Report reveals details of how love triangle led to end of police captain’s career

Details of the internal affairs investigation that led to the resignation of Stephen Greer from the Palmetto Police Department reveal a significant lapse in work ethic coinciding from the time he became the odd man out in a love triangle involving Greer and two other officers.

The investigation, conducted by Police Chief Scott Tyler and the city attorney, began after an anonymous complaint of sexual harassment, conduct unbecoming and creating a hostile work environment. Tyler found no evidence of sexual harassment, but he found Greer in violation of the other two. In response to Tyler’s findings, Greer said, “I disagree strongly,” according to the internal affairs report.

Greer acknowleded it was unwise to have formed “close relationships” with officers he supervised, but “I believe I was singled out unfairly for this investigation and for disciplinary action, and will suffer a significant loss in the pension benefits I would receive had I been able to remain in my position for the next five years as planned.”

According to the documents, Greer’s behavior toward a female detective he was involved with reached the point of her wanting to resign earlier this year. His misbehavior intensified as she started spending more time with another male officer. Greer repeatedly questioned the woman about their relationship and “how it was changing.”

Most of Greer’s texts were recovered after he intentionally deleted them from an iCloud account after his department cellphone was confiscated as part of the investigation. Tyler said some of the texts deleted were not related to the relationship and contained official police records. Greer said his decision to delete the texts was to protect “personal information on the phone that I preferred to keep confidential, and I was not advised that my phone was considered to be related to the investigation.”

Tyler said Greer’s deleting of texts and call logs from his department cellphone, after it was seized for an investigation, clearly says, “Greer was attempting to destroy evidence of his potentially embarrassing and unprofessional conduct and to interfere in this investigation.”

Tyler sent his conclusions to the 12th Judicial State Attorney’s Office for review, but Assistant State Attorney Heather Doyle informed the department she would not prosecute. Doyle did not immediately return a call for comment.

The love triangle was affecting Greer’s overall duties, documents show. He failed to complete several major tasks assigned to him.

“Greer’s apparent obsession with his relationship with (the woman),” contributed to Greer’s drop in work performance, Tyler said.

One officer said that Greer, on at least one occasion, drove to the restaurant where the officers eat to see who she was with and began making the other male officer “a little uncomfortable.”

The trio worked the same detail at the annual Seafood Festival, where Greer gave the two a “hard time” about how much time they were spending together. Greer even approached the woman’s direct supervisor, directing him to make sure she was where she was supposed to be at all times.

But Greer changed that attitude after the woman attempted to resign and instructed her supervisor to “lighten up” on her and “not push the issue of managing her time better.”

The “friction” created within the department began to spread.

“Clearly from the interviews and texts, Greer was fixated on their personal relationship (real or perceived). The fact that others in the department are also aware of Greer’s affection for (the woman) and his behavior toward (the officers) calls into question his ability to supervise, evaluate and lead,” Tyler said.

Tyler said Greer would receive his pension whether he resigned or was terminated. Only a criminal conviction would cause him to lose it.

This story was originally published July 5, 2017 at 1:28 PM with the headline "Report reveals details of how love triangle led to end of police captain’s career."