HAMILTON — The probe into medical training records kept by the Hamilton Police Department has spread to a former emergency dispatcher, who says she warned the town eight years ago that police officers were habitually falsifying training records.

Mary Ruth Stocking, who left the department in 2001, said she was questioned by telephone for 45 minutes last week by representatives of the state Office of Emergency Medical Services.

Stocking said she told them she and her lawyer met with Town Administrator Candace Wheeler in the fall of 2000 and told Wheeler police officers were signing attendance sheets for training courses that were not being held.

Stocking said she also told Wheeler that someone had forged her (Stocking's) signature on a medical dispatcher course exam — an exam that Stocking never took.

She said discovered the forgery when she opened a letter addressed to her and found the copy of the exam, with a score of 98, over a signature that wasn't hers.

Wheeler told her the matter would be "taken care of," Stocking said. Wheeler could not be reached for comment.

Police Chief Walter Cullen shut down the Police Department's ambulance service Wednesday, after an investigation uncovered "serious deficiencies" in the medical training records of the department's officers, who are required to be certified EMTs.

Stocking's accusations came on the same day the Office of Emergency Medical Services, a division of the Department of Public Health, made public the three problems it uncovered in Hamilton's training records:

Failure to ensure training, certification and recertification of EMTs.

Failure to ensure that continuing education programs have been conducted in accordance with state guidelines.

Failure to ensure that EMT-Basic refresher programs have been conducted in accordance with state standards.

Every full-time officer in the department has been receiving $60 a week extra for having EMT certification and another 30 hours of overtime pay to take refresher courses to maintain that certification.

The investigation raises questions not only about whether officers were medically qualified to staff the ambulance, but about whether they have been getting paid for training they never took.

The agency's investigation also disclosed problems with medical equipment on the town's two ambulances. Those must be remedied by Sunday.

Corrective action

Selectmen have until today to submit a plan to correct the personnel problems the agency uncovered. At a minimum, that plan must ensure all the town's EMTs complete a 24-hour basic refresher course and 28 hours of continuing education, according to the agency's notification.

Although it wasn't clear what other problems there may be in the department, the letter sent to the town last Friday advised officials the agency's investigation is ongoing.

Stocking is the second former or current employee to allege town officials have long been aware of problems with EMT training records.

Patrolman Michael Marchand, who is out of work on paid administrative leave, told The Salem News he spoke to Wheeler twice this past January about officers falsifying training records. He said Wheeler asked him to keep quiet about his charges because they would destroy residents' trust in the police force and town government.

And according to the minutes of a secret meeting with selectmen in November 2007, Marchand's lawyer, Michael Sacco, warned the town's governing board it was risking lawsuits, or worse, because the EMTs weren't properly recertified, as required by law.

Stocking, who worked part and full time for the town for about 10 years, said she resigned her job shortly after her conversation with Wheeler.

Stocking had been embroiled in a controversy the previous summer over her actions during a police response to a murder. There were accusations she didn't behave professionally during the drama, but the 911 tape of the event exonerated her, Stocking said.

"I couldn't take it anymore, all the baloney there," she said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Stocking said she felt the department's officers routinely falsified training records because they were "under a lot of pressure to let things go the way they were."

"There's nothing in this story that needs to be exaggerated," Stocking said. "It's totally pathetic."

Selectmen Chairman Dick Low said yesterday he wasn't sure if the plan of correction the board has to craft could be made public. But he said the process has to be "transparent" if the town is to regain residents' trust.

"On the one hand, we have a serious issue that has to be addressed," he said. "On the other hand, we need to keep the public informed."