Top police official resigns after flap over outside job

A top Baltimore City police official, who had been suspended and was recently cleared to resume moonlighting as a civil attorney, resigned Wednesday after meeting with Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III.

Kim Y. Johnson, head of the Police Department's equal employment opportunity commission, was investigated earlier in the year for working as a defense attorney for suspects arrested by city police and in other jurisdictions. Johnson, who was paid $94,000 by the city last year, had also filed dozens of bankruptcy claims on behalf of private clients in addition to her work for the city, and her name was invoked last week in a flap over claims of a falsified discrimination complaint.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said he did not know what sparked the meeting with Bealefeld but said "it was decided that she would leave the agency." He characterized her departure as voluntary; she could not be reached for comment at a phone number listed for her private law firm.

Johnson's time with the city had been fraught with controversy. Her hiring was the subject of a federal lawsuit settled by the city, while her side work as a bankruptcy attorney had attracted the attention of Mayor Sheila Dixon, when she was City Council president in 2004. Dixon said that "we can't have that practice going on" and asked City Council committees to investigate.

The Baltimore Sun reported in March that court documents show Johnson, who is licensed to perform bankruptcy and defense litigation work, continued to moonlight as a private attorney, representing criminal suspects charged with theft over $500, destruction of property and drug offenses since she went to work for the Baltimore police. She has also represented clients in bankruptcy cases, foreclosures, civil lawsuits, divorces, custody and contract disputes, and visitation hearings. She has handled cases in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Montgomery, Prince George's and St. Mary's counties.

The Fraternal Order of Police called for her to step down while she was investigated, but the Police Department recently cleared her to resume side work as long as she did not represent people accused of crimes.

Last week, the Web site InvestigativeVoice.com reported that Lt. Therman Reed, a 25-year veteran, had filed a federal discrimination complaint saying that the canine unit he oversaw was being depleted and that the police dogs were not receiving adequate medical care and supplies. The site reported that a bogus document addressed to Johnson, which spelled Reed's first name wrong as "Thurman" and included a phone number that does not exist, later appeared in the case file of that investigation.

The document came to light after Reed was suspended for shouting at the department's deputy commissioner Anthony Barksdale at a weekly commanders meeting, a suspension which Bealefeld said was for insubordination. The black officers' union questioned whether the suspension and the doctored report were racially motivated. Reed, Johnson and Barksdale are all black.

Police have declined to comment, saying the matter was under investigation.