Officers report conflict with personnel employee

By John Nickerson
Staff Writer

March 8, 2008

NORWALK - The arrests of a city personnel department employee's two sons on drug and weapons charges last month have raised concerns about the security of police officers' sensitive personal information.

Police Chief Harry Rilling plans to meet with city Personnel Director James Haselkamp on Monday to discuss the situation involving Personnel Records and Benefit Technician Donna Parker.

While some police officers have demanded Parker be transferred out of the personnel department, Rilling said he has discussed options with Haselkamp to resolve the situation.

Parker made threatening comments after her sons' arrests, and officers expressed concern that she has access to their personnel records, police sources said.

Haselkamp said yesterday that he was not ready to move Parker out of the department.

"Based on what I got from the reports, I have concluded at this point that it doesn't rise to the level that I perceive as a threat. The request to have any kind of a transfer at this point is unwarranted," Haselkamp said.

Rilling said he was surprised that Haselkamp would make that decision before their scheduled Monday afternoon meeting to discuss Parker's future in the department.

"I am just concerned for my officers and I need assurances that there will be no breach of confidentiality," Rilling said.

Fears were raised about Parker on Feb. 20 after the FBI Safe Streets Task Force and Norwalk police officers served a search warrant at Parker's 11 Third St. home in East Norwalk.

During the search, where marijuana was found and Parker's 16-year-old son was charged with possession, Parker excoriated the police for targeting her sons.

She told them that she knew who they were and mentioned her work in the personnel department, said police sources, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the incident.

Parker's other son, Trayson Stevens, 22, who was under federal indictment for charges of selling crack cocaine, was picked up that same day with 23 other suspects.

His arrest was part of a yearlong drug investigation that had its roots in the drug trade inside Norwalk's Washington Village housing complex.

After the search warrant was served, Norwalk officers on the Third Street search warrant detail wrote up a report of Parker's remarks, identifying them as threats.

The officers said they were concerned that their personal information, such as home addresses, next of kin and telephone numbers, could be at risk because Parker has access to personnel records, sources said.

About an hour after that report was sent, Parker came to the police department and filed a handwritten complaint charging the officers with "verbal brutality," said one source who read part of the report to The Advocate.

Parker especially was incensed that the officers threatened her young son with the possession of marijuana charge if he did not give up his older brother and tell them where he kept his drugs and guns, sources said.

Stevens' federal indictment charges him with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 or more grams of crack cocaine, maintaining a premises for the purpose of distributing a controlled substance and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Reached at work yesterday, Parker, a 21-year employee in the personnel department, had little to say.

"I have no comment. It is just the normal pattern of police retaliation," she said.

Rilling said retaliation has nothing to do with police concerns.

"That is absolutely absurd," he said. "She is throwing up a smoke screen. These officers were there legally and conducted themselves according to all policies and procedures as they searched for guns and drugs after a long-term investigation involving FBI, state police and Norwalk police."