Ex-Elkhart cop said bosses retaliated after she refused to sign bogus search warrant

An ex-detective for the Elkhart Police Department is suing her former employer and several police officers, accusing them of taking away her livelihood and ruining her reputation after she refused to sign what she believed to be a bogus search warrant.

Joy Phillips, who worked for the department for six years, accuses the agency of discriminating and retaliating against her. She also alleges the retaliation continued after she testified publicly about the misconduct she witnessed.

"There's not a word big enough to express the amount of corruption" in the police department, Phillips said, "and how it's being allowed to continue and how it seems like everyday is not a big deal."

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Phillips also names as defendants Police Chief Dan Milanese, former Police Chief Kris Seymore, Elkhart County Prosecutor Vicki Becker and eight police officers.

The case is one of three lawsuits filed in recent days by the same law firm alleging various misconduct by city and county officials.

“What happened to Joy is consistent with the pattern of misconduct that has permeated the Elkhart Police Department for decades: systemic misconduct clouded by a code of silence,” said Phillips’ attorney, Elliot Slosar of the Chicago law firm Loevy & Loevy.

In a statement to IndyStar, Corinne Straight, a spokesperson for the city and the mayor’s office, said she cannot yet comment on the allegations.

“Once the City is served and has an opportunity to probe these allegations, the City will likely have a lot to say,” Straight said. “But these are lawsuits; and lawsuits, are tried in a court of law, not the press, notwithstanding the tactic of some attorneys to do otherwise.”

“I would encourage the Star to follow the litigation, attend the court proceedings, and cover these matters in the courts where the law and rules of evidence test the truthfulness of the claims that are today, mere allegations,” Straight added.

Becker, who was elected prosecutor in 2016, said she’s unable to comment outside the judicial process.

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A burglary investigation or sham?

Phillips began working for the Elkhart Police Department in 2016 and was later promoted to sex crimes detective. According to her complaint, which was filed earlier this month in federal court in South Bend, she had “exemplary” performance reviews during most of her time at the agency and twice became a candidate for police chief.

But a series of events that began in July 2022 and ended with her firing almost a year later turned her life and career “upside down,” the complaint says.

Phillips said she was an on-call detective the day she received a call asking her to assist in an investigation involving a Cadillac that crashed in a parking lot. She was told the vehicle was tied to a burglary of a nearby building. But Phillips said she there were no witnesses or surveillance footage. The two men in the car, who were taken to the hospital, later said they crashed in the parking lot because they were being shot at, and they didn't know anything about a burglary, Phillips explained.

A woman, whose father owns the building and had a key to the property, told police there was no forced entry and nothing was stolen, Phillips recalled. The woman also said, according to Phillips, that she didn't see the two men inside her father's building.

"There was nothing there," Phillips said, "It was a nothing sandwich."

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But Phillips alleges that two of the defendants, Sgt. Brandon Roundtree and Capt. Andrew Whitmyer, told her to sign a search warrant to investigate the alleged burglary.

"I said, 'You can't make me do anything illegal, unethical or immoral,'" said Phillips, adding that three other detectives had refused to sign the warrant. "I said, 'I'm willing to take the write-up for it.'"

Roundtree, according to the complaint, threatened that Phillips would be demoted. Whitmyer allegedly lashed out, telling her to "stop protecting f------ crackheads!"

Phillips was later disciplined. During a hearing before the police department's disciplinary board, Phillips said, she defended her actions and presented the board with evidence of misconduct by other officers. Body camera footage that Phillips obtained showed that a police officer had "forced open" the door to the property where the burglary had supposedly occurred and that officer had fabricated details in his police report, Phillips alleges.

"I explained to them everything, all the illegal stuff that I saw, and how there was no probable cause," Phillips said. "There's no crime committed, and that they would do well to investigate their officers. Because this is garbage."

Phillips was suspended for three days ― an action that she said was a retaliation for blowing the whistle. She challenged the suspension through the grievance process and appeared at two hearings in October 2022 before the Board of Public Safety.

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Police officials defend their actions

During one of the hearings, Roundtree pushed back against Phillips' claims that the search warrant was unjustified.

"Based on the information that I knew from previous cases being reported, I felt as the supervisor there was enough to obtain the search warrant," Roundtree testified.

Seymore, who was the police chief at that time, also defended the department, saying Phillips' allegations were not true.

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"Policy was not broken. Policy was followed," Seymore testified, according to ABC 57. "I have suspended captains for violating policy. And I have removed professional standard investigators for not following policy. So, to insinuate that I would stand idly by and allow policies to be broken by the very people that I've appointed, flies in the face of everything that I've sworn since day one."

Shortly after the hearings, Phillips said, she received a bad review accusing her of "unacceptable performance." Police officers filed complaints against Phillips accusing her of improperly obtaining and improperly releasing investigatory information.

Becker, the county prosecutor, also wrote a letter to then-Police Chief Seymore, citing concerns over supervisors’ testimonies about Phillips during the Board of Public Safety hearings. Becker wrote that testimonies from three supervisors “would lead a reasonable person to believe that Detective Phillips has a reputation for dishonesty.”

“This puts my Office is a particularly hindered position,” Becker wrote, “… if we have to call Detective Phillips as a material witness in a criminal proceeding, her credibility is tainted, and we must disclose this fact to the defense in any pending matter.”

Phillips, who also accuses Becker of conspiring to retaliate against her, was placed on an indefinite administrative leave in November 2022. As she was leaving, Phillips alleged, the defendants kept her from getting out of her office and the building until they inspected her backpack and she turned over a personal audio recorder.

The Indiana State Police investigated the incident and recommended criminal confinement charges against the officers. No charges were filed. Phillips has requested a special prosecutor to investigate.

In 2023, the Elkhart Police Merit Commission voted to fire her after what Phillips described as a "sham proceeding."

"The things that happened to me shouldn't happen to anybody," Phillips said. "If you were to just hear this story, you would think it's so far fetched and outlandish that it would never be allowed, when every part of it is true."

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A previous lawsuit against South Bend

This is not the first time Phillips sued a former employer.

She began her law enforcement career in 1999 with the South Bend Police Department and resigned 2016 amid internal and legal disputes between her and South Bend police officials.

In 2017, a federal jury ruled after a four-day trial that the South Bend Police Department unlawfully retaliated against Phillips by targeting her for disciplinary actions after she filed a complaint against the agency. A federal judge later ordered the city to pay Phillips more than $80,000 for lost wages and compensatory damages.

Phillips did not comment on the South Bend lawsuit.

Evidence presented during the trial showed that Phillips was disciplined five times in her first 15 years on the job, the South Bend Tribune reported. After 2014, the year she filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she was investigated a dozen times and recommended for discipline in six cases.

Phillips said she originally thought she'd retire as an Elkhart officer, but her termination caused her and her family financial problems.

"I went from being the breadwinner of our family to us having to make some major considerations like moving for the first time and having to sell our home," she said.

Phillips, who is now an officer at a smaller police department, said she's suing to "restore my name, my reputation."

"I still love law enforcement," she said. "I do it for all the right reasons. I like the ability to change someone's life for the better, to feel like you're making an impact for all the positive and right reasons."

The South Bend Tribune contributed to this story. Contact IndyStar reporter Kristine Phillips at (317) 444-3026 or at kphillips@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Joy Phillips accuses Elkhart Police Department of wrongful termination