Officer was fired same day sheriff’s office scheduled to get his references from city
The Graham police department has terminated, demoted, and/or suspended three of its police officers, including one who had been on the job just four months, since the current fiscal year began – and all three were disciplined during the month of July.
That information was revealed within public records that the city of Graham furnished recently in response to a public records request by The Alamance News, seeking personnel records for all current and former employees who had been subject to disciplinary actions since an earlier request by the newspaper (see related story, this edition).
The newspaper sought to examine and inspect the payroll records of all current and former city employees who had been subject to dismissal, demotion, suspensions, or separations since June 20, 2024.
North Carolina law classifies certain types of information in the personnel files of local government employees as public records, including: dates of employment; any increase or decrease in compensation; dates and types of any promotion, demotion, transfer, termination, suspension, and/or dismissal, as well as a copy of the final notice of dismissal outlining the reasons for dismissal.
The three Graham police officers were disciplined between mid-July and early August of this year.
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Most recently, the Graham police department terminated 23-year-old Stephen Day, a probationary officer in the patrol division, on August 2 for unsatisfactory job performance. Day had been hired as a trainee on April 2, 2024, at an annual salary of $54,522.44.
Graham police chief Kristy Cole Baker sent Day a notice on August 2, informing him
that he was being terminated, effective immediately, and that he would not provided an appeal process due to his probationary employment status.
The city’s personnel policies stipulate that sworn law enforcement officers are hired on a 12-month probationary employment period, while other city employees are hired on a six-month probationary period, according to Graham’s human resources department.
City employees who successfully complete their probationary employment period are provided the opportunity for a “name-clearing hearing,” in keeping with a 2018 ruling by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which established that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides a right to a “name-clearing hearing” to all public employees who are terminated.
Public employees are entitled to a “chance to dispute public accusations made against them in connection with termination or a serious demotion,” based on a memo that the North Carolina League of Municipalities (NCLM) sent to all municipal human resources directors following the 2018 appellate ruling.
The name-clearing hearing may not change any decision to terminate an employee, but it allows him/her to publicly address allegations “so that they are not stigmatized from obtaining future employment opportunities,” particularly given that dismissal letters are defined as public records under state law, according to the NCLM.
The Alamance News questioned Graham’s police chief specifically about Day’s dismissal.
A Public Asks question submitted to the newspaper suggested that he had been fired simply because he had applied for a job with another law enforcement agency, specifically the Alamance County sheriff’s office.
In an interview with the newspaper prior to last week’s city council meeting, chief Baker was emphatic that she had not terminated Day, or anyone else, simply for applying for another job.
Because Day was a probationary employee, she did not need to give him, or the public, any explanation of the cause for his termination, and he was not entitled to an appeal or a name-clearing hearing.
Officials with the Alamance County sheriff’s office had surmised the connection from the fact that the Friday, August 2 date on which they had scheduled a meeting with Graham’s police department to do a background check for Day was the same day he was fired by Graham’s police chief.
Sheriff Terry Johnson said in an interview after Day’s firing, “We’re going to hire him,” adding that Day was “still working through the process.”
According to the county’s personnel office, Day has, indeed, been hired, as a deputy, with a base salary of $53,707.78. He started work with the sheriff’s office on September 9.
Other disciplinary actions
Meanwhile, two other Graham police officers were disciplined during the month of July.
Anthony Louizes, 28, a six-year employee with the Graham police department who had been classified as a Police Officer II, was both suspended from work for one day due to a “violation of departmental policy,” and demoted to a Police Officer I for unsatisfactory job performance during the probationary period for the higher-ranking position.
When he was suspended for one day on July 12, Louizes had been employed as a Police Officer II at an annual salary of $64,135.24.
Louizes, who has been with the Graham police department since July 16, 2018, was also demoted to a Police Officer I for unsatisfactory job performance – on a date unspecified in the public records furnished by the city of Graham – and currently earns an annual salary of $61,081.10.
Graham police officer Eric Jordan, 31, also received a one-day suspension on July 18, 2024 for violating a departmental policy. Jordan has worked for the Graham police department since Febraury 24, 2020 and currently earns an annual salary of $57,280.08, based on the information that city officials furnished in response to the newspaper’s public records request.
