which gives new details about what led prosecutors to pursue a felony charge against the 50-year-old.
In the reviewed phone conversations, one of the participants says she “had intimate knowledge” of an active criminal case that had been given to her by Turner, a city of Wichita employee who has worked for the police department for more than 14 years.
In a later interview with law enforcement, that participant identified Turner as a cousin, related through marriage.
The revelation led to a police official ordering a “complete audit” of Turner’s email account, according to the affidavit. The audit turned up a Jan. 6 internal informational email addressed to command staff at the police department that summarized “high profile or felony cases,” including the case discussed in the jail phone calls.
The internal email also contained a confidentiality notice that warned recipients about sharing the information.
Turner, the affidavit says, was included on the email chain because she served as secretary to then-deputy chief Lemuel Moore, who has since taken over the department as interim police chief following the March 1 resignation of former Chief Gordon Ramsay.
In a March 1 interview with two Wichita police detectives, Turner said that she had shared details about the case, the affidavit says. The detectives found a photograph of the internal email that detailed the case involving her cousin’s ex-husband in a text thread on Turner’s cellphone.
Turner also accessed other information and watched videos related to the case that were taken by Wichita police officers, according to the affidavit.
She said in her interview with the detectives that she viewed the video footage because she was concerned the inmate “would use her name to help him in his case” but said she didn’t download or share it with anyone, the document says.
Asked by the detectives why she disclosed details of an active investigation, the affidavit says she told them: “I wasn’t thinking of it like that.”
She also told the detectives that she didn’t remember sharing the photograph she took of the internal email, according to the document.
Turner, who is a former Wichita school board member, was charged with a felony computer crime in March and placed on unpaid administrative leave from her job. Her next court date is May 23.
