Houston officials served with lawsuit at meeting

HOUSTON — The former head of the Valley’s smallest police department, Charley McAnally, has filed suit against his former employer, claiming he was fired for investigating city officials.

Houston city officials named in the suit include mayor Virgie Thompson, deputy mayor Jim Johansen, and city treasurer Carolyn Grabowski. Copies of the lawsuit were served on city officials at Thursday’s city council meeting.

A fourth named respondent in the suit, Dallas Massie, is not connected with the city of Houston and is instead a retired Alaska State Trooper.

Thompson had little to say about the lawsuit when reached Friday and asked if she had any comment.

“Actually it’s in the process right now of being turned over to the attorney so we probably should not. Probably not a good plan until they’ve had a chance to look at it,” she said.

McAnally was hired in October 2009 and did not go quietly when he was fired at the start of this year. His lawsuit alleges that he was fired soon after informing the city of a pending FBI investigation based on evidence he’d handed over to federal officials regarding possible misuse of city funds.

“The pending FBI investigation is real. There is no way for us to know how it will proceed. Captain McAnally contacted the FBI to determine whether he could report the existence of the investigation to the city council and was told that he could,” McAnally’s attorney, Ken Jacobus, wrote in the complaint filed with the lawsuit.

City officials have previously questioned whether the FBI investigation even exists.

“The allegations don’t surprise me because of who they came from, but as far as I know I haven’t done anything to justify them,” Thompson has said previously.

Johansen has said previously that he felt McAnally was trying to set Thompson up to take a fall.

The lawsuit also details conflicts of interest that should have precluded investigations leading up to McAnally’s firing. Thompson allegedly excused herself from a meeting due to a conflict in one instance but didn’t in another. McAnally had filed an assault charge against Johansen stemming from a heated city council meeting.

Johansen has previously said that the charge lacked merit. Jacobus writes that since the charge was out there, Johansen should not have been put in charge of investigating the police captain’s conduct.

The suit also alleges breach of contract, unfair practices, retaliation, violating of McAnally’s constitutional rights and wrongful termination against city officials.

As for Massie, he comes in at the tail-end of the filing.

“During the period of time covered by this complaint, Dallas Massey (sic) regularly contacted members of the city council and urged them to fire Captain McAnally. While doing so, he provided the council with false, incomplete and confidential information,” according to the complaint.

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