WILTON – A Police Department internal affairs report was submitted to the state’s Attorney General’s Office on Friday, according to Police Chief Wayne Gallant.
A three-member complaint committee, comprising trustees of the state Criminal Justice Academy, will discuss the report and recommend action to trustees. A meeting of the committee has not yet been set because Sheriff Skip Herrick of Oxford County, chairman of the committee, is out of state until next week.
The report names two officers in an investigation that could result in disciplinary action, though no criminal conduct is involved, according to John Rogers, director of the Criminal Justice Academy and former Farmington police chief. The officers’ identities will not be released unless disciplinary action is taken.
Wes Andrenyak, chief advocate for the state’s corrections department and member of the complaint committee, said Tuesday he received the report this week but had only scanned it.
He said he will be studying the report more extensively before the committee’s meeting but said he believed the issue was whether proper policies and procedures were in place for officers. There might have been training issues, too, he said.
Andrenyak said the committee, charged with deciding possible disciplinary action including decertifying officers, takes complaints very seriously and considers them fairly, giving named parties an opportunity to be interviewed.
“It’s not just a rubber stamp deal,” he said. “It could mean someone’s certificate,” he added.
Franklin County Assistant District Attorneys Andrew Robinson and James Andrews initiated the investigation after a meeting with Town Manager Peter Nielsen on Oct. 13, 2004, expressing concerns about improper police procedures, particularly regarding domestic assault cases, Andrews said Tuesday. Domestic assault, juvenile and sexual assault cases were assigned by the Attorney General’s Office to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department until Gallant took office in February.
Gallant was hired after James Parker retired last year. Officer Edward Leahy was interim police chief at the time of the district attorneys’ request.
On Nov. 18, 2004, the prosecutors received a letter from Nielsen saying that, according to a union contract, civilian complaints must be made in writing.
But, said Andrews, “we’re not bound by union rules.” So when it became clear that Leahy was not going to investigate the allegations, the district attorneys asked the Attorney General’s Office to get involved.
“He was in an impossible position,” said Andrews of Leahy. It was not appropriate for an interim chief to conduct this sort of investigation, particularly because he was a candidate for the position. On Nov. 22, the district attorneys wrote to the attorney general.
Gallant was charged with conducting the investigation when he took the chief’s position. He could not comment on the report Tuesday, saying it was a personnel issue.
“I’m just waiting to see what will happen,” he said. “We’re that much closer to a culmination of this,” he added.
Attempts to reach other members of the committee, or Brian MacMaster of the Attorney General’s Office, were unsuccessful.
Comments are no longer available on this story