Disciplined for talking with newspaper

HOUSTON — After reviewing a tape of the underlying incident, the city council for the Mat-Su Borough’s smallest municipality has opted not to fire a police officer it suspended earlier this week in the wake of a Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman article.

The city council met Thursday to discuss the matter. Leading up to the meeting, the city declined to discuss the matter, citing confidentiality rules in personnel cases. Reached afterward, the suspended officer, Houston Police Capt. Charley McAnally, was similarly tight-lipped.

“I am still employed, but I’m off for a little bit of time and under the advice of my attorney I can no longer discuss this,” he said, which was a notable change from Monday, when McAnally had a lot to say on the topic. He said city officials told him he was being suspended because he told the Frontiersman the name of the city employee who complained about him.

That would be fire department spokesman Christian Hartley. McAnally said the complaint dates back to New Year’s Eve, when the city was overrun with would-be revelers snapping up fireworks in the wake of changes to the laws in Anchorage and the Valley permitting their use on the winter holiday.

He said he forcefully told a man who was getting out of hand at the stands to get in his pickup and leave. The man didn’t comply at first, but eventually left. He said that, essentially, Hartley complained he’d stepped over the line in dealing with the man. McAnally disputed that, saying he was just doing his job.

At any rate, the complaint was two weeks ago. The Frontiersman article was published Tuesday. McAnally was suspended Wednesday. He said Thursday that in his opinion, his suspension was not justified.

“According to city policy you can’t give out personnel information on an investigation that’s referring to giving out the (accused’s) information. I’m the (accused) so naming who it is accusing me of something is not breaking any city regulations that I know of,” McAnally said. “I don’t feel that I did anything wrong.”

He noted that there was a city press release that said there was a complaint filed with the city. That press release didn’t name anybody — not the complainant or the accused. Still, McAnally said, there was information out there and it regarded the police department. And part of his job is to disseminate information about the department.

“It’s information that was already out there and I wanted to make sure it was put out correctly,” he said.

As for the initial complaint, Frank Meyer of Palmer said he is the man who McAnally asked to leave the fireworks stands.

Meyer’s account of events mostly squares with McAnally’s. Both agree that Meyer’s brother, Rusty, was arrested for drunken driving earlier in the night. Both agree that Meyer interacted with the officer arresting his brother.

But, according to Meyer, another of his brothers was with him at the time.

“George had a few beers, so he was a little drunk and vulgar,” Meyer said.

Meyer and his brother talked to the arresting officer, who wouldn’t say anything. As they were leaving, Meyer said, his brother muttered under his breath that the officer was a “chicken.” The officer didn’t appreciate that, but left for Palmer to book Rusty into jail. So Meyer drove his brother and his nephew, who was with Rusty when he was arrested, back to the house. But Meyer didn’t stay there, he came back with a tape recorder to investigate the DUI arrest on his own. He hoped to tape record a statement from a witness since he believed his brother wasn’t driving at the time.

According to McAnally, the arresting officer summoned him to the fireworks stands to deal with Meyer, who’d gotten unruly. Meyer disputes this; if anyone was unruly it was his brother, not him. McAnally didn’t mention a third brother, but said Meyer had a tape recorder.

Meyer said that McAnally immediately got in his face.

“I said, ‘get out of my face,’” Meyer said.

McAnally actually agrees with most of this part of the account as well. He said he was getting close to Meyer to make sure he didn’t have alcohol on his breath. And he said he insisted Meyer leave because he was causing a disturbance. Police give orders forcefully sometimes, he said. It’s part of the job.

This is where the two men disagree. Meyer said he recorded the incident and gave the recording to the Houston City Council. He said he thinks McAnally was trying to pick a fight and that the tape shows McAnally is yelling and he is remaining calm.

“I kept trying to explain to him I’m just down here trying to figure out what’s going on and he insisted on my leaving, so I left,” Meyer said.

Meyer said he thinks the city acted properly in suspending McAnally.

McAnally said he brought an attorney on board to try and stop his name from being dragged through the mud. Over multiple interviews that is what has seemed most important to him. He seemed ambivalent at the prospect of losing his job.

“That doesn’t hurt my feelings, it doesn’t hurt me. It hurts the city,” McAnally said. “I’ve turned down multiple other offers that paid a lot more and had retirement and all that, but I stayed in Houston so I could contribute back to the people.”

In the long term, he said, the city needs to find a way to build a stronger barrier between its politicians and its police force.

The police often butt heads with the council and the mayor. For instance, it was a dashboard camera video from former Houston Police Sgt. Charlie Seidl’s car that provided evidence then-mayor Roger Purcell had used emergency lights when he borrowed the car to drive to Fairbanks. The use of lights was the infraction cited in a petition to recall Purcell.

He noted that by city code the mayor is the chief of the department if the chief’s position is not filled. That’s the situation the department is in now — though he’s a captain, McAnally is not the chief.

“That’s one of the problems. A civilian comes in there and says, ‘Oh, police officers shouldn’t be like this, they should be like this instead. And since I am now chief of police this is how the police are going to be,’” McAnally said. “It can do a lot of harm to a police department.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.