Records detail Lamberis charges

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When police broadcast a call to help an unconscious woman just down the road from where he was working a paid detail, Patrolman Stephen Lamberis ignored it. Later he tried to convince witnesses to lie for him to cover up his inaction.

Those are among the charges of misconduct that led to 17 months of paid leave for Lamberis as the city investigated.

From its start in August 2005, the investigation into Lamberis and the details about the charges against him were shrouded in secrecy. Yesterday, records about the case were released to the Times after a two-year effort that culminated in an order by the state supervisor of public records last month demanding the city make the disciplinary records public or give specific reasons why each document was protected by privacy laws.

Lamberis was paid $110,000 in salary and benefits while on leave, was never formally disciplined and was ultimately reinstated to his position and given a $25,000 settlement.

But, while some records were withheld and some details blacked out on others, the documents released to the Times describe a series of incidents that police officials said brought “shame and dishonor” to the Gloucester Police Department.

The most serious appears to be a “life or death” incident on Aug. 9, 2005.

A 911 call was made around 11 a.m. that day that a woman on Rowley Shore was unconscious and may have stopped breathing. When police broadcast a call for aid, Lamberis was working a road detail at the Washington Street end of Rowley Shore but did not respond.

It took a police cruiser seven minutes to reach the woman’s home, and an ambulance arrived four minutes after that. Lamberis, who has been an emergency medical technician since 1990 and is paid a stipend to maintain his certification, could have been there in seconds.

The woman was breathing when she was taken to the hospital by ambulance, but the documents don’t indicate what happened to her after that.

Accused of shunning his obligation to protect the life of a citizen by police Chief John Beaudette, Lamberis attempted to persuade two workers on the job to lie about the incident. The patrolman himself lied, according to the documents, telling the officers investigating the incident that his cell phone had died and that he hadn’t heard the radio call, despite witnesses’ statements to the contrary.

“As an EMT, Officer Lamberis is aware that ... the rescue of an unconscious person not breathing can sometimes be accomplished by simply repositioning the head, or clearing the airway, thereby saving the person’s life,” Beaudette wrote in a June 2006 memo to Mayor John Bell after a departmental investigation.

“Time, in these cases, can often determine the outcome of life or death,” the memo continues. “A decision not to respond is not an acceptable position for any public safety employee to assume.”

In two memos to Bell, Beaudette repeatedly wrote that Lamberis brought “shame and dishonor” to the Gloucester department and that he had “just cause” to believe that Lamberis violated a number of departmental policies by lying and asking others to lie for him, among other things.

A woman who answered the phone at Lamberis’ Lynn home yesterday said “Oh, no, no, no” and put the phone down. Lamberis’ union lawyer, Patrick Bryant of Boston, declined comment on the case, saying “that issue has been resolved to our satisfaction.”

Beaudette could not be reached for comment yesterday. A police receptionist said he was on vacation for the week, and his home phone number is unlisted.

July 2005 incidents

Lamberis’ disciplinary file shows he was the subject of three misconduct investigations. The first involved three incidents in July 2005. Few details about those incidents were released. City Solicitor Linda Lowe cited laws barring disclosure of information from personnel and medical files and protecting materials whose release would prejudice effective law enforcement and not be in the public interest.

Lowe did provide three police reports related to the July 2005 investigation.

On July 10, 2005, two other officers were dispatched after a person threatened suicide. The person was transported to a hospital.

Later that evening, at 11 p.m., another patrolman was dispatched to Addison Gilbert Hospital when a person caused a disturbance in the emergency room. Lamberis’ name is not mentioned in the reports on either incident so it was not clear why they were part of the investigation.

The third incident took place July 29, 2005, when Lamberis and other officers responded to a 911 call for a “son out of control” who was attempting to suffocate his mother while she slept. The son was transported to Addison Gilbert for treatment of “medical issues.”

Attached to the three reports is a cover sheet with an outline with the title “Prohibited Conduct” over a list that includes conduct unbecoming an officer, unnecessary force, discourtesy and incompetence.

Detail dispute

The second investigation cited in the documents released to the Times involves an incident on Aug. 5, 2005, when the city received a complaint about Lamberis after he worked a detail for Albanese Construction in Essex. The foreman of the paving crew said Lamberis had argued with him about the time the shift ended, attempting to gain an extra hour of pay, according to the memo Beaudette wrote to Bell on May 26, 2006.

The foreman told police in a written statement that Lamberis said to him, “We finished at 3:15, right?” to which the foreman responded that the job had finished at 3 p.m.

The foreman also wrote: “As a detail officer, he (Lamberis) is always asking me or my help to cover for him when he takes brakes (sic) because they seem to be a lot longer than the other officers that work with us.”

Lamberis was the second-highest paid municipal officer in 2004, the year before his suspension, pulling in $59,536 in pay for construction details and $24,394 in overtime on top of his regular salary, for a yearly income of nearly $150,000. His detail pay was the highest for any officer that year.

Emergency call

The third investigation involved Lamberis’ failure to respond to the emergency medical call just moments away from where he was working a detail on Aug. 9, 2005.

In answering questions from internal investigators about why he didn’t respond to the medical call, Lamberis provided a litany of excuses, according to the documents. He said he hadn’t heard the radio call, that his cell phone battery was dead and that he had been at the Willow Rest, a restaurant nearly three miles from the job site.

In an interview with city officials, however, one of the workers at the detail said that someone at the site had mentioned a woman who had stopped breathing on the street, but he couldn’t remember whether it was Lamberis or one of the other workers.

A second worker said he was certain Lamberis’ radio was working because he had been listening to the calls. He added that he was “surprised that he (Lamberis) didn’t leave and go to the call because I thought that was what his job was. All he wanted to do was keep the road clear so the police and firetrucks could get by.”

Cell phone records also contradicted Lamberis, saying he had been on the phone before and after the incident, including a call to his union attorney.

The two workers also wrote statements saying Lamberis asked them to tell police that a vacuum truck had been operating and that he had been wearing gear to protect his hearing. Both workers said they were unwilling to say that because it wasn’t true.

While in at least two of the investigations, Beaudette said that he had “just cause” to believe that Lamberis violated departmental policies and rules, what’s not clear is why Lamberis was never disciplined.

During his leave, from August 2005 until January 2007, Lamberis was issued a five-day suspension on Oct. 10, 2005. On Oct. 27, 2005, however, that suspension was revoked.

In December 2006, Lamberis and the city reached a settlement that provided a $25,000 payment to the patrolman and reinstated him to his position last January. As part of the agreement, Lamberis cannot sue the city.

James M. Walsh of Salem, Lamberis’ lawyer for the settlement, refused comment about the case but said he believes the city’s release of the documents violates a confidentiality clause in the agreement.

Lowe would not comment on the outcome of the investigations yesterday, except to say that they were handled in the settlement.

Lamberis had filed a discrimination complaint against the Police Department and then-interim Chief Michael McLeod in 2004, alleging that he had been targeted for disciplinary action because of his race. He is the city’s only black police officer. He later withdrew the complaint, which had been filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.

“I would suggest that all issues were pursued and the matter was handled and is behind us,” said mayoral aide Steve Magoon yesterday.

Asked whether a paid leave plus a payment from the city was considered punishment for the violations outlined in the investigations, Magoon said that being on leave for a “significant period of time” has implications, including the establishment of a disciplinary record that could be taken into account if Lamberis comes under investigation again.

According to the documents, city officials took into account Lamberis’ previous disciplinary record, which included a one-day suspension for driving over the lawn of an East Gloucester resident during a 2003 detail.

Lamberis was also suspended for “poor judgment” in 2004 after he was accused of attempting to persuade a parking enforcement officer not to file a complaint about a business owner who had threatened the parking officer after she ticketed him. However, that suspension was overturned.

Time line in Lamberis case

r September 2003: Lamberis suspended for one day for driving over an East Gloucester resident’s lawn.

r February 2004: After allegedly warning a meter enforcement officer against reporting a threat from a Main Street businessman, Lamberis is suspended for two days for “poor judgment.” That suspension is later overturned.

r July 10, 2005 and July 29, 2005: Calls involving transports to Addison Gilbert Hospital are made. They later become part of the Lamberis investigation, for reasons still unknown.

r Aug. 5, 2005: Lamberis asks an Albanese Construction foreman to say their job ended at 3:15 p.m. instead of 3 p.m., earning him an extra hour of detail pay, the foreman says.

r Aug. 9, 2005: Lamberis ignores a medical call on a street where he is working a detail. It takes a cruiser seven minutes to respond; it would have taken him seconds. He later asks witnesses to lie to cover up his inaction, according to police officials.

r Aug. 11, 2005: Chief John Beaudette places Lamberis on paid administrative leave.

r Oct. 10, 2005: Five-day suspension is issued for unknown reason.

r Oct. 27, 2005: Suspension is revoked and Lamberis is placed on medical leave retroactive to Sept. 26, 2005.

r Dec. 9, 2005: Lamberis’ medical leave expires and he is placed on administrative leave again.

r December 2006: Lamberis and the city reach an agreement to settle the case, with a $25,000 payment to Lamberis and no further disciplinary action.

r Jan. 21, 2007: Lamberis returns to work.

r Jan. 23, 2007: City Council approves the $25,000 payment to Lamberis.

r Nov. 23, 2007: State supervisor of records orders city to produce all records or reasons for withholding them.

r Dec. 12, 2007: City releases some information on the three matters investigated by Beaudette but withholds other details.

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