RJA obtains favorable settlement on behalf of a husband and wife in defamation and emotional distress claims against former Wareham Board of Selectmen members At a public meeting of the Wareham Board of Selectmen, a member of the Board publicly accused a member of the Town’s Police Department of acting with racist motivations in the discharge of his official duties. That same Board member followed
In 2011, a member of the Worcester Police Department was sued by a husband and wife for assault and battery, the intentional infliction of emotional distress and harm to their marital relationship based upon an incident that occurred while the officer was off-duty. On October 31, 2012, the case was tried to a jury in Fitchburg District Court. During the trial, it was argued to
RJA was retained by a Sergeant with the Hudson Police Department in connection with the Board of Selectmen’s refusal to promote the Sergeant to the rank of Lieutenant, despite the Sergeant’s place as number one on the active Civil Service promotional list and a vacancy in the rank. After the Board voted to deny the promotion, RJA filed a petition with the Civil Service Commission
In an earlier posting, RJA’s success in securing the return of the Methuen, Massachusetts Chief of Police to work after an improper termination was described. Following the decision of the Civil Service Commission to return the Chief of Police to work, the City of Methuen filed an appeal with the Superior Court seeking to overturn that Commission decision. Initially, the City sought an injunction preventing
RJA’s client, a detective lieutenant with the Massachusetts State Police, was assigned to investigate an internal affairs complaint made by a citizen against a trooper. The detective lieutenant completed his investigation in a fair and impartial manner, including conducting the interviews of numerous witnesses. Later, the complainant filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court against the trooper, the detective lieutenant and others. As to
In 2009, a police lieutenant in Wareham, Massachusetts was terminated for alleged ethics violations. RJA represented the lieutenant and appealed the termination to the Civil Service Commission, arguing that the discipline was improper and based upon political motivations. Following several days of hearing and the submission of a lengthy memorandum explaining why the discipline was improper, a unanimous Commission agreed that the lieutenant had been
In January 2011 Sgt. Larry Phillips of the Methuen Police Department filed a federal civil rights complaint against a number of his supervisors and co-workers in the department and against the City, his employer. He claimed that the individual superior officers deprived him of his procedural due process rights when he was placed on suspension in August 2007 and again when he was removed as
RJA does what other attorneys could not do and obtains the dismissal of a lawsuit against two Lowell police supervisors For any who believe that experience in representing police officers does not matter, and any licensed attorney can handle the job, a recent case involving RJA demonstrates the flaw in that thinking. In this case, a plaintiff sued various persons and entities, including two police
A federal judge has dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Beverly police by the mother of a 19-year-old woman who committed suicide in 2005 after leaving a hospital where officers had left her hours earlier. Judge Nancy Gertner ruled that Danielle Tarsook was not in custody when she died, so police had no duty under federal law to protect her at the time, the
In a fierce battle waged over a prolonged period, RJA represented the Chief of Police of Methuen Massachusetts who was terminated by his appointing authority, the Mayor, after the political winds began to blow against the Chief and the Mayor seized the opportunity to score points leading up to a re-election bid. After the Mayor fired the Chief at the local level, the matter was
