Police officers threatening a lawsuit against Baldwin say they were pawns used by the mayor in an attempt to get rid of Police Chief Steve Butell.

Moreover, the officers say, they ended up being disciplined because of actions of a former officer an officer they reported for allegedly acting with inappropriate conduct.

“All we were trying to do was protect the citizens and the city, and it seems like we ended up with our civil rights violated,” Officer Chuck Woolsoncroft said Wednesday.

Woolsoncroft, Officer Eric Garcia and Cpl. William Dempsey sent notices to city officials Friday requesting $300,000 each for violations of their civil, due process and freedom-of-speech rights. If they don’t get the money, they say they promise to sue.

A fourth officer, Chuck Hensley, said he intends to join the trio and send a similar notice next week.

The notices sent to city officials also contain a transcript of a telephone conversation between Dempsey and Mayor Ken Hayes taped by Dempsey.

Dempsey said he decided to tape the conversation with Hayes one night in January when Hayes telephoned even though the two had not talked since late summer.

“He had been making comments that were misleading to the public, and I figured that’s what he wanted to talk about,” Dempsey said, referring to remarks he said the mayor was making alleging inappropriate conduct within the department. “He had caused a lot of animosity within the police department.”

According to the transcript, Hayes said decisions about who was disciplined was a “political decision.”

The transcript also shows Hayes saying “I’m not gonna rest until I have a different chief of police.”

The officers say their rights were violated after the city launched an investigation into the police department and the conduct of the former officer, Glendon Rhea. Rhea resigned from the department shortly after that investigation was begun.

The investigation ordered by the city and conducted by a special investigator hired by the city ultimately resulted in various suspensions and reprimands.

Officers said the disciplinary action was confusing and left them not knowing exactly why they were being disciplined. They said only Rhea violated the computer process.

Garcia said he initially was given a one-day suspension but was then told that was being changed to a written reprimand. Yet the notice of suspension remains in his personnel file, he said.

“The publicity surrounding all this has caused us to lose respect from the community,” Garcia said.

The officers said they were not allowed to talk about certain incidents under investigation and were not given due process rights in the disciplinary actions against them.

Dempsey, contacted while on vacation in Texas, said Hayes wanted the officers to “lay down so he could get to the chief.” Dempsey said he supports Butell and is not interested in the chief’s job.

Hayes didn’t deny comments attributed to him in the transcript. But he said he doesn’t have the power to remove the chief. The city administrator must make a recommendation to fire the police chief and then get approval from the city council. The mayor doesn’t vote on issues except to break a tie.

Hayes continued calling the lawsuit threat “ridiculous.” He also said that the report prepared last year by the special investigator on the Police Department called for changes. The report cited a lack of administrative control in the department.

The report has not been made public in case it is needed in a lawsuit battle, Hayes said.