Nearly one year ago, WDEL first reported that New Castle County Police's second-in-command was placed on administrative leave over harassment allegations.

To this day, we still don't know the results of the investigation into former Lt. Col. Quinton L. Watson. New Castle County Executive Matthew Meyer's office confirmed: the public will never know.

"The investigation is complete, and the matter has been closed," said county spokesman Jason Miller.

Miller added the county executive has reviewed the report.

"It is of the utmost importance that all employees feel safe in the workplace and free from bias of any kind. We have gone to extreme lengths, including hiring an outside law firm, to ensure that we have the best practices in place to support our employees and keep them safe. The County Executive has made it clear that his door is always open to employees who feel unsafe in the workplace," said Miller.

Meyer, who was elected to county's highest office several years ago, ran on the platform of transparency.

"I believe strongly in transparency--it's your government--but there are laws about personnel matters, particularly involving law enforcement personnel. There's the Law Enforcement Bill of Rights--there's both state and county law--that really prohibit us from releasing any information about that," Meyer said on WDEL's Del-AWARE.

"So we're never going to know?" asked news anchor Allan Loudell.

"That is correct," said Meyer.

When pushed further, Meyer said he believes some government employee behavior should be protected.

"Anything involving misuse of public funds, I agree, it is too restrictive in certain instances," said Meyer.

Both the New Castle County and Wilmington Police--the latter agency charged with conducting the investigation into Watson--have denied WDEL Freedom of Information requests for the report and its findings.

"Pursuant to Delaware code title 11 § 9200(12) All records compiled as a result of any investigation subject to the provisions of this chapter and/or a contractual disciplinary grievance procedure shall be and remain confidential and shall not be released to the public," said Wilmington Police Support Services Commanding Officer Lt. Arthur J. Gliem.

Open government advocate John Flaherty said it's important the public see the results of this investigation

"I know that the county and many of the police agencies are hanging their hats on the Police Bill of Rights, which says they have a right to exclude publication of documents or information, but I think here there's a greater overriding interest--and that is the level of confidence we have in our police law enforcement officials. At a day in time when there's so many controversies, nationally, I think that it would behoove New Castle County to err on the side of good public policy and release this report."

Flaherty said he's surprised county officials would hide behind the Police Bill of Rights

"That may have been a good reason 20 years ago, but in a day in age where we're asking our police officers to wear body cameras to increase the level of confidence in their actions when they're out pursuing law enforcement activities...waive any kind of privacy rights that may be involved here, and I think the important thing is that the public has a right to know, and let's treat the public as a mature partner in this effort, and we can read, we know what happened in many cases--may not in particular this case here--but I think we're able to digest the facts and make our own decision...I think there'd be a greater level of public confidence."

Flaherty asked the county executive to reassess his position, given his commitment to transparency.

"He may be legally right as far as the letter of the law, but I think the spirit of the law says let's include thee public in these efforts, let's divulge, let's disclose the results of these investigations, and let the public decide on their own whether in fact there has been any miscarriage of justice here or whether in fact there's nothing here to be worried about," said Flaherty. "There's a lot of rumors floating about, the only way to really know stamp out these kinds of rumors, and to restore confidence we have in our law enforcement personnel is to release the report."

"The times and the day of hunkering down and abiding by the letter of the law is not going to cut it today."

Frustration builds

Angered by silence, a group of officers spoke in executive session during an executive committee meeting of New Castle County Council last week. The executive committee session was described by chairman Councilman George Smiley as a "strategy session regarding matters related to potential litigation and may include discussion of certain non-public documents."

Upon exiting the strategy session, council resumed and stated no votes were taken, but Councilwoman Dee Durham asked for further discussion now; Council President Karen Hartley-Nagle agreed. But Smiley immediately shot the idea down, saying another executive session would be scheduled in two weeks.

"That's the path forward right now...understand we are not in executive session—that's one of the reasons I do not want to discuss this now, and commitments were made to certain individuals that this would be an executive session issue," said Smiley. "We've heard comments--I don't think anyone in here's more outraged than me by what I just heard—but I want time to observe it, to look for some of the information that they've asked us to look for in terms of rules and procedures, and do a path forward in an executive session, which that was the commitment that was made to these individuals to provide some of a comfort level to come before this council."

Harley-Nagle noted all of council didn't vote on any kind of commitment and pushed for swift action.

"I don't think we should be delaying, and what, wait for it to come out? We should be taking the lead here, and say this is serious, we're taking the lead."

Councilwoman Janet Kilpatrick recommended council wait to act upon receiving legal advice.

"We can sit here for the next hour and talk about what we would like to do, but until, legally, you understand what you can do, we're just rehashing what they have said, and I have rehashed this every day with them for a week now. Everybody understands the process, everybody's comfortable with the process," she said.

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"We are outside of the realm of our jurisdiction," said Smiley.

"Having been through some of these very serious personnel issues in my state career...I need those two weeks, we've got a lot of work to do. To me, whatever we do, it's time to make sure that we get it right," said Councilman Dave Carter.

Counsel to council Mike Migliore cautioned councilpersons could open themselves up to personal liability, if they speak about this publically, and Smiley advised no email communication on the topic, before the executive committee meeting adjourned.

Delaware AG not asked to investigate Watson

An email from the Delaware Department of Justice, obtained by WDEL, said the Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust has not been asked to review any proposed criminal charges in the case.

"And [we] have not yet received any direct complaints from alleged victims or witnesses," said Sonia Augusthy, Director of the Office of Civil Rights & Public Trust. "You may be aware that investigators in this unit are former NCCPD officers, if that is an issue, please be assured we can assign a different investigator."

The Delaware Attorney General's Office, as a general policy rule, will neither confirm nor deny investigations.

Watson accused of placing pregnant officer on 'hit lit'

The alleged harassment incident, which was the subject of a formal complaint, took place nearly two decades ago. Sources told WDEL Watson placed a female officer’s hand on his crotch and made lewd comments to her. He then allegedly ordered her into a car to talk about the incident and began crying, begging for forgiveness.

Sources also told WDEL Watson also sent a lewd and graphic message to the female officer.

At the time the investigation was announced, Meyer and Bond sent a joint memo to all county officers. That memo did not name Watson, but WDEL independently confirmed he was the subject of the investigation.

Watson was also accused of putting fired and pregnant New Castle County officer Melissa "Missy" Clemons' name on a "hit list." Those allegations are the subject of a federal lawsuit, where in Clemons claimed she and other white women were directly targeted for termination by former second-in-command Watson. Clemons spoke exclusively to WDEL.

"Actually, I was pretty disgusted by the whole thing. The officers that were on it, what did they do besides get hurt? They're officers who commit crimes and they've been defended...what did I do wrong? So the hit list, it was like I was shocked; I felt like disgusting, I felt like I had leprosy and no one wanted to be near me," she told WDEL.

Watson, a 29-year veteran of the New Castle County Police, was promoted to the second-in-command position in 2017. August 31, 2018, was Watson's "last day on the job," according to Police Chief Lt. Col. Vaughn Bond, who noted Watson would be utilizing accrued vacation time.

Bond also issued a statement, at that time, commending Watson.

"Lieutenant Colonel Watson's contributions to this agency are commendable, and the Police Division extends its very best wishes to Quinton in all of his future endeavors," the memo from Bond read.

In an email obtained by WDEL and sent more than a month after the allegations were revealed by WDEL's reporting, Bond urged his force to "cooperate in the same manner as you would with any investigation."

Upon an officer's retirement, the chief of police is required to file with the Council on Police Training (COPT) within five days, according to state law. The form, obtained by WDEL in a Freedom of Information request, lists Watson's retirement date as December 4, 2018.

The required form, however, wasn't filed until April 2, 2019—months after the deadline and more than one week after WDEL made a public records request for the document. WDEL received the document via the public records request on April 4, 2019. Bond told WDEL he could not file the document until the investigation had concluded.

Now that the investigation is complete, on that form, signed by Bond, he stated that Watson may not be eligible for re-employment consideration. Instead of clearing him for re-employment eligibility, Bond checked that Watson "may be subject to the provisions of Section 8404(a)(4) and may require action on the part of The C.O.P.T. for suspension or revocation [of his certification] in accordance with established guidelines."

"Once we were notified that the investigation was complete the form was submitted immediately to the Council on Police Training," Bond said in an email. "I would like to add that the proper notifications were made to the COPT regarding when they could expect the form which they agreed to and fully understood."

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Potential victims within New Castle County Police are urged to contact WDEL's Amy Cherry at acherry@wdel.com. They will have the opportunity to remain anonymous.