Mike Donoghue, Senior Correspondent
Municipal Manager Eric Duffy has moved to schedule a hearing with Woodstock Police Chief Joe Swanson to determine if he will be fired or disciplined following an internal investigation into the operation of the village police department.
Duffy sent a 13-page letter to Swanson, who has been on paid administrative leave since Oct. 15, saying “As a result of your conduct described below, I am contemplating discipline, up to and including your termination.”
Duffy then went on to outline some of the conduct listed in the report compiled by Private Detective William Burgess of Lebanon, N.H. about Chief Swanson and his operation of the Woodstock Police Department.
(See LINK for the Complaints and a response issued by Swanson)
Swanson, who was promoted to police chief in July 2023, disputed in the Burgess investigation many of the individual claims made by unnamed police officers and emergency dispatchers. In other cases, Swanson attempted to explain the extenuating circumstances.
One of Swanson’s defense lawyers, Linda Fraas of Manchester, N.H., issued a general denial this week to the Vermont Standard for the claims outlined by Duffy in his Jan. 10 letter.
“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,” Fraas said.
She said Duffy was fully aware of some of the minute claims against the award-winning chief and opted to do nothing about them because they were “routine.”
Fraas added Duffy “has also made numerous material misrepresentations of facts in the recent letter sent to Chief Swanson advising him of his decision to seek discipline…”
On Wednesday of this week, Duffy said that he expects the hearing to be held within seven days.
Fraas told the Standard that the hearing, which had originally been set for Jan. 16, had to be postponed because the village failed to provide the proper advance notice.
Duffy requested the Burgess investigation after Swanson was placed on paid leave on Oct. 15 unrelated to the operation of the village police department. Swanson was a passenger and witness to an off-duty traffic incident on High Street involving his husband, Woodstock lawyer Nicholas “Nico” Seldon, and a second driver on Oct. 13.
It was while Swanson was on leave, members of the village police department and town’s emergency dispatch center privately began to make complaints to Duffy about the chief, the manager has said.
Duffy said he alerted the Village Trustees and a decision was made to hire Burgess on Oct. 25. He was to inquire about complaints by several employees “regarding the activities, behavior and administrative practices of Police Chief Joe Swanson.”
Burgess, a former Vermont State Trooper, also was directed to review other complaints that might surface out of his initial inquiry.
Meanwhile, the Vermont State Police, who were asked immediately to conduct a neutral investigation into the High Street incident, were trying to interview witnesses for their case. They finally said on Nov. 5 that no criminal charges were expected. Both drivers refused to give statements to VSP detectives, Detective Capt. Scott Dunlap said. The other eyewitnesses, including Swanson, did not provide enough to move forward, he said.
It was about two weeks later that both unions voted unanimously to issue no confidence votes in Swanson: the police on a 5-0 vote and the dispatchers on a 4-0 vote.
Burgess interviewed an unknown number of Woodstock employees. His report fails to provide any names of employees filing complaints. All complaints in the report are anonymous.
Swanson cooperated with the investigation. He agreed to a recorded interview with one of his defense lawyers, William Vasiliou of Middlebury, present. It came after the village provided a Nov. 26, 2024 letter containing the allegations he was facing, records show.
Losing faith
Duffy said in his letter he was concerned about losing faith in the police chief that he and the Village Trustees appointed 18 months ago. He noted the high-profile nature of the job.
“The nature of several of these offenses are of a very serious nature, particularly given your leadership position. The number of offenses and their high frequency are also very alarming to me,” Duffy wrote to Swanson.
“The offenses outlined above have also combined to cast doubt on your ability to lead the department,” the manager wrote.
Duffy also said he was concerned to recently learn about an incident involving Swanson a few months before he was named chief, but was never uncovered at the time by the background check done by the village.
“I recently became aware, for the first time, of an incident from May 2023 in which you (while off duty) and your husband had a verbal altercation, that included obscenities, with a driver and his passengers when their vehicle was stopped by WPD for shooting a squirt gun at you and other motorists,” Duffy wrote.
The manager said the October 2024 incident on High Street “had some similar characteristics and I am concerned with this pattern of behavior.”
During his interview with Burgess, Swanson said he was upset that he is now being asked about it when it happened before he was chief. The Burgess investigation was supposed to focus on him being chief.
The May 2023 incident, which came about a year after Swanson was shot in the line of duty responding to a homicide in the village, involved somebody pointing a gun at him and firing what turned out to be a squirt gun at him as he was walking. The incident triggered his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, he said.
Swanson called Woodstock Police and two officers eventually found the car and stopped it. The report said an angry Swanson approached the scene and reportedly yelled, “I have PTSD mother (expletive)” to the motorists, who turned out to be teens.
Swanson, who was a sergeant at the time, said it was not a perfect response. He said he was unaware of any complaints filed with then-Police Chief Robbie Blish and no discipline was imposed. Swanson said he was unaware the two village officers felt uncomfortable and embarrassed.
Access to the report
Duffy had initially refused to give the Woodstock community access to the Burgess report under the Public Records Act. The Vermont Standard appealed the denial. Duffy, after conferring again with the Village lawyer, agreed last Friday to release the report on Monday.
The 17-page report was provided to the Vermont Standard still with about two dozen redactions for words, phrases or sentences. The newspaper may appeal those redactions because no explanation was given for each as to why the information was withheld from the public.
Duffy’s reversal came one day after a news story in the Standard last week that noted the town of Stowe had improperly withheld a similar police report and was successfully sued by the local weekly newspaper. In that case, a Superior Court judge ordered the town to pay the Stowe Reporter $20,000 for its legal fees. Stowe also had to pay $27,000 to its losing defense team at Stitzel, Page & Fletcher, the Burlington law firm, which also is representing Woodstock in the current case.
The Burgess report has the phrase “Confidential Internal Investigation” on the cover, but courts have ruled that saying something is confidential doesn’t make it so.
Duffy told the Vermont Standard that the village taxpayers have been charged $7,000 for the investigative report.
The Village Trustees issued a joint statement that they take their jobs seriously and they have to balance competing interests.
“The staff and elected officials of Woodstock are entrusted with not only the responsibility of providing essential services but also managing public trust and the reputation of a town whose economy is based on tourism,” they said. “When it comes to personnel issues, we have to constantly balance the interests of our employees, transparency to our community, and the stewardship of taxpayer funds.”
They also noted Woodstock has received multiple requests under Vermont’s Public Records Act in recent months.