Lawrenceville Police Chief Tim Wallis has stepped down amid an ongoing sexual harassment investigation.
Tim Wallis had received a suspension of more than a week. Additionally, an assistant chief will have to receive counseling and a captain from the same department has left all in the wake of this sexual harassment probe.
"Chief Tim Wallis is a long-standing member of the Lawrenceville Police Department and provided many years of dedicated service to the City," wrote city manager Chuck Warbington in a statement.
The report found Wallis criticized Captain Tawnya Gilovanni’s wardrobe choice when she wore a pink breast cancer t-shirt instead of her regular uniform shirt. The result of the investigation was released on Thursday. In the report, there’s not one but several allegations and it involves multiple members of the department. There’s also a record of an instance where Wallis told a female captain that she looked “like a Hooters girl when the air conditioner’s not working” apart from several such other cases.
“I was disturbed by the findings of the investigation and issued penalties to the appropriate employees, including a requirement for individual training,” Lawrenceville City Manager Chuck Warbington said.
The report also stated some criticism against Wallis since he allowed his wife, who is not a city employee, to be actively involved in various matters concerning the department. "It seems she has inserted herself in relationships with the Chief’s staff and/or their spouses, none of which have ended well," wrote Tracy Glanton, an attorney who headed up the outside investigation.
Complaints from Gilovanni and others in the department in 2021 lead to the city hiring an outside firm to conduct the investigation.
Wallis is set to officially retire on Feb. 15. Wallis had started working with the department back in 1996 and it was in March 2018, when he became the police chief.
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