Update: as of April 15th, it has been reported that Dominick Peterson is no longer the Mitchell police chief.
By Natalia Alamdari, Flatwater Free Press
The photos would light up her phone late into the night. Sometimes, she’d get 20 photos in a single day, all from the same man.
They were photos of the man shirtless, or in the shower. They were photos of the man’s crotch, covered by shorts. He repeatedly asked her to send back “very explicit pictures” of her own, according to court records.
She told him “no.” He kept asking. Then she blocked him.
“Now he drives by my house and my parents’ house at least three times a week,” the woman, 24, wrote in her petition seeking a protection order from the man 20 years her senior. “I’m afraid he will come after me and harm me …”
The man is the police chief.
Dominick Peterson, head of the police department in Mitchell, was ordered by a judge last week not to contact or go near the woman, who described feeling terrified by his behavior.
“Her worry was that if she felt like she needed to call the police, she was afraid she would not be believed, because the person she was accusing was not just some guy off the street, but a law enforcement officer,” said Maren Chaloupka, the attorney representing the woman. “She was afraid that other law enforcement officers would disbelieve her, would feel protective of somebody that they serve with.”
Mitchell, a town of 1,527 people near Scottsbluff, went through three police chiefs in just over a year. The town’s mayor told the Flatwater Free Press he was unaware of the protection order against the latest chief, despite the fact that the city was subpoenaed for records tied to the case.
During an interview, Mayor Paul Murrell was asked if Peterson’s behavior was appropriate for a police chief.
“That’s not appropriate for anybody, I would think,” he replied.
Murrell said on Monday he needed to speak with the city attorney before saying anything about Peterson’s future employment. He didn’t respond to additional phone messages.
The protection order issued against Peterson is the latest turmoil in this small Panhandle city. Before cycling through police chiefs, Mitchell switched between three mayors in 15 months. Then its city administrator resigned. And months later, a City Council member stepped down, saying she felt “unsafe and devalued.”
***
In April 2024, Peterson and the woman crossed paths through their jobs. He soon added her on social media, something Peterson confirmed in his court testimony. The police chief, now 44, found the 24-year-old woman on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.
But he messaged her only on Snapchat, a platform known for self-deleting messages and images. On Snapchat, if a user screenshots a message or picture, the original sender is notified.
Because of that, the woman said she didn’t keep screenshot evidence of the messages Peterson was sending her – she feared that a notification would provoke him, her lawyer argued in court.
The woman testified that she told Peterson she had a boyfriend; that he needed to respect her boundaries. She ignored him, thinking he’d realize she wasn’t interested.
The messages persisted, according to court records. Peterson would send Snapchat images indicating that he knew the woman was home alone, that he knew her boyfriend was at work. Peterson did not dispute these facts in court.
She worried that blocking him would escalate the situation. Peterson carries a gun because of his job, Judge Randin Roland noted while granting the protection order. Peterson’s large frame looms over the woman, who was described as “very petite and probably weighs about 100 pounds” in court records.
“The petitioner was cowering and shaking with tears in her eyes from having to be in the same room with (Peterson),” Roland described in his order granting the protection order.
In July 2024, the woman blocked Peterson. And the situation did escalate, according to court records.
Peterson – who works in Mitchell and lives in Scottsbluff – started driving past the woman’s Gering home.
“He has training. He has a weapon. He has special professional knowledge,” Chaloupka said. “All of that was very unnerving to her, especially when this individual began to drive by her home.”
He stopped when she filed her request for a protection order in August 2024, according to court documents. City leaders should have known about this protection order, Chaloupka said, since the city attorney was notified when Chaloupka subpoenaed city records.
Peterson’s attorney, William Madelung, argued in court that since Peterson stopped interacting with the woman once she requested a protection order, there was no need to actually grant the order. He argued that she could have blocked Peterson sooner, and that she could have deleted the Snapchat app entirely.
This isn’t Peterson’s first time before a judge for a protection order. He’s been the subject of four other such cases since 2020. Two individuals, both men, each tried twice to get protection orders against Peterson.
All four were dropped or dismissed in court, with the judge ruling that while the men could demonstrate that they were “irritated and frustrated,” they could not prove they were “terrified, threatened or intimidated.”
In the fourth protection order case, the judge described both parties as engaging in “public displays of juvenile and petty behavior.”
All five of Peterson’s protection order cases have been heard by the same judge in Cheyenne County – the Scotts Bluff County judges all recused themselves from his cases, Chaloupka said.
Peterson didn’t respond to emails from the Flatwater Free Press seeking comment.
Reached by email, his attorney Madelung said, “my client has no comment at this time beyond that we have received and are currently reviewing Judge Roland’s order.”
Protection orders can be appealed, but Peterson has not yet decided if he will pursue an appeal, his attorney said.
***
Since 2010, the same three men have competed – often in incredibly close elections – to become Mitchell’s mayor.
Brian Taylor was first, beating Murrell, the current mayor, in 2010 and 2014.
Then, in 2018, David Curtis defeated Taylor. But Curtis resigned before the end of his term. Taylor, the then-president of the City Council, replaced him.
Murrell then challenged Taylor yet again in 2022. This time, Murrell won – by four votes.
Within a month of Murrell being sworn in as mayor, police chief Kevin Krzyzanowski was fired. The two men had clashed over cutting the number of on-duty officers, according to local radio station KNEB.
In paperwork filed with the Nebraska Crime Commission, the city said Krzyzanowski was “unable to meet agency standards.”
Krzyzanowski was replaced with Matt Holcomb, at the time a Scotts Bluff County deputy. A year later, Holcomb left to take a job with the Gering Police Department.
Peterson, hired as a part-time officer at the same time as Holcomb, was promoted to chief.
Murrell said he’s not concerned about the turnover since he took office.
“It’s fine,” he said. “Some of it needed to happen.”
Police chief turnover isn’t an automatic red flag, said Tom Casady, who retired as Lincoln’s Public Safety Director after 17 years as that city’s police chief.
In the U.S., the average tenure for a police chief is seven years, according to a 2021 survey.
In small towns, where chiefs are paid less than their urban counterparts, the churn can be more pronounced, Casady said.
But the turnover in Mitchell would worry Casady if he was a member of Mitchell’s city council, he said.
“Three in two years is a lot,” Casady said. “You have very little continuity in leadership if you’ve gone through three police chiefs in two years.”
Soon after Murrell started as mayor, the city administrator departed.
Seven months later, Angie Preston, the only woman on the City Council, quit, too.
In her resignation letter, Preston cited “communication breakdown and lack of professionalism” that spanned administrations as a reason for stepping down.
“My voice has repeatedly been silenced and I feel my experience and viewpoints are no longer respected,” Preston wrote in November 2023. “I feel it is no longer safe or wise for me to remain on the council.”
Preston, reached by the Flatwater Free Press, declined further comment.
***
The protection order granted against Peterson prohibits him from communicating with the woman in any way.
Protection orders are civil proceedings with a lower standard of proof than criminal cases.
Before seeking a protection order, the woman filed a police report with the Gering Police Department. The Nebraska State Patrol also had records of her case, according to court records.
Peterson has not been charged with a crime.
In Nebraska, stalking is often difficult to prove, said Christon MacTaggart, executive director of the Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. Technology, like disappearing Snapchat messages, can make it harder.
Social media harassment becomes scarier if it’s coming from a person in a position of power, MacTaggart said.
“It can leave a victim of stalking feeling like they don’t have any recourse,” MacTaggart said.
Since 2021, six Nebraska police officers have had their law enforcement certifications revoked for domestic violence misdemeanors, according to the Nebraska Crime Commission. Another included a stalking misdemeanor. Two others were because of findings after protection orders were granted.
“If it falls under that area of conviction for a crime or serious misconduct, then (the agency has) to tell us that that’s what’s occurring. And then we look at that,” said Bryan Tuma, the commission’s executive director.
But because Peterson’s case doesn’t involve a criminal charge, there’s no requirement to notify the commission, Tuma said. Most revocations involving a protection order also include a criminal case, said Mark Stephenson, director of the Law Enforcement Training Center.
But a protection order – issued when a judge believes a person represents a risk – on its own is enough to undermine an officer’s credibility, said Casady, the former chief.
“I don’t think anyone that’s got that kind of behavior pattern can credibly serve as a law enforcement officer, or a public official of any kind for that matter.”
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