GREENWOOD, Ind. – A Greenwood Police officer who was among six who sent racist and homophobic texts using department equipment has resigned, Greenwood Police Chief Jim Ison announced Friday.
Elijah Allen tendered his resignation on Thursday and his disciplinary hearing planned for Monday was canceled.
Another former officer who was involved, Sam Bowen, was terminated by the Greenwood Police Department Merit Board on October 11. The messages were discovered after Bowen filed a lawsuit against Ison and the city, claiming his First Amendment right to free speech was violated after a series of posts he made on Facebook before the May Municipal Primary.
The messages included profanity, sexually explicit content, pejorative racial and religious comments as well as disrespectful or explicit comments concerning supervisors, according to documents from the Greenwood Police Department reviewed by the IndyStar.
Bowen was hired in October 2020 and Allen in April 2019.
The merit board brought formal charges against three of the six, including Jacob Hagist, who resigned on August 17.
The other three who did not face formal charges were Zane Henning, Tyler Kintzel, and Evan Painter. Henning and Kintzel resigned on August 10. Painter was suspended for six total days across June and August without pay.
