A New Haven Fire Department battalion chief retired on the same day that he was scheduled to face a pre-disciplinary hearing regarding an internal investigation’s findings that he had violated the city’s sexual harassment policy.
That now-retired battalion chief is Tyrone Ewing. According to the the latest personnel report from the city Department of Human Resources, Ewing filed to retire effective July 21.
July 21 was also the day that Ewing was scheduled to appear at a pre-disciplinary hearing, also known as a Loudermill hearing, to respond to charges of misconduct related to the city HR department’s findings that he had violated the city’s sexual harassment policy and that he was guilty of conduct “prejudicial to the good name and reputation” of the fire department.
The Independent obtained a copy of the investigation and associated materials in response to a Connecticut Freedom of Information Act request.
Ewing declined to comment for this story.
The incident itself dates back to Sept. 12, 2019. That’s when Ewing, Capt. Patrick Psarras, Deputy Chief Tim Kieley, and Lt. James Tyer called a female firefighter to a private meeting to discuss a sexual harassment complaint she had filed three days prior against Deputy Chief James Watkins.
In that complaint, the female firefighter stated that Watkins had texted her a picture of a NHFD recruitment poster featuring her and several other female firefighters. She said Watkins later called her and said that “on that picture you put all those women to shame.” The firefighter stated in her complaint that this was one of several comments Watkins had made to her over the years about her physical appearance.
In Nov. 2019, city Manager of Human Resources and Benefits Stephen Librandi completed his investigation into Watkins’ conduct. Librandi found that the latter had violated the city’s sexual harassment policy. The department suspended Watkins for two days.
Two months before that finding, and three days after the female firefighter had filed her official complaint with HR, Ewing, Psarras, Kieley, and Tyer called her into that private meeting.
Librandi’s investigation into that incident found that Ewing greeted the female firefighter by saying, “Hey woman” when she entered the room. The investigation found that the four higher ranking fire officials asked the female firefighter if she wanted to press “formal or informal” charges against Watkins, even though she had already filed her official complaint with HR. And the investigation found that the four fire officials read the female firefighter the city’s sexual harassment policy during that meeting, which took place in a small room in the Lombard Street firehouse.
Librandi later concluded that now-retired former Assistant Chief Orlando Marcano and Ewing had violated the city’s sexual harassment policy, the former by ordering the meeting to take place, and Ewing by saying “Hey woman” during the meeting and for reading the sexual harassment policy to her.
Ewing said in a June 9 response to an HR questionnaire about the incident that he assured the female firefighter during the meeting that “all of us here in the room as well as the New Haven Fire Department takes harassment, especially sexual harassment very seriously. It was told to her that DC Watkins is not to have any contact with her and if any was made she was to immediately bring it up the chain of command.”
“None of the officers involved with this incident as subjects demonstrated having a clear understanding of how to appropriately handle a sexual harassment complaint,” Librandi concluded. “Therefore it is recommended for all of these officers to attend refresher training on the policy as non-disciplinary action, within management rights to require attendance of members.”
He referred to Ewing’s use of the words “hey woman” as demonstrating “intimidation and was at minimum unprofessional.”
The woman who filed the complaint told the Independent Tuesday that two of the people named in the report didn’t deserve to be cited. She said the pair — Psarras and Tyer — “really protected me. My captain followed to the T every step that was supposed to be taken.”
The firefighter said she regularly brushes off inappropriate conduct: “I work with all guys. I get along with everybody.” She filed this complaint because it was unusually disturbing, she said.
Psarras told the Independent he disagrees with the report’s findings.
“The evening of the complaint I advised the firefighter [who filed the complaint] the city policy and followed it myself. I also reported the complaint to my superior officers in person, by phone and email at this time,” he wrote in an email message..
“Four days later I was ordered into a meeting by superiors. I believe this order and meeting was inappropriate as well as the fact that such a serious complaint was ignored so long.
“Today was the first I have heard of the report findings and plan on filing a formal complaint. Having never spoken to Mr. Librandi on this matter it is impossible for him to have an accurate description of my actions.”
Ewing isn’t the only firefighter recently to retire rather than face disciplinary proceedings. Earlier this month, Bob Crisco retired after sending a racist group text to his colleagues.
This article reads as if the dirt on the FD weighs more than the fact that a woman was sexually harassed on the job. You owe her an apology. This had to have been and I'm sure continues to be a very difficult situation and experience for her. Not only will she have to relive this again through the article, but the article comes off as if the real problem here is the play-by-play of the officers instead of the fact that a WOMAN WAS HARASSED and made to feel unsafe while performing her job. What was the ultimate objective here - to blast a few FD officers or to actually condemn the harassment she experienced by the person who harassed her? Did you ask why it took 3 days for this to be addressed by The Chief or HR before the meeting? If HR from the City was notified, why was there a delay in addressing the issue with the female filing the complaint? Why hadn't HR called their own meeting? Seems to me that the victim's officers were trying to do the right thing to help her while others dragged their feet or tried to sweep under the rug.
You don't think this paragraph, "The woman who filed the complaint told the Independent Tuesday that two of the people named in the report didn't deserve to be cited. She said the pair — Psarras and Tyer — "really protected me. My captain followed to the T every step that was supposed to be taken." should have been moved up or clarified earlier in the story before you stuck out two FD officers who followed the policy and chain of command as instructed? The victim outlined her officers as being the only people that actually helped her.