Civil Service Commission Rules In Favor Of Brookline Officer

BROOKLINE, MA — The Civil Service Commission ruled partly in favor of the Brookline police officer who filed a discrimination complaint against the police department claiming she was being unfairly treated.

"Bias and personal animus against the Appellant [Officer Amy Hall] was a factor that contributed to the Department’s decision to investigate and ultimately discipline the Appellant, which is contrary to the core of the civil service system, adherence to basic merit principles, which includes assuring fair treatment of all employees in all aspects of personnel administration and assuring that all employees are protected from arbitrary and capricious actions," reads the conclusion of the 25 page ruling released Thursday.

Civil Service Commissioner Christopher Bowman said in his report some three months after the hearing wrapped in January, that he was allowing the appeal of her disciplinary action in part and ruled that her five-day suspension be reduced to a written warning.

"The finding just shows the importance of Brookline's Police Department — and really any public employers — dealing with anyone who works with them fairly," said Mike Mason of Bennett & Belfort, Hall's attorney. "Amy made a complaint and it was their duty to respond to it, and instead because how they felt about her they slanted the process."

Town officials have 30 days to appeal the decision.

"It is anticipated that the Select Board will be reviewing the decision with outside counsel in the near future," Town Counsel Joslin Murphy told Patch Friday. "No decision has been made with regard to an appeal."

What happened?

Hall who has worked for the Brookline Police Department since 2001 said she had never before been disciplined as an officer and was suspended twice in less than a year. In November, she went to the town to appeal her second unpaid suspension. She lost, and took her appeal to the Civil Service Commission. The commission hears and decide appeals filed by state and municipal employees, such as police officers, covered by the civil service law.

Hall was disciplined in April for failing to follow a direct order and not cooperating in a department investigation. The union got involved, and Hall agreed to a 15-day unpaid suspension at the time as part of a settlement.

In May, she filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission on Discrimination in relation to the first suspension. Then, in August, she said she found a flyer in her mailbox directed at her and related to her discipline. She took it to her supervisors and expressed concern. They started an internal investigation. But once the investigation was complete, she found it difficult to see how it turned out.

On Sept. 5, she asked for permission to come into the station while she was out patrolling on her beat. She planned to ask supervisors for a copy of the report once again.

Instead, the commissioner wrote, she was led on a "department-orchestrated wild goose chase."

The town's attorney described this as personal business, but the commissioner agreed with Hall that because it involved the internal investigation at work about harassment it was not.

While she was at the station, dispatch radioed her asking her to go to the front desk before she left the building to meet with a resident who had come into the station and wanted to make a report. Hall acknowledged the call.

She had just finished talking to a superior about getting a copy of the investigation, and he'd advised she email the person in charge of records for the report, which she was on her way to do, she said. She also wrote at least one other email during that time regarding the report she was looking for.

Some 30 minutes later, the resident who came in to make the report left.

The person at the front desk did not alert dispatch that the woman was about to leave, nor did Hall get another call asking her about it, she said. On her way out, Hall said she stopped by the front desk as the dispatcher requested and asked about the resident and asked for details to follow up, but was told not to worry about it.

The department says she should have prioritized the call or at the very least told dispatch it might take a while. On this point, the commissioner said he agreed.

"Instead of meeting with the citizen, spent her time focused on obtaining the investigative report related to her own internal complaint. Importantly, the Appellant never told dispatch that she would be delayed nor did she take a few short steps into the lobby to tell the citizen there would be a delay. By failing to respond to the dispatch, the Appellant neglected her duties and violated the rules and regulations of the Department."

Shortly afterwards, Hall's supervisors questioned her what happened and asked her to write a report about it. That's when she was issued a second unpaid suspension.

But, said Bowman, her supervisors knew where she was, and had met with her and received two emails from her during the time period, and left that out of their rebuttals.

"The Town did not adequately explain why it did not even consider the fact that the citizen was required to wait approximately 50 minutes, 18 minutes of which was attributable to the delayed dispatch," he wrote. "To me, it was further evidence of bias and personal animus against the Appellant."

The attorney for the department said Hall was engaging in personal business on work time, and made "several untruthful statements" in her official report, in particular for referring to her conversations with superior officers as "assignments," as she hunted down her report.

The commissioner said that did not warrant a suspension. He also said the town did not prove that hunting down the report constituted conducting personal business on the job.

Brookline Police did not respond to request for comment.

Read the full ruling on Amy Hall's Civil Service Appeal:

Previously:

• Brookline Police Officer Files Discrimination Complaint
• Brookline Officer Takes Appeal To Civil Service
• Brookline Police Officer's Hearing To Wrap

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).