By RICHARD WEIZEL
Staff writer
ConnPost Article Last Updated: 10/24/2008 01:23:22 AM EDT
Report: Police officers distributed applicant's file - Topix
STRATFORD -- Capt. Joseph McNeil, the head of the police union, and former Sgt. Shawn Farmer acted together earlier this year to release the personal background file of one-time officer applicant Christian Miron, the brother of Mayor James R. Miron, according to a disciplinary report released Thursday.
The report by Chief Administrative Officer Suzanne McCauley, released in response to a Freedom of Information request by the Connecticut Post, was made public two days after McNeil was demoted to sergeant and suspended without pay for three months. It concludes that McNeil made copies of Christian Miron's nine-page background file, and Farmer, the former union president who resigned in May, sent them out to several Town Council members and the media, in violation of numerous departmental policies.
The report does not speculate on the officers' motives for releasing the files, but some in the department have said they believe Miron was not qualified and was being fast-tracked for a job because he was the mayor's brother.
Miron, 29, was issued a conditional offer of employment in March even though the information leaked from his application raised questions as to whether he is fit for police work. The background file showed he scored well on the written and oral exams, and that a psychologist who interviewed Miron recommended he be hired but with "strong reservations.''
Miron, however, was not among the 14 rookies hired by the department in July.
McNeil admitted under questioning at an Oct. 2 disciplinary hearing that he read Miron's background file, but he insisted Thursday that as a captain he had "every right to do so, as did anyone else in the department," and that after he printed the report, he "tore it in half and threw it away."
Town and police officials don't buy that.
McCauley points out in her report that the "coincidence" is not believable that Farmer was standing next to the printer in the records room at the exact time McNeil printed the application report.
"The evidence establishes that on March 25, 2008, Capt. McNeil printed the applicant's background report for Sgt. Farmer," McCauley says, adding that McNeil "failed to maintain the confidential nature contained in the background report of the police when the disclosure of this information was not necessary in the performance of his official police duties.
"Based on the strength of the circumstantial evidence, the inherent improbability of the events that would have had to occurred if Sgt. Farmer acted independently without Capt. McNeil's knowledge, and McNeil's lack of credibility, [the investigation] establishes that Capt. McNeil printed the background report for Sgt. Farmer and knew Farmer intended to release it."
The report also contends that McNeil, a 15-year veteran of the department, violated the department's policies regarding integrity, obedience to orders, work rules and regulations, and law enforcement ethics.
In her conclusion, McCauley says, there was plenty of cause for McNeil to have been fired.
"Although sufficient evidence exists that a termination is justified, the undersigned has decided to impose lesser, but still severe discipline," she says.
McNeil and his Milford attorney, Clayton Quinn, on Thursday continued to deny the union president played any role in the release of the background report.
"I was angry and outraged myself when I learned the report had been released," McNeil said. "I knew it would tarnish our union and just because I looked at the background file on the computer and printed a copy doesn't mean I released it, or know who did."
Quinn said the town hasn't provided his client or him with all the information it released Thursday to the media, which includes more than 100 of pages of transcripts, an internal affairs investigation report and the transcript of the Oct. 2 hearing at Town Hall, at which 70 police union members gathered in council chambers to support McNeil.
"There's not a shred of evidence that he disclosed the report to anyone, and we stand by that," Quinn said Thursday. "Capt. McNeil categorically denies any wrongdoing."
The union is also supporting its president.
"The Stratford Police Local 407, Council 15, AFSCME does not agree with the conclusions of the town of Stratford in this matter," according a statement it released earlier this week. "By its own admission, the town's conclusions are derived wholly from circumstantial evidence. The union will immediately grieve this matter because the town has not sustained the evidentiary burden necessary to sustain the just cause requirement found in the collective-bargaining agreement."
The union "is confident that when these facts are reviewed by an impartial panel, free of political pressure, Joe McNeil will be vindicated, reinstated to the rank of captain and made whole for salary lost as a result of the suspension."
Farmer could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The mayor said earlier this week he recused himself from "the entire disciplinary process" because the investigation was related to his brother's personnel file.