Officer of the Greenwood Police Department resign before this month’s disciplinary hearing

Greenwood, Indiana – A Greenwood Police Department officer resigned prior to a scheduled disciplinary hearing for later this month.

Elijah Allen left the agency on Thursday, per a news release issued by the city of Greenwood. The disciplinary hearing that was set for October 30 for Allen has been postponed.

This comes after thousands of instant conversations with sexually explicit content and anti-Semitic, racial, and homophobic statements were found between many Greenwood police officers.

Three policemen resigned as a result of the texts, which were transmitted between July 14, 2021, and July 14, 2023: Tyler Kintzele, Zane Hennig, and Jacob Hagist. Allen and Samuel Bowen were initially suspended.

The Greenwood Police Department’s “information technology use,” “mobile data center use,” and “standards of conduct” policies were allegedly broken by the officers.

Previous sources state that on October 12, after a disciplinary hearing, Bowen was fired by unanimous vote. This coincides with a federal lawsuit that Bowen filed against Greenwood police chief James Ison, alleging that Ison retaliated against Bowen for his involvement in internet conversations about Indiana’s 2023 primary election.

Bowen said in these chats over the internet that there was a “perceived lack of transparency in reporting criminal activity” at the Greenwood Police Department. In addition, Bowen asserted that “Ison and incumbent Mayor Mark Myers, who is running for reelection in the primary, made attempts to minimize the reporting of violent crime in the city.”

In response to the lawsuit, the department and the city of Greenwood have said that they were not aware of these messages and that Bowen was not the target of any retaliatory actions on their behalf.

The parties asked for Bowen’s trial to take place in March 2025. The jury trial is anticipated to last three days, according to officials.