Superior police captain faces perjury allegation

A Superior police captain is on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into perjury.

Capt. Chad La Lor is accused of giving untruthful testimony during a hearing before the Police and Fire Commission in November.

The hearing was set to determine whether another Superior police officer, Kirk Babic, should be terminated after admitting to felony-level theft of money from fellow officers to which he had access.

During that hearing, La Lor was questioned about a hit and run accident in March 2009, for which he had been sanctioned by the Superior Police Department. La Lor testified in November he had been drinking just prior to the accident. He admitted he was drunk when he struck a vehicle owned by Murphy Oil in March 2009.

During that testimony, Attorney Rick Gondik questioned La Lor about incidents prior to the March 2009 accident when the captain had driven drunk. La Lor’s response was there hadn’t been any prior incidents in which he drove drunk.

“That’s the issue,” said Police Chief Charles LaGesse. He said the allegation against La Lor is that the captain’s testimony concerning incidents prior to March 2009 accident was untruthful.

“How many other times did you drive intoxicated prior to your accident in March of 2009?” Attorney Rick Gondik, representing Babic, asked La Lor during the Nov. 4 testimony.

“I believe I already answered that; I don’t believe I have,” La Lor testified.

“So, it just happened to be your first time driving while intoxicated and you got in the accident — first time in your life,” Gondik said, challenging the captain’s response.

“That’s what happened to me, I guess,” La Lor said.

La Lor has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into the perjury allegation, as required by state law and department policy.

Because of the nature of the investigation, the Washburn County Sheriff’s Department has been asked to conduct a separate investigation to determine if a criminal offense occurred, LaGesse said.

Knowingly providing false testimony while under oath is a violation of state law, prosecutable as a class H felony in Wisconsin.

LaGesse said no additional information is being released because the internal and criminal investigations are ongoing.

This is the second time the captain has been placed on paid administrative leave in his 17-year career. He was also placed on leave following the March 2009 hit and run incident.

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