Mamou Town Council votes unanimously to fire Thomas

By: CLAUDETTE
OLIVIER
Lifestyles Editor

MAMOU -- The Mamou Town council voted unanimously to terminate Officer Michael Thomas during a special meeting Tuesday night.
Mamou Police Chief Brent Zackery said, “We have three different write-ups on Mr. Thomas. I call on his supervisor, Mr. (Joshua) Uhlman.”
Uhlman read off descriptions from the writes-ups issued to Thomas.
In May, Thomas was written up for not locking down prisoners for the night after being told to do so by Zackery. Zackery later called to see if the prisoners had been locked down, and Thomas told him they had not been locked up.
In September, Thomas was advised by Zackery to patrol on Hickory Street in reference to a call of a complaint in that area. Uhlman said Thomas did not follow the order to make the patrol and that led to property being stolen from a residence. Thomas was written up for not making the patrol.
That same month, Thomas was dispatched to the scene of a robbery. Uhlman said Thomas was advised by witnesses as to who the suspect was, and Thomas brought the suspect to the station where he did not investigate or contact anyone about the incident. Thomas let the suspect go. Uhlman said the chief and other officers had to go back and locate the suspect and continue the investigation.
“There are a couple more, but we want to put these aside because these are the ones we want to talk to him about,” Zackery said. “I also tried giving him rank, which I did, which seemed to work. He did good for maybe about a month and then it just started back up again, not doing what he was supposed to be doing.
“We are asking that the council would terminate Mr. Thomas.”
Mayor Ricky Fontenot asked Thomas if he had anything to say, and Thomas approached the podium. Fontenot advised Thomas that he could address the council in an executive session or he could do it in an open meeting. Thomas said he would speak in an open meeting.
Thomas first addressed the robbery write-up.
“I was not the one on the call,” Thomas said. “I went to the call with Rod Soileau. We got the suspect. It was just one (suspect) at the time, that’s the main one that had done the hitting on Mr. Boutte. We basically brought him to the station, questioned him, did everything we were supposed to do from booking on down. He was charged and everything, so I don’t know what Mr. Zackery is really getting at.”
Thomas continued, “I was not the supervisor on shift, Rod was, so it was up to him (Soileau) to get in touch with him (Zackery). I had nothing to do with that, but I did my job and helped him out with getting the suspect, as usual, like I always do, doing my job.
“This one right here is not for me, like I said. I got written up for another officer.”
Next Thomas addressed the write-up that was in regard to not locking down inmates.
“This stuff about locking the inmates up, the only thing I heard you say sir was basically telling me to go and turn my call, that’s what I thought you said,” he said. “I never heard you say anything about locking the inmates up. There were two other officers there who could lock the inmates up, not just me.
He continued, “Any officer can lock the inmates up. They had one sitting down in the patrol room. They told him to go lock them up, and he said ‘No, it’s not for me, that’s for a supervisor.’ I said ‘No, that’s for any officer that is working in the office, they can go lock up the inmates,’ and that’s what I don’t understand.
Thomas was questioned by councilman Robin Young, and Thomas admitted that he had forgot to lock up the inmates the first time chief Zackery had called to see if the lock down had been done. Thomas said that when Zackery called back to see if it was done, he went and locked down the prisoners.
“I don’t understand why I am here to be terminated — I didn’t do anything illegal,” Thomas said.
“You don’t have to do anything illegal to be terminated by your superior,” Young replied. “There are three times that you didn’t do what he asked you to. That’s insubordination.”
“We are just trying to get a full picture.”
“I am getting put on all these errors, and it’s not even me,” Thomas responded.
Thomas said Soileau never called Zackery in regard to the robbery.
Thomas said, “That’s the supervisor. He (Zackery) took that from me. What as I supposed to do?”
“So basically, it is your word against the chief?” Young asked.
“Basically, that is what’s going on,” Thomas said.
Young cited an incident from Dec. 2015 in which Thomas was also written up for insubordination by then-interim Chief Allen Noel. Thomas was also sent home for three days with no pay with the write up.
“That is basically double jeopardy because you can’t charge me for someone else’s crimes,” Thomas said.
Young and Fontenot both told Thomas that the situation was not one of double jeopardy.
Young said, “This is your character. You are an officer.”
Thomas agreed when Young stated that Noel had written him up and sent him home for three days with no pay.
“So basically it’s the same thing, not following what he asked to do?” Young asked.
“Allen never asked me to do anything,” Thomas said. “Dispatch told me to wait for backup.
“It’s never you, according to you, so it was both chiefs,” Young said.
He continued, “This just shows that it doesn’t look good on your part, being sent home with no pay for three days by a different person, saying it’s all Brent, making up these lies, but there is a different chief in office, and you also got reprimanded.”
Young asked Savoy if Thomas’ write-up from Noel could be taken into account in the meeting’s discussion to terminate Thomas.
Savoy said “You can look at an employee’s entire file, his personnel file, so you sure can consider past instances, write-ups. Normally that does come into play with disciplinary action. You are not just going to look at one incident.”
Thomas continued to maintain that the write-ups were “thrown on him,” and that he was being backstabbed.
Council member Jessica Fontenot said, “Chief Brent Zackery has been elected by the people of this town, and we, as a council, need to trust him because the people elected him. The majority of the people of this town elected him, therefore, we have to trust him in what his work is and how he wants to run his department.
“As a council, and I can’t speak for all of the other members of the council, we are not there for the day to day operations of a police department and team.”
She continued, “So basically, as a council, we must trust the chief that the people have elected and take his recommendation regardless of what you do with him day to day and him calling you into his office and who said what about whatever.”
Fontenot said the council must listen and trust in the chief, just as it does the mayor.
“The people elected us and so therefore we have to accept his recommendation.
Fontenot made the motion to accept the recommendation, and the motion was seconded by Young. The vote to terminate Thomas passed unanimously.