Robbins’ ousted police chief David Sheppard said Monday he hired an attorney and filed whistleblower complaints against Mayor Darren Bryant, claiming he was wrongfully terminated.
Sheppard, who had been chief since October 2021, said he believes a factor in his dismissal regards his questioning of directions he received from Bryant in the handling of a car driven by a Robbins resident killed in a Feb. 12 crash.
Three 13-year-olds were taken into custody in connection with the crash that killed 70-year-old Donald Carter. The teens were allegedly driving a stolen car at the time.
In a statement Saturday, Bryant said he thanked Sheppard for his service and wished him well in his future endeavors.
The mayor said deputy Chief Carl Scott has been named as acting chief until a replacement is named.
Sheppard said he was fired Thursday after refusing to voluntarily resign from the job. Before coming to Robbins, Sheppard worked for 26 years for the Cook County sheriff’s police, working as a patrol officer, sergeant and a criminal investigator.
Unofficial vote totals show he was elected earlier this month to a four-year term on the Evergreen Park Elementary District 124 Board. Sheppard lives in Evergreen Park.
In a statement Monday, a spokesman for Bryant said the mayor would not elaborate on his reasoning for firing Sheppard other than the mayor “wants some broader goals met and believes a change in the management of the department is needed to achieve these initiatives.”
Sheppard said he was called to the mayor’s office last Thursday and that after entering the room he was told by Bryant that the “Robbins Police Department is at its best it’s ever been,” but that the mayor told him “he wanted to go in a different direction.”
Sheppard said he has hired an attorney and that the Village Board needs to approve Bryant’s actions in firing him and naming a replacement chief.
The former chief said he has filed whistleblower complaints with agencies including the Justice Department and Illinois State Police.
He said his work record was exemplary, and that “I gave 150%” to the job.” Sheppard was hired, but not yet sworn in, when the department’s officers walked off the job over a dispute over pay and equipment.
A new contract that boosted base pay for officers was agreed to after Sheppard officially became chief.
“I work 10-12 hours a day,” Sheppard said. “I took one day off and that was for the (school board) election.”
Sheppard said he has had an uneven relationship with Bryant, and that things came to a head after police began their investigation of the crash that killed Carter.
Sheppard said the vehicle was taken to a large building where public works vehicles and road salt are stored. He said police had to keep Carter’s car enclosed because state police had not yet processed it for evidence in the crash investigation.
Chain of custody in investigations “is just standard police work,” Sheppard said.
“We needed to keep the car out of the elements,” Sheppard said. “We had no other place to safely store it.”
He said he was contacted by the mayor not long after the car was towed to the village’s salt shed and told it had to be moved because it was blocking public works vehicles. Sheppard said he contacted the public works director, who said that was not the case.
Sheppard said the car was eventually taken to the village’s vehicle impound lot, but that he was confounded by the mayor’s orders to move the vehicle and explained to Bryant the need for preserving the evidence until it could be examined.
“This was a very high-profile case,” Sheppard said. “We would definitely not drop the ball by moving it out into the rain or snow.”
mnolan@tribpub.com
