Fired chief pleads to 'right the train' in Methuen
METHUEN — Fired police Chief Joseph Solomon's attorneys contend that Solomon is "a young man armed with good ideas" who is "pleading for the opportunity" to get his job back and "right the train" at the Methuen Police Department.
Lawyers in Solomon's Civil Service case recently filed their proposed decisions — essentially closing arguments that are written, rather than verbalized — in which they say how they think the state Civil Service Commission should rule.
Mayor William Manzi fired Solomon in May 2008 after a lengthy disciplinary hearing overseen by attorney Michael Marks. Marks recommended Solomon be fired for verbally abusing officers and allowing grant money to be misspent. He also said the Police Department broke the law when it used taxpayer money to buy marine equipment from Solomon's sister and brother-in-law.
Solomon appealed to Civil Service, which held a 19-day hearing over six months, during which 27 people testified.
Now that lawyers have filed their final documents, the commission can get to work on producing a ruling.
Commissioner Paul Stein, who overheard the hearing, previously said he can't predict how long it will take to render a decision as to whether Solomon should get his job back, but he said it will take "a while."
In their 78-page proposed decision, Solomon's attorneys, Andrew Gambaccini and John Vigliotti, said Stein should "come to the inescapable conclusion that Manzi's testimony in large substantive areas is not credible and that his testimony often is not in the same general vicinity of the truth."
In the city's 188-page argument, attorneys Peter McQuillan and David Grunebaum said Solomon tried to blackmail Manzi with bogus allegations of corruption, and that Solomon was fired "because he engaged in self-dealing and willful misconduct."
"The chief engaged in the most outrageous, despicable, scurrilous conduct imaginable," McQuillan and Grunebaum wrote. "He attempted to defend himself by creating a diversion and misusing the criminal justice system. He subverted the FBI for his own improper purposes."
Both sides gave plenty of ink to Michael Neve, the city resident who testified that he once offered Manzi a $15,000 bribe to get a zoning variance, which he said Manzi refused to take. The city's lawyers characterized the bribe reference as a "joke."
But Solomon testified that Neve said Manzi solicited the bribe, and Solomon has claimed Manzi fired him because Solomon took the story to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Solomon's lawyers also argued that Manzi disciplined Solomon for political gain.
"However," the city's attorneys countered, "the problem for Joe Solomon in this case is that he was more than an active player in this political drama, he was often the primary mover."
Aside from noting that Solomon and his family contributed to political campaigns, the city's attorneys referred to police Lt. Michael Wnek's testimony about how Solomon once asked him to appear at a City Council meeting to support the embattled chief. Wnek testified that he couldn't make it because of other obligations, so Solomon removed him from his job in the Detective Bureau.
"In other words, Joe Solomon promptly retaliated against a subordinate police officer who declined to become involved in the political imbroglio," McQuillan and Grunebaum argued.
Solomon's lawyers said the case provided Civil Service with "a tale that involved characters of all description, and a portfolio of events as intricately wound as the most successful of works of fiction."
They said the Civil Service Commission witnessed some of Methuen's "marvelous political theater" during the hearing when Neve's attorney, James Krasnoo, tried to have The Eagle-Tribune fined for publishing a photograph of Neve after being asked not to, and when state Sen. Steven Baddour, D-Methuen, filed legislation to make Civil Service hearings move faster — while the Solomon hearing was ongoing.
Krasnoo failed in his attempt to have the newspaper fined.
Solomon's lawyers said Civil Service should rescind Solomon's termination and order Solomon to return to the rank of police chief without loss of benefits or seniority, and that he should be paid for the time since he was disciplined.
"Relationships take time to repair and even those relationships that have gone past that point of repair can be shaped in such a way to allow persons with dislikes for one another to work cooperatively when a common goal exists," Solomon's lawyers wrote.
Methuen's lawyers said Civil Service should affirm Solomon's firing.
To view the complete documents, please visit www.eagletribune.com.
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