Frackville chief confirms he confronted ex-officer at home, disputes tone

FRACKVILLE – In one of two public statements made at Wednesday’s council meeting, Frackville Police Chief Paul Olson confirmed he confronted an off-duty officer at their home, but disputes the tone of that conversation.

Now ex-Patrolman Devin Dellock, the last full-time Frackville officer to leave the department, accused Olson of arriving at her home and, as her husband, Jim, said, “screaming at her on her front porch.”

Dellock has also accused Olson of harassment, retaliation, and sexism during her employment at Frackville.

Olson directly addressed the confrontation accusation at Wednesday’s meeting, before a standing room-only crowd of residents.

The chief said Devin Dellock was on leave and had attended a hearing in Magisterial District Court.

“When you are on a leave, you are not allowed to attend any type of hearings,” Olson said. “She showed up for that hearing. That presents a liability for the borough.”

Devin Dellock said she was on maternity leave at the time.

Olson said Devin Dellock was told to leave and “got upset with me.”

“I went to the house and I had a nice, polite conversation with her,” Olson said. “To the fact that I even said I wasn’t going to bring it to the attention of council.”

Jim Dellock contested Olson’s claim, noting that under prior leadership of the department and on a prior maternity leave, Devin Dellock was permitted to attend court hearings and such.

“Just so everyone knows, it was a felony rape case of two children, I’m the one who did the entire case,” Devin Dellock said. “I have to be there for the preliminary hearing. I have to be the one to testify. [Olson] was not involved in it.”

Under prior leadership and on prior maternity leaves, Devin Dellock said, “I still went to my trials and I still did my cases, because that is my job.”

Jim Dellock also contested the tone of the confrontation at their home.

“If I didn’t have my security cameras being worked on, I would’ve showed the proof here tonight that he flew up the street, threw it in park, jumped out of the car, and started screaming at her because she was on the phone with the former chief,” Jim Dellock said.

Apart from responding to an inquiry about the hours he works and providing the monthly police report, Olson did not provide any other statement at Wednesday’s meeting.

Devin Dellock has previously accused Olson of sexist and retaliatory conduct, adding that such conduct led to her leaving shortly after her two-week notice was provided. At that time, she said Olson had given her a directive to perform traffic enforcement in Gilberton during the exact timeframe of a planned town hall to discuss police issues, and her schedule for her final week was completely upended, she said.

She said previously and in both of her resignation letters, that the issues she had faced had been raised to council multiple times, to no avail.

“If something would have been done, you wouldn’t have lost your department,” Devin Dellock said.

“Understood,” Council President Ron Jordan responded.

In her second resignation letter, Devin Dellock cited “unnecessary stress” and “lack of respect to your last standing full-time patrol officer” as reasons for leaving.

“This has gone on way too far,” Devin Dellock said, reading from that letter. “You had an entire police department crumble in less than a year and the pure disrespect out of each one of you is insane.”

In the first resignation letter, as read Wednesday by Jordan, Devin Dellock described her former Frackville coworkers as family. She described the treatment of herself and her fellow officers as “disrespectful and degrading.”

“The unnecessary stress and disrespectful treatment is the reason the department lost many good officers and has now fallen apart,” Devin Dellock said in the letter.

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Kaylee Lindenmuth

Kaylee Lindenmuth is a Shenandoah native with a passion for journalism and the community she calls home.

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