Prior to the Valparaiso fire department standing up, the Niceville Fire Department provided coverage for Valparaiso residents, primarily at the expense of Niceville taxpayers. Niceville City Manager David Deitch and the Valparaiso City Commission agreed to end the agreement earlier this year.

Lanier was less than a month into his tenure as the leader when allegations of racist language surfaced.

In addition to Valparaiso Police Lieutenant Craig Toney’s assessment that the Chief used racist language, he found that the two firefighters who blew the whistle on the behavior, Firefighter David Rodriguez and Lieutenant Larry Hudson, II, also violated the City’s Human Resources policy by encouraging other firefighters to quit the department en masse and by speaking with Mid Bay News. 

You can read Rodriguez and Hudson’s side of the story here. 

Mid Bay News learned that firefighter Derrick Bryan, who witnessed at least one of the incidents, has been given notice of the end of his employment with the fire department, effective July 24, 2025, via probationary separation. 

Additionally, the Valparaiso firefighters have voted to form a union since the special meeting concerning the fire chief on July 14. 

The Five Incidents

The police investigation into the allegations of racial language by Fire Chief Lanier came up with five separate incidents in which Lanier may have used slurs—each of these incidents involved separate firefighters from the small department.

Despite several attempts to speak with Fire Chief Lanier, who agreed to talk to Mid Bay News after the report was released, we’ve not been able to secure an interview with him. 

According to Lieutenant Toney’s notes, Lanier states unequivocally that he never used the racial slur.

The document noted at least five specific incidents where Chief Lanier either allegedly used, almost used, or used an acronym that included the n-word. These incidents reportedly occurred between the end of April and the beginning of June 2025, according to the whistleblowers. 

Firefighters David Rodriguez and Lieutenant Larry Hudson said in their statements to Lieutenant Toney of the Valparaiso Police Department that the Chief had used the slur multiple times to them as individuals in addition to the specific examples in the police narrative. 

1: ‘Jigger Rigging’

The first incident occurred on a training mission in a fire truck on or around Apr 27, 2025.

According to the narrative, something went wrong inside the truck. What happens next is under dispute. 

According to the report, Rodriguez told Lieutenant Toney that Chief Lanier yelled out, “God damn this fucking N*gger truck.”

 “He said n**ger right in front of me and you,” Firefighter Jake Muro wrote in a text message referencing the incident to a group of firefighters before Rodriguez decided to come to Mid Bay News with the allegations of racism in the department. Muro would later tell Toney he was unsure as to whether or not he had heard the slur. 

The fourth firefighter in the truck, Keegan Detweiler, told Toney in his report that “there was one time during training that he ‘possibly’ heard him say it, but he never clarified, and Chief Lanier was in the front of the engine while he was in the back.”

Lanier denied the accusation. 

“Chief Lanier stated that he fishes a lot, and when he gets frustrated using a jig and it gets snagged, he says ‘it’s jigger-rigged’ and that he could have said that, but doesn’t remember saying it at the fire station,” Lt. Toney’s report states.

The Chief went on to explain, according to Lt. Toney’s report, that the fire truck where the alleged incident took place at the end of April is very loud and that it’s hard to hear others in the vehicle, and so a phrase like “jigger-rigged” could sound like a racial slur.

Lanier added in his interview with Lt. Toney that he has a wife and stepson who are Hispanic and that another one of his relatives married a Black woman. The same statement he made when in front of the City Commission during a special hearing to discuss the allegations against him. “Chief Lanier stated that he isn’t somebody who is racial, and ‘those words aren’t fluent in my household and they’re not in the workplace,'” Lt. Toney’s report noted.

2: “Does This Bother You?”

Firefighter David Rodriguez noted an additional incident that none of the other personnel at the department reported witnessing.

In the incident, which took place after the “Jigger-Rigging” incident, Rodriguez says Lanier asked him, “Does the word N*gger bother you?”

Rodriguez told Lt. Toney that “he started laughing in disbelief as he couldn’t believe Chief Lanier said the N-word [sic] again.”

3: “Look At All Them”

In May 2025, when Lanier was still a lieutenant and led the shift that included Hudson and Rodriguez, after the “Jigger Rigging” incident, Hudson informed Police Lieutenant Toney that another incident had occurred.

Hudson told Lt. Toney that the three of them were watching a show in the Valparaiso fire station that included many characters of various ethnic backgrounds. According to Hudson, Chief Lanier blurted out “Look at all them (slur).” 

Toney then asked Hudson if Lanier had used the “hard r” [when someone pronounces the entire slur with ‘R’ at the end of the word accentuated] and [Hudson] replied, “yes.”

Lt. Toney’s report went on to say that while Lanier is a self-described “southern, country, boy,” Lanier added that “doesn’t mean [he’s] racial by any means.” He noted that he had tried to be sensitive to Rodriguez about his race. He recounts they were watching a show in which the n-word was said – and that he asked Rodriguez if that phrase offended him. Lanier explained to Lt. Toney that he asked the question “and explained that he was thinking, ‘maybe we should watch something else if they continue to say that.'”

4: The Person in Charge

Lt. Toney asked Lanier about an exchange between himself and Fire Lieutenant Derrick Bryan. Fire Lieutenant Derrick Bryan said that Chief Lanier told him he was the “HNIC,” while Lanier was out of the station. 

“HNIC” is an acronym for “head [n-word] in charge.”

Bryan asked Lanier to clarify what the acronym stood for. According to Bryan’s testimony to Lt. Toney, Bryan asked what the acronym stood for. Bryan says Lanier began to respond and began to use the slur, but then stopped. 

Lanier remembers the incident as well. Lanier says he mentioned that someone else had used the acronym. He then began to explain it, but stopped, as it contained the n-word. “I didn’t finish it because it was inappropriate,” Lanier said in a discussion with Police Chief Hart that was recounted to Toney. 

Toney added that Bryan reported to him that Chief Lanier circled back with him about the incident to tell him, “You know it’s just an expression, right?”

On July 24, at the end of his shift, Bryan says he was asked to speak with Fire Chief Lanier. Lanier, Bryan says, had just finished his mandatory unpaid leave. Lanier, according to Bryan, pulled out a letter dated from the day before which terminated his employment with the city. 

Because the department is so new, all of the firefighters are on probationary employee status – which means they can be terminated without cause by the fire chief and the city. Bryan says he had no disciplinary actions against him at the fire department at the time of his termination – and he believes it is retaliation for his testimony in the investigation of Lanier earlier this month. 

“His first act back,” Bryan said, “after suspension was to terminate my employment. I feel that it is a direct retaliation to what I said during the investigation and for the fact that I was the only officer, the highest ranking member in the department, to sign to join a union, and I really believe he’s trying to get rid of people who signed cards to join the union.”

5: Hiring Practices

Lt. Toney asked Firefighter Josh Osmialowski over a FaceTime call whether or not he’d ever heard Chief Lanier use the n-word.

Osmialowski said he had – and that it had taken place on June 13 at a hotel where the fire department stayed during their shifts due to a black mold remediation taking place at their fire station in Valparaiso.

According to Osmialowski, he and firefighters Jake Muro and Keegan Detweiler were with the Chief discussing a candidate to hire at the department. A candidate came up that Muro knew. Muro mentioned to the Chief that the candidate happened to be Black.

At that point, Osmialowski recounted to Lt. Toney that Lanier asked what the candidate might do if someone were to call him the n-word.

Lt. Toney asked for clarification. “I then asked if Chief Lanier said the actual word or if he said “N-word” [sic].”

According to the report, Osmialowski told the investigator Lanier used the full slur. The firefighter then told Lt. Toney that Muro explained to the Chief that the candidate would “probably square up and clock him in his face.”

Lt Toney followed up with Muro who recalled the incident and his statement, but “doesn’t recall the chief saying the N-owrd [sic].”

What All of the Fire Fighters Say

With so many characters in the story – it’s vital to delineate who claims what clearly.

Only one person in this investigation claims that the Chief did not use racist language, Fire Chief David Lanier.

Two interviewees, Scott Money and Trey Ward, say they never heard the Chief use the word.

Keegan Detweiler and Jake Muro, who were also in the fire truck with David Rodriguez and Chief Lanier in the training incident, said they “might have” heard Lanier use the slur. Muro was the firefighter who suggested the hire of a Black firefighter in the “Hiring Practices” incident and told the Chief the candidate in question would square up and clock anyone who would use the n-word.

Finally, three firefighters said that they’d definitely heard Chief Lanier use the slur in front of them. Firefighter Josh Osmialowski told Investigator Toney that the Chief used the word in the “Hiring Practices” incident to Muro.

Larry Hudson and David Rodriguez, the two firefighters who filed an official complaint, told the investigator they’d heard the Chief use the word multiple times.

In Rodriguez’s case, he said he’d heard the chief use the word in relation to the “Hiring Practices” Incident, where he was an observer, the “Jigger-Rigging Incident,” and “Does This Bother You?” Incident.

Hudson, in his narrative to Lt. Toney, said that there were multiple incidents where Lanier used a slur in front of them. While he didn’t cite any specific incidents listed above, he claimed that the Chief had used the slur multiple times in his presence.

What Happens Next

According to the Valparaiso City Commission, two actions should be taken next.

First, Lanier served his one-week paid suspension. He will also need to complete sensitivity/leadership training that the city will provide him. 

Secondly, Mayor Brent Smith called for some members of the fire department to see themselves to the door as a result of this incident.

Smith told Lanier at the end of the meeting that the Chief had disloyal elements in the organization based on text messages that became a part of this investigation – and they needed to be rooted out.

“I will say the fire department will be monitored by higher-ups,” Smith said before warning against negative conduct in the firehouse. He continued, looking at Chief Lanier, “I would cover myself with people that trust me and believe me. Because I think, based on some of the texts I read going back and forth with some employees, I don’t think everybody in the department needs to be here based on that. I’m not telling anybody to get rid of anybody, but I think there’s a problem on both sides and I think it needs to get addressed by both sides.”

According to the leader of the local consolidated fire union, six members of the fire department have requested membership in the union. Valparaiso Fire Fighters confirmed that they voted on July 17th to join the union. 

Valparaiso’s firefighters will then elect a district vice president that wil be responsible for union representation to the city and to the greater consolidated fire union. They will also be able to negotiate collectively with the city.