By Mike Donoghue, Senior Correspondent
A Vermont judge has ruled that a $5 million civil lawsuit by demoted Police Chief Joe Swanson will proceed against The Village of Woodstock, municipal manager Eric Duffy, trustee board chair Seton McIlroy, and Sgt. Chris O’Keeffe, the acting police chief.
However, Judge H. Dickson Corbett did rule that four village trustees — vice chair Jeffrey Kahn and members, Brenda Blakeman, Frank Horneck and Lisa Lawlor were immune from the claims filed in the lawsuit by the former chief.
The Town of Woodstock also is immune, the judge said.
Corbett’s ruling means O’Keeffe will be formally added as a named defendant to Swanson’s amended lawsuit. Swanson maintains in court records that he was ousted by a plot by Duffy, McIlroy and O’Keeffe.
Burgess Loss Prevention Associates of Lebanon, N.H., operated by William Burgess, is still a defendant. Duffy hired the private detective firm to do internal interviews with police officers and dispatchers about Swanson’s management style last fall. The Burgess report helped lead to the demotion of Swanson to patrol officer and he was later assigned by O’Keeffe to the midnight shift.
Duffy told the Vermont Standard this week he did not have any comments in response to the judge’s ruling. O’Keeffe also declined to comment when reached by the Standard. McIlroy said on Wednesday she would not comment on a pending legal matter.
Kahn said there was relief in the ruling that cleared four trustees.
“We are pleased. What else?” he said, when asked his reaction to Corbett’s decision.
“All along, it’s what is best for the municipality,” he said about the ongoing legal fight.
Kahn said he never considered it was against Swanson, but rather as an elected trustee he wants things to work out properly at the village level.
Swanson lawyer Linda Fraas said she was disappointed with part of Corbett’s ruling that gave a free pass to some defendants.
“Absolute immunity means that a government official cannot be liable under any circumstances for their acts even if those acts are performed deliberately with malicious intent,” she said.
“Although the trustees cannot be sued personally, taxpayers remain ultimately liable for a resulting verdict arising from unlawful, retaliatory, malicious, and discriminatory conduct on the part of the trustees,” Fraas told the Vermont Standard.
“The Vermont Superior Court has not granted immunity to Seton McIlroy, Eric Duffy, or Chris O’Keeffe for their actions and they remain named defendants in Chief Swanson’s lawsuit,” she said.
Fraas said Swanson is committed to being restored as chief of his hometown police department.
“Chief Swanson appreciates the outpouring of support he has received from the community,” she said.
Fraas said she thought the court should have considered qualified immunity rather than absolute immunity as the appropriate standard to analyze the case.
Fraas said Swanson continues to be hassled at work by the village.
Two weeks ago, the village put Swanson on paid medical leave, claiming he had shaky hands. That was quickly disproven with a complete medical exam the following day, she said. Swanson returned to work, but new false claims surfaced immediately, she said.
Last week, Swanson received a letter raising questions about his conduct on five matters, including having a supportive sticker on his car.
O’Keeffe also issued a written warning in the letter to Swanson for a news story, presumably in the Vermont Standard, with information from a legal filing in one of his two court cases. Swanson, in his court filing, had raised issues on whether O’Keeffe had botched a sex-crime investigation by failing to preserve video at Woodstock Union High School before passing it off to the former chief.
Fraas said the issue reported by Swanson about the sex crime investigation problem was spelled out in the second amended complaint in superior court to show ongoing retaliation and disparate treatment. It had not been privately shared with the media as claimed, she said.
O’Keeffe had questioned why Swanson opted to send a copy of the letter to Duffy, the municipal manager, but Fraas said it was ironic that when Duffy solicited comments about Swanson from employees, he was not provided copies.
She also noted that during Swanson’s positive work review in 2024, Duffy’s lone criticism was not being told more about what was going on at the police department. She wrote it now appears O’Keeffe is now punishing Swanson for letting Duffy know “about a serious violation of protocol” when there is “very clear evidence of disparate treatment.”
O’Keeffe wrote that he did not know if there would be what he called “negative consequences” for that sex crime case because the information had appeared publicly. O’Keeffe wrote he had done no investigation of the shared information, but he believed providing information about an ongoing investigation to persons outside the department could lead to discipline.
The sticker issue is based on a “Free Joe” notice on Swanson’s car. The “Free Joe” stickers have circulated openly and been posted throughout Woodstock by supporters of the former chief since Duffy started coming after him, she said.
Fraas said O’Keeffe wrote that he was concerned the sticker might distract employees, impact morale and could affect public confidence in the department.
She countered in an email to the village that the sticker has been on Swanson’s car for five months, but apparently only became a problem last week.
“This is a shocking intrusion into Joe’s right to free speech regarding his personal vehicle,” she wrote.
“Sgt. O’Keeffe’s attempt to use his position of assumed power to threaten some type of future disciplinary action arising out of the fact that Joe has a small sticker on his vehicle indirectly expressing his opinions regarding the unlawfulness of his demotion,” she wrote.
“I have advised Joe that he does not need to remove this sticker and we will pursue Joe’s right to exercise his freedom of speech if any further admonitions are provided of this nature,” Fraas wrote.
“As you know, it is our opinion that it is Sgt. O’Keeffe, Mr. Duffy and the village trustees that are bringing disrepute to the police department, not Joe,” she said in her email.
Swanson also was questioned about a possible picture he had reportedly taken of his police vest in the squad room, how he requested vacation time and a false claim he was walking his dog on village time, Fraas said.
O’Keeffe reported he thought it was improper for a police officer to walk his dog while on duty. O’Keeffe wrote that while he was not making any finding that Swanson had walked a dog, he warned such actiont could lead to discipline.
Fraas said there was zero evidence that Swanson had walked his dog while on duty. It also was unknown where the report had come from. She said she considered the false claim was unwarranted harassment since police officers are not generally warned to refrain from “things that they have not done.”