BETHEL – Former Bethel Police Chief Darren Tripp’s $500,000 lawsuit in federal court against the town of Bethel and Town Manager Scott Cole was dismissed Wednesday.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge George Z. Singal affirmed U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret J. Kravchuk’s recommendation to dismiss the suit and for summary judgment.

Singal also denied Tripp’s cross motion for partial summary judgment.

“No further proceeding is necessary,” Singal said.

Cole declined to comment on the ruling, but Tripp’s lawyer, Thomas Carey of Rumford, said, “I informed Darren, and we’re considering our options.”

On Tuesday, Carey said one option would be to file an appeal with the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

Tripp filed suit last year in federal court, challenging Cole’s 33-day paid suspension of Tripp in March 2003 for alleged “serious” job deficiencies, poor judgment, lack of ethics and lack of respect for the law.

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

The former chief initially sought $250,000 in damages, but amended it to $500,000 after Cole fired Tripp on Feb. 12, 2004.

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