More Information on Owen Police Chief's Resignation
Monday, December 3rd, 2012 -- 8:25 AM
-We have new information on the investigation into a former central Wisconsin police chief.According to Keith Edwards and Megan Wiebold of WQOW, Owen Police Chief Randy Poirier agreed to resign last month after an investigation by detectives from another police department. WQOW filed an open records request to see those investigative reports, which they received Saturday.
The reports indicate Poirier was involved in sexual misconduct in public. It happened while he was off-duty, during the city's Indian Summer Festival in September.
Numerous witnesses told investigators they saw Poirier and a woman, who was not his wife, engaged in inappropriate sexual contact in public.
Five different incidents allegedly happened throughout the evening, some of them witnessed by a group of high school students who said they were sitting only 25-feet away. Detectives say Poirier admitted some of the behavior, but said he was not aware that students were nearby.
The witnesses also said the chief and the woman were both very intoxicated. Investigators say Poirier admitted he drove home drunk that night, and that he had done so on other occasions as well.
The investigation also showed that some adult pornography had been accessed on Poirier's computer at the police department. And detectives say he illegally downloaded music files which were copyrighted.
Investigators tried to delve deeper into his computer, but say an encryption program had been used that allows a person to conceal data and makes it nearly impossible to ever recover.
Police say the allegations of sexual conduct in public could be considered a criminal act, but at least at this point, no charges have been filed.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.