Monroe Dispatch - No Struggle, No Progress

The Monroe Police Department has finally given the community information regarding the termination of two its high ranking police officers. Former Interim Police Chief Reggie Brown and Sgt. Chuck Johnson both fired by MPD over how they allegedly handled a case involving local Black resident Timothy Williams. Williams, as the community was made aware of an incident involving officers of MPD where he was brutally beaten by officers in April of 2020 and wasn't in the news until Williams filed a complaint against MPD. Brown was interim chief at the time as more details emerged from the Williams' incident, that led to at least one officer being fired for his alleged part in the incident, while other officers allegedly involved are still a part of MPD. Now, after a lengthy investigation and going through another interim police chief(former Chief Eugene Ellis), with the hiring of a new permanent police chief in Victor "Vic" Zordan, the community now knows the "official" reason why the two officers were terminated. According to reports, Brown and Williams were terminated because they did not hand over the brutality case involving Williams to the Louisiana State Police "in a timely manner" for it to conduct their investigation. Brown and Johnson was alleged to have been "non-committal" by refusing to turn over the investigation to LSP as stated in Letters of Termination to the officers. More details specify that Brown and Johnson were allegedly found to have lied about the investigation, which led to their firing. The community is asked to believe that two ranking officers of MPD were fired simply because they didn't turn over an investigation to another policing agency soon enough? Why not demote the officers or suspend them for insubordination if someone was refusing a direct order. If that's the case, did an order come from City Hall? Or did it come from a judge or through a hearing against Brown and Johnson? Or is MPD avoiding an alleged possible coverup scandal since multiple officers were involved and only one officers was officially charged in the Williams incident? Perhaps more details/information need to be released to the community if only in the name of transparency. The community may know more when Brown and Johnson have their appeals heard on March 2nd and 9th respectively.