Officer Speaks Out Against Schools Police Chief Hurley Amid Allegations

MIAMI (CBS4) - Two veteran Miami-Dade Schools Police officers are suing Chief Charles Hurley, saying he hounded them for sex. One officer says Hurley requested sex in her office.

Hurley refused to comment about the allegations when CBS4's Peter D'Oench caught up with him Wednesday afternoon at his home in Southwest Miami-Dade.

"I'm not going to comment," he told D'Oench as he was supervising some men who were working on his home.

D'Oench spoke with one of the officers along with her attorney Willie Gary in Boca Raton.

"I feel humiliated and I feel disrespected," said Commander Deanna Fox-Williams, who has been with the department for 17 years. She told CBS4's Peter D'Oench, "I was sexually harassed on 35 different occasions. In one instance he started to show his private parts in an erect fashion at a retreat. I was taken aback because of him doing that and I was very surprised."

Fox-Williams told CBS4's Peter D'Oench, "There were different times when he requested to have sex in my office at Miami-Dade Police headquarters. I of course rebuffed every advance. I am in a career where I have done the best I could in going through the ranks and considered taking every test very carefully and for this to happen to me is very disrespectful."

"I am very shocked and surprised and disappointed because the person I knew many years ago would not have said or done those things," Fox-Williams said.

Hurley, who was pictured in a photo with Fox-Williams, was reassigned by the School District in May. That was after Fox-Williams and Officer Yewande Gibson filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission saying they were sexually harassed and saying that violated state and federal law because they were threatened with retaliation.

Fox-Williams told D'Oench she was threatened with termination and Gibson was transferred out of an office that she loved working in.

Fox-Williams said she had not filed a complaint before that with her bosses.

"The School Board is a situation where it's very hard to say anything against anyone because they are so close," said Fox-Williams. "I felt that whatever I said would fall on deaf ears."

The officers' attorney, Willie Gary, has filed two multi-million dollar lawsuits against Hurley, Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and the School Board.

Jimmy Brown, the District Director of Professional Standards, told D'Oench, "An investigation was launched and the employee was reassigned. He is been relieved of all law enforcement duties. The District takes all such matters seriously. We have a high degree of ethics. Mr. Hurley continues to receive his salary of $114,245. We can comment further because of pending litigation."

Gary told D'oench, "It was widespread and the talk of the department. Everyone knew that Chief Hurley had issues. We are trying to get justice for the officers. They've been good employees. They haven't been treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve."

Fox-Williams said, "I came forward because I feel a lot of women have suffered as I did. And being in a male-dominated profession, it is very hard to do this. You have to develop a very thick skin. No one should ever violate us or give us unwelcome comments."

Fox-Williams told D'Oench that part of her pride comes from being the daughter of a now retired Miami Police Officer.