Officer's conduct revealed in lawsuit

A civil lawsuit filed by former Cloquet police detective Scott Holman is working its way through the courts, but the case is also shedding light on the inner workings of the police department he served for 22 years.

The Complaint was filed by Holman and attorney Mike Padden earlier this year in U.S. District Court following Holman's dismissal from the Cloquet police department in 2019. Holman's Complaint claims that the detective's termination was the result of a Brady policy created by the Carlton County Attorney's Office for "sanctioning" police officers without due process. The civil action also states that two of the defendants conspired to violate his rights. Holman is seeking $4 million in damages caused by his dismissal from employment, including defamation and "intentional infliction of emotional distress."

While a federal judge dismissed the claims in the Complaint against the county attorney and Carlton County June 12, the case against the city of Cloquet, Cloquet city councilor Kerry Kolodge and Lauri Ketola - in her former role as a member of the Citizens Advisory Board, not her current role as Carlton County attorney - is still pending.

The Complaint and various exhibits filed in response to the lawsuit tell both sides of the story in much greater detail than previously available to the public.

Over seven pages and nearly 40 numbered paragraphs, the Complaint summarizes - according to Holman - what happened from the time the police union took a vote of no confidence in former police chief Steve Stracek to the day that Holman was fired more than two years later.

The defendants' response, included in more recent filings, offers records of disciplinary investigations and actions involving Holman in much greater detail than the city had provided in the past in response to public data requests.

The disciplinary details are relevant because the county attorney's office decided it would not pursue cases depending on the police detective's testimony because he had a history of misconduct involving questions of truthfulness and credibility. That's an issue because previous Supreme Court cases - Brady v. Maryland and Giglio v. United States - require prosecuting attorneys to disclose any material that could help exonerate a defendant of guilt, including misconduct findings involving law enforcement officers. Such officers are sometimes called "Brady cops," because the identified past misconduct means defense attorneys can bring up the behavior and cast doubt on their testimony.

Previous data requests by the Pine Knot News for Holman's disciplinary records yielded only minimal details included in the final disposition of discipline, with the specific behavior explained in one sentence in one document and not at all in the other two cases.

The court documents give details of the behaviors that prompted the disciplinary action as well as records of discussions by the Cloquet Police/Fire Civil Service Commission (predecessor to the Citizens Advisory Board) and letters among the city and police administration and the county attorney's office in the most recent case.

Alcohol, 911 hangup, gun

The earliest complaint dates back to January 2004, when Officer Holman was disciplined for violating standards including unbecoming conduct, truthfulness and alcohol use off duty.

The three-part complaint that starts with a 911 hang-up call from Holman's fiancèe after he had left the house in the early morning hours to go to his parents' home. After his fiancee called his mother, he headed back to the house around 3 a.m. and encountered three officers there who were responding to the 911 hangup. According to the officers' testimony, Holman did not tell them he knew his loaded unsecured gun was inside. He also admitted to drinking from noon to 1 a.m. that day, and again after the officers left.

The second part of the complaint focuses on the fact that Holman continued to drink after the officers left until nearly 6 a.m. when he was scheduled to testify in court later that morning. According to the complaint, chief Wade Lamirande and assistant chief Terry Hill went to Holman's residence that morning after he didn't show up at the police station prior to the scheduled hearing, only to learn that the hearing had been canceled at 8:30 a.m. According to the complaint, when Holman arrived at work at 1 p.m. that day, he testified he did not have alcohol in his system although he did smell of alcohol when officers went to his home that morning.

The final part of the complaint details Holman interfering with potential witnesses to the investigation, including contacting then county attorney Thom Pertler and police officer Eric Blesener.

After initially recommending 60 days off with 30 days suspended, Cloquet Police/Fire Civil Service Commission members (Jim Hagen, Dan Tierney and Bob Ames) changed the recommendation to 14 days off with seven days suspended, a formal letter of apology to the three officers whose safety was at risk when Holman didn't tell them about the loaded gun inside his home, removal from all promotional eligibility rosters for two years, an alcohol assessment by a counselor and a plan of action for conduct and performance as it affects the CPD.

The final disciplinary action in the case is unclear, as the city data only shows that he was "suspended with pay" for a period of time already served.

Calling in sick

A second complaint dates back to December 2004, when Holman was given one day off without pay after calling in sick to miss a cold-weather shoot and then going out drinking that evening.

Fake Facebook

The third complaint in Holman's file was the most recent, and involved a series of Facebook posts he made in 2017 under false name, claiming to be a female stripper from the Twin Cities area named Mel Johnson. The investigation of the Facebook posts stemmed from a complaint filed by former Cloquet police chief Steve Stracek on July 24, 2017 claiming that Holman was using the account to publicly post negative and untrue statements, including repeated claims by "Mel Johnson" that Stracek was a member of the discredited metro office of the Minnesota Gang Strike Force, rather than the Duluth office - which was not a part of the illegal and improper actions by the metro group.

"I'm curious why Jana Peterson never once reported on Chief's Stracek's previous employment in the Minnesota Gang Strike Force," Holman/Mel Johnson posted with a link to a story on illegal payouts to the metro office.

Although Stacek requested an outside investigator, police chief Jeff Palmer assigned police commander Carey Ferrell to conduct the investigation.

Ferrell's report is filed as Exhibit 3 in the lawsuit response. Ferrell wrote that he first learned of the complaint from Holman himself and that Holman told him that acting city administrator James Barclay had spoken to him about the complaint.

In the report, Ferrell writes that he informed Holman he would be investigating the complaint on Aug. 2 or 3, but Holman said he didn't want to receive the formal notification until the next week "so it would not ruin his weekend." He gave Ferrill the username and password for the Facebook account, but also informed him that he had deactivated/suspended the account after speaking to Barclay.

When he filed the complaint July 24, Stracek also requested that a preservation request be sent immediately to Facebook to preserve the data, something that Ferrell said he tried to do the first week of August, without success. With help from the county attorney's office, Ferrell then sent a subpoena to Facebook on Aug. 15. When Facebook sent the information regarding posts from March to August 2017, it included account open and closure dates and login information with date, time and IP addresses, but no content for the posts. According to Ferrell's report, Facebook said a search warrant would be required for those posts.

Thus, Ferrell appeared to base his investigation on claims posted in nine screenshots of Mel Johnson posts provided by Stracek. The report indicates that he was unaware of the content of any other posts.

As part of the investigation, Ferrell "compelled" Holman to give him a statement, giving him Garrity and Tennessen warnings, which force a government employee to cooperate with an investigation but also offers them immunity from any subsequent criminal proceedings.

In his conclusions, Ferrell said Holman did post false claims about councilor Kerry Kolodge changing the educational requirements for the police chief job to favor Stracek - the requirements were not changed - and implying that Stracek was part of the discredited metro Gang Strike Task Force.

In several instances, Ferrell notes that posts were "opinion" and cannot have a true or false claim; e.g., when Holman posted a link to a Gang Strike Task Force report for the legislature with the comment, "Read to your heart's content, Jessee. The man buffaloed you and others as being so ethical and moral."

A post accusing another Facebook user of "murdering an Esko firefighter" and "hating cops" was not considered in the investigation because it didn't refer to Stracek specifically.

Regarding claims that Holman made many of the posts while on duty, Ferrell confirmed that Holman was working when nine of the 33 total posts were made during the timeframe in question. However, he said none of the posts specifically supplied by Stracek were made when the detective was on duty, so he determined that the allegation was not supported. Also, no department computers were used to make the posts.

In his conclusion, Ferrell stated that he didn't think Holman violated state statute on criminal defamation and communicating false information to news media, but said a prosecuting attorney should make the final determination. Holman told Ferrell he never intended to defame Stracek, but rather that he believed what he wrote in the false posts was true.

Ferrell also suggested that Holman may have committed an additional violation by not preserving evidence when he deleted or deactivated the account.

After forwarding the report to interim police chief Jeff Palmer, the end result of the internal investigation was that Holman was given a verbal warning by Palmer for "violating department policy" regarding social media and professional conduct of a peace officer.

There were no other departmental consequences. Although it was never stated publicly that Holman was fired because he'd been deemed a "Brady cop," the dismissal came after the county attorney's office identified the past misconduct issues.

Holman's Complaint characterizes the Facebook posts as "advocacy via social media posts for his agency and fellow officers" and argues that they were in the category of "protected speech for a public employee," although they were made under a pseudonym.