The Village of Woodstock finally released this week some of its public records concerning a secret investigation into the handling of a serious car crash by embattled police officer Joe Swanson, but most of the documents were either blacked out or completely withheld for unknown reasons.
The limited documents were released by municipal manager Eric Duffy to the Vermont Standard through its Vermont Public Records request on behalf of the community.
Duffy wrote the newspaper that it had the right of appeal — to him — to get the redacted or missing records. Appeals under the Vermont law are designed to go to a higher authority and not to the person making the initial decision about releasing public records.
Among the withheld documents were the monthly bills submitted to Woodstock by CSC Investigations since the contract was signed in December. Also withheld by Duffy were any of the periodic investigative reports filed by the private detective agency.
Most of the records that were made public this week involved emails between Duffy, interim Police Chief Chris O’Keeffe and Tamara Chase of CSC Investigations for the unannounced investigation. The emails that were made public were mostly asking when each person was available for phone calls.
Not much else was made available.
“The municipality is not confirming that the investigation is of any specific officer by providing responsive records to your request,” Duffy wrote to the Vermont Standard.
That appears to be at odds with the final contract signed by Duffy with CSC on Dec. 11. That contract, obtained earlier by the Vermont Standard, said the Village of Woodstock wanted the CSC investigators to focus on one unidentified Woodstock Police Officer, whose name is blacked out. Swanson was known to be the only Woodstock police officer on duty when the crash was reported.
Swanson, who formerly served as Woodstock police chief, is currently fighting Duffy’s order demoting him to patrol officer.
Duffy and O’Keeffe did not respond to phone and/or emails seeking comments for the Vermont Standard before its weekly deadline.
Duffy has been at odds with Swanson for more than a year. He most recently said he believes Swanson has abandoned his employment and has terminated him. Swanson, who has appealed his demotion from chief, went out on worker’s comp after major back surgery and is still recovering, his lawyer, Linda Fraas, has said. He also has a separate multi-million dollar lawsuit against Duffy, O’Keeffe, the village and town, among others.
For more on this, please see our June 11 edition of the Vermont Standard.
