When Former East Lansing Police Chief Kim Johnson left the city in May of 2024, there were lot of questions about what led to his resignation.
At the time, WKAR News reported that he had been on administrative leave following an internal investigation. Now, new reporting from East Lansing Info is shedding light on a series of sexual harassment complaints against Johnson that were filed before he resigned.
ELi reporter Dustin DuFort Petty says his investigation started with a Facebook message saying to look into the former chief and then lots of Freedom of Information Act Requests.
"Many members of the community felt that he deserved to know why the chief was put on administrative leave and why he eventually resigned."
The outlet found two documented complaints against Johnson.
"In the 2020 complaint, the complainant spoke about how Chief Johnson commented on their appearance, their slim figure made her really feel objectified," he said.
"The most recent complaint, the chief got very close to pressing his body against the body of Jacey Kingsbury who is the 2024 complainant."
Petty says they still have FOIA requests unanswered about any severance packages Johnson may have received.
Interview Highlights
On the start of the investigation
It started with a Facebook a message to the ELi Facebook account from someone who did not want to be named, did not want to be identified, telling us we should look into this, that there were past complaints against the former chief. So, we issued so many FOIAs and only received information from a few of them, and one of those gave us a bit of a jackpot because it showed the former 2020 complaints against the chief.
On the two complaints against former Chief Johnson
In the 2020 complaint, the complainant spoke about how Chief Johnson commented on their appearance, their slim figure, made her really feel objectified. But the most recent complaint, the chief got very close to pressing his body against the body of Jacey Kingsbury who is the 2024 complainant, and the one who spoke on the record with us, so we could finally get this story put out into the community.
On the response to the story
From the police department itself, Jen Brown, the current chief, gave us a no comment. I briefly spoke with Officer Kingsbury. I hadn't heard as far as how it's being perceived in the police department at all. But from the community itself, we received a lot of positive feedback. Many members of the community felt that he deserved to know why the chief was put on administrative leave and why he eventually resigned. We don't pay a bunch of attention to social media, but we've seen in the comments other past employees of the city coming forward and saying that they too were aware of such behavior.
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: When Former East Lansing Police Chief Kim Johnson left the city in May last year, there were lot of questions about what led to his resignation.
At the time, WKAR News reported that he had been on administrative leave following an internal investigation. Now, new reporting from East Lansing Info is shedding light on a series of sexual harassment complaints against Johnson that were filed before he resigned.
Dustin DuFort Petty reported that story, and he joins me now. Thank you for being here.
Dustin DuFort Petty: Thank you, Sophia.
Saliby: How did this investigation with ELi start?
Petty: It started with a Facebook a message to the ELi Facebook account from someone who did not want to be named, did not want to be identified, telling us we should look into this, that there were past complaints against the former chief.
So, we issued so many FOIAs and only received information from a few of them, and one of those gave us a bit of a jackpot because it showed the former 2020 complaints against the chief. So, we had that. We had a few other background information, but we didn't have the most recent complaint, the one that caused him to go on administrative leave. So, it was a lot of waiting for that to come around.
Saliby: You found these two main complaints, one in 2020, one last year, alleging sexual harassment. Can you briefly tell us what happened in both of those complaints?
Petty: In the 2020 complaint, the complainant spoke about how Chief Johnson commented on their appearance, their slim figure, made her really feel objectified.
But the most recent complaint, the chief got very close to pressing his body against the body of Jacey Kingsbury who is the 2024 complainant, and the one who spoke on the record with us, so we could finally get this story put out into the community.
Saliby: Do you know if he received any discipline for either of these complaints? I guess there was the internal investigation.
Petty: For the 2020 complaint, the chief just apologized. That was the end of it. There was no disciplinary action whatsoever. In fact, another police officer, Dean Kelley, who we name in the story, essentially said that he was given a slap on the hand and told not to go down and speak to those folks anymore.
But for the 2024 complaint in which the chief got very close, his body almost came in contact with another female officer, Jacey Kingsbury, who we named in the story that was internal investigation again, and we don't know if any disciplinary action was taken. Kingsbury was told via email from the city's HR director, action had been taken, so the matter was closed. But we don't know what that was.
We just know that the chief resigned his position. We have submitted several FOIAs to see if we could get information about any sort of packages he might have received, severance packages, but nothing has come up to us.
Saliby: In the days since your story came out, what has been the response, or what have you heard from, maybe people in the East Lansing Police Department?
Petty: From the police department itself, Jen Brown, the current chief, gave us a no comment. I briefly spoke with Officer Kingsbury. I hadn't heard as far as how it's being perceived in the police department at all.
But from the community itself, we received a lot of positive feedback. Many members of the community felt that he deserved to know why the chief was put on administrative leave and why he eventually resigned. We don't pay a bunch of attention to social media, but we've seen in the comments other past employees of the city coming forward and saying that they too were aware of such behavior.
Saliby: Is this the type of story that you're going to continue to report on, or do you feel like this kind of closes a chapter for the city?
Petty: I feel that because there's so much going on in East Lansing, I feel it's a bit of a closed chapter, especially since the chief resigned a year ago. However, if more information does come to light, we will definitely report on that.
Saliby: Dustin DuFort Petty is a reporter for East Lansing Info. Thank you for joining me.
Petty: Thank you.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
