FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) – A Fayetteville police officer has been suspended for 30 days after an investigation into sexual harassment claims, according to Police Chief Greg Tabor of the Fayetteville Police Department.
Sgt. Dominic Swanfeld, who has been with the Fayetteville Police Department since 1997, was suspended after a joint investigation involving the Fayetteville Department of Human Resources and the Fayetteville Police Department found he violated several department policies.
“By state law and our civil service rules, the most someone can be suspended for is thirty working days, so he has been suspended for that time,” Tabor said. “He’s been removed from the unit he was in, and when he returns to work he will be reassigned to another division inside the police department.”
Tabor said Swanfeld was accused of inappropriately touching a police volunteer with the department during a Fraternal Order of Police State Conference on June 21 at the Chancellor Hotel at 70 Northeast Ave. in Fayetteville.
During the event, Swanfeld allegedly slapped the woman on the buttocks and asked her sexually explicit questions. Investigators later determined there was insufficient evidence to prove those claims, according to documents from the City of Fayetteville.
Tabor said the victim did not make the complaint. He said another officer told the department about what happened after hearing about the incident.
During the investigation Swanfeld was dishonest and deceptive with investigators, the documents state. Investigators learned that Swanfeld drank alcohol on June 20 and June 21, and then drove his Fayetteville Police Department vehicle, according to the documents.
“There was never an allegation that he was drunk while he was doing that, but it was confirmed that he had drank some alcoholic beverages and then drove his city vehicle,” Tabor said.
Documents state Swanfeld told investigators the victim was drunk and high on marijuana on the night she said he sexually harassed her. But authorities said that could not be proven.
“One officer did say he though she was intoxicated and high on marijuana, however there were several other officers present and that was not their opinion,” Tabor said.
In addition, investigators said Swanfeld deleted several text messages between him and the alleged victim. Tabor said Swanfeld admitted to texting the woman at least 38 times, most of which were not work related communications.
“Some of them were work related, some of them were personal in nature, and then some of them because of time and then the app used on the phone were delete, so we were unable to retrieve all of them,” he said.
When Swanfeld returns from suspension, he will not be allowed to take home a police department vehicle for 180 days, the documents state.
