Judge Upholds Firing Of 2 Middlebury Cops Accused Of Not Going Out On Patrol Enough

MIDDLEBURY, CT — Two fired Middlebury police officers accused of failing to patrol the town adequately should not get their jobs back, a Superior Court judge ruled this month.

Judge John Cordani, in two decisions filed June 6, vacated a 2024 arbitration award which called for the officers to be reinstated.

Cordani described the conduct of the two officers, Alton Cronin and Randy Ireland, as “egregious.”

According to Cordani, the officers’ repeated failure to patrol occurred for entire shifts. The implication, the decision asserts, is that the officers were “sleeping instead of working.”

“The public should not be forced to retain police officers whom the public cannot trust because such officers have been shown to have engaged in conduct that is dishonest or dishonorable,” Cordani wrote.

The Police Commission fired the officers in 2019 after an investigation.

The town claimed the officers repeatedly failed to patrol the town during overnight shifts, often never even leaving the police department, court documents show.

The probe evaluated the GPS of officers’ patrol vehicles between January and April 2019.

Cronin’s vehicle showed no activity 15 times and little activity for 54 of his shifts, and the town asserted he also falsified time cards, court documents show. There was no GPS activity for Ireland’s vehicle for 34 shifts, and little activity in another 34 shifts, according to court documents, and the town claims Ireland falsified call reports.

Following the officers’ terminations, the local police union filed a grievance, which brought the case to the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration. In 2024, the state arbitration panel ordered the officers to be reinstated with back pay.

In June 2024, the town of Middlebury appealed to Superior Court in an attempt to get this arbitration award vacated. Cordani this month sided with the town and vacated the arbitration award.

“When an officer engages in conduct which undermines his trustworthiness, the justice system suffers from a decreased ability to depend upon his work, evidence and testimony,” Cordani wrote.

Jeffrey Ment, managing partner with the Ment Law Group in Hartford, who is representing the Middlebury Police Union, said an appeal of Cordani’s decision was filed Monday morning.

“We disagree with the Court’s decision and are confident that the Appellate Court will reverse Judge Cordani,” Ment said.

In court documents, Ment said there was no evidence Cronin or Ireland ever missed calls for service, or that calls for service went unanswered. According to Ment, Cronin had been president of the Middlebury Police Union, and at the time of his termination, the union and town were “embroiled in litigation over pension benefits.”

Attorney Thomas Parisot, who is representing the town, could not be reached for comment Monday.

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