Former police chief wants council action

Former Cloquet Police Chief Wade Lamirande wants the new city council to prove it will not be sweeping complaints about city officials under the proverbial carpet at City Hall.

Lamirande emailed Cloquet city officials, councilors and local media a litany of complaints about the current police chief and a city councilor earlier this week. A Cloquet native, Lamirande retired in 2014 after 24 years with the Cloquet Police Department.

In his email, Lamirande detailed eight different complaints against Ward 5 City Councilor Steve Langley, alleging a range of behaviors that he said “constitute misconduct of a public official.”

A second email contained eight different complaints regarding current Cloquet Police Chief Jeff Palmer. A number of the allegations are related to the police department’s handling — under Palmer’s command — of a previous complaint filed by Lamirande in October 2017, which the CPD investigated internally and which resulted in no officer discipline.

At the heart of Lamirande’s issue with Palmer is the treatment of his complaint about the police department: Lamirande says his complaint should have been investigated by an outside agency because it involved a former police chief alleging possible crimes and/or violation of PD policy by current police officers. There are other concerns about changes in the way the Citizen Advisory Board — a three-person volunteer board that has historically worked with the police chief on hiring, complaints and discipline within the department — is being informed about complaints and other department issues.

Lamirande told the Pine Knot News Tuesday that he did not email the complaints in 2018 because he didn’t think the previous Cloquet City Council would have given them the due process he felt they deserved. So he waited until the new council was seated.

City Administrator Aaron Reeves confirmed Tuesday that he and council members had received Lamirande’s email that morning.

“We got it, we will respond and it will be up to the council to decide what they want to do with it,” Reeves said regarding Lamirande’s complaints.

The city administrator said he was working with an attorney on the city’s response to Lamirande’s complaints. Once that response is prepared, he said, it would go to the council, which would then have to decide what course of action the city would take.

There was no discussion of the emailed complaints at Wednesday’s Cloquet City Council meeting or work session, which were scheduled a day later because of Tuesday’s election.

Councilor Langley was absent Wednesday.

Mayor Roger Maki declined to comment until he has more information.

Included with Lamirande’s complaints about Langley were copies of a Grand Rapids police investigation into a complaint filed by Langley alleging Lamirande assaulted him in the L&M parking lot in July 2018, along with a second complaint filed with the Cloquet PD by Langley that alleged the councilor felt threatened by Lamirande during the annual Labor Day parade in September 2018. Neither complaint resulted in charges.

Upon the advice of attorney Mark Anfinson, an expert in public data who works closely with members of the Minnesota Newspaper Association, the Pine Knot News obtained additional copies of the various public documents related to the investigation of the Langley complaints from the Cloquet Police Department Wednesday, including video and audio recordings which the paper did not have time to examine before this week’s deadline. Additionally, Langley was unavailable for comment before the paper went to press.

Look for more on this story in next week’s Pine Knot News.