By Katie Hall
Austin American-Statesman
AUSTIN, Texas — An assistant chief with Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services has retired amid allegations of having intimidated a person in his office in one incident and placing his head on a woman’s buttocks during an exercise drill in another, department documents show.
Assistant Chief James Hawley, who was with the medical service for 25 years, left in early February while he took his remaining vacation days, then officially retired Wednesday. Both investigations were closed once he announced his retirement, documents with the service’s office of professional conduct show.
Hawley was accused of “intimidating” conduct during the first incident, which was reported in October, the documents show. The second report accused him of “unprofessional” behavior and was filed in January.
Hawley could not be reached to comment. Austin-Travis County EMS officials said in a statement that they followed proper procedure in their investigation.
“Due to the nature of the second complaint, alleging unsolicited physical contact, Chief (Ernesto) Rodriguez began the process of placing Assistant Chief Hawley on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigative process,” the statement says. “Prior to implementation of this action, Assistant Chief Hawley requested and was subsequently granted a leave of absence. During this (leave of absence), Assistant Chief Hawley elected to file for retirement after 25 years of service. … Though neither investigation reached definitive conclusion, ATCEMS determined it was incumbent on the department to address these allegations openly and transparently no matter the rank of the individual involved.”
In the January incident, the woman said Hawley came up behind her and urged her to run faster while she was making her way up the stairs during the drill. She was wearing yoga pants at the time.
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“Next thing I know, his head was in my rear end, pushing me up several flights of stairs,” she said in an interview with the medical service’s office of professional conduct. “It was at least two or three flights of stairs.”
She recalled him saying something along the lines of “Hurry up with those stairs, get up faster.”
The woman told the EMS interviewer she thought it was inappropriate and “something he definitely should not have done,” but not sexual assault.
In the 2017 incident, someone who served on a work group with Hawley complained that he or she felt intimidated after a one-on-one meeting with Hawley. The meeting happened right after this person, Hawley and Rodriguez had met to talk about a petition that was circulating among EMS personnel. In documents, it is unclear what the petition was about.
“Chief Hawley used language that was threatening and confrontational and then even used body language that made me feel very intimidated and threatened,” the person wrote in an internal complaint. “During the conversation, Chief Hawley made a point to come towards me and shut the door before continuing the conversation and implying that I need to get in line.”
That investigation was also closed after Hawley announced his retirement, documents show.
When officials interviewed Hawley, he said he did not think he had behaved in an intimidating way. He was not upset, angry or frustrated in the meeting, he said during the interview.
“I thought it was an overall positive experience,” Hawley said.
While officials interviewed someone about that conversation, the person mentioned that Hawley once licked someone’s face. There are no publicly available disciplinary records to confirm that incident.
“So to give you an idea of where things are, that’s how it works,” the person, whose name has been redacted in public records, told the interviewer. “He apologized and it’s over. … I don’t think he’s malicious. … I just really think he doesn’t know how to behave sometimes.”
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