11:11 a.m.
Mayor Dan Drew entered Council Chambers this morning to announce Middletown Deputy Police Chief Patrick T. McMahon's employment with the city had been terminated.
"Today was an opportunity for Deputy Chief McMahon to present to me any exculpatory evidence or mitigating circumstances that we may not have seen or that did not come up in the course of the investigtion," Drew said, "in my opinion, he did not do that. I didn't seen any kind of reasonable explanation for anything that took place; therefore I moved ahead with the decision that I made to terminate him."
Drew said the Daigle report had cost the city $10,000 and that McMahon's paid administrative leave had cost approx $35,0000. McMahon will receive his "approved vacation: he'll receive everything he's entitled to, there will be a refund of his pension contributions," Drew said, as he hadn't been employed long enough to be eligible.
McMahon had left the proceedings 15 minutes earlier with his lawyer. His statement charges the mayor with extortion, citing a letter McMahon received from Attorney Michael J. Rose Feb. 16 that McMahon says indicates the city would allow him to resign, keeping the Daigle report in a draft form and preventing the its public release.
Attorney Rose's letter states, "next Thursday (Feb. 23), unless [McMahon] resigns, he will in all likelihood be terminated. Moreover, this report will, in fact, become public information, by virtue of the necessity of its transmission to the Deputy Chief."
Rose's letter requests McMahon resign by Feb. 17 at 3 p.m.
Further, McMahon's statement says, a Loudermill hearing allows for a response to allegations, "yet you also instruct me to bring with me all department issued gear along with my assigned vehicle as if I am to be terminated. It appears that you already made up your mind, and this hearing is nothing more than a 'kangeroo court.'"
Earlier version:
The termination or Loudermill hearing for former Acting Police Chief Patrick T. McMahon began swiftly Thursday morning as McMahon and his lawyer Leon Rosenblatt entered Mayor Dan Drew's office.
McMahon, cheery and eager to begin the proceedings, greeted print, television and electronic press just before 10 a.m., handed out a 30-plus page response to the charges levied by Drew.
An internal affairs report conducted by investigating Attorney Eric P. Daigle found numerous police rule violations and incidents of misconduct, , according to the mayor's office.
A press conference is expected after the hearing completion.
Stay tuned to Middletown Patch for developments.
