(Photo provided by the Lebanon Police Dept.)
The Indianapolis Star reported over the weekend that Linda Nielsen, wife of Boone County Sheriff Mike Nielsen, was the individual who initially posted an offensive 2-year-old Facebook comment by now former Lebanon Police Chief Tyson Warmoth.
Nielson said she captured the since-deleted comment in February 2017 in response to alleged mistreatment of her daughter, Taylor Nielsen, by Police Chief Warmoth and his department.
Taylor Nielsen was a Lebanon Police officer under Warmoth until she moved to the sheriff’s department in March 2018.
Linda Nielsen said that her daughter suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after investigating the death of a 4-year-old child in February 2016 and that the department provided inadequate and insensitive care.
The stress led Taylor Nielsen to attempt suicide in October 2016, Linda Nielsen said.
Nielsen said that the PTSD counselors provided by the department were ineffective and that at one point Taylor’s supervisors decided a night drinking at a strip club with other officers would help her. Linda Nielsen said later that night her daughter was “tased” by a supervisor.
“She was assaulted,” Nielsen said.
But Nielsen said the department never punished the individual who allegedly did it and instead reprimanded Taylor for allegedly putting her hands on the chest of a man who had made sexual advances toward her.
Nielsen said that her husband met with the mayor and police chief to talk about Taylor’s treatment but matters never improved — and that some officers blamed Taylor for her condition and said she was costing the city money.
According to a report in the Lebanon Reporter, the ‘crude’ post by Warmoth was made on his adult son’s Facebook page in 2017 and allegedly made insinuations about his son’s friends’ mothers and used a derogatory term for women.
“My daughter was working there at the time, and I did not like the way she was being treated and so I started keeping information as I got it, hoping that something would be done, but something was not done,” Linda Nielsen told the Lebanon Reporter.
Asked about the timing of her post, Linda said, “I did it now because the election is coming up, and I did not want to see him continue in that position.”
WIBC host Rob Kendall joined the Hammer and Nigel show Monday to discuss the details of the controversy. Click the link below to check it out.
