The Charlotte City Council on Monday agreed in closed session to head off a potential lawsuit by reaching a six-figure financial settlement with Police Chief Johnny Jennings.
Jennings was upset about a series of threatening text messages he received last year from former City Council member Tariq Bokhari, who wrote that he would get chief fired and cripple his legacy.
All Things Considered Host Nick De La Canal talked with WFAE reporter Steve Harrison about this story.
Nick de la Canal: Steve, let’s start at the beginning. This started as a spat over whether officers should be allowed to wear outer-carrier vests — and then we ended up here. What happened?
Steve Harrison: When he was on the council, Bokhari saw himself as a champion for rank-and-file police officers, and he thought they should be allowed to wear the outer-carrier vests, which can provide extra protection from gunfire. Jennings had resisted that, questioning whether the vests really provided additional protection. And he was concerned about them giving officers a military, combat look.
And then last spring, eight law enforcement officers were shot trying to serve a warrant in east Charlotte. Four were killed. It was the deadliest day in the city’s law enforcement history.
After that, Bokhari ramped up his pressure campaigns. He built a website dedicated to raising awareness about the vests.
De la Canal: And then came the infamous text messages.
Harrison: The two men had a long text chain from the late spring and early summer that turned increasingly hostile.
Bokhari said he would put maximum pressure on the city manager to fire Jennings.
And then he wrote: “I will not stop, and it will cripple your legacy you’ve worked so hard for. Just a final bit of food for thought: You have 36 hours to call it all off by compromising in some small way. Otherwise, it’s in God’s hands.”
He also wrote he had a “set of skills that I can promise you will be a very uncomfortable experience.”
De la Canal: "Cripple your legacy" - that’s particularly harsh. What happened after that?
Harrison: As I understand it, Jennings was outraged. Corine Mack of the local NAACP filed a public records request for the messages, and WSOC-TV reported this week that police officials that summer coached her on writing an ethics complaint against Bokhari.
And in November, WFAE wrote a story detailing all of the text messages.
De la Canal: Explosive stuff. Then what?
Harrison: Well, it was kind of strange — nothing happened. No other media outlets picked up on the story. Mayor Vi Lyles never publicly addressed it. Council could have held a vote to censure Bokhari, which is a formal public rebuke. That never happened.
You had a City Council member shredding the chief of police, and no one stepped up publicly to defend him.
And speaking of going away — Mack filed her ethics complaint in January, and the new City Attorney dismissed it.
De la Canal: So the city pushed it aside. But apparently Chief Jennings was still seething — is that right?
Harrison: I think that’s correct. He floated the idea of filing a lawsuit against the city, arguing that the controversy damaged his future earnings once he left CMPD. And the two sides have been negotiating for several weeks.
De la Canal: But the chief never filed a lawsuit?
Harrison: Right.
De la Canal: And the city agreed to preemptively settle? On what grounds?
Harrison: I think that’s an interesting question, and it’s hard to really say because no one in the city is talking. I’m not a lawyer, but it’s not immediately clear to me what the legal grounds for a lawsuit or a settlement would be. Bokhari’s texts were harsh, but arguably not libelous — and being the chief of police of one of the nation’s largest cities will obviously come with a lot of criticism. Some is warranted, some not.
So you have a situation where the city attorney’s office dismissed the ethics complaint, the mayor never publicly addressed the threatening texts — and now a majority of City Council has agreed to pay Jennings, who’s still the police chief, what we understand is more than $100,000. For context, Jennings’ salary is $280,000.
De la Canal: Bokhari left the city last month and is now a high-ranking transit official in the Trump administration. I understand City Council members are not speaking about this because it’s a personnel issue. What about police officers?
Harrison: The Fraternal Order of the Police said Charlotte taxpayers should be outraged over the settlement.
Jennings hasn’t commented on the case. But he’s been with CMPD for 33 years, and it’s possible this entire settlement — or extra compensation — is a prelude to his retirement.
