Mendota Heights Police Chief Resigns Amid Controversy

Mendota Heights will have a new head of police after longtime Chief Michael Aschenbrener abruptly announced his resignation at a city council meeting last week. Aschenbrener said his retirement would take effective Dec. 31, 2016.

KSTP reported that with two new council members and a mayor coming into office, Aschenbrener believes now is the best time for him to step down.

"My last day in office will be Dec. 20, 2016. For the remainder of December I will use some of my accrued time off," Aschenbrener said in a statement.

Council members then voted to make Capt. Kelly McCarthy the next permanent chief in Mendota Heights. McCarthy is the city's first female, gay leader, according to KSTP. McCarthy came from Lino Lakes where she ran all of the town's public safety departments, including fire and police.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone I have worked with here at the city of Mendota Heights. The citizens who have shown only the greatest respect for their police department and for the elected officials who trusted in me to guide the police department through a time of immense change."

Mendota Heights residents, including the widow of an officer who was killed in the line of duty, began calling for Aschenbrener to be removed from his job in October. Demonstrators protested in fall near Mendota Heights City Hall in an effort to draw more attention to their cause.

“Everything that's been going on, it all started from Scott,” Michelle Patrick, the widow of Officer Scott Patrick, told FOX 9 in October. “I mean, that's my feelings, you know.”

Michelle Patrick reached a settlement last year with the city of Mendota Heights in a civil case that started when her late husband filed a lawsuit four months before he died. In the lawsuit, Scott claimed he became a victim of whistleblower harassment and workplace retaliation after he reported two fellow officers committing what he said was theft.

“I just want the community to be aware that this has been going on for years,” Patrick said at the time. “I want them to be aware of it.”

The group of protesters at city hall believe that Patrick's friends on the force, including his partner Sgt. Bobby Lambert and Officer Mike Shepard, are being punished for speaking out about issues at the Mendota Heights Police Department.

The Pioneer Press reported that Shepard was placed on administrative leave for an unknown reason. Back in June, the Mendota Heights City Council voted to terminate Lambert for a separate incident he says is related to the mishandling a crime scene.

According to Lambert, he was fired because of mistakes he made while investigating a January 2016 drug-overdose death, but he believes the errors were “not significant enough to warrant termination.”

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