LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Accountability was top of mind for Mesquite residents following the firing of their city manager. The former police chief, who advocated for termination, was asked to be held to the same standard of accountability.
A few minutes after the vote to fire Mesquite City Manager Edward “Owen” Dickie, 8 News Now requested former Mesquite Police Chief Maquade Chesley answer questions regarding his firing. Chesley asked specifically what he would be asked, and upon learning it would have to do with the city’s investigation into him, he declined to be interviewed.
8 News Now requested Chesley be held to the same standard Dickie was held to, namely answering questions from the media—which Dickie previously agreed to following self-admitted, racially insensitive remarks.
In response, Chesley accepted the 8 News Now request for an on-camera interview.
8NN: Specifically, what we’re interested in is about last month, there was a meeting that the city council had where they published four pages of an over 100-page investigation. It was an internal investigation report. We want a couple of answers to that, and from your opinion. Again, we’re asking for your opinion on this. There were a few accusations on there that were shocking, one of which was that you had threatened to cut the throat of a police officer if he made comments that led to your termination. Was that true?
Chesley: No.
8NN: Can you give any context to why that would have been in the investigation?
Chesley: -shrugs and shakes head-
8NN: There were elements in an investigation that put- that there were things like taking away officers’ keys, taking away credit cards, taking away certain abilities for those police officers that were members of the MPOA. Did you do anything like that?
Chesley: No. So, what it was, was the two deputy chiefs were demoted to lieutenant and that decision was made through myself, the City Manager Edward “Owen” Dickie, and the city attorney. Those two deputy chiefs, when they were demoted, the captains that were promoted, they facilitated the movement of their offices. From what I was told, they wanted to move offices as part of their demotion.
8NN: Did you ever return back to the police department after you were fired?
Chesley: No.
8MM: Never returned to the property?
Chesley: No.
8NN: Another thing on the investigation was there were things in there having to do with scoring. There was testing for promotions that was in there as well. There was remarks about eraser marks on the testing scores for those officers, and accusations of officers being—essentially—maligned from being promoted, alleging in that document that you were a part of tampering with those scores. Is there any truth to that?
Chesley: There’s absolutely no truth with that. Anyone that’s ran a department knows the chief stays out of all those promotional testings. What happens is that goes through HR. It goes through the [sic] promotional staff. I don’t see the scores until the end. I’m not- I don’t grade the scores. I don’t touch the scores. My only involvement in that is, HR gives me a document saying these are the people that scored the highest, and I have an opportunity to choose out of the top three according to our Mesquite city policy or our police department policy. So, the fact that any accusation saying that I’ve “altered scores,” I didn’t even have access to those documents to alter them, it’s completely false, 100% inaccurate. The people that tested landed where they landed, fairly, as far as any information I have. And I promoted the top person every time.
8NN: There was something else in there having to do with- there was several exhibits. That’s where we’re getting this information from that investigation. Another one of the exhibits was there was an officer who said that he had made a complaint or was going to make a complaint at that point, the investigation alleges that you wanted to file criminal charges to essentially make sure that that complaint didn’t come to light. Is there any truth to that accusation?
Chesley: Absolutely false, and that’s the problem is when someone conducts an investigation that has no background in police work, they don’t understand how it works. So anytime an officer is under misconduct or investigation, if that arises to a criminal element or, you know, a crime, it’s our duty as executives in the police department to notify or speak with the district attorney or person that would prosecute that crime. It protects the city. It protects me as a police chief, in the fact that if you never want to be accused of sweeping something under the rug, so if an officer is accused of committing a criminal act that needs to go to the district attorney if it reaches that level of felony, or it needs to go to the city prosecutor or another city to look at the allegations and judge if I was a criminal act before.
8NN: One more question about the investigation. I don’t want to malign this point. There is something in there that says again that you threatened to cut police officers’ throats-
Chesley: No.
8NN: So, I want to make sure I get a robust answer to this-
Chesley: Yeah.
8NN: Did you ever threaten any of your police officers?
Chesley: Never, absolutely not.
8NN: Why is that in the investigation report?
Chesley: Well, I think there was people that wanted me out as police chief, and they were throwing any accusations they could to try to get me out. And the only person that ever threatened anyone or said “I’ll cut your throat” is Edward Owen Dickie. He told me in a meeting with the city manager with the city attorney, and with the HR director, he told me, “If you ever cut somebody’s throat. I’ll cut your throat.” And that’s the only time that I heard that.
8NN: Onto the MPOA. There’s accusations about union busting, about hiring friends, not based upon people that came through the academy, but who you had gone into the academy with. Is there any truth to those accusations?
Chesley: Hiring isn’t something the police chief just steps in and does. I don’t pick who we’re going to hire or not going to hire. People apply. They go through the process. If they pass the processes we’re hiring them. We’ve been short at the Mesquite Police Department for years, and part of my position is to if we have a vacancy and if people are looking to become a police officer in Mesquite, I talk to people and hope that good applicants will come and work for us.
8NN: That’s really the end of our questions. The one thing I’m going to ask left is, we’re here moments after Owen Dickie has been fired, and what’s your reaction about that?
Chesley: You know, I think it’s all about account of accountability. And a lot of times when someone does something wrong, they try to put it on someone else and they that’s what I think happened in this situation, is he said those things that were very offensive to anybody, and offensive to this community, and offensive to the cultures within this community, and ultimately, he made those decisions to say what he said that’s on nobody else. No one forced him to say those things, and he said it on multiple occasions.
8NN: Last question, holding you to the same standard, have you ever used the “N” word?
Chesley: No.
8NN: I appreciate it, Thank you.
Chesley: Thank you.
After the on-camera interview, Chesley told 8 News Now he wanted to move on from the accusations for the sake of his family and their well-being, noting he was pursuing work elsewhere.
There is at least one lawsuit against the City of Mesquite ongoing, which was filed by Chesley.
