Dan Maes releases documents about his firing as Liberal, Kansas, cop: Can this possibly help?
Dan Maes's explanations for why he was fired from the Liberal, Kansas, police department in 1985 have prompted plenty of ribbing and incredulity. So today, his campaign has released six documents intended to prove that he wasn't making up the stories. Trouble is, the items are arguably as embarrassing as if he had been.
Larger photo below.
The barrage begins with a July 10, 1985, letter from Chief of Police Richard Kistner, who wrote that over the course of the previous year or so, Maes became aware of an illegal bookmaking operation involving the family of fiancee Dee Andrade, who would become his first wife. However, Kistner continued, Maes didn't bring this information to the attention of his fellow cops. Then, after the department found out about it anyhow "through independent sources," Maes was interviewed by his superiors and agents of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Kistner claimed he was "specifically cautioned" not to reveal the contents of these conversations to either his fiancee or her relatives.
Cut to July 8, two days before the date on the letter, when Kistner said Maes told a KBI agent that he had "advised the persons involved in the gambling operation of the existence and nature of their investigation, thus ruining any chance for the investigation to bear fruit" and placing "your loyalties to friends and associates involved in criminal activities ahead of your loyalty to your profession."
Dan Maes as a police officer in Liberal, Kansas.
For that, Kistner immediately suspended Maes and intended to fire him -- although Maes could appeal this decision to city manager Alan Morris. Which he did.
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