Fourth Times a Charm?

This week yet another EHPOA member filed suit against Chief Scott Sansom for civil rights violations, this time Federal Court (Click here for story). This case involves a member who was improperly terminated back in 2013 after being arrested in a criminal case where the charges were later dismissed. Our Union filed a grievance on the employee's behalf due to disparate treatment compared to other employees who committed similar acts and were merely suspended, and eventually won his reinstatement at the SBMA (State Board of Mediation and Arbitration) in 2015.

Immediately after being reinstated, Chief Sansom terminated the employee a second time based on the same allegations that had already been argued before the SBMA and thrown out in his previous case. This second termination was clearly retaliatory and the Administration was admonished by the Arbitration Panel to "cease and desist from refusing to comply with their prior order" to reinstate the employee, and characterized their actions as an "unlawful circumvention" of their prior decision. 

The Administration then appealed the overturning of this second termination to State Superior Court which upheld the decision of the SBMA and also ordered the Town to reinstate the employee. The Town appealed the decision again to the State Appellate Court. Prior to a hearing at the Appellate Court the Administration and the Union negotiated a settlement agreement to reinstate the member with back pay and agreed that the Chief would take "all necessary steps to assist" the member in regaining both his POST and COLLECT certifications so he could resume his career as a Police Officer. 

The employee was reinstated in November 2016 and began working as a "Service Aid" while he completed his POST recertification process which he finished in 2017. POST subsequently recommended the member be reinstated as Police Officer pending his recertification with COLLECT.

At a COLLECT hearing in 2017 attended by our member and the Police Administration to rule on his eligibility for recertification, it is alleged that members of the Administration deliberately sabotaged the Officer's chances by instead of endorsing his recertification, they discussed the previously dismissed allegations against him and effectively argued against his reinstatement.

In 2019 the member had another opportunity to regain his COLLECT certification pending a written recommendation to COLLECT from the Chief of Police. It is alleged that Chief Sansom refused to submit said letter or provide supporting testimony which resulted in the member's COLLECT recertification again being denied. These actions are an obvious and deliberate violation of the Settlement agreed to by the Town, the Union, and the Member.

In the time since his reinstatement the member has been subject to retaliatory behavior from the Administration such as denying him the right to leave the building for his lunch break, something that every other in-house employee is allowed to do without question. He's also been assigned to the front desk doing menial duties traditionally reserved for injured employees, and he has not been allowed to do any meaningful or fulfilling work.

This pattern of behavior by Chief Sansom and his subordinates such as Deputy Chief Mack Hawkins, has clearly been retaliatory and meant to punish and humiliate the employee with the intention of getting to him to resign so as to accomplish the Chief's original goal of ending the member's employment with the Town.

This pending litigation is now the fourth time in his short tenure as Chief of Police that Scott Sansom has been sued by one of his employees for violations of their civil rights. Two of these cases have already resulted in substantial settlements being paid out by the Town, and another one is still pending before the CHRO. How much longer is the Mayor and Town Council going to continue tolerating this pattern of behavior by Chief Sansom that keeps costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlement and attorney's fees? 

No other Department head in East Hartford has faced the sheer quantity of allegations and lawsuits from their own employees that Chief Sansom has. If this was any other regular member of the Department receiving consistent complaints such as these they'd be pulled from duty and thoroughly investigated by Internal Affairs. But instead in this case the Town just pays out the settlements and further enables his behavior. It's long past time for Town Council to send him on his way bring in someone more competent and capable to fill the role who isn't  consistently creating these issues with their employees and exposing the Town to liability and bad press.