BETHEL – Twelve minutes. A ringing phone with a distinctive sound. An unauthorized, altered phone company letter. An armed robbery.

All figured into testimony offered by witnesses, Town Manager Scott Cole and former Bethel Police Chief Darren Tripp during two sessions of Tripp’s termination appeal hearing Tuesday and Thursday.

After four hours of testimony Tuesday, and two hours of deliberation Thursday, the Board of Selectmen – acting as a jury in appellate capacity – upheld Cole’s Feb. 12 firing of Tripp by a 3-2 vote.

Cole said he fired the chief for:

• Failing to maintain contact with the Oxford County radio dispatch center in the event of an emergency.

• Failing to respond from inside the police station for 12 minutes on Dec. 2 to repeated attempts by dispatchers using four separate communication methods to alert him about an armed robbery that had just occurred in Bethel.

In that robbery at the Big Apple store on Railroad Street, two young men from Massachusetts held up the store clerk at 1:45 p.m.

They then fled on Route 26, only to crash their getaway vehicle into a tree in Paris while counting their loot. Paris police arrested them at 2:20 p.m.

Cole said Bethel police, who have one officer on duty at all times, are to maintain contact with the Oxford County radio dispatch center in Paris at all times.

Tripp was on duty at the time of the robbery.

Cole said that immediately after the robbers fled, the dispatch center received a 9-1-1 call, and attempted to contact Tripp.

For 12 minutes, dispatchers tried unsuccessfully to reach the chief, calling him from 1:48 to 2 p.m. on a land-line to the station, on his radio, cell phone and pager, and at home.

There was no response until Town Clerk Christen Mason opened the police station door from inside the town office and told Tripp to call dispatch, Cole said.

Tripp, who had been to Rumford District Court earlier that day, said he had switched off his cell phone, pager and radio, and forgot to turn his pager back on.

Tripp and officer Phil Taylor, who was also in the station, both swore under oath Tuesday that the police telephone never rang. Tripp claimed it didn’t ring because of a malfunction with the answering machine.

Mason testified otherwise, saying she heard the phone ring, because of its distinctive sound.

She said she didn’t immediately enter the police station, because she thought that Tripp was aware of the robbery.

Mason also testified about her reluctance to enter the station due to allegations of past incidents where Tripp or other officers criticized her or used profanity in her presence for entering the station.

When questioned by Tripp’s attorney, Thomas S. Carey of Rumford, Taylor admitted to using profanity when Mason entered the station last July, telling him to answer the phone to help a stranded New Hampshire woman in a broken down vehicle.

But Taylor said the profanity was not directed at Mason.

As a result of Mason’s testimony and Oxford Networks’ phone records that show the phone was working properly before and after dispatchers tried to contact Tripp, selectmen Thursday unanimously agreed that the phone did ring.

Selectman Reggie Brown said he based his vote to uphold Cole’s firing of Tripp on a letter from Oxford Networks that Tripp allegedly had altered.

In response to a Concern for Job Performance letter dated Jan. 12, 2004, from Cole, Tripp stated that the police station telephone did not ring during the critical 12-minute period in which dispatchers tried unsuccessfully to contact him.

However, Tripp said, subsequent attempts by himself and another officer to replicate the problem failed.

Then, Tripp said, on Dec. 24, 2003, he discovered that there was no dial tone on the station phone. He said he then called the same number from another officer’s phone in the station, and, while he could hear a ring tone through the phone, the station phone did not ring.

Tripp said he notified the Oxford Networks repair section that day and a technician, who checked the line, told him that a dysfunctional answering machine caused the problem.

The answering machine was then disconnected and disposed of.

“I feel that this problem noted on Dec. 24 is quite possible the same problem that caused the dispatcher to be unable to contact me via the telephone,” Tripp stated.

Tripp also submitted to Cole an Oxford Networks letter to Tripp, dated Jan. 12, 2004, that backed up his assertion, although Oxford Networks claims that Tripp didn’t contact them on Dec. 24, but rather on Dec. 31.

On Thursday, Tripp’s attorney said the chief had simply gotten Christmas eve mixed up with New Year’s eve.

In that Jan. 12 letter, technician Rick Coulombe said, “It has been my experience that these kinds of troubles with electronic equipment, such as answering machines, can cause intermittent problems up to a week or more prior to a complete no dial tone.”

However, when Cole asked Oxford Networks for a copy of the same letter on Jan. 16, their authorized copy dated Jan. 12 did not contain the words “or more” in Coulombe’s statement.

Cole wrote back to Tripp asking about the discrepancy.

“The copy provided to me by the company clearly differs from the copy provided by you,” Cole said.

“When questioned about this, you acknowledge in your 2 Feb. 04 letter that you asked Coulombe to rewrite the letter in a manner that would be more suitable to your assertion of an inoperable phone,” he added.

When Cole then questioned Oxford Networks about the discrepancy, Cole testified and produced evidence from the company saying their company-provided version was the only authorized version of the communication.

Oxford Networks also renounced any opinion Coulombe may have rendered in an e-mail to Cole dated Jan. 30, 2004.

“Oxford Networks wishes to withdraw all information surrounding Rick Coulombe’s opinion that it has been his experience that these types of troubles with electronic equipment, such as answering machines, can cause intermittent problems up to a week or more prior to a complete no dial tone.

“Oxford Networks also wishes to withdraw all information surrounding Rick Coulombe’s opinion that it has been his experience that these types of troubles with electronic equipment, such as answering machines, can cause intermittent problems up to a week or more prior to a complete no dial tone.

“It is impossible for Oxford Networks to confirm whether or not the faulty answering machine caused intermittent problems with the telephone line prior to Dec. 31, 2003,” wrote Dawna K. Hannan, director of external affairs at Oxford Networks.

Hannan said in a letter to Cole dated Jan. 21, that they received a “No Dial Tone” report from the police chief at 1:15 p.m. on Dec. 31.

“The trouble was dispatched to our installation/repair technician on Dec. 31, 2003, at 2 p.m. and cleared as a faulty answering machine. Once the answering machine was removed from the line, the line was fully restored,” Hannan wrote.

Brown also expressed doubt with Tripp’s assertion that if he were reinstated, he could get along with Cole.

Brown said Tripp stated last year that the hatchet had been buried between the chief and Cole, but then Tripp launched a lawsuit against the town manager and the town in federal court.

Selectman Chairman Harry Dresser Jr. said he believes Tripp is “a good cop.” But he upheld the firing, stating that the chief did not act properly as a manager.

Selectman Al Barth, who remained neutral until pressed for a vote by Dresser, stated it was the 12-minute period in which Tripp did not answer repeated phone calls that caused him to uphold Cole’s decision.

Selectmen Don Bennett and Jack Cross voted to reinstate the chief.

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