By Terry Karkos,Staff Writer

BETHEL – One of two final appeals by former Bethel Police Chief Darren M. Tripp to get his job back was settled Tuesday afternoon.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston affirmed a federal court’s October 2004 decision to dismiss Tripp’s $500,000 lawsuit against the town of Bethel and Town Manager Scott Cole for firing him earlier that year.

Contacted late Tuesday afternoon, Tripp’s Rumford attorney, Thomas Carey, declined comment, saying he had not yet seen the court’s opinion.

Cole would only say, “Town officials are pleased with the decision.”

The second appeal was filed in July in Oxford County Superior Court in Paris, regarding Justice Thomas Delahanty III’s decision in June on Tripp’s Sept. 10, 2004, appeal in the Paris court. It is still pending.

Issues in that appeal “involve aspects of the denial of Tripp’s due process rights affecting the proper review of his termination by Bethel selectmen,” the appeal document states.

Tripp was fired by Cole on Feb. 12, 2004. That decision was upheld a month later, on March 11, by a 3-2 Board of Selectmen vote at a two-day termination hearing.

Reasons cited for the firing included Tripp’s failure to maintain contact with the Oxford County Regional Communications Center in the event of an emergency, and failure to respond from the police station for 12 minutes on Dec. 2, 2003, after repeated attempts by dispatchers to alert him to an armed robbery in Bethel.

Tripp joined the Bethel Police Department in 1989, and he became chief in 1998.

Regarding the federal suit, on Oct. 13, 2004, Chief U.S. District Court Judge George Z. Singal affirmed U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret J. Kravchuk’s recommendation to dismiss the $500,000 suit and for summary judgment. Carey appealed that decision in early November to the Boston court.

First Circuit Court of Appeals judges affirming Singal’s decision were Juan R. Torruella, Sandra L. Lynch and Kermit V. Lipez.

In Tuesday’s opinion, Lipez stated that the events that generated the case began with a “dog at large” (complaint) in Bethel, and ended with Tripp’s termination.

A disagreement between Tripp and Cole grew from the investigation and prosecution of the dog incident. Cole wanted Tripp to ask the district attorney to dump the summons; Tripp expressed discomfort with the request.

Four months later, Lipez wrote, Cole – citing various issues unrelated to the dog complaint – suspended Tripp for a month, then later fired him. Tripp then sued Cole and the town, claiming he had been the subject of retaliation.

Claims of concern to the Boston court were Tripp’s assertion that Cole and the town had retaliated against him for speech protected by the First Amendment, and for reporting a violation of Maine law, in violation of the Maine Human Rights Act and the Maine Whistleblower’s Protection Act.

Citing two reasons, the District Court ruled that Tripp had not engaged in activity protected by either act.

The District Court also found that Tripp’s speech did not involve a matter of public concern, thereby negating his First Amendment claim.

Regarding costs to settle the matter, Cole said the insurer put the cost in the “high five-figures range.”

It is not known how much Tripp has spent trying to reclaim his job.