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WENTZVILLE • Police Chief Lisa Harrison is suing Mayor Nick Guccione, two alderwomen and St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar, alleging that city officials and Lohmar conducted a “gender-based harassment campaign” to discredit her.

The 57-page complaint, filed in St. Charles Circuit Court on Friday, makes a host of other accusations, including that Lohmar sexually harassed her and that Guccione took money out of the police department’s budget to retaliate against her.

It also names the cities of Wentzville and St. Charles, two police officers, and Alderwomen Sonya Shryock and Cheryl Kross as defendants.

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Harrison alleges that St. Charles Officer Julie Jackson, acting upon the direction of the mayor, ran license plates of a SUV parked outside of her home that belongs to a person she was dating.

According to the suit and a complaint Harrison filed with the Missouri Human Rights Commission, the city officials were interested because the person she was seeing was Sheldon Lineback, executive director of the Missouri Police Chiefs Association, who city officials claimed had a hand in Harrison’s hiring.

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It also claims that a Wentzville police officer also checked Lineback’s plates.

The suit alleges that the officers’ use of the criminal justice database to conduct background checks on vehicles is a criminal violation. And it says that Lohmar refused to prosecute them.

The sexual harassment claim alleges a brief encounter in which Lohmar “grabbed” Harrison’s arm and asked how she was doing, calling her “hon.”

Lohmar said Friday that he only lightly tapped her elbow at a luncheon to get her attention, and never used the word “hon.”

“I can only assume she’s filed this lawsuit against me and eight other defendants because she’s angry that my office refused to file criminal charges on a case in which the chief herself had a personal interest, even though no crime occurred,” Lohmar said in a statement. “This is an absolute abuse of the legal system.”

Guccione declined to comment on the case, saying he had yet to see the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks attorneys fees and unspecified financial damages.

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