Following a scathing editorial released by Northern Illinois University's student newspaper, campus police chief Donald Grady has been placed on 30-day paid leave, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The allegations made by the Northern Star publication on Oct. 8 suggests that Grady, at the center of the school's Feb. 14 shooting last year, abused his power as head of the school's police department.
"The empirical reign of NIU's contentious head of Public Safety has reached the point that his presence as police chief compromises the well-being of this university," the editorial reads. "He must be removed."
The editorial accuses Grady of not working with other police departments, shunning the media, and "using intimidation tactics to expand his power within the administration."
The publication also claims that numerous school officials say the campus police chief is difficult to work with and "not fit to be a police officer."
The controversial resignation of former NIU police officer Dexter Yarbrough, who was discovered to have sexual harassment claims made against him during his time at Colorado State University, finally exposed Grady and his glaring failures, according to the editorial.
"Grady's desire to undo his judgmental error in hiring Yarbrough was so great that he went as far as to bring the Star's editor in chief into his office and dangle the possibility of post-graduation employment in exchange for a glowing retraction of the Yarbrough story, while similarly implying a negative outcome as a result of refusal," the Northern Star reports.
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NIU is still seeking one more person to name to a four-person panel that will review Grady's performance, according to statement released by the university. "All records and sources of information necessary to evaluate the allegations" will be available to the panel, the statement said.
