Who clipped Byrd's wings?

LONGTIME OBSERVERS of the Philadelphia Police Department know that the organization feeds on gossip as eagerly as a high school cheerleading squad.

And for the better part of the last 18 years, few cops - if any - have been the target of more rumors and controversy than Sgt. Kimberly Byrd, the onetime top aide to former top cop Sylvester Johnson.

For those not in the loop, Byrd was regularly accused by her peers in venomous online forums of having an affair with Johnson, who promoted her three times in the span of five years.

Conventional wisdom suggested that Johnson's retirement and the arrival of Commissioner Charles Ramsey in 2008 would've marked the beginning of a quieter period in Byrd's career.

Not so much, it turns out.

Byrd filed a federal lawsuit against the city last July, claiming that Ramsey and others in the department wrecked her career and discriminated against her because of her gender.

The suit alleges, in part, that Ramsey "publicly humiliated Byrd, reduced her salary and removed her from power."

The lawsuit also claims the city is liable for all of the ridicule and harassment that other cops directed at her during Johnson's final years in office.

The city denied many of her allegations in a formal reply that was entered into court on April 27.

Suffice to say, Byrd - who has been on medical leave for the last year - will once again find herself the subject of rumors, the center of controversy.

The lawsuit likely won't be resolved any time soon.

"Look, I have nothing negative to say about Kim at all," Ramsey said during a recent interview. "But I will tell you this: I'll make sure this goes to trial. There won't be a settlement."

'Baseless rumors'

Byrd's career has been full of twists, almost from the start.

She joined the police force in 1993 and randomly met Johnson, who was then an inspector, at a hostage scene in 1995.

They started chatting, Byrd previously told the People's Paper, and she confided that a supervisor had been harassing her.

Johnson arranged to have her moved to the Civil Affairs Unit. Seven years later, when he became commissioner, he made Byrd his top aide.

In 2005, Johnson promoted her to his chief of staff, just as unsubstantiated rumors began surfacing in the press that the two might have been more than co-workers.

Johnson seemed unfazed by the gossip, but it only grew louder in 2007, when Byrd was almost simultaneously named the department's executive officer and the winner of the Daily News' George Fencl Award.

Her detractors - her fellow cops - were apoplectic. They vented on Domelights, the notorious online police forum, where they comfortably assailed her qualifications and reputation behind a wall of anonymity.

"I know for a fact she was getting ripped on Domelights constantly. Some of the things that showed up on there were so mean-spirited," said Bobby Eddis, the former president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5.

In hindsight, Eddis said, it's clear that Johnson promoted Byrd because he trusted that she would make a good executive officer. The position oversees public affairs, the Police Athletic League, legal advisers and government relations.

"And to be honest, I have nothing but good things to say about the job she did," Eddis said.

He noted that some cops took issue with the fact that Byrd was just a sergeant when she was made the executive officer - the job traditionally went to people with the rank of captain or higher - and Johnson didn't respond forcefully enough to the crude barbs that were aimed at both of them.

"Johnson didn't always help himself," Eddis said. "A lot of times, he just let [the rumors] go instead of putting a lid on it."

Johnson did not return a request for comment.

While this all might sound like a regurgitation of ancient history, the wounds are apparently still fresh to Byrd, who declined to comment for this story.

Her lawsuit includes dozens of pages of Domelights comments from 2007, which are described as "baseless, inflammatory, fabricated and discriminatory rumors," that were made "for no reason but her success in the force as a woman."

The gossip apparently bothered her more than she let on in a 2007 interview with the Daily News, when she told a reporter that the rumors had "always rolled off me because it's untrue . . . you cannot allow people to change who you are by gossiping about you."

The lawsuit claims the city is responsible for the harassment Byrd suffered at the hands of her fellow officers.

"I'm in support of Kim standing on her own two feet and fighting against whatever the city has done to her," said Rochelle Bilal, the president of the Guardian Civic League.

"You have an element in the department that's highly racist, and all they wanted to do was tear her down."

'Reputation destroyed'

The portions of the lawsuit that will likely raise the most eyebrows involve Byrd's accusations about Ramsey.

The suit claims that in May 2008, Ramsey demoted Byrd to sergeant without explanation, and assigned her to Northeast Philadelphia's 8th District, instead of letting her pick the assignment.

"Because of this demotion, Sgt. Byrd's salary was drastically reduced, she was transferred to undesirable work conditions and her reputation was destroyed," one portion of the lawsuit reads.

Part of that line rings true. According to city records, Byrd earned $92,636 in 2007 as the executive officer.

Her salary dropped to $84,887 in 2008. Last year, she earned $77,652.

Ramsey took issue with the other accusations in that portion of the suit.

For one thing, he noted, Byrd was serving in an appointed position, which the commissioner has the right to change.

Ramsey's decision to move her out of the executive officer position also coincided with a larger reorganization of the department that was announced a few months after he took over the Police Department.

"If you really look at it, I've made very few command changes since I've been commissioner," he said.

"I have no problem with her. I don't dislike her. She just didn't fit in with what I had planned for the department."

After working for a while in the 8th District, Byrd was later transferred to the Dignitary Protection Unit, which handles security for visiting heads of state.

"I don't see where any assignment she's been given would be grounds for a lawsuit," Ramsey said. "There's not much heavy lifting there."

But the lawsuit contends that Lt. James Dambach, the head of the Dignitary Protection Unit, repeatedly kept information from Byrd and refused to discipline cops in the unit who perpetually harassed Byrd.

Ramsey said Byrd went out on medical leave last summer when she was supposed to begin a 90-day street detail that he assigns annually to dozens of cops to help curb crime.

Brian Mildenberg, Byrd's attorney, described her as "a wonderful public servant" who "is a tireless advocate for those in need, and has spent her career working to to make the city a better and safer place."

"Sgt. Byrd believes she was mistreated by the department," he said, "and looks forward to her day in court when a judge and jury can decide these issues."

In the meantime, the rumor mill will begin churning anew.