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Boston Globe - USA
13 November 2005

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Board quick to dismiss '04 cha

When three Plymouth police officers last year accused Thomas M. Kelley, chairman of the Plymouth Retirement Board and a former police officer, of threatening them with the loss of their pensions, the state board that oversees retirement systems took notice.

The Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission directed the Plymouth system to investigate the allegations, saying they represented a serious charge.

Even before receiving the letter from the state commission, the board held a closed-door hearing, and cleared Kelley of any wrongdoing. However, it did not contact or interview any of the three officers who reported being threatened, prompting the commission's executive director to forward the case to the state's Ethics Commission last summer. Kelley recently declined to comment on the allegations, except to say the dispute is personal and revolves around events that led to a lawsuit over disability benefits that he filed early this year.

The accusation against Kelley -- who retired from the Police Department on a disability pension in 2003, and joined the retirement board almost a decade ago -- came from Captain Michael E. Botieri in a letter written to the board on May 26, 2004.

Botieri reported that he had been confronted by Kelley at a police function a few days earlier, on May 22. Kelley was upset with him for signing the nomination papers for a woman who, like Kelley, was running for a seat on the retirement board, Botieri's letter stated.

The captain wrote that Kelley grabbed his arm and told him, ''I hope you never have a heart attack and come before the retirement board." Botieri wrote the board: ''I took Kelley's threat very seriously."

Botieri also wrote that Kelley had made similar threats on other occasions against Detective Stephen Viella, who also signed the woman's nomination papers, and Sergeant Michael Pedell, who allegedly had admonished Kelley on the job in 2003.

Botieri had sent a copy of his complaint to the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission, and its executive director, Joseph E. Connarton, wrote to the Plymouth board on June 4, 2004, to urge it to investigate. If the charges are true, he wrote, it could have an ''actual or perceived impact on the ability of the Plymouth Retirement Board to act fairly . . ."

On May 27, the day after receiving Botieri's letter, the board met in executive session, and considered letters from two people besides Botieri, according to board minutes. Officer Robert Hicks said there had been a verbal confrontation, but nothing physical, between Kelley and Botieri at the gathering. And Dale Webber, chairman of the town's Insurance Advisory Committee, denied Kelley had made a derogatory remark about the woman running for the board, as Botieri had asserted.

According to the minutes, Kelley said Botieri had been the aggressor when they met at the police function, and attempted to strike him before being restrained. Kelley also discounted the accusations about the other officers, saying he had only a brief exchange with Viella and he was never admonished by Pedell.

Kelley further suggested that Botieri made the accusation as a way to get revenge for the board's dismissal of an involuntary retirement application filed by another officer.

The board accepted Kelley's explanation. In a July 28, 2004, letter to Connarton, the board said that it found the allegations to be ''without merit."

The letter noted that ''since none of Captain Botieri's allegations relating to comments made to him by third parties were corroborated by the named individuals, the board considers these claims to be hearsay . . ." The board also criticized Botieri for writing his letter on Plymouth Police Department stationery.

However, neither Botieri, Viella, Pedell, nor another officer cited as a witness to the Botieri incident were contacted by the board, the four officers said in interviews with the Globe. All said Botieri's letter accurately reflected what Kelley said to them. They declined further comment.

In August 2004, Connarton asked the state Ethics Commission to look into the board's handling of the allegations. More than a year later, the Ethics Commission will not say whether it has launched an investigation.

In March, Kelley filed a so-called whistleblower lawsuit in federal court against the town and Police Chief Robert J. Pomeroy, saying he unfairly had been denied reimbursement of $2,000 in vacation pay while out on disability, before his retirement. He said his claim was denied because of previous statements he had made to Town Meeting and the state's inspector general that the chief had been paid educational benefits improperly.

The chief denied taking the money improperly, and the bylaw was later amended by Town Meeting to clarify who was eligible for the benefits.

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Article sourced from

Boston Globe - USA13 November 2005

Board quick to dismiss '04 cha

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Boston Globe - USA
13 November 2005