Mayor fires retiring officer for alleged shredding of police department files
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Wednesday, June 1, 2016, 11 a.m. — Bardstown Police Officer Tom Roby was terminated Tuesday by Bardstown Mayor John Royalty on allegations that he destroyed official police department documents.
TOM ROBY
A statement released Wednesday morning by the city alleges that during the week of April 18-22, and until May 4, Roby was observed by another department employee shredding “piles and piles” of police department documents, and placing other documents into a trash can for shredding by a document shredding company.
The shredded files are believed to include drug task force files, internal affairs files on former and current city police officer, and other police department documents.
Roby was allegedly observed by Officer Lynn Davis tearing up a disciplinary document related to Davis and saying, “See, you thought I was trying to jam you up.” Davis later recovered the pieces of the torn up file and turned them over to Capt. McKenzie Mattingly.
The city’s IT department took possession of Roby’s computer and found all of its user files were deleted. The computer was sent to the Kentucky Attorney General’s office in an effort to recover deleted files.
The destruction of public records is a Class D felony that if convicted, is punishable by one to five years in prison.
In his warning to Roby, Green wrote that “the public trust in the department will be diminished, and the question will be unresolved as to the motivation you may have had in destroying so much of the official records of the City of Bardstown’s Police Department.”
Roby was set to retire from the Bardstown Police Department on June 30, according to Larry Green, the city’s HR director.
Roby started with the Bardstown City Police in 1989 as an officer. He was promoted to sergeant in 1995 and retired in 2006. He was re-hired part-time a few months later, and became a full-time sergeant in 2007. The following year he was promoted to lieutenant in charge of special investigations and internal affairs. He was promoted to captain/assistant chief in 2011 and remained in charge of the department’s Internal Affairs.
There was no comment on possible charges stemming from the allegations. Green said the attorney general’s office is continuing its investigation.
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