nothin Chief Would Have Lost Discipline Authority… | New Haven Independent

Chief Would Have Lost Discipline Authority Upon Return; Conditions Revealed

Markeshia Ricks Photo

Citizens vote to call for Esserman’s ouster at a recent meeting.

If Dean Esserman had returned last month to his job as police chief from a forced paid leave, he would have lost his ability to discipline officers, at least for a while.

That was one of 10 conditions he agreed to in a document made public Thursday.

The document became public after a group critical of the chief, People Against Injustice, made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for it. The group distributed the agreement to the Independent and the New Haven Register.

PAI did this to serve the public’s interest in being informed, in being at the table in government affairs and to help maintain transparency in city government activities,” the group stated in a release. The presumption under FOIA in fact is that personnel disciplinary matters are public, contrary to Mayor Harp’s statement, as quoted in the press, that the presumption is of confidentiality. The city knew this and produced this document in response to our FOI request.”

We all wanted to know what were the terms. Toni had come out and said there were 10 conditions for him to come back to work. We were all curious what they were,” said activist Barbara Fair, who has helped organize protests calling for Esserman to leave the department. (Fair did not file the FOI request.)

Mayor Toni Harp, Esserman, and, as a witness, Corporation Counsel John Rose Jr. signed the document on July 25.

It established that Esserman would take a paid leave for a minimum of 15 working days. He could return to work on Aug. 16 at the earliest.

But he would have to satisfy 10 subsequent conditions in order to return. At the time, neither he nor Harp made public what those conditions were; in fact, not making the agreement public was one of the conditions.

Much has changed since then. It is now widely believed that Esserman will not return to his job, that rather he and city officials are negotiating a deal to pay him some money and perhaps give him some other city work in return for his departure now. His contract runs out in January 2018. Esserman is now officially on sick leave while those newer negotiations continue.

The newly public July 25 document followed revelations of a scene Esserman allegedly caused at Archie Moore’s restaurant after he complained about a rude waitress. Since then, other revelations have been reported detailing a much more serious offense — threatening to withdraw police security for First Lady Michelle Obama during a New Haven visit after a Secret Service member didn’t immediately inform Esserman of his place in the motorcade —and detailing instances in which he failed to discipline a high-ranking cop who was found to have violated department rules by allegedly attacking a citizen who tried to photograph her and denying routine paperwork service to an immigrant mother whose daughter had been sexually assaulted.

The July 25 agreement called for all department discipline, as well as closed door meetings,” to be approved by Corporation Counsel Rose and Chief Administrative Officer Mike Carter, and forwarded to mayoral Chief of Staff Tomas Reyes, before being approved, for a period of six months.”.

Among other requirements, the agreement forbade Harp or Esserman from giving interviews about the agreement. It called on the chief to strive to build and maintain a department” that reflects New Haven’s diversity” (i.e. hire more black and Latino cops); provide documentation from a doctor that he is able to perform his work duties; and disclose to Harp any and all other disrespectful, threatening or harassing” incidents involving him. It warns that “[a]ny substantiated future display of intemperance and/or unwarranted unprovoked disrespect may result in termination of employment.”

The agreement barred him from having contact with any cops or police commissioners during his leave.

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