The latest demotion hearing for Police Chief Joe Swanson is expected to get underway Monday before the Woodstock Village Trustees, but don’t expect the veteran lawman to attend, nor any of the witnesses that testified against him the last time.
Swanson is still recovering from major back surgery and has not been cleared by his doctor to attend the hearing that the village trustees have refused to delay, according to his lawyer, Linda Fraas.
Fraas also said she has been told that municipal manager Eric Duffy does not plan to have any witnesses put on the stand, but rather will rely on the transcripts from an unsuccessful March 2025 demotion hearing.
A state judge ruled the village trustees had failed to properly follow the law and overturned their finding demoting Swanson to patrol officer.
Fraas said she does not have subpoena power to force the witnesses from the first hearing to return for the second hearing on Monday.
Duffy had the village police employees and members of the town’s emergency dispatch center voluntarily appear for the 14 1/2 hour marathon demotion hearing last year.
Fraas said this week she has been told that the Monday hearing will be at the Woodstock Masonic Temple, 30 Pleasant Street, but she had not been told the start time yet.
Duffy failed to respond to the Vermont Standard on Tuesday about the start time, or why the long-planned hearing had not been posted publicly under Vermont’s Open Meeting Law.
Trustee chair Seton McIlroy said Wednesday morning “details are being finalized and will be sent out later today.”
Under Vermont law the village trustees can wait until 48 hours before the hearing to tell the general public the time, date and place for the hearing and to post the meeting agenda.
Woodstock Village officials were questioned and criticized for conducting the March 2025 hearing in a small basement room with no windows and limited seating at the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department.
Duffy first put Swanson on paid leave in October 2024 and called for three investigations. The Vermont State Police and the Vermont Criminal Justice Council cleared Swanson.
A private detective firm hired by Duffy to interview employees reported the workers thought the chief failed to clean his office, had messy hair and sometimes wore non-matching socks. The employees also complained that the chief would leave the police station and not tell them where he was going and sometimes failed to answer his cellphone when they called.
Duffy, after the demotion was overturned by the judge in December, said later he wanted Swanson dismissed at the second hearing. However, the trustees have said he needs to stick with his original demotion request.
Fraas said she plans to keep the fight going to get Swanson fully restored.
“I will appear,” said Fraas, who apparently will be flying solo.
“Joe can’t testify. He will not be attending,” she said.
The spine surgery is due to a fall Swanson sustained during a shootout while trying to apprehend a homicide suspect, Jay Wilson, in June 2022 on Slayton Terrace. After a more than nine-hour standoff the suspect took his own life inside a home, state police said.
Chief Swanson is still out of work and is unable to stand or sit for long periods of time due to the lumbar fusion surgery performed in late December, Fraas said.
“In addition to his very limited sitting and standing ability, Chief Swanson remains in constant pain which distracts him from concentrating and focusing. He continues to use narcotic medication intermittently for severe unpredictable episodes of pain. Thus, the suggestion that Chief Swanson attend telephonically or by video conference is not acceptable,” Fraas said in an email to lawyers in the case.
“He has not been cleared. Joe is on full disability and has no work capacity,” Fraas told the Vermont Standard this week.
The chief continues to draw full workman’s comp from the village, she said.
Fraas has asked the village trustees to postpone the Monday hearing until at least the end of March to give Swanson more time to recover and possibly attend, but it was rejected.
The five trustees, who initially sided with Duffy, may be in a rush to conduct the new demotion hearing because two of the board members are not seeking re-election and will be replaced in mid-month by two new candidates at the annual Village Meeting on March 17.
For more on this, please see our Feb. 26 edition of the Vermont Standard.
