The Village of Woodstock has formally asked the Vermont Superior Court to uphold its decision to demote Police Chief Joseph Swanson to patrol officer.
Burlington attorney Joseph Klesch, who is representing the village, outlined in his 56-page legal brief that Swanson should not be reinstated to the post of police chief for Woodstock.
Klesch maintains the decision by municipal manager Eric Duffy early this year to remove Swanson from leading the department — and the subsequent ruling by the Woodstock Board of Village Trustees to uphold the move — did not violate any state statute or employment agreement.
He asserted that the employment agreement does not block the village from demoting Swanson.
The brief requests that if the superior court is to vacate or reverse the decision by the trustees, the judge should deny reinstatement of Swanson as chief or, at least, allow for further proceedings to permit the village to be heard about what it sees as the proper remedy.
Attempts to reach Klesch for further elaboration on his filing were unsuccessful.
Manchester, N.H., lawyer Linda Fraas, who represents Swanson, took strong exception to the village filing when reached by the Vermont Standard.
“The Village’s brief makes clear that its misguided representatives continue to seek removal of Chief Swanson from his position in spite of an indisputable absence of facts that satisfy the Vermont legal requirement of ‘just cause’ — wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on this losing cause, which we have alleged is motivated by discrimination and personal animus,” she said.
Fraas said she has 21 days to respond in writing to the court, and she expects to file something as early as next week.
“The Village has taken an oftentimes self-contradictory kitchen sink approach to try to avoid the inevitable conclusion that it unlawfully removed Chief Swanson from his job as police chief and that reinstatement will ultimately be required under the law,” she wrote in an email to the Vermont Standard.
For more on this, please see our November 6 edition of the Vermont Standard.
