A female Marion police officer has filed a lawsuit against former Marion Police Chief Dewayne Tennie and the City of Marion, alleging Tennie raped her multiple times and that the city didn’t do anything about it.
The female officer started working at the City of Marion Police Department in 2008 and Tennie became chief of police for the department in 2014. She said she had sexual relations with Tennie on several occasions fro 2014 to 2018. She also claimed he forced her to have sex with her twice.
“Chief Tennie forced me to have sex with him because he was my supervisor, he threatened me, and he raped me,” she said in the lawsuit.
Weeks after the alleged rape, Tennie sent the officer many messages and she replied, “Leave me alone!” She then threatened to go to the mayor if he didn’t leave her alone.
The officer alleges that Tennie raped her again in February of 2018.
According to the lawsuit, Tennie said that he would make the officer’s life a living hell if she didn’t want to have relations with him. The lawsuit also claims that the city of Marion “was and is aware of the illegal sexual harassment, and failed and continues to fail to take corrective action.”
City officials said Tennie was put on paid administrative leave in March due to a pending investigation. He resigned just a few weeks later.
The officer asks for an unspecified amount of damages in the lawsuit.
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