Chesterfield Police initiate terminations of two officers: White nationalist ties reported in one case, another involves soliciting a minor online

It was a rough week for Chesterfield Police.

The Chesterfield County Police Department last week suspended a police officer after reports linked him to Identity Evropa, a white nationalist organization that has apparently rebranded under the name American Identity Movement.

Another officer, Simeon Steers-Smith, was charged with soliciting a minor online. Steers-Smith has been employed with CCPD since May 2017. “We’re in the process of terminating him,” police chief Jeffrey Katz said during a press conference Friday, March 22.

Police issued a press release at 12:03 p.m. March 18 announcing the suspension of a then-unnamed officer by Katz. A follow-up release at 4:48 p.m. announced that Katz recommended termination. The officer – who has been identified in reports as Daniel Morley – has been a school resource officer at L.C. Bird High School and had, according to Katz, worked with the Chesterfield Police for “several years.”

The officer (Morley) had five days to respond or request a hearing, police spokeswoman Liz Caroon said, which, according to state law, must be held within 14 days of the request.

In a Twitter video by Chesterfield Police Capt. Andrea Riesmeyer dated Aug. 27, 2018, Morley said he was going to be the new school resource officer at L.C. Bird, adding that he grew up in Chesterfield and graduated from James River High School in 2006. “I want to ensure that the children of this county get to have the same safe childhood that I did growing up,” Morley said.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported March 18 that it was notified about Morley the previous week by the Colorado Springs, Colo., branch of Antifa, a left-wing militant “anti-fascist” group.

According to torchantifa.org, Morley is a member of the Ealdrice Fellowship, a pagan congregation based in Richmond. The website also says that Sgt. Rob Stamm of the Virginia Capitol Police is a frequenter of the congregation. Stamm was placed on leave Feb. 6 by the Capitol Police pending a review of possible violation of department policy. According to ealdrice.org, Ealdrice Fellowship is a “holy-guild of men and women bound together by oath and given to the worship of the gods, goddesses, ghosts, and good wights of our heathen Anglo-Saxon forebears.”

In the press release, Katz said, “There is absolutely no place for intolerance or prejudicial behavior in public service, and we will not tolerate affiliations which even remotely lend themselves to predispositions of bias.”

Last week, Katz said the department conducts background checks of prospective employees. The background checks include social media posts, he said, but don’t cover posts made post-hire.

Background checks are “generally a good indicator of what we can expect,” Katz said, noting that they are “not a be-all and end-all.”

Morley is the pledge coordinator for Identity Evropa – which was involved in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 – and has been a member since 2017, according to torchantifa.org.

According to the RTD, the Colorado Springs Antifa branch alleged that Morley has been a neo-Nazi since 2006 and has posted comments on such websites as Stormfront, a white nationalist and white supremacist organization.

“The community is reeling from this,” Katz said Friday. He called the situation with the two officers “a breach of public trust.”