Lawsuit: MSP Flint post commander was rigging promotion exams for favored officers

LANSING — The former commander of the Michigan State Police post in Flint was feeding the answers to promotion exam questions to officers she liked and wrongly retaliating against others, according to a federal lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Flint, sheds new light on an MSP internal affairs investigation that originated at the Flint post and led to firings, forced retirements, a demotion, and a resignation. The investigation also impacted the MSP post in West Branch, in Ogemaw County.

First Lt. Yvonne Brantley, who was the post commander in Flint, retired in lieu of being fired, MSP spokeswoman Shanon Banner told the Free Press in February. Sgt. Jared Chiros, who worked at the Flint post, had resigned, Banner said.

Brantley is the sole defendant in the lawsuit filed by Trooper Evan Neilson, but Chiros also figures prominently in the lawsuit.

The internal affairs investigation determined that Brantley would favor or target certain individuals for promotion or nonpromotion and "for those who she wanted promoted, she would feed them answers to test questions and provide the test questions to prepare for taking the examination," the lawsuit alleges. The suit also alleges that troopers who were out of favor were for a time placed on lists of officers with credibility problems who could not be called to testify in court.

Brantley and Chiros could not be reached for comment. At the MSP, Banner said Friday the agency is not a defendant in the lawsuit and has no comment at this time.

"It's pretty shocking," said Victor Mastromarco, founding partner of The Mastromarco Firm in Saginaw, which is representing Neilson. Troopers were "trying to uphold the law and you've got the lieutenant working behind the scenes to undermine them."

In the suit, Neilson alleges that the entire chain of events that led to the investigation and disciplinary actions began in 2021 after he reported to a sergeant that Chiros, then a trooper at the Flint post, had lied on a police report after violating department policy by engaging in a high-speed chase without activating his overhead lights.

Neilson alleges that nothing was done to investigate the incident, but that Chiros began labeling him "a snitch" at the Flint post. In October 2021, Neilson, who joined the MSP in 2015 and had received numerous awards for his performance, was denied an interview for an open sergeant's position, in a retaliatory move, and Chiros was promoted to sergeant, the suit alleges.

Then, in the summer of 2022, Brantley telephoned Neilson during work hours and told him he should apologize to Chiros, telling him that saying he was sorry would be "a good conflict resolution tactic," according to the suit.

Neilson was alarmed by the phone call, which he viewed as an attempt to intimidate him and retaliate against him. Brantley was implying that she would not treat Neilson fairly until he apologized for reporting "gross misconduct" by Chiros, the suit alleges.

Neilson said in the lawsuit that he did not take his complaint directly to MSP internal affairs until March 2023, shortly after an incident in which Chiros again verbally attacked him as a snitch, in the presence of other MSP officers, at a bar following a wedding that Chiros, Brantley and Neilson had all attended.

During the resulting internal affairs investigation, Chiros was suspended in May 2023 after multiple people came forward with serious allegations of mistreatment by him, the suit alleges. The investigation was placed on hold for a time during a criminal investigation of Chiros, the suit alleges, without stating the outcome of any criminal investigation.

Neilson alleges in the lawsuit that the initial report he made about Chiros in 2021 was forwarded to Jeff Short, then a lieutenant at the Flint post. Short was immediately supposed to file an internal affairs complaint, but did not do so, the suit alleges. Instead, Short, who had been promoted by Brantley, was working with her to undermine Neilson's opportunities for promotion, the suit alleges.

Short was eventually promoted to post commander in West Branch. Following the internal investigation, Short was demoted to trooper and assigned to the Houghton Lake post, Banner said in February.

Short did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday morning.

Neilson also alleges that Brantley made "false and malicious statements" about him to the Genesee County prosecutor's office, and that he and others who cooperated in the Flint post investigation were for a time placed on a list of officers who generally can't be called to testify in criminal cases because their truthfulness and credibility has been called into question.

"The placement on such a list makes it virtually impossible to act as a law enforcement officer within the jurisdiction as prosecutors will frequently decline to pursue criminal charges filed by officers on the list," the suit alleges.

Around that time, Neilson alleges he was denied another promotion to sergeant and has been damaged both financially and emotionally. The suit seeks monetary damages.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or [email protected]. Follow him on X, @paulegan4.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lawsuit: MSP Flint post commander was rigging promotion exams