Chattanooga police Chief Fred Fletcher fired an officer Friday for unbecoming conduct and dishonesty, saying Lukasz Balazy got into several domestic disputes with the mother of his child and used a law enforcement database to run a records search on the woman’s boyfriend’s father.
Balazy fought with the mother of his child at least 10 times between June 2014 and May 2015, and law enforcement officers responded to those disputes at least three times, according to the letter of termination Fletcher wrote Friday.
In June 2014, deputies from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of “aggressive physical contact” between Balazy and the woman, the letter states. He was not arrested.
And in November 2014, the woman again claimed Balazy physically assaulted her, but she retracted that claim when Signal Mountain police arrived. Balazy allegedly punched her laptop during the altercation and broke it, but he was not arrested.
In February 2015, Balazy used a law enforcement database to “improperly and without justification” conduct a records search on the father of the woman’s new boyfriend, according to the letter.
Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher“It is my concern that your pattern of behavior during the past 10 months reflects negatively upon the Chattanooga Police Department and this decision is made in an attempt to avoid potentially serious issues going forward unless your behavior is corrected,” Fletcher wrote in the letter.
Balazy also gave conflicting statements to investigators about whether or not he put the woman in a headlock. He told internal affairs investigators that he never put the woman in a headlock but told his supervisors that he might have.
This is not the first time Balazy has been reprimanded for such allegations, Fletcher noted in the letter.
“Some of the incidents in this case are also similar to actions which resulted in an oral reprimand before you came to this department from the Clarksville Police Department in 2012,” Fletcher wrote.
Balazy, who was hired as a patrol officer in 2013, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He has 15 days to appeal the termination.
Fletcher has now fired more officers this year than had been fired at the department in all of 2012, 2013 and 2014 combined. In that three-year span, only one officer and one cadet were fired.
This year, Fletcher fired former detective David Catchings after he was charged with drunk driving and domestic assault. The chief fired Karl Fields after a woman accused him of making sexual advances while he was investigating her alleged rape. And a third man, Kevin Kincer, resigned before he could be fired after pills went missing from the evidence room he was supposed to be monitoring.
Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas.