Wichita police leaders call on city manager to resign, threaten lawsuit, seek $2.1 million

Former Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay’s leadership team is calling on City Manager Robert Layton to resign and seeking more than $2.1 million to settle a threatened lawsuit against the city of Wichita, a record obtained by The Wichita Eagle shows.

Attorney James Thompson sent a letter Monday to the city on behalf of Deputy Chiefs Jose Salcido, Chet Pinkston and former Deputy Chief Wanda Givens, who have been criticized for their handling of an investigation into racist and inappropriate text messages sent by members of the SWAT team.

Ramsay’s administration did not discipline the officers involved. Multiple officers were later suspended by Interim Chief Lem Moore and Layton after an Eagle investigation into inaction by the city. A committee report from the city manager’s office blamed police leadership — including Ramsay, Salcido and Pinkston — for mishandling the internal investigation.

Ramsay’s executive team says in the letter that they didn’t discipline the officers because they “wanted to avoid the humiliation” of being undermined by the city’s human resources manager.

They accused Layton of lying when he told City Council members and The Eagle that he did not know about the text messages until Feb. 25, the day after the Citizen Review Board initially received a briefing on how the Professional Standards Bureau handled the case. Layton said he does not remember being told by Ramsay or anyone else about the text messages before February.

The letter says that “on numerous occasions” Layton, Human Resources Director Chris Bezruki and the Fraternal Order of Police thwarted police leadership’s attempts to root out “small pockets of corruption, sexism, homophobia, racism and violence operating within the Wichita Police Department and City of Wichita.”

Salcido reported Bezruki to the FBI for allegedly accepting free dinners and gifts from the police union, the letter says.

“You can have the best Executive Staff in the country but if the HR Director runs discipline and is in bed with the Union, he and the union run the Department and not the executive staff,” the filing says. “Executive staff became scapegoats for the City in its efforts to avoid liability.”

Bezruki, who is also being asked to resign in the letter, was not immediately available for comment.

Layton, in a written statement, called the allegations outrageous and said many of the statements are inaccurate.

He pointed to a consultant recently hired by the city to investigate police culture and racial bias within the ranks of the police department. It will also examine how officer discipline is handled, including interactions between the city manager’s office, police leadership, city law, human resources and the police union.

“I have just reviewed the letter prepared by James Thompson,” Layton said in the Monday afternoon statement. “The allegations made are outrageous. I have full confidence in the consultant, Jensen Hughes, who was hired to investigate relationships among the Police Department, Human Relations Department, Law Department and City Manager’s Office.

“I have nothing to hide and look forward to the full review and determination of these allegations by the consultant or a court of law should Mr. Thompson decide to proceed with a legal filing,” Layton said.

In an interview later, Layton said an investigation into Bezruki did not find any inappropriate relationship or gifts from the Fraternal Order of Police.

“We have not found any merit to that allegation,” Layton told The Eagle. “And we asked for evidence that would help us review that, and we have not been able to obtain that.”

Ramsay’s executive team failed to disclose potential Brady/Giglio issues to state and federal prosecutors, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett told The Eagle. Moore disclosed the potential violations after The Eagle asked him about it. Ramsay had already resigned to move back to Minnesota, where he is running for sheriff of St. Louis County.

The letter does not say why the potential violations were not disclosed to prosecutors, as is required under federal law to ensure defendants get a fair trial.

Salcido, Pinkston and Givens are threatening to sue, claiming the city retaliated and defamed them. The letter says Layton “refuses to consider Salcido or Pinkston for the next interim chief.”

“Layton, Bezruki, the Fraternal Order of Police and others made a collaborative attempt to drive out and remove the entire executive staff of the Wichita Police Department in order to install new handpicked replacements who would be more pliable, and willing to look the other way,” the letter says.

Salcido and Pinkston are each asking for more than $720,000. Givens is asking for $700,000.

This story was originally published September 19, 2022 at 2:50 PM.