Bastrop, Tx–A city police patrol sergeant has resigned while the department was considering possible discipline connected to sexual harassment complaints.
Sgt. Burnis Bobbit’s last day on the job was Oct. 15, said Police Chief David Board. Bobbit, a four-year veteran of the Bastrop department, resigned following an administrative probe into complaints that he had acted in a manner “unbecoming an officer” of the department but before any disciplinary measures had been imposed, said Board in an interview today. No criminal law violation is under review, said the chief.
Bobbit joined the Bastrop Police Department at the end of August 2005. For much of his tenure he was the night patrol supervisor for the department.
City police began looking into the officer’s conduct early in October and interviewed “several women” who provided statements about Bobbitt’s behavior, according to a letter from an assistant to city attorney J.C. Brown dated Oct. 28. The letter is a request to the Texas Attorney General’s Open Records Division for a ruling on what parts of Bobbit’s city personnel file must be disclosed to the public.
Davis McAuley, editor of Bastrop-News.com, filed an open records request to inspect Bobbit’s city personnel file on Oct. 20. The city’s attorneys want to withhold information which identifies or “tends to” identify the women who spoke to police investigators about the case.
The city’s appeal is under review in the state attorney general’s office. No date for a decision has been announced.
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