The Oak Harbor Police Department is supposed to be a beacon of law and order but instead has become a venue for discord and back-stabbing as a long-simmering dispute over perceived unequal treatment between “factions” in the department has come to a head, according to attorney Chris Skinner.

In the latest controversy, Capt. Teri Gardner, the second-highest-ranking officer at the Oak Harbor Police Department, has been tagged by the county prosecutor for alleged dishonesty about a romantic relationship she had with a fellow officer.

At the same time, Officer Patrick Horn, Skinner’s client, is facing termination for sending a couple of texts about Gardner and her relationship; Oak Harbor Police Chief Ed Green accused Horn of being disrespectful, creating discord in the office and being untruthful, which Skinner said was nonsense.

Skinner sent a letter to the city’s human resources department director, pointing out the alleged disparity and threatening a possible lawsuit for wrongful employment practices and retaliation if Horn is fired.

“We strongly recommend that you … consider the stark and inexplicable contrast between Chief Green’s finding and the decision in Officer Horn’s case,” he wrote, “relative to how he was treated in Captain Gardner’s case.”

Capt. Teri Gardner is accused of “responding deceptively to questions put to her during an internal investigation” into whether she had been involved in a romantic relationship with a colleague who later became her subordinate, according to the “potential impeachment disclosure” memorandum by Prosecutor Greg Banks.

Prosecutors are obligated to present defense attorneys with a potential impeachment disclosure in any criminal cases in which the officer is involved; the officers are sometimes called “Brady officers” or “Brady cops” in reference to U.S. Supreme Court case Brady vs. Maryland. The idea is that defense attorneys may be able to use the disclosures to “impeach” or attack an officer’s honesty at trial, but Banks said that rarely occurs.

Gardner’s conduct, however, only garnered a warning letter from her boss, Green, which Skinner is using as an example of what he sees as a double standard in how different employees are treated differently within the department. He said unequal treatment isn’t unnoticed by the rank and file.

“If Gardner had been anyone else, she would have been demoted,” he said. “That’s one of the most demoralizing things. Green gives her a pass and everyone else is walking on egg shells.”

In fact, Skinner sees the alleged disparity as indicative of the larger problem in the department, which goes back years to a personality conflict that divided the department between leadership in the patrol and detective divisions and culminated when several detectives — Gardner included — publicly supported mayoral candidate Scott Dudley four years ago.

Dudley defeated incumbent Mayor Jim Slowik.

In an interview this week, Jim Slowik agrees that there was a schism in the department when he was mayor, which he said is understandable in such an organization. But he said former Police Chief Rick Wallace had a handle on it and kept things under control.

Slowik said he was worried about the leadership vacuum when Dudley fired Wallace — over the objection of the City Council — and then Lt. John Dyer left.

“The leadership tilted from then on,” he said.

To be sure, just about everybody involved in the politics surrounding the police department has a dog in the fight.

Slowik’s son, Tony Slowik, is an officer in the department who has also been labeled as a Brady officer.

Skinner, a harsh critic of Mayor Dudley, represented Wallace when he sued the city over his termination; he supports Councilman Bob Severns, who is running against Dudley. Banks and the police department have had public disagreements about criminal cases in the past.

Yet Skinner said the current climate at the police department is reaching a crisis stage. He said the police administration’s “campaign” to get rid of Officer Horn has become blatant and untenable.

“I hate corruption,” Skinner said. “I can’t believe it is going on in our little town.”

In fact, Chief Green asked the prosecutor to again write up Horn as a Brady officer — he already is one from an earlier incident — but Banks found that Horn’s action weren’t dishonest and wouldn’t warrant the action.

Banks, however, found out about Gardner’s alleged dishonesty from a source other than Green and issued the potential impeachment disclosure over the chief’s objection. Nevertheless, Gardner’s discipline within the department was limited to the letter, which she asked to have removed after her probation is over, according to public documents.

Both Green and Gardner declined to comment.

For his part, Dudley said he is standing by Gardner. He admits that she may have been “less than forthcoming” in the investigation, but he feels she didn’t lie. He points out that police officers are trained to limit their answers to specific questions. He said she doesn’t deserve to be a Brady officer.

“Would I trust her to be on the stand and speak truthfully? Absolutely,” he said.

Dudley pointed to the department’s two other Brady officers and said their acts of dishonesty were much more blatant.

Banks wrote potential impeachment disclosures about both Horn and Tony Slowik in connections with separate incidents, according to documents received through a public records request.

Banks originally charged Horn in 2008 with felony theft for allegedly lying about his timecard but later dismissed the charge after Horn’s attorney — Skinner — hired a retired IRS fraud investigator who audited the time sheets; he was able to show that Horn had worked many of the hours he was accused of lying about.

Nevertheless, Chief Wallace found that Horn violated department rules, gave false information to supervisors, was insubordinate and falsified reports, though he didn’t intend to steal, according to the disclosure.

Tony Slowik, on the other hand, used a fellow detective’s ID and password to access a law enforcement database to look up information about Dudley while Dudley was running against his father in 2011, the disclosure states.

Slowik accessed the database after becoming suspicious when an officer from the Tacoma Police Department asked the Oak Harbor police for help in a criminal investigation into then-candidate Dudley; Gardner told subordinate detectives to take no action and not to share the information,  public documents say.

It turned out that the Tacoma police were actually looking for “Darrell Scott Dudley,” not the city’s future mayor.

Banks said he understands that being labeled as a Brady officer is considered to be “a Scarlet Letter” by officers since it is harmful to their careers, though it seldom, if ever, affects criminal cases. Nevertheless, he said he has no choice in these cases.

The Island County Sheriff’s Office, in comparison, has no Brady officers, according to the sheriff.

Last August, Horn received another written warning after sending an email to Green about possible cheating in a fundraising competition after his supervisor told him not to; the cheating allegation turned out to be a joke.

After that, he got into trouble once again after he sent a couple of texts to a fellow officer to ask for advice, according to Skinner. Horn claimed that someone outside the department had photos of Gardner and another officer embracing in a manner associated with a romantic relationship; Horn wanted advice about what to do, Skinner said.

Horn’s friend, however, notified his supervisor about the texts and Green eventually was alerted.

Horn was placed on paid administrative leave Feb. 10 and is facing termination, depending on the outcome of the mandated Loudermill hearing that occurred in late February.

The News-Times was unable to obtain a copy of the Feb. 13 discipline letter written by Green because the matter is still pending. Skinner said that, in the letter, Green accused Horn of sowing discord, spreading rumors and being untruthful.

Skinner claims that Green knew that Horn wasn’t actually being untruthful since he knew that Gardner had, in fact, had a romantic relationship with another member of the department.

Skinner discovered an Oct. 17, 2014, written warning that Green wrote to Gardner.

In it, Green writes that her “decision making prior to and during this inquiry appears to have violated the following City Employee Personnel policies.” The list includes “dishonesty” and “failure to fully cooperate with a lawful City investigation.”

The warning explained that he and the human resources director, Sara Piccone, met with her on Aug. 1, 2014, to discuss rumors that she was in a romantic relationship with another officer. He explained that, if true, the officer would have to be reassigned so she wasn’t his direct supervisor.

Gardner said she was friends with the other officer prior to being captain and wasn’t in a romantic relationship with him, Green wrote.

But after hearing about the texts that Horn sent, Green talked to Gardner again; this time, she said she and the other officer had “a brief romantic relationship” that occurred years prior.

Finally, on Oct. 13, 2014, Green and Piccone met again with Gardner. She admitted that the relationship had lasted several years and that she had disclosed this to Chief Wallace. She said Wallace told them to choose between their relationship or their jobs, so she ended the relationship.

As a result, Green assigned the other officer to report directly to him instead of Gardner.

Skinner outlined in a letter to the city’s human resources department what he feels is inequitable treatment between Horn and Gardner. He warns that the firing of Horn may result in a lawsuit for wrongful employment practices, including wrongful retaliation.

Skinner said the city still hasn’t ruled on whether to fire Horn following the Loudermill hearing, but an investigation is ongoing.

In the meantime, the police officer’s union is supporting Horn, according to Skinner. The group approved going to arbitration if he is fired.