Chadwick defends record as Henderson police chief: ‘I would never cover up a DUI’

Henderson mayoral candidate Hollie Chadwick maintains she did not act improperly when she allowed several officers accused of misconduct to return to work during her tenure as the city’s chief of police.

Chadwick also said top city officials told her to not discuss any personnel matters with the media, which she said prevented her from publicly discussing specifics about those cases while she was chief.

“I wanted to set the record straight,” Chadwick said. “Two years ago, I wasn’t afforded that opportunity because my own department and city does not want us discussing those things.”

In an interview last month spanning her March 6 firing from the Henderson Police Department and the launch of her first political campaign, Chadwick, a 22-year law enforcement veteran, defended her tenure as chief, which in total lasted less than two years.

She also addressed the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s 2023 and 2024 investigations into two controversial decisions she made while at the helm of the Henderson Police Department — and her unwillingness to discuss those decisions publicly at the time.

In December 2023, the Review-Journal found that Chadwick cleared the disciplinary record of a police detective, Kevin LaPeer, who was accused of using a racial slur and allegedly urged the killing of Mexicans and racial injustice protesters. Chadwick refused repeated requests by the Review-Journal to discuss LaPeer’s discipline, and when a reporter tried to question Chadwick at a public event, she fled.

Then, in February 2024, the Review-Journal reported that Chadwick reversed recommendations to fire officers who were found after an internal investigation to have conspired to cover up a suspected DUI wreck that involved an off-duty coworker, according to city records.

Again, Chadwick declined Review-Journal interview requests. At the time, the Review-Journal reported, Chadwick provided a statement that said she was addressing incomplete cases from the prior administration. Several internal investigations at the department had contained “multiple discrepancies that deviated from best practices,” she said, but did not provide specifics, the Review-Journal reported.

‘First of all, I would never cover up a DUI’

Now, as she campaigns to be the city’s next mayor, Chadwick is blaming top city officials for preventing her from speaking.

“It was very frustrating at the time, because I made decisions on cases that were not on my watch,” Chadwick said. “Then when people in the community wanted to run with those cases, that information through the public, through the media, I was told I’m not allowed as a chief of police to discuss personnel issues.”

Chadwick also said she still stands by her decisions and that she did nothing wrong.

“First of all, I would never cover up a DUI. I never have, and I never will, but I will never cover up anything,” Chadwick said about the DUI case. “And so that already, right there was not a fair statement about my character.”

“I was more concerned about getting people either back to work or moving them along their way,” Chadwick said.

Referring to LaPeer’s case she added: “If there was anything in that case that showed that employee should have been disciplined, why wasn’t it done before that year and a half? None of those cases should take that long.”

In a statement, Henderson city spokeswoman Madeleine Skains pushed back on Chadwick’s assertion that city officials prevented her from talking publicly.

“The former Chief was expected to be responsive and transparent with City leadership and the media,” the statement read. “The decision by the former Chief to not respond to the media was made independently. Under the new police chief’s leadership, the department will prioritize accountability and transparency.”

Reggie Rader, a veteran Metropolitan Police Department officer who rose through Metro’s ranks to become a deputy chief, was officially sworn in as Henderson’s police chief earlier this month.

It’s unclear whether Chadwick was specifically directed in writing to not comment on the Review-Journal investigations. Gina Waters, a public records officer for the city, told the Review-Journal the city automatically deletes emails after 15 months.

Chadwick is running to unseat the current Henderson mayor, Michelle Romero, who was elected in 2022 and took the oath of office in January 2023.

In a statement, Romero’s mayoral campaign cited a city ordinance and said “the Mayor’s office does not interfere or weigh in on operational matters.”

Internal affairs probes were taking too long, Chadwick said

Chadwick said she had inherited at least 10 internal affairs investigations with pending disciplinary decisions when she took over as chief in May 2023, many of which she contends should have been resolved long before her tenure began.

“That becomes a little egregious, when you have employees off work for that length of time,” Chadwick said. “It was my job to read all the facts, listen to everything presented to me in a predisciplinary hearing, and make the decision I made. And I stand by that decision.”

According to Chadwick, those internal cases were left pending by the prior administration of former Henderson police Chief Thedrick Andres, who left the agency in February 2023.

The cases investigated by the Review-Journal — the LaPeer case and the suspected DUI case — had each been in limbo for more than a year, Chadwick said. In both instances, the cases required “decisive” action to close them, Chadwick said.

In both probes, Chadwick said, officers had been on paid administrative leave for more than a year and they still hadn’t had a disciplinary hearing. Chadwick reviewed the cases and moved forward with predisciplinary hearings that she said were requested by the subject officers.

“Any internal affairs investigation should never take that long. Literally, they should take — even the most egregious ones — should take three to four months and then be addressed with discipline and move on through the process.”

According to Chadwick, the Henderson Police Officers’ Association in those cases had also voiced concern that the internal reviews concerning those officers may have violated the rights entitled to them under state law.

Wanting to clear the backlog of internal review cases, Chadwick approved for the officers to return to work.

“Think about it this way, when people hear the officers go on paid administrative leave, they tend to think it’s a vacation. It’s not,” Chadwick said. “It’s stressful for them. They don’t know if they’re losing their jobs. They don’t initially understand why they’re on leave. It causes home life issues, mental health issues, physical issues, so it’s not easy for them.”

Former Henderson City Manager Richard Derrick, who retired in January, could not be reached for comment. Andres, now chief of the Cibolo, Texas, police department, did not respond to inquiries asking how many internal investigations were pending at the time of his retirement.

‘I had no control over’

When she fired Chadwick, City Manager Stephanie Garcia-Vause said in a statement their “vision and leadership styles were not aligned,” and that she had lost confidence in Chadwick’s ability to commit to shaping “a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement” at the Police Department.

Whether or not Chadwick is successful in her mayoral bid, she stressed that she’d be unable to move forward with her campaign without addressing what have ultimately become among the most consequential decisions of her career.

“Every time my name is brought up, these cases seem to be attached to it,” Chadwick said. “And I’m the one taking the brunt of the blame for something I had no control over.”

Among Chadwick’s priorities are bolstering police and firefighter funding, increasing the public’s access to information and bringing new economic growth to the city.

Ultimately, Chadwick said she believes Henderson residents want to move on, and that voters will make the best choice for the city’s next mayor.

“I don’t want our community to go through this for the next year,” Chadwick said. “We need to move forward and stand on our own merits.”

Contact Casey Harrison at charrison@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Casey_Harrison1 on X or @casey-harrison.bsky.social on Bluesky.