Police chief resigns

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Chaffee Police Chief Martin Keys resigned Monday, ending weeks of speculation around Chaffee concerning the embattled chief's job status.

Keys submitted a resignation letter to the city council stating his resignation was effective Monday.

Mayor Loretta Mohorc read the letter during open session during Monday night's regular city council meeting.

Keys kept his cause for leaving vague, citing only "personal reasons" for turning in his resignation. The announcement followed a meeting in which several members of the public -- including Mary Beth Ayers, wife of fired Chaffee police officer Daniel Ayers -- questioned the council about the police department's actions and actions of the city's Police Personnel Board, a body tasked with police department oversight.

In his letters Keys expressed an interest in continuing employment with the Chaffee Police Department as a reserve officer or a full-time patrolman.

A few in the audience clapped after Mohorc read the letter.

Mohorc had alluded to the coming news earlier in the meeting after taking public input.

"As almost all of you know we are having problems in our police department right now and we are taking steps to change it," Mohorc said before promising the city would soon have an "efficient" and "well-staffed" department.

One member of the audience accused the police board of violating Missouri's open meetings and records law by not giving proper notice of meeting dates and times or posting agendas.

"From now on they're going to do that," Mohorc said.

Keys arrived at the police department shortly after the council went into closed session. When a Southeast Missourian reporter asked for Keys, a police department employee said he was in a meeting.

Several people outside the city hall and police department identified police board chairman David Ivester as the person meeting with Keys.

Mohorc said the city will now begin actively seeking a new chief and several other new members of the police department staff, but didn't elaborate on how many positions needed to be filled.

Keys' tenure as chief began in August 2006. Controversy defined much of his time as chief.

A few weeks after Keys took office, officer James Backfisch engaged in a high-speed chase that ended in two deaths. The city is now facing three lawsuits for wrongful death and personal injuries as a result of the chase.

In February, Daniel Ayers was charged with patronizing prostitution and fired from the department.

The charges were later dropped after witnesses recanted their testimony, but Ayers alleged he was set up after threatening to expose wrongdoing within Keys' department.

Most recently, three officers and a dispatcher resigned. The reasons weren't made public, except that one officer resigned to take a better-paying job and the dispatcher resigned because the hours were undesirable.

msanders@semissourian.com

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