Watch Chief Streicher's complete interview with Hagit Limor in the video player to the right.
Watch Hagit Limor's original broadcast report in the Related Links box on the right.
A controversy is brewing in the Cincinnati Police Department tonight and it goes straight to the top, to Police Chief Tom Streicher.
Highly placed sources tell the I-Team's Hagit Limor that Cincinnati's police chief didn't follow his own staff's recommendation to investigate a sergeant whom he calls his friend.
But the chief says he had no choice but to act the way he did because some officers violated department procedure and decided to conduct their own investigation.
It all started with a reprimand issued by Elena Moton, a sergeant then assigned to the mounted patrol.
An internal police memo says Sgt. Moton reprimanded Officer Aaron Layton after he shaved the number of Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu into his police horse's mane.
Officer Layton appealed his reprimand, but that appeal is on hold because of a more serious matter.
The memo says up to six mounted patrol officers say Sgt. Moton knew about the number on the mane and encouraged Layton to adorn his horse with Steelers items -- including a special leather hat customized by the city's leather shop so the horse's ears could fit through.
But the most damaging information may be an allegation by one of those officers, Specialist Terry Cox. He says he taped conversations with Sgt. Moton in which she "solicited his false testimony" at Officer Layton's upcoming peer review. He said she was trying to "intimidate members of the unit to testify in her behalf."
The memo says: "the six officers expressed a fear of retaliation by Sergeant Moton...they believed Sergeant Moton had a personal friendship with the police chief and...could use that friendship to have anyone removed from the unit or their mount. Each officer indicated Sergeant Moton repeatedly threatened their removal from the unit at various times."
The commander of the Patrol Bureau, Lt. Colonel Vince Demasi concluded in the memo to Chief Streicher: "I recommend this matter be referred to the internal investigation section."
The chief has the right to refer investigations or not, and sources say in this case he never did.
The I-Team has learned that Officers Layton and Cox have filed a complaint about the matter -- and the chief -- with the Citizens Complaint Authority, which has referred it to City Manager Milton Dohoney.
We've asked for those documents and the city said its law department is reviewing them before releasing them.
Late this afternoon Chief Streicher agreed to talk to us about this controversy.
Watch the interview in the player on the right.He told us he had no choice but to act as he did because the officers violated department procedure by not reporting Sgt. Moton's actions to their supervisors but instead investigating and taping her themselves.
Sgt. Moton now has a supervisory role at District One, which is where the mounted patrol reports.
