Police Officer Scott Tillis returned to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department on Monday after being suspended for 19 months.
But it didn’t feel real. “It felt like an episode from The Twilight Zone,” Tillis said.
Cops who were nervous newbies when he left now had a confident, street swagger. Friends had made rank to sergeant and lieutenant. The old Joe Mokwa regime, which he claims tried to run him out, was gone.
“Seeing me walk through the door revitalized everybody and gave them a spark,” Tillis said.
“Now they see what Chief Daniel Isom is trying to do. Chief Isom is on a right path to restart the police department and get it back to the reputation of being a good police department.”
The reality hit when he received his police identification card with his old picture on it. He told himself, “You’re back in the mix and back serving the community.”
On November 19, the Board of Police Commissioners voted to reinstate Tillis, after keeping him suspended for 19 months without pay for two minor charges of insubordination.
The board vote was 3-2. Board president Todd Epsten, Bettye Battle-Turner and Julius K. Hunter voted in favor of reinstating Tillis; Mayor Francis G. Slay and Vincent Bommarito Jr. voted against.
The board gave Tillis 20 days suspension for conduct unbecoming of a police officer and 10 days suspension for insubordination. He will receive 18 months back pay, which should include the raises he missed during that time.
His rank remains the same, but for the next few weeks he will be retraining and learning the new guidelines put in place while he was away. When he finishes training, Tillis will get his badge back. His new assignment has not yet been determined.
Tillis’ defense presented his sparkling record with the police force and the U.S. Navy – and cases of police officers who committed severe crimes yet only received weeks of suspension.
Tillis and his attorneys claim that the excessive punishment meted out to him was an act of retaliation initiated by Greg Shepard, a former City cop who was then managing the department’s towing vendor at the time, S&H Parking Systems.
When Tillis investigated more than a dozen vehicles towed suspiciously from his neighborhood on one night, he said Shepard confronted him and told him, “I’m with Joe,” meaning Mokwa, who was chief at the time.
Tillis said Shepard threatened to initiate retaliation through contacts at the police department, and complaints against Tillis surfaced almost immediately thereafter.
Shepard has since been indicted on multiple counts of fraud connected to his work at S&H. Mokwa testified at Tillis’ police board trial – which finally began the morning Police Commissioner Slay stood for reelection as mayor – that he met with Shepard regularly at the tow yard for “coffee.”
Mokwa has been charged with no crime.
Tillis is a man of faith, and that helped him persevere through 19 months of suspension, which he said was extended to drive him to desperation and make him quit. He and his lawyers insist that Tillis’ example of whistleblowing was unwelcome in the department.
“I’m a believer. Having that faithful foundation, one thing I understood was meekness,” Tillis said.
“With meekness you have to endure and respond in a way without violence.”
Checks and balances
As Tillis was going to lunch on his first day back, he said a few officers told him that they had thought he had been terminated and that the old regime had prevailed.
He said they told him how uncomfortable the transition into the new command had been. The department experienced a huge shift in new commanding officers and ranking systems, Tillis said, and at first no one could see where the department was heading.
But now they are seeing a new and vibrant situation, he said.
“Chief Isom is showing that he’s not tolerating unethical behavior because it’s all about character. You have to have the right character to do this job,” Tillis said.
“A lot of TV shows picture us chasing the bad guys, but most of our work is community relations and using our ability to mend problems, at least temporarily.”
When Tillis found out on Friday that he could return to the force, he was amazed. At the final hearing, Captain John Hayden, head of internal affairs, testified that he thought Tillis should be terminated. This was the same man who initially said Tillis should get 15 days suspension.
“After all this, they finally came to say that you can come back,” he said.
In the back of his mind, of course, the questions still linger. Could this happen to him again? Could it happen to his colleagues?
The issue of amending the police manual to protect officers in the future remains. Under Mokwa, Tillis said, all limitations to how long the department and board could suspend an officer were removed from the manual.
“Hopefully we’ll never have another officer go through what I went through for the sake of justice, because we’re here to uphold the law and we must practice it at the same time,” Tillis said.
“Check and balances still need to be worked out.”
