Michigan police chief fired for 'forcefully' pushing his groin into a woman's buttocks during bus ride to a Detroit Tigers game
FREMONT, MICHIGAN: After being accused of "forcefully" pushing his groin into a woman's buttocks on a party bus which was heading to a Detroit Tigers game, the police chief of Fremont has been fired. Randall Wright, 48, was arraigned on two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct a week ago, after a woman came forward claiming that he made inappropriate comments and touched her "aggressively" despite her objections.
According to an affidavit obtained by MLive, the unidentified victim told police that Wright “was intoxicated and was making numerous sexually explicit advances toward her while traveling on a ‘party bus’ to a Detroit Tigers game and back," on June 5.
After making sexual remarks to the woman, Wright is alleged to have “forcefully” pushed his groin into the woman’s buttocks area when the bus stopped so the passengers could use the bathroom, Michigan State Police Trooper Brian Komm wrote in a probable-cause affidavit.
In the bus carrying 31 passengers, most people were law enforcement officers or their spouses. The victim and her husband, however, were civilians. In an interview with WOOD-TV, the woman said that the chief seemed to be fixated on her during the ride.
"He was commenting about my body — made sexual comments about what he would like to do to me sexually," she said.
Apparently, the female accuser was reportedly not the only woman victimized by Wright on the party bus. “This contact was unwanted by the victim and she previously told him to stop,” Komm wrote. “Some of this contact was observed by witnesses as the (defendant) smacked the buttocks of other women on the bus without their consent."
On September 24, Wright was placed on paid administrative leave. A day after he was terminated by the Fremont City Council on Monday, October 7; the council also released a statement explaining that the police chief was removed from his post followed completion of a city investigation and that "the city will have no further comment on this matter at this time."
An acting police chief has been appointed.