Ashland Board of Aldermen appoints new police chief
ASHLAND, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Ashland Board of Aldermen met at 7 p.m. Tuesday night at the Southern Boone School District Administration Building where it appointed a new police chief.
The board appointed Gabe Edwards who has served as a sergeant at the police department. Edwards will serve as Police Chief effective immediately.
This comes as a lawsuit filed by Lyn Woolford against the city and outgoing Ashland Mayor Gene Rhorer is ongoing.
Woolford was placed on administrative leave while serving as Police Chief at the request of Rhorer.
The police chief was removed after allegedly refusing to remove Rhorer's girlfriend from the mayor's home. Ashland Deputy Police Chief Terry Toalson was appointed as the interim chief during the investigation.
Woolford filed a lawsuit in February against Rhorer and the city alleging the outgoing mayor took "retaliatory action" against him.
Woolford came forward at the meeting to read a statement to the board about allegations he mishandled paperwork in a police internal affairs investigation.
He said in part, "The allegations against me are not true. I've covered up nothing, I've provided the city custodian of personnel records the appropriate documents per the board approved police department manual and the city personnel manual."
"It's been a longstanding policy in Ashland to keep police disciplinary investigative files separate from city employee files," Woolford said. "This is a practice in Jefferson City, the Boone County Sheriff's Department, the Moberly police, and every other government entity that I'm aware of."
During Tuesday's meeting, the board of alderman had the option to either appoint someone new or reappoint Woolford.
Sullivan said the board made the decision to appoint Edwards with the information it had.
"Based on feedback from the board and our desire to move forward we decided to appoint Gabe Edwards as our police chief going forward, at least for the next ten months," Sullivan said.
Edwards accepted the position of chief under the condition he would serve for 10 months. This is because in 10 months it will be April elections, and Ashland appoints or reappoints city positions like Police Chief annually.
Ashland City Administrator Tony St. Romaine said the lawsuit is ongoing. A court hearing in the case scheduled for Tuesday was moved to July 7.
