Former senior MSP officer alleges retaliation over promotion protests

• Ryan Pennell retired from the MSP in June as a lieutenant colonel.
• Pennell’s lawsuit is a minimum of the fourth filed by present or former MSP officers alleging illegal promotional practices below Grady since Whitmer appointed him MSP director in 2023.

LANSING – A senior former officer with the Michigan State Police joined a refrain of criticism of the division’s high management on Monday, Dec. 8, accusing Col. James Grady in a lawsuit of illegally manipulating promotions to speed up racial variety.

Ryan Pennell, who retired in June as a lieutenant colonel from the MSP, sued Col. James Grady in federal courtroom in Detroit, alleging that Grady invoked a coverage of “variety by all means” when he tried to comply with Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s instructions to create an company the place its racial and gender demographics would mirror these of Michigan as a complete.

Grady tried to hold out that mandate, and in doing so “trampled the rights of white MSP members,” Pennell alleged within the lawsuit, which additionally alleges Pennell was compelled to retire on account of retaliation.

“Defendant Grady is dedicated to ‘diversifying’ the MSP in a single day, despite the fact that the related certified personnel are insufficient to realize this purpose now or within the foreseeable future,” Pennell, who’s represented by Ann Arbor lawyer James Fett, mentioned within the lawsuit.

Pennell is white. Grady is the MSP’s third black director.

Spokespeople for Grady and Whitmer had no speedy touch upon the allegations within the lawsuit.

“As soon as the case is filed, we’ll assessment the case and work with the AG’s workplace to reply in courtroom,” mentioned Shanon Banner, a spokeswoman for the MSP and Grady.

A spokeswoman for Whitmer didn’t reply to a Dec. 8 textual content message searching for remark.

The lawsuit from Pennell, whose retirement rank of lieutenant colonel is the second-highest rank an MSP officer can attain, is a minimum of the fourth lawsuit filed by present or former MSP officers alleging illegal promotion practices below Grady since Whitmer appointed him MSP director in September 2023.

MSP promotion practices are additionally among the many considerations of the Michigan State Police Troopers Affiliation and the Michigan State Police Command Officers Affiliation, whose members have overwhelmingly expressed mistrust in Grady and his quantity two, Lt. Col. Aimee Brimacombe.

Pennell alleges within the lawsuit that Grady undermined Michigan civil service guidelines relating to promotions by: Informing administration that he would hand-pick his captains, moderately than selling them by means of the conventional interview course of; maintaining a place open for a black candidate; forcing an interview panel to advertise the lowest-performing applicant so he may promote a black applicant to the emptiness created by the promotion of a white lieutenant; and creating vacancies for the only real goal of filling them with black workers.

Pennell “made it clear to Defendant Grady that he wouldn’t acquiesce in his unlawful diversification efforts and would insist on choice, and never pre-selection, of promotional candidates primarily based on benefit and in accordance with Civil Service guidelines,” the lawsuit alleges.

Pennell claims that he quickly felt Grady’s “wrath”, and that Grady and Brimacombe “started a marketing campaign of retaliation designed to drive the plaintiff to retire”.

Pennell, who’s searching for unspecified financial damages, claims he was “segregated within the workplace, excluded from conferences, consistently questioned and publicly rebuked.”

In October, the previous Chief Variety Officer on the MSP sued the company and Grady, alleging that Grady decimated morale on the MSP by selling officers with out regard to their {qualifications} and “initiated and perpetuated a sample of office harassment” that permeated the company and negatively affected decision-making.

Additionally in October, two MSP sergeants sued the division, alleging that promotions on the MSP’s Flint put up continued to be illegally manipulated even after an exam-cheating scandal ended a number of careers there.

And in January, Inspector Patrick Morris filed a lawsuit alleging that he spent his whole 29-year profession within the MSP’s Industrial Car Enforcement Division, the place he rose to the extent of performing division commander, however that as a white male he was wrongly denied promotion to commander in favor of a black candidate with a decrease rank and no industrial enforcement expertise.

The MSP has lengthy been dominated by white males, and growing variety to higher mirror Michigan’s inhabitants has lengthy been a precedence of Michigan governors, together with Whitmer’s predecessor, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.

Pennell’s lawsuit alleges that Grady’s predecessor, former Col. Joseph Gasper, who’s white, was additionally tasked by Whitmer to diversify the MSP however failed to take action. Grady “was tasked to succeed the place Gasper failed,” the lawsuit alleges.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.