News

Report criticizes Hamilton cops: Town counsel entangled in station politics, investigator finds

By Steve Landwehr
Staff writer
Published: July 15, 2008

HAMILTON — A recently released outside investigation of the Hamilton Police Department paints a picture of a house divided, with two officers in cahoots with the town's legal counsel attempting to discredit a fellow officer and the chief of police.

Gerard Hayes, who has more than 49 years of experience as a municipal human resources director, concluded Officers Karen Wallace and Arthur Hatfield acted inappropriately by conducting unauthorized investigations of a fellow officer's actions. Hayes, an independent investigator hired by the town, also said Town Counsel Donna MacKenna wrongly involved herself in the department's business and, perhaps unwittingly, its politics.

Click here to view a consultant's report on the Hamilton Police Department

Selectmen voted unanimously last night to hire Robert J. Pomeroy, chief of police in Plymouth, to investigate whether Wallace and Hatfield should be disciplined and what other changes need to be made to the Police Department's policies and procedures.

Pomeroy is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Program and.was past president of both the Plymouth County Police Chiefs Association and the Southeastern Massachusetts Police Chiefs Association.. Pomeroy was also appointed to the Massachusetts Joint Labor-Management Committee by former Gov. Mitt Romney and served on that panel from 2001 to 2006.

The Board of Selectmen decided to take up MacKenna's conduct at a later date. The report noted disciplining Wallace could be problematic because of MacKenna's involvement with her.

Hayes' report tells a tale of officers acting out of self-interest, rather than the department's well-being, and breaking the chain of command by taking their perceived problems outside the station to the district attorney's office.

The problems began after Hamilton Officer Michael Marchand's ill-fated, August 2006 trip to Mexico, an attempt to return his niece to the United States.

The girl's mother and father, Marchand's brother-in-law, were involved in a divorce and sharing custody of the girl, of whom Marchand's family had become very fond.

The girl's mother, who was born in Mexico, suddenly took the girl with her to her homeland in March 2006. A distraught Marchand hatched a plan to use vacation time to go to Mexico and retrieve his niece. He openly shared his plans with fellow officers, and several tried to dissuade him.

Marchand did locate the girl, but during an encounter with friends of the mother, he suffered a knife wound and abandoned his efforts.

In December 2006, MacKenna received an anonymous letter that was ultimately determined to be from Wallace raising questions about Marchand and police Chief Walter Cullen. Wallace claimed Marchand used a false rank when he attempted to get the FBI involved in his niece's retrieval, that he had skirted U.S. Customs to get into Mexico, and that while he had been injured himself, he also seriously injured someone else.

Meanwhile, Marchand was heading up a fundraising effort, approved by Cullen, to have a cupola added to the recently completed public safety building. Sometime in mid-January, Hatfield overheard a conversation in which Marchand was said to have pressured the manager of the Crosby's Market in town to contribute $1,000 for the cupola.

Hayes determined Hatfield took it upon himself to investigate the matter with the manager, a task outside his responsibilities. According to the report, Hatfield told the manager other officers in the department did not want any money donated to the cupola fund.

Hatfield is a longtime officer who is perceived to have had a strained relationship with Cullen for years, according to Hayes, and he saw Marchand as the "chief's boy." A message left on Hatfield's answering machine yesterday was not returned. Cullen is on vacation for two weeks.

While the store manager later said he did not feel unduly pressured, Hayes faulted Cullen for not at the very least developing fundraising guidelines.

Marchand's fundraising activities did not escape criticism by Hayes. At the start of a comedy night fundraiser, Marchand made a "rambling welcome speech" in which he attempted to make light of his fundraising efforts and also made off-color remarks.

Cullen asked him to stop speaking, but he refused. Concerns about his actions throughout the fundraising, and possibly exaggerated reports of his trip to Mexico, "began to cause some officials to wonder if Marchand was consistently a good representative of the police department and the Town," Hayes wrote.

'Organizational problems'

Wallace was by now communicating openly with MacKenna, saying she had spoken with the chief but gotten nowhere. She told MacKenna she was concerned about a number of instances in which Marchand had appeared to use excessive force.

Two in particular stand out in the report.

MacKenna, based on reports sent to her by Wallace, told the selectmen that while attempting to serve an arrest warrant in a house on Homestead Circle in March 2007, Marchand had "roughed up" a man in the house and thrown him against a cruiser.

There was also a report that in the same month, Marchand responded to a report of a man drinking beer in a car in the town's shopping center. As he approached the car on foot, the man appeared to reach for something under his seat, "causing Marchand to draw his service weapon and order the man to show his hands."

Hayes concluded, based on eyewitness testimony by Cullen, that no one was "roughed up" during the Homestead Circle event. And it turns out the man in the shopping center had, while armed with an ax, charged Marchand five years ago when he and other officers were trying to remove him from his home.

As a result, Hayes determined Marchand was within his right of self-defense when he took his weapon out of his holster. Hayes noted he did not point it at the man.

On Dec. 8, 2006, a letter was sent to the state Ethics Commission enumerating a list of complaints about Cullen. Hayes said he believes the letter was from Hatfield and Wallace and was an attempt to discredit the chief.

Hayes criticized Hatfield and Wallace for making an end run around the Police Department's chain of command by taking up matters with the Essex County District Attorney's Office and planning to take them before the state attorney general.

While Wallace claimed she was acting in Marchand's best interest, Marchand believed that because she had been taking some law courses, she had her eyes on his duties as the department's prosecutor.

Hayes downplayed Wallace's assertion she was concerned about Marchand's well-being.

"Certainly, the fact that she appeared to be attempting to get the district attorney's office to investigate and perhaps prosecute Marchand undercuts her claims that she was concerned about his well-being," Hayes determined.

A call to Wallace for comment yesterday was not returned.

Hayes was critical of MacKenna for taking Wallace at her word without checking her claims. MacKenna declined comment yesterday.

Marchand claims he is now suffering post-traumatic stress due to the months of finger-pointing and back-door politicking. He has sued the selectmen for refusing to pay for his treatment under state workers' compensation laws.

Hamilton selectmen Chairman Dick Low said that while he wasn't downplaying the situation, "organizational problems" aren't unique to the Hamilton Police Department.

Low said it hasn't been determined whether anyone should be disciplined for the string of events. The report also pointed to other problems in the department that the selectmen will now look into, he said.

He promised action would come soon, but wouldn't commit to a timetable.