Ex-East Lansing Police Chief Kim Johnson Resigned After Harassment Complaints, City Stayed Silent

Former East Lansing Police Chief Kim Johnson was placed on leave and subsequently resigned after a complaint was lodged against him alleging sexual harassment, ELi has learned. 

This was at least the second formal complaint a female ELPD employee filed against Johnson alleging sexual harassment. In interviews with ELi, three other former ELPD employees alleged Johnson acted inappropriately with female subordinate employees in the workplace, and that city officials looked past his behavior. 

Johnson resigned in May 2024 with the city releasing little information about why he was put on leave or the investigation into him. ELi’s attempts to reach Johnson were unsuccessful. 

The complaint that led to Johnson being placed on leave was filed by Officer Jacey Kingsbury, now an eight-year veteran of the department. ELi spoke with Kingsbury and obtained a copy of the complaint she filed with the city on March 23, 2024, more than two weeks before the city announced Johnson had been put on leave.

Four days before filing the complaint, Kingsbury had attended a field training officer meeting in ELPD’s Emergency Operations Center in the basement of the police station. After the meeting ended, she was left in the room with Johnson as they both packed up their belongings. 

In her complaint, Kingsbury wrote that she was positioned in a tight space between the wall and tables. Johnson walked towards her, she believed to talk to her because there was no room to walk past her between the table and wall. However, Johnson said “excuse me” and turned to face Kingsbury as he walked by, her back turned to the wall. As he did, Kingsbury turned around and lifted her buttocks onto the table to avoid being touched from behind.

Kingsbury said she was extremely uncomfortable, pointing out that if she had not moved, Johnson’s groin would have rubbed against her buttocks.

“The incident was a violation of my safety, personal space, and sexual harassment,” she wrote. “Chief Johnson could have waited five to ten seconds for me to walk out of his way or walked the other away around the tables to avoid walking behind when there was no space to do so.”

Kingsbury said she spoke with her union representative and a friend and fellow officer before she filed a report with Emily Kenney, the city’s Human Resources director. She wanted to make sure she wasn’t “reading too much into this.”

“I generally am one of your guys’ guys,” she told ELi in a Zoom interview. “I sit there, I make jokes, I don’t get offended by these things. I don’t get worked up about, ‘Oh, I think they’re being sexist or this or that.’ I don’t typically read into that kind of stuff very much. I was just honestly flabbergasted. Normally I’d have some snide, funny comment or remark to make, but it was so odd.”

She also said this wasn’t the first time she shared a questionable experience with Johnson. She alleges that the former chief told her that a friend of his was coming to visit him in his office, adding that the male friend will “really like” Kingsbury.

“Not knowing what on Earth he meant,” she said. “He’s like, ‘No, he’ll really like you.’ And I said, ‘It’s a good thing I’m married.’”

“That won’t matter to him,” Kingsbury said Johnson responded.

Her complaint, according to Kingsbury, opened the floodgates to the experiences of other department employees. The city tasked Attorney John Clark with looking into the complaint.

“Essentially, every female in our entire department got brought in for an interview,” she said. Kingsbury alleges that her complaint “opened up a can of worms,” allowing other employees to share their own experiences with Johnson. On May 28, 2024 — a little more than two months after Kingsbury filed the complaint — Johnson resigned. 

The day after the city announced Johnson had resigned, Kingsbury received a note from Kenney.

“Following the investigation, appropriate corrective action has been taken to address your concerns,” it said. “Consequently, this matter will be closed.”

She was disappointed not to learn more about the outcome of the investigation and has recently submitted a Freedom of Information Act request, hoping to learn more about disciplinary actions. The request, filed July 17, has not yet brought documents showing more about the complaint outcome.

Kingsbury’s complaint was not the first sexual harassment complaint filed against Johnson. 

Another complaint was filed in late December 2020, less than four months into Johnson’s tenure as chief. We are not reporting the complainant’s name to protect her privacy. 

On Dec. 22, the complainant emailed Shelli Neumann, then East Lansing’s Human Resources director, asking for Neumann’s availability for a phone call, saying, “An inappropriate comment was said to me today and I believe it should be brought up to HR.”

The two spoke the following day by phone and the complainant submitted a formal sexual harassment incident report on Dec. 26.

In the report, the complainant describes a jovial, joking chief who inquires why the complainant hasn’t been eating some cookies in the workspace.

“At one point, Chief Johnson made a comment about my body, which is the main point of me contacting you,” the complaint reads. “He pointed to a box of cookies… and said, ‘haven’t you eaten more of these cookies, is this how you keep such a slender and slim figure?’ Then he proceeded to look me up and down in a way that made me feel as uncomfortable and sexualized as the initial comment did. I immediately felt caught off-guard and uncomfortable, so I tried to disregard the comment and change the subject. Our conversation continued for a couple more minutes, then the chief left…”

The complainant wrote that she was so shaken she called her mother.

“In my [time] at ELPD,” the complainant writes, “I have never felt uncomfortable like I did after this incident. Given my level of discomfort and the Chief being in a much higher position of power over me, I felt compelled to report this. I do not feel that my body/figure should be the topic of conversation, even if it was a casual conversation, between myself and the chief of police, or anyone in the workplace for that matter.”

The next day, Neumann sent a brief response, telling the complainant she and then-City Manager George Lahanas had the complaint. Neumann shared her personal phone number and told the complainant if she feels uncomfortable to contact her immediately. 

Two days later, Neumann and Lahanas met with the complainant and conducted an interview. The following day, Neumann sent her an investigation summary.

“On December 29, 2020,” the summary read, “after we interviewed you, we interviewed Chief Kim Johnson. He was advised that you had brought forward a complaint of inappropriate comments in the workplace that mentioned your figure/body. Chief Johnson attempted to recall the conversations in question that you described to us. Although he did not have direct recollection of using the specific words ‘slender figure,’ he confirmed that he had initiated casual conversations around the topic of holiday food, eating/cooking and fitness routines.

“City Manager Lahanas reminded Chief Johnson of the City’s sexual harassment policy and that it is never appropriate to comment on, or imply a reference, to an employee’s body. Chief Johnson acknowledged that he understood and supports this policy. He stated that you were correct to bring this situation forward so that it could be addressed so that you no longer feel uncomfortable in the workplace.”

The document ends by stating the complainant will soon receive an email from Johnson and that Neumann and Lahanas felt Johnson would not repeat his behavior.

“Chief Johnson noted that he would like to express to you that he regrets any comments that made you uncomfortable. With the support of City Manager Lahanas and me, Chief Johnson will be sending you an email on this topic.”

“It is our belief that Chief Johnson understands the concern that you brought forward, takes ownership of his actions and will not repeat this type of behavior in the future, with any employee.”

ELi reached out to the complainant for comment but never received a response. She left ELPD in mid-2021.

ELi also reached out to both Neumann, who left city employment in 2023, and Lahanas, who reached a separation agreement with the city the same year. Neither responded to multiple requests for comment.

Dean Kelley was a police officer in East Lansing for 24 years before retiring last year. In an interview with ELi, he expressed his frustrations with Johnson and how the 2020 incident was handled.

“I felt like that whole thing was shoved under the rug by HR and, at the time, [the City Manager],” he said. “They buried it. I don’t know if I should say it because it didn’t come from the victim in that incident, [but] my understanding was, she was asked ‘what is it you want us to do?’ by the city. She was like 20 years old and she wanted to be a cop in East Lansing. What do you mean, what do you want us to do?”

Kelley said he doesn’t understand the lack of repercussions for Johnson’s actions. He said Johnson’s inappropriate behavior extended beyond this incident. 

“[He did] stuff that made me uncomfortable,” Kelley said. “Particularly, the behavior that made me the most uncomfortable would be at the front desk where the cadets are because most of our cadets are college age and I’ve got daughters that age and the way he acted around them makes me extremely uncomfortable because if it had been my daughter, I would have been very upset.”

Kelley said he was bothered by the way Johnson looked at the female cadets and the change in his tone of voice and body language compared to when he was talking to male cadets and officers.

Hired by ELPD in 1982, Johnson retired as a captain in 2012. He returned to the department as its new chief in 2020. Former ELPD employees told ELi Johnson’s inappropriate behavior goes back to his first stint with the department. 

BreAnn Regan, a former police dispatcher, said that around 2005 she was working while riot teams were dispatched to Cedar Village during the college basketball Final Four. Johnson was acting as a supervisor in the dispatch center. 

“Typically, I was always very bubbly, very friendly,” Regan said in an interview with ELi. “He was sitting with me, or standing with me. I was focused on my job, because that was a very important thing. I didn’t have time for him and he was trying to talk [to me].”

Regan said Johnson vied for her attention while she worked to support the officers through her dispatch post.

“He actually went to my supervisor [who] later that night came to me and asked if everything was okay,” she said. “I said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ I was a new dispatcher and very focused on my position. She said that Johnson said I had an attitude problem and if you don’t want to be here, I should be sent home.

“And I know it’s because he was kind of flirty and always wanted to be spoken to and wanted attention. I knew that because I wasn’t doing that, that’s why he said that.

Regan remembers telling her supervisor, “No, I’m good. I’m fine. I’m doing my job.”

Her supervisor was Heidi Williams. Williams spent 24 years with ELPD, the final years of her employment as a dispatch supervisor. She said she does not remember the incident Regan spoke of, but does remember a pattern of inappropriate behavior from Johnson towards female employees. 

“Johnson’s behavior was talked about openly in the department for many years,” she told ELi in a phone call. “I find it hard to believe city leaders didn’t know.”

ELi submitted several Freedom of Information Act requests attempting to obtain information about the severance package and retirement benefits Johnson received. Each request was denied.

We also reached out to City Manager Robert Belleman numerous times for comment with each request going unanswered.