Critics decry workings of Apache Junction Police Dept.

Top police officials deny the allegations made by current and former employees, the East Valley Tribune reported Sunday.

Several current and former Apache Junction police employees said they experienced retaliation after raising concerns about the background of Jay Swart and his actions since becoming the second-in-command for the police agency.

"Everybody is so terrified because of the air that was put in the department that you didn't know who you could trust," said Karen Gwaltney, a former police employee who took concerns about Swart to the city attorney and says she was pressured into quitting as a result.

Both Swart and Apache Junction Police Chief Glenn Walp, who hired Swart, deny any employee has faced retaliation for complaining to city officials outside the agency. Apache Junction is about 10 miles east of Mesa.

"I wouldn't do that, and I wouldn't allow anybody else to do it," said Walp, who has been chief since late January.

He and Swart dismissed the complaints as the grumblings of disgruntled employees.

"I'm disappointed that people try to take shots at me, that there is this level of jealousy and vindictiveness," Swart said.

In October, Swart retired as a captain of the Capitol Police Department, a small agency that protects state buildings.

A 1998 review of the agency by an outside investigator documented numerous allegations that Swart routinely humiliated officers and other employees, retaliated against those who crossed him and spent too much time away from the Capitol complex rousting homeless people he suspected of using drugs.

Five years later, the Arizona Department of Public Safety reported similar allegations against Swart in two separate administrative investigations. Both reported complaints about Swarts "dictatorial" style of management and history of retaliating against those he deemed disloyal.

Walp said he looked into the allegations made against Swart in 1998 when he was chief of the Capitol Police for two months in late 2001. Walp said he found no merit to the accusations, and that he and Swart have been friends since.

Walp said he wasn't aware of the two Department of Public Safety investigations from 2003.

Karen Gwaltney, who ran the department's property and evidence room, said she mentioned to the city attorney in late March a newspaper article she had found on the Internet detailing the 1998 report about Swart. She asked if anyone had checked Swart's background before he was hired.

The attorney was noncommittal, saying only that he'd look into it, she said.

By the end of the month, Gwaltney was called into a meeting with her supervisor.

Her supervisor, Sgt. Troy Mullender, laid out a long list of job performance issues, such as "treating people with courtesy and respect," time management and overall job performance. Gwaltney, who had earned praise from supervisors during her nearly 21 years with the city, quit the next day.

Mullender told the newspaper that neither Walp nor Swart directed him to reprimand Gwaltney, and that he made the decision to lay out the performance concerns because she wasn't getting her work done.

City Attorney Joel Stern confirmed he was approached by several Police Department employees concerned about Swart last March.

He took their complaints to the council, which concluded the allegations were unfounded, Stern said. "It wasn't seen as pertinent, truthfully," Stern said. "It just seemed like a lot of disgruntled employees."

After hearing the complaints that were channeled through Stern, Walp said he assured City Manager George Hoffman and the council there was no truth to the allegations made against Swart.

Still, some City Council members say they were concerned the department is slipping back toward the style of management that caused so many problems in the past.

"It's not as bad, but we are seeing some of the problems," Councilman John Insalaco said. "I feel that we could be losing a lot of good officers, whether they leave on their own or are forced out."