Arbitration decision awards Middlebury cop job back

A Middlebury police officer who was terminated following a secret investigation will receive his job back following an arbitration decision from the Department of Labor’s State Board of Mediation and Arbitration.

Alton Cronin was fired after an investigation, which he and others in the Middlebury Police Department were not made aware of, revealed he was in the police station when he was scheduled to be on patrol. But an arbitration decision brought by Middlebury Police Union Local 304 on Cronin’s behalf found the termination to be in violation of the collective bargaining agreement because neither Cronin nor his superiors in the police department were made aware of the investigation.

According to the arbitration decision, the investigation that uncovered Cronin’s misconduct initially began in September 2018 as a look at “reimbursement for special duty assignments by entities that had requested special duty of police officers which were not reimbursed by the town.” Edward St. John, then Middlebury’s first selectmen, asked Amy Von Culin, a remote employee of the town working as a part-time tax clerk, to investigate the reimbursement requests. St. John also asked Von Culin not to inform anyone she was conducting an investigation.

When Von Culin presented her investigation, which covered all Middlebury police officers except Chief of Police Francis Dabbo, the investigation changed focus. “Ms. Von Culin determined that her investigation of the data and analysis indicated that there may have been a problem with the time records of some number of Middlebury police officers.” St. John told Von Culin to focus the new investigation into time records on Cronin and another officer.

According to the arbitration decision, Von Culin then reviewed GPS data and videotapes from four months during the investigation into Cronin. She also talked with representatives from Verizon. Her investigation findings were later presented to St. John, Middlebury town attorney Robert Smith, and possibly the Board of Police Commissioners chair.

On May 20, 2019, Dabbo and Francis Deely, then a sergeant with the Middlebury police, were directed to attend a meeting with members of the police commission, St. Joh, Smith, and others, possibly including Von Culin. They were told about Von Culin’s investigation and Cronin’s failure to complete his assigned patrol duties. Cronin was placed on administrative leave the next day.

Also on May 21, 2019, Cronin was notified a predisciplinary hearing before the police commission would be held on May 29. He was also notified a level one internal affairs investigation was also being initiated, although it was never performed.

On June 10, 2019, St. John asked Dabbo to “investigate certain matters” connected to the pre-disciplinary hearing being held for Cronin. He also asked Dabbo to do so without speaking to Cronin.

Cronin was notified on July 8, 2019, that the hearing was scheduled for that evening. An executive session took place during the meeting, with St. John and Von Culin present for a portion of it. During the executive session, the police commission voted to terminate Cronin’s employment. On July 29, Cronin received a letter notifying him of the termination. The reasons for the termination were not explained in the letter.

Charges against Cronin from the May 21 notice were also the subject of an October 21, 2019, police commission executive session. Cronin’s legal representation was notified of this on October 15. Minutes from the meeting indicate Smith requested dates to schedule a new hearing in November, though the arbitration decision notes there is no evidence Cronin or his attorney were ever informed of the revised date. The decision also notes it’s uncertain whether public notice of the commission’s meeting was published.

According to the minutes from the police commission’s November 25 special meeting, they held a hearing on Cronin’s conduct during executive session. During the session, they voted to adopt charges laid out in a letter sent by Smith on October 16 as the reasons Cronin had been fired. They also unanimously voted to recommend that charges in the May 21 and October 16 letters be referred to Middlebury’s town administration for investigation and prosecution. Though the matter was referred to the state’s attorney’s office in Waterbury, charges were never filed.

The arbitration board found that rights Cronin possesses through Waterbury’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for police officers were not provided. They found St. John’s order to Von Culin to investigate Cronin’s conduct in secret to be in direct violation of the CBA. According to the arbitration board, St. John had no authority to institute an investigation.

Among other conditions, the CBA requires an officer under investigation to be notified of an investigation in writing, unless it involves criminal charges, and to be made aware of the rank, name, and command of the officer in charge of the investigation against him.

“As a signatory to the CBA, Mr. St. John is charged with knowing the provisions of the agreement. Mr. St. John testified that it was not his responsibility to notify Officer Cronin that he was being investigated. He claimed that it was someone else’s authority, presumably Mr. St. John believed it was Attorney Smith’s obligation to provide Officer Cronin with the contractually guaranteed notice.” the decision reads. It also notes that Smith likely wasn’t aware the investigation was underway until Von Culin gave St. John the results.

Smith testified before the arbitration board that Von Culin was conducting an audit rather than an investigation, but the arbitration board rejected that explanation, stating it became an investigation when St. John directed Von Culin to investigate time records, GPS and videos of Cronin.

The arbitration board found that the investigation did uncover proof that Cronin failed to perform his essential duties, but that the investigation lacked fairness and objectivity because it violated the CBA.

The union also testified that prior to the investigation it had brought a suit against the town over how salaries should be used in calculating pension benefits, which, should the union prevail, would create additional costs for Middlebury. Cronin served as the union president and the other officer targeted in the investigation served as the union’s treasurer. During hearings in the arbitration process, Von Culin testified that there were other officers who had discrepancies on their time sheets but St. John directed her to investigate only Cronin and the other officer.

Cronin was also terminated six months before he would have been eligible for a pension. Testimony at the hearings from Ned Love stated St. John had said Cronin would never get a town pension. St. John denied making that statement. Love also testified that Smith had complained about the amount of money Cronin made. St. John denied making that statement.

Ultimately, the arbitration board found that while discipline may have been appropriate based on Cronin’s job failures, “the investigation was so flawed and the contract violations so extensive, no disciplinary action was appropriate.” They ordered Cronin to be rehired and “made whole less any outside earnings.”

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