DETROIT _ A Muskegon, Mich., police officer is under investigation after a prospective buyer who was touring his home found confederate flags and a framed Ku Klux Klan document, according to news reports.
Muskegon City Manager Frank Peterson said officer Charles Anderson, who is white, has been placed on administrative leave, MLive reported.
The prospective buyer, identified by MLive as Rob Mathis, posted Wednesday on Facebook that he and his wife had been looking for more than a month for a new house in various Michigan cities. He said their search included a stop in Holton, near Muskegon.
Mathis said the house initially looked beautiful. But he said as they were walking through it, they saw "confederate flags on the walls, the dining room table and even the garage." And in the bedroom, he said, there was a framed Ku Klux Klan application hanging on the wall.
"I immediately stopped my walk-through and informed the realtor that I am not writing an offer on this home and I am leaving now," Mathis, who is black, wrote on Facebook. "I feel sick to my stomach knowing that I walk to the home of one of the most racist people in Muskegon hiding behind his uniform and possibly harassing people of color and different nationalities."
Neither Anderson nor Mathis could immediately be reached by the Free Press late Thursday.
MLive quoted Anderson as telling a reporter: "They said not to talk about it. That's what they told me. Because it's under internal investigation they said not to make a statement."
Peterson, the city manager, said Anderson has been on the Muskegon police force for more than two decades, according to MLive.
MLive also reported that Anderson was cleared of wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a black man during a scuffle in 2009.
