METHUEN — Police Officer Ron Valliere says Sgt. Larry Phillips intentionally hit him from behind and slammed his head onto the floor during a training exercise last month.
Valliere, in a Police Department memorandum obtained by The Eagle-Tribune, explained that he participated in a training session at Methuen High School on Aug. 19.
Police simulated a school shooting, and Valliere's job was to pretend to be the suspect. During a portion of the seminar where "all role players were advised not to show any signs of aggression," Phillips hit and injured Valliere so badly that he had to go to the hospital later that day, the memo says.
"I feel that this action by Sgt. Phillips was excessive and a blatant personal attack on me with the intent to cause me harm and intimidation," Valliere wrote.
Phillips declined to comment for this story, and Valliere has been out of work on injured-in-the-line-of-duty status since the day of the incident and could not be reached for comment.
In the memo, Valliere said his role was to sit on a teacher's desk with a handgun protruding from his pocket, and he was supposed to stand with his hands in the air as police entered the room.
Officer Kevin Dzioba walked in first, and Valliere stood and held up his hands. Dzioba instructed Valliere to put his hands on his head and kneel.
"While attempting to go to my knees, I heard from behind me someone running toward me at a full sprint," Valliere wrote.
Valliere was struck from behind and fell to the floor and instinctively tried to put his hands in front of him to brace himself.
"I hit the floor hard and then felt this person kneel into my back, he slammed my head onto the floor and ripped my hands out from beneath my face while twisting my arms with extreme force, causing me excruciating pain as I was yelling, 'It's just a (expletive) training scenario,'" Valliere wrote.
Lt. Frank Korn blew an air horn to stop the seminar, and Valliere saw that Phillips was the person who knocked him down.
"At the sound of the horn, he just simply got up and walked out of the room with no regard for what had just taken place and did not participate in the debriefing," Valliere wrote.
Valliere had pain in his back, neck, left arm and both shoulders, and he ended up going to Caritas Holy Family Hospital that night to get checked out, his memo says.
Chief Katherine Lavigne said she does not know when Valliere will return to work. Police are reviewing the incident, but Lavigne wouldn't comment further. The chief said she didn't know why Valliere would feel that Phillips intentionally hurt him.
"I don't know what their relationship was before that occurred, whether or not there was any personal problems. I'm not aware of anything," she said.
Phillips has not been disciplined, and he remains on the job, Lavigne said.
