CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) - Former Champaign Fire Chief Gary Ludwig was investigated over allegations of sexual harassment prior to his resignation last week.
Allegations were reportedly made by his employees and involved alleged, “inappropriate statements about women or sexually explicit content.”
Documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act showed two employees made reports on June 13.
One employee said that on June 7 during a staff training, Chief Ludwig made inappropriate statements. The person said Ludwig had also made additional statements about them at an earlier date.
Another employee said Ludwig made statements of a sexually explicit nature during a speaker phone conversation at the fire station.
Champaign City Manager Dorothy Ann David conducted multiple interviews with the alleged victims and witnesses between June 26 and July 6.
Ludwig was interviewed on July 6 about the allegations. He said he could not recall the incidents. In some cases, the City Manager said Ludwig denied the allegations. In other cases, she said he did recall the incidents but recalled it happening differently than how the complaints were presented.
Ludwig took leave for "personal medical reasons" on July 7 before resigning with the City on July 14.
David said her investigation confirmed conduct by Ludwig “that included derogatory and demeaning references to individuals based on age, national origin and gender identity.”
These alleged incidents included, “multiple reports of the chief showing photographs of a woman in revealing attire to employees” and “the chief having a cellphone conversation with a woman in speaker mode that included sexually explicit comments that could be overheard by staff."
The alleged complaints against Ludwig outlined in David's report included:
- Using the term “feminazi” in reference to female professionals in the presence of other employees.
- Making a statement to a subordinate employee about a female colleague that was sexually explicit and demeaning.
- Multiple reports of Ludwig making sexually explicit statements to subordinate employees, including references to oral sex and the use of demeaning terminology about female anatomy.
- Making a derogatory/demeaning statement about a woman involving references to age, national origin and a sex act.
- Relaying information about his past sexual experiences during crew meetings and discussions with employees.
- Making comments about male sexual performance in discussions of employee medical issues.
David said in her report she found the complainant and witness statements credible.
Witnesses told David they believed the issues stemmed solely from Ludwig and were not representative of the culture of the Department as a whole.
No disciplinary action will be taken against Ludwig, because he chose to resign on his own.
During the alleged innappropriate speaker phone conversation, someone said Ludwig was walking past their office door when he answered his phone on speaker phone with the volume turned up loudly.
The witness said he heard the chief say, “what he would do to her if he were there,” “oohs and ahhs,” and saying things like, “If I was there, you would not stand a (expletive) chance,” and “If I was there, I would deflower you in a second.”
The employee said the chief was having phone sex from what he could tell.
During the allegation about a June 7 meeting with employees about proposed changes at the fire department to better accommodate female firefighters' bathroom and sleeping arrangements, employees said Ludwig made a comment similar to "Thank goodness (employee) isn’t a feminazi, or else we’d have to make these changes now.’”
Ludwig told David he said “feminist” and “not," not "feminazi" and that people must have just misheard him because he was talking quickly.
Ludwig was also accused of showing employees pictures of a woman in revealing clothes.
“The investigation confirmed conduct by the former fire chief that included derogatory and demeaning references to individuals based on age, national origin and gender identity,” David said in her report. “These incidents were made on multiple occasions and impacted multiple employees within the fire department. The investigation further confirmed multiple instances of offensive conduct of a sexual nature, either in the statements or actions by the former chief. While the chief denied or did not recall many of the allegations, many of the allegations were corroborated by multiple staff as evidence of a pattern of conduct that had been exhibited by the chief for a period of time.”
WAND News reached out to Ludwig for a response. We were sent the following by his attorney, Julie Herrera:
"If my client did not have to take care of his ill wife down in St. Louis, he would have stayed to fight these allegations. Some of them are completely false; some statements were taken out of context; and some were part of a broader discussion among firefighters in the firehouse. My client will let his many successes and the many positive relationships he had in Champaign for the last 8+ years stand as his record. His focus at this point is his ill wife."
Copyright 2023 WAND TV. All rights reserved.
