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08/08/2023 11:08 AMA state board has mandated that two of the three town police officers terminated last year for violating department conduct standards be given their jobs back, with pay, and allowed to return to work. Both town and police officials vow to appeal the decision insisting the officers merited termination by their actions regarding a dispute involving another officer’s work habits at the department.
Following a lengthy investigation, three police officers, Natasha Pucillo, Daniel Foito, and Kimberly Lauria, were fired from the Madison Police Department in September 2022 for violating several of the department’s Code of conduct regulations.
This June, the Connecticut Department of Labor’s Board of Mediation and Arbitration granted Pucillo reinstatement to the Madison Police Department and awarded her back wages, benefits, and seniority. According to department records, Pucillo had been with the department for six years before she lost her job in the dispute.
In early July, Foito, a Madison officer for nine years before his termination, was also awarded reinstatement with full back pay.
The state labor department could not confirm whether any arbitration occurred in the case of Lauria.
The matter is a rather long and complex series of accusations and counter-accusations that focus on disagreements between several officers in the department and the ensuing social media postings that eventually led to the firing of the three officers.
According to the arbitration documents, in June 2021, Pucillo gained access to a screenshot of the Facebook page of another Madison officer, Robert Strickland, reportedly showing Strickland involved in a bike race event that day. According to court documents, Strickland later called out sick for his shift that night.
Pucillo testified that she gained access to Strickland’s public fitness app account and uncovered instances of Strickland calling in sick on days when he participated in other bike events.
The Madison Board of Police Commissioners unanimously voted to terminate officers Lauria, Foito, and Pucillo last September following an independent investigation conducted by attorney Giovanna Tiberii Weller, who was hired by Chief of Police John Drumm to bring clarity to the matter.
According to testimony that was part of the investigation, Pucillo reported her concerns to her supervisor, Lauria, after which an inquiry found no evidence of Strickland faking an illness. However, the inquiry did find that Strickland’s Facebook postings about the bike race in conjunction with calling in sick could be construed as a potentially negative optics issue for the department.
That instigated a number of postings back and forth between officers in the department regarding Strickland’s actions. Pucillo and Lauria eventually filed a human resources complaint in August 2021, claiming Strickland’s conduct was threatening and creating a hostile work environment.
The matter was further complicated when Strickland was placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation and when Pucillo received a written warning for conducting an “unauthorized investigation” into Strickland in early October 2021.
Later that month, the investigators concluded that Strickland’s conduct did not rise to the level of threats of violence and further determined that Pucillo’s complaint was “baseless and unfounded,” according to town records. Drumm then commissioned an investigation into the three officers in question, specifically to determine if Strickland’s civil rights were violated as the result of the officer’s conduct.
Attorney Weller issued a report in late May 2022, which concluded that there was no violation of Officer Strickland’s civil rights; however, that investigation did determine that Foito, Lauria, and Pucillo violated four separate Madison Police Department Codes of conduct, including “civility,” “respect,” “malicious gossip,” and “conduct unbecoming an officer.”
Though Weller’s report did not recommend any disciplinary action against any officers, Chief Drumm went before the police commission and urged it fire the three officers involved. Pucillo subsequently filed a grievance after that termination, claiming her firing by the town was unjust.
Lauria and Pucillo are also suing the Town of Madison, alleging discrimination and sex-based retaliation for their complaints about the workplace. That complaint, filed in June 2021, is still working its way through the court system and is not currently part of the labor board’s recent reinstatement decision.
In a statement dated July 25 that was released by the Board of Police Commissioners, the board said it strongly disagreed with the rulings by the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration and vowed to appeal the decision.
“We disagree and are deeply disappointed with the arbitration decisions in this matter. We believe the harassment of a fellow officer by these terminated officers, as found in an independent Weller investigation and report, was unacceptable in a law enforcement agency,” the statement said.
In its statement, the board said it intend to appeal the arbitration decisions and referred the matter to the state Police Officer Standards and Training Council (POST).
“We plan to appeal these arbitration decisions and have also referred the officer’s actions to the Connecticut Post Council for their assessment in this matter as well,” the statement concluded.
First Selectwoman Peggy Lyons did not have any public comment on the matter, saying it is a specific police issue. According to Lyons, she is deferring to the department and the Board of Police Commissioners’ decisions regarding any actions or rulings.