Brookline Fire Chief Suspended Again

Brookline Fire Chief Charles Corey is back on administrative leave months after he was reinstated following an internal investigation into his alleged harassment of the department’s administrative assistant.

Corey was placed on leave Thursday, Town Administrator Paul Branscombe confirmed, though he declined to discuss any specifics about the matter. Branscombe said Corey’s position is the responsibility of the town’s Board of Fire Wards.

Bill Atkinson, Fire Ward chair, also declined to discuss Corey’s position beyond confirming the fact he is on paid administrative leave as of Thursday.

“I’m not going to discuss a personnel issue,” Atkinson said.

InDepthNH.org’s been informed a new complaint filed this week with the New Hampshire Human Rights Commission is the catalyst for the latest suspension. Atkinson refused to confirm the existence of the Human Rights complaint, but when asked about the next step in terms of an investigation into Corey, Atkinson said the Human Rights Commission’s process for investigating complaints is public knowledge.

The Human Rights Commission did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. Under the terms of the public rules, the Commission will assign an investigator to determine if there is probable cause to sustain the complaint. If probable cause is found, the complaint will be scheduled for a public hearing before the Commission.

Bob Parodi, the attorney who represented Corey during the last suspension and investigation, declined to comment when reached Thursday.

Corey was suspended in December after former administrative assistant Anais Molina told the Select board about Corey’s alleged ongoing harassment and his orders to forge documents.

Molina quit her job as the department’s administrative assistant on May 24, four days before Corey returned following an internal investigation. She felt she had no option to stay as Corey turned the department into a toxic environment. Molina started in October of last year, the seventh administrative assistant in recent years. She soon became Corey’s target.

“He was just gunning for me as a Hispanic female. He said a lot of racial things,” Molina told InDepthNH.org.

Corey frequently talked about Molina’s weight and body shamed her in the office, she said. He would constantly tell her she’s getting fat and warned her that her husband would leave her because of her weight.

“Be careful, you’ll end up getting fat and your husband will leave you,” Molina said.

Corey even started taking photos of her during her lunch break, saying he wanted to send them to her husband. Molina began taking her breaks in her car to avoid Corey’s actions.

“I cried for days,” she said of the photo incident.

Corey made inappropriate comments about the underwear of someone in the fire station, made comments about the way “people in Boston” wear pants to expose their “asses,” and engaged in name calling, such as calling another town employee a “bitch,” according to a town letter obtained by InDepthNH.org.

The final straw came when Corey allegedly demanded Molina create a fake billing invoice from Foundation Medical Partners in Nashua, including a forged signature, so that he could submit it to the town for reimbursement. When Molina balked at the order, Corey exploded, she said.

“I refused to do that, that’s why he screamed at me,” she said.

The Fire Wards determined through the investigation that Corey was “misguided,” but had good intentions when he asked Molina to forge the invoices.

“[S]ince the preponderance of the evidence demonstrated that the Chief’s motivation was to see expenses actually incurred by the Department was paid to the appropriate party, not to enrich himself or some other inappropriate purpose,” the Ward wrote in a March letter.

Corey was ordered to apologize to Molina for the harassment, which investigator Anne Jenness determined had broken town rules. However, Jenness cast doubt as to whether the harassment violated any state or federal laws.

“I find by a preponderance of the evidence that Corey violated the Town’s EEO Policy and/or Sexual Harassment Policy,” Jenness wrote. “As noted above, these EEO and Sexual Harassment Policies hold employees to a higher standard of conduct than the law requires. I do not draw conclusions as to whether these findings would represent a violation of federal, state, or local laws.”