ITHACA, N.Y. -- By her count, Ithaca Police Officer Christine Barksdale had a backlog of 117 cases. That includes sex crimes.

The officer’s number of open cases was revealed in a decision filed by the state Division of Human Rights. By comparison, two of her fellow investigators had four and 37 open cases, the state found.

The large backlog -- along with Barksdale’s failure to investigate the cases -- led the Ithaca Police Department to take her off of investigations and reassign her to patrol, the state agency said.

Barksdale filed a complaint in June with the state human rights agency saying she was discriminated against by the police department because she is a black woman. The state denied her complaint in December, finding no evidence that Ithaca, the Ithaca Police Department or then-Lt. John Joly discriminated against her.

Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick announced last week that the city’s police department failed to properly investigation a “broad array” of crimes -- including sex crimes -- for nearly a decade.

Myrick said the city is trying to fire the officer who mishandled the crimes. He did not name Barksdale as the officer.

Barksdale’s attorney, Ed Kopkohas, has publicly confirmed that Barksdale is the investigator. He was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

The state’s response to the complaint filed by Barksdale detailed what led the police department to reassign Barksdale, a 22-year department veteran, to patrol.

Barksdale has been investigating sex offenses and other crimes since 2006, when she was assigned to Ithaca’s Juvenile Investigation Unit, the state officials said.

After Joly -- who is now deputy chief of the department -- became the lieutenant of investigations last March, Barksdale said she didn’t want to investigate sex offenses anymore and asked to be transferred to another unit, state officials said. Joly told her he would not assign her new sex crime cases unless it was “absolutely necessary,” state officials said.

An audit of Ithaca’s investigations division was launched last year, reported The Ithaca Voice. The audit revealed some investigators had a notable number of open cases.

Joly directed his investigators to close old files and update him about their cases every two weeks, state officials said. Barksdale disagreed with the directive, she told the state, and did not follow his orders.

To motivate Barksdale to follow his directive, Joly stopped by the store Barksdale owns late last May and asked her to return to the police station, state officials said. He issued her a counseling memo, which is not considered a form of discipline, for not following his orders, they said.

Soon after, Joly started to reassign Barksdale’s cases, state officials said.

The police department has asked anyone who reported crimes and feels their complaints "went unanswered” to come forward, Myrick said last week. The department has turned over records of the mishandled cases to the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office and the state Attorney General’s office, the mayor said.

The mayor also said the police department was instituting a series of changes to the investigations division.

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