A three-year internal investigation into police misconduct in the village of Willow Springs saw nearly half of the police department fired or resigned, the village announced Wednesday. Natalie Martinez reports.
Mayor Alan Nowacyzyk said after years of investigation and hundreds of pages of depositions that five officers have been fired over the past nine months.
"The residents needed to know," he told NBC 5.
The investigation is still ongoing, the village said in a news release, and aims to uncover whether or not public funds were used for a private business.
Nowacyzyk said it all began with a former officer, Michael Giorgetti, in 2013. Giorgetti got in an accident driving his squad car while doing private business in Wisconsin, Nowacyzyk said. The village said Giorgetti was working for a former village contractor and had traveled with another village official to retrieve equipment they planned to store in a village-owned public works garage.
"That police officer attempted to cover up certain facts, lied through an investigation, was terminated, turned around (and) sued the village for wrongful termination," he said.
An investigation led to a second officer being terminated for falsifying police documents, a third retired at the start of interrogation, a fourth resigned after receiving notice he'd be interrogated and a fifth resigned after that.
"It's troubling," Nowacyzyk said.
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