Citing ongoing harassment by Woodstock Village officials, former Police Chief Joe Swanson has asked to be voluntarily returned to paid administrative leave until his demotion case is resolved in Vermont Superior Court.
Through his lawyer Linda Fraas, Swanson said the indisputable actions of municipal manager Eric Duffy and Sgt. Chris O’Keeffe, the interim police chief, over the past month “demonstrate a clear pattern of retaliation.”
Last week, the village filed a new round of claims against Swanson, including that he was seen walking his dog while on duty in the village and for taking a photograph in the squad room at the police station with his camera, court records show.
Earlier, Duffy placed Swanson on forced paid medical leave claiming his hands were shaky. He was restored to work the following day when a medical exam proved the claim was bogus.
The new court filing last week said O’Keeffe embarked “upon a calculated course of relentless harassment, discrimination, intimidation tactics, retaliation, attempts to remove Petitioner from his demoted patrol position based on manufactured allegations of medical disability, imposition of unwarranted ‘disciplinary measures’ and creation of a toxic work environment causing Petitioner to suffer extreme mental distress.”
Fraas maintains the village officials are trying to break Swanson’s spirit, but he will not fold. She said he has been dedicated to the Woodstock Police Department for 25 years.
“The escalating volatile toxic work environment created by Sgt. O’Keeffe is untenable and dangerous,” Fraas said this week in an email.
The email was sent to defense lawyers John H. Klesch and Matt Bloomer, for O’Keeffe and Duffy, and to attorney Brian Monaghan, who represents village trustee Seton McIlroy. She said there had been no response as of Wednesday morning.
“The village’s refusal to take corrective action and insistence upon keeping Chief Swanson in an unlawful demoted position in which he is being subjected to severe emotional distress will increase his damages significantly in the companion civil lawsuit,” Fraas wrote to the lawyers.
Fraas filed last week a 10-page corresponding petition for an immediate injunction to stay the demotion and return him to paid administrative leave pending the final outcome.
Swanson had earlier filed a formal appeal of the decision by the Village trustees in April to uphold a decision by Duffy to demote the police chief to patrol officer, the lowest rank in the department. While Swanson has the most seniority, he was assigned to the midnight shift.
He has filed a $5 million unlawful demotion lawsuit against multiple defendants. Corbett recently ruled that parts of the lawsuit could proceed against the village and three officials: Duffy, O’Keeffe, and McIlroy.
The judge ruled four other village trustees were immune for all their actions. The Town of Woodstock also was immune, Corbett said.
While each defendant is free to publicly respond to the claims made in court filings, Duffy, O’Keeffe and McIlroy have remained silent on the advice of legal counsel since the lawsuit began.
In the coming weeks, the village must file a written response to the claims.
For more on this, please see our September 11 edition of the Vermont Standard.
