The following statement was issued to the Vermont Standard on Jan. 13.
In response to the allegations and comments to the press made by the town of Woodstock trustees and town manager Mr. Duffy, the following statement was issued.
Chief Swanson has been honored to serve the Woodstock community as a full-time police officer since 2007 and as Chief since July 2023. He served in the US Army/Vermont National Guard from 2006-2012 and was promoted to Sergeant upon his deployment to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2010. In 2022 Chief Swanson was named Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by the Vermont American Legion. He also won the department’s Medal of Honor, and Medal of Valor by the New England Police Benevolent Association, for his response to a homicide in June 2022 in which he was wounded by a gunman in a shootout. Chief Swanson has received excellent reviews and public commendations for his role as police chief. This past summer during a trustee meeting, Mr. Duffy officially recognized his good work, and all five board members unanimously agreed that he was doing a good job and thanked him for his service; Chief Swanson responded that “it has been an honor.”
The initial incident giving rise to Mr. Duffy’s decision to place Chief Swanson on paid administrative leave occurred on October 13, 2024. Even though this incident involved no allegations of misconduct or criminal activity on the part of Chief Swanson, Mr. Duffy misled the public by providing statements to the press referencing a “criminal investigation” and refused to correct the impression that Chief Swanson was accused of unlawful conduct despite requests to do so. The investigation findings by VSP regarding the 10/13/24 incident concluded that Chief
Swanson did nothing wrong when he witnessed an event while off-duty and acted to deescalate the situation and prevent harm to those involved — as the public should expect of their off-duty Police Chief.
Instead of reinstating Chief Swanson to his position following the VSP investigation, Mr. Duffy spearheaded an investigation alleging numerous unfounded violations of police protocol, none of which had been previously identified or brought to Chief Swanson’s attention. Mr. Duffy also decided to ignore the findings of the VSP report and resume allegations that Chief Swanson had somehow acted improperly on 10/13/24 (although Mr. Duffy is not a police officer and had no legitimate basis for this allegation.)
Ironically, after damaging Chief Swanson’s reputation with his public comments and keeping him on administrative leave long after he was cleared of any wrongdoing, Mr. Duffy accused Chief Swanson of damaging the reputation of the department and the municipality. The administrative leave Mr. Duffy engineered, his creation of chaos within the department, and the investigation he ordered despite Chief Swanson being cleared of any wrongdoing by the VSP findings, led to Chief Swanson’s officers issuing a no-confidence vote, further damaging Chief Swanson’s stellar reputation and untarnished record across his entire decorated career as a police officer.
In conducting a witch hunt regarding Chief Swanson, Mr. Duffy orchestrated a search of Chief Swanson’s emails involving attorney-client privileged information and erroneously accused him of sharing evidence with an “unauthorized person” whom Chief Swanson consulted for legal advice. Mr. Duffy solicited additional evidence and procured statements from fellow officers regarding a minor incident involving foul language (associated with a PTSD reaction from being shot on the job) for which no complaint was ever issued — and which was fully known to the department prior to his appointment as Chief. Additional unfounded allegations involve routine police matters which do not give rise to any reason for discipline or termination for cause. Mr. Duffy has also made numerous material misrepresentations of facts in the recent letter sent to Chief Swanson advising him of his decision to seek disciplinary measures, up to and including termination. It can readily be proven that Mr. Duffy was explicitly aware of many of the routine police practices he now claims were unauthorized. For instance, Mr. Duffy had no issue with Chief Swanson splitting his schedule to work out at the gym during the day before returning to duty and on multiple occasions Mr. Duffy was working out at the same time.
In summary, Chief Swanson looks forward to further addressing these issues in a public hearing in which he will present witnesses and evidence disputing the unfair and discriminatory practices by Mr. Duffy which have cost the town money in legal fees and have subjected the town to potential litigation and monetary judgments.