Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned
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| Police Chief Lorrie Hennesy will do anything for a pension |
Corruption on the City Council or Manipulation by a Conniving City
Employee After a Pension?
When we heard that Nick Mahoney was taking the Pawhuska police chief job we had to wonder if he know about the drama fest that had been going on for over a year and a half there in Pawhuska. Either way Mahoney was the fourth Pawhuska police chief to leave the position in less than eighteen months. After only 32 days on the job.
The town became notorious for hiring and firing the top cop back in June and July of 2019 after the third police chief in a few months was fired. Nick Silva had been chief until he was fired by interim City Manager Larry Eulert and Assistant City Manager Rex Wikel, who in turn resigned after the community came out in outrage over the firing of a popular chief of police.
In his place, one Lorrie Hennesy had been appointed interim chief. Much was made in the new stories about Hennesy being on the job for “more than a year” and for her position as a school resource officer. But the June 28th firing of Silva led to a meeting at City Hall to figure out who would lead the city until the recently hired city manager came to work. With both Eulert and Wikel gone, no one was in charge of running the city. Wikel by the way was the former chief of police who had resigned to apply for the assistant city manager job.
A few days later Silva was back to work after getting an unofficial apology from the city council and all seemed well. No real reason was given for his firing other than the previous city manager didn't like the direction the department was going.
Well, that lead to a group of local citizens forming a recall petition to remove four of the five city councilmen. The firing of the top cop was the icing on the cake according to some of the locals, who said the city council was a circus. Councilmen John Brazee, Mark Buchnan, Rodger Milleson, and Roger Taylor were targeted in the recall petition filed in July of 2019 which received the needed 108 signatures and the election was held on October 8th 2019. The remaining councilman had been recently elected and was exempt from the recall petition.
All four of the elected officials retained their positions in a two thirds majority vote.
But there was a problem in Pawhuska, a poisonous woman was looking for a pension and had a family member on the City Council. One Lorrie Hennesy, the same school resource officer that had been appointed temporary chief, was not happy that she lost the interim position. Lorrie wanted a pension and she was pressuring others on the city council to see that she got one.
Lorrie's experience as a police officer consisted of about 18 months as a school resource officer with the Pawhuska police department. Prior to that she was a teacher assistant in a nearby town. Zero experience other than that. But Lorrie had an uncle on the Pawhuska City Council so she was hired on as a full time police officer.
The problem was that Hennesy was too old to be put on the state police officer pension plan. The cut off age is 45 years of age and Hennesy was past that age when she was hired. The city was informed of this in June of 2018 and also told that it was illegal for her to be a full time police officer as well. Yet as late as February 28th of this year Lorrie was still working as a police officer until the same agency that had told the city manager of Pawhuska back in July of 2018 wrote another letter warning the city to fire Lorrie or face legal problems including the Attorney General office.
Then on January 28th Lorrie Hennesy must have done stellar work because suddenly the beloved police chief was fired again.
This time the claim was that Silva was under investigation by the OSBI for having an affair with a confidential informant. Silva was fired by the new city manager, Dave Neely, who had come on board in August of 2019. Allegedly both Silva and the police department were under investigation by the OSBI and local D.A. Office.
And who was named as interim police chief, Lorrie Hennesy, the niece of City Councilman John Brazee.
The allegations were that Silva had “mishandled” an informant, with the local D.A. claiming he was planning on filing charges against Silva, unspecified charges at the time according to news reports. Ultimately no charges were ever filed against Silva and it was ruled that any relationship with the informant was consensual and perfectly legal. Now I wonder who might have know about that relationship and might have tattled on Silva?
Then on February 11th former Wagoner County Sheriff Department public spokesperson Nick Mahoney was hired on as the new chief of police. Nick had to have reservations after seeing a merry go round of hired and fired chiefs and they would have been justified because after only 32 days on the job Nick gets fired, and for no reason. Well, there was a reason, they wanted Brazee's niece on the job.
The city manager resigns the next day in protest over the firing of Mahoney. Neely had resisted pressure to appoint Lorrie Hennesy as chief of police citing her lack of experience. Lorrie Hennesy was pressuring Neely to be hired full time as a police officer and receive a pension and complained that two people on the force were out to get her fired, that she had been working for 18 months as a full time police officer without anyone complaining (remember that the city knew full time work for her was illegal in July of 2018 after her application had been rejected by OPPRS, the pension board).
The short version is that Lorrie Hennesy, the entire City Council including her uncle John Brazee, the city attorney, and all of the city managers since July 2018 KNEW that it was illegal to keep Hennesy on the job full time as a police officer. Hennesy's problem was that she would have to reimburse CLEET for her weeks of training if she wasn't employed full time and she was hell bent on getting a pension.
And the uncle, City Councilman John Brazee? People say that he doesn't live in Pawhuska, he lives in Barnsdall, fifteen miles South East of Pawhuska and uses his shop address to run for office. Everyone knows including the D.A. and no one cares.
