On-duty Portage cops fired over women

PORTAGE, Mich. (WOOD) - Two Portage police officers were fired after an investigation they used company resources to maintain relationships with women while they were on duty.

Sgt. James Myers and Sgt. Doug Louis were dismissed on January 26 after the investigation. 24 Hour News 8 obtained the information through the Freedom of Information Act.

The case centers around Myers. He developed a relationship in 2010 with a waitress at a local restaurant, one where many officers go to take their break.

Over time, the relationship deepened and both parties described it as more than a friendship, that they were basically in love with each other.

But Myers would take time to see her while he was on duty and have extended phone conversations with her on the company phone.

Things escalated when Myers and Louis were sent to Traverse City for training seminars paid for by the department. Both officers, the investigation showed, had the woman and two other women friends meet them there.

Myers and Louis left some sessions early to meet up with women in hotel rooms and at a water park.

Richard J. White, the Director of Portage Public Safety, said these activities were a detriment to the department and crossed the line.

"Granted that all of us perhaps, from time to time, make a quick phone call or run an errand or do something we need to do, this was well past that," White said. "We're talking an inordinant amount of time and number of times that this occurred."

He added, "We have an expectation when someone is here and they're being paid, that they're providing the full eight hours that they're getting paid for. And if they're engaged in other activities, whatever they may be,then that certainly is not what our expectation is, and it's in some form cheating the city."

Things came to light when the woman filed a complaint against Sgt. Myers, alleging he was sending threatening emails through Facebook.

The emails described an affair gone bad. The author called the woman "a home wrecker" and blames her for destroying both their marriages.

The notes were signed "Peter Parker."

The Michigan State Police handled this investigation but found no grounds for criminal charges. However, it prompted the Portage police to investigate the incidents, and it cost Myers and Louis their jobs.

Through his union, Sgt. Louis was able to have his status changed from "terminated" to "resigned."