The City of Hartford today notified attorneys for the Hartford Police Union and Hartford Police Officer Matthew Secore that are giving up and will finally abide by the rulings in favor of Secore.
Although the Connecticut Labor Board and the Connecticut Superior Court had ruled in Secore's favor, Assistant Corporation Nathalie Feola-Guerrieri instead chose to move forward in her efforts to keep Secore from returning to the ranks of HPD. That decision now promises to cost the City of hartford and its taxpayers several hundred thousand dollars in back pay for Secore and legal costs associated with Feola-Guerrieri's decisions.
Secore was originally terminated from HPD after he punched Ruben Perez, the nephew of former Mayor Eddie Perez, after Ruben Perez assaulted Secore's brother and caused severe injuries.
Secore appealed his termination and the Labor Board ruled that termination was too severe a punishment and reduced the punishment to a 90 day suspension. The Labor Board cited past practices of HPD in making their decision as well as Secore's honesty and truthfulness throughout the investigation.
Secore's back pay alone should total close to $200,000 not including interest and other benefits. Legal fees are most likely even more than that.
According to the City Attorney's, they are waiting to hear back from Chief McCoy as to whether there is space in the next Police Academy class to fit Secore in. In the meantime the meter is ticking on Secore's settlement.
Chief McKoy was unavailable for comment. At last report he was heading south on I-91 lights and sirens for a hair appointment.
Welcome back Officer Secore.
Good to know that, in Hartford, cop can just walk into a holding cell and assault someone. Grade A civil rights down there folks.
ReplyDeleteActually they can't The officer was suspended for 90 days without pay and the prisoner got a nice settlement check for his civil rights violation.
ReplyDeleteNatalie should be fired as she has a personality like a viper, with little lawyer skills.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know if Natalie was brought in with Sandra or was she one of John Rose/ Eddie Perez's hires? She's horrible.
ReplyDeleteWho saw this coming? -everybody.
ReplyDeleteEven Cleve the Janitor and Parking Lot Ernie knew Secore was going to prevail.
Now for every day, week, month and year of needless delay, the city pays Secore his salary. The last appeal was a complete waste of time. That took many many months. The appeal before that was around a year’s delay. So, somebody in the city screwed up and cost the tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars. IS ANYBODY ACCOUNTABLE???? Natelie? Lester McKrash? Roberts? It seems anyone of these three geniuses could have stopped the bleeding, and saved the city a hundred thousand dollars, right? But they didn't. What does the Mayor do about this? Nothing? Somebody 'F'ed up, call it a severe lapse in judgment, a misunderstanding of the labor system, whatever, somebody made a very costly mistake and should get reprimanded. The City just doles out the cash on these things, lives are destroyed, employees are forever disgruntled, and nobody cares to hold any of the department heads responsible. Great, thanks Pedro and Daryl. Good work.
Well secore is back like it or not
ReplyDeleteWill Daryl and Lester appologize to Matt for keeping him out so long?
ReplyDeleteAnd will they learn? Obviously not. They just appealed the Dan Nolan decision, which came back completely in his favor. He, too, will be out for many more months, all while the taxpayers foot the bill when he ultimately wins the appeal.
ReplyDeleteI am not disgruntled towards anyone. Even Eddie Perez who was behind the excessive discipline. I feel sorry for him because he allowed himself to become consumed with his power as Mayor and hurt a lot of people, often at the tax payers expense.
ReplyDeleteFor the people who lied during my hearing, I forgive you and understand you were severely pressured.
I look forward to working for HPD again and being a credit to the city.
I have known Matt for some time now. Certainly he acted improperly. Other than this incident he had an unblemished record. The question is was the penalty proper. There have been many many officers who have committed much worse assaults that have not been terminated. The only precedent of this case is that all officers must be treated equally.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Matt!
ReplyDeleteI'm more concerned about the ruling of "past practice" coupled with Mr Georgetti's comment. Is this common place within the HPD? Is the only reason this got any media is because of the relationship to Perez? I agree with Georgetti that all officers be treated equally. But my feeling is that they should be fired.
ReplyDeleteNo professional law enforcement officer would come from home to drive in and assault a suspect in the police lock-up (no matter how big an a-hole the suspect is). And no professional supervisor would let him anywhere near somebody who assaulted a family member. Secore should be paid $200,000 to go home and never come back. The supervisor should for the lock-up should be fired, and the city will save $1.5 million on the next case.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 7:30PM,
ReplyDeleteInitially I agreed with your points. But when you look at the entire picture, I think you might come to a different conclusion.
The one point I still agree with you though is that none of this would have happened if the system had worked and the supervisor did his job ( he retired shortly after this incident).
After seeing the damage to Secore's brother who was assaulted by Perez, I think for many of us the reaction would have been similar to Officer Secore's, probably just not in the police lock-up.
Again, cops are human and until we start hiring robots, human emotions will always be an issue.
Unbelievable
ReplyDeleteAnonymous at 7:30
ReplyDeleteThat's your version of what happened. Read the report like the state and court did. Everyone who's in shock only knows what the media told them, if that. Typical with Americans who get spoon feed their information on TV and gossip.
Anonymous 730 you are a disgrace to the uniform if you are a cop. We all make mistakes and that place is full of tool boxes imagine you only need a high school diploma to be there. Secore I'm happy for you and when you come back smile at management your real brothers will always have you in their prayers God bless you
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @ 7:30
ReplyDeleteYou're wrong. I drove from home to Hartford Hospital to watch my brother get X-rays and CAT scans on his head for 6 hours. Please read the report before you comment. Kevin has it all here somewhere on his blog.
Funny, John Rose said the same thing you posted.
Although police officers are trained to have a thick skin, I saw the pictures of Matt's brother after the beating he received from a thug. Police officers are also human beings. I doubt that even the best of police officers could have restrained him/herself. The bottom line, Matt reacted as most human beings would have. Certainly in a perfect world he should have restrained himself. Fortunately, he did little or no actual harm to Mr. Perez.
ReplyDeleteMatt Secore is a great cop, a great person, and certainly a great brother! Welcome back!
ReplyDeleteOnly cops would think that what Secore did is "what any human would do."
ReplyDeleteat 9:51, You're right we do because we deal with the side of society no one else wants to and few understand. If cops were all piece loving tree huggers the criminals would own the city. Maybe they already do thanks to people who feel like you do.
ReplyDelete@10:56 Technically you deal with everyone. The problem is that you treat everyone like you treat the "side of society no one wants to see." and when you get caught overstepping, you hide behind your code of silence, and when that doesn't work you hide behind the courts on some b.s. technicality.
ReplyDeleteweclome back Secore. Also I would like to give a shout out to Rashim also. They both will be drivng new mercedes benz courtesy of the city of Hartford......
ReplyDeleteAnd also, I would like every citizen to see what we deal with in the booking facility. Drunken north end crack heads who want ot fight everyone.
ReplyDeleteIts easy to criticize Rashim, but I bet if that career criminal parez relative was living next to you, you would call the police all the time....
call the police all the time....
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I thank you for your work; even though I may be on the wrong end of it on occasion. Last night,ninth inning of the Yanks/Cubs; there were shots down below on Cap Ave. I don't know who called, but the cops were there before I could take more than a couple of gulps of Guinness. Nobody hurt, cops collecting shells, and I do believe Councilman Cotto was out providing info. God Bless Mariano Rivera, and our police guys.
Wow, look who chimmed in on the 18th at 12:46....Campbell.
ReplyDeleteRashim, don't expect the same wide spread support as Secore when you end up back on payroll. He's actually one of the good guys, you should have never been hired. Although by the time you're back after your whole situation maybe you will have matured enough to actually have developed some integrity. Or better yet, you'll screw up again.
@Anonymous 6/17 5:01 PM - John Rose brought Natalie in.
ReplyDeleteLet's promote captain Rethis to chief
ReplyDeleteHey Anon @ 11:21 pm
ReplyDeleteThat would be the first time a Chief would work a PJ
If Reathis is made a chief, why don't we make Captain Buyak the mayor. I thought actually that Reathis was not the greatest Headquarters Captain, but he did a way better job then the individual in that positon now.
ReplyDeleteThat individual thinks he can lead troops by treating people like crap. But in the end, karma.... illegal labor/ hireing procedures my freind....U can't openly descriminate against the rest of the Dept. because you want to hire whoever you want on overtime. I will more then happy to print out a copy of the federal discrimination laws....
Thank you for the kind words EH...LOL!! Its so easy to make statements about something you don't know about...and even easier when you use your initials and hide behind that keyboard. Most likely i don't even know you, but thank you for checking up on me. Im doing wonderful!!!! Oh yeah, and as far as "screwing up"...you may want to call Lt. Ford and Chief Roberts about that.
ReplyDeleteThe firing of Secore was excessive, but so were his actions, which led to him getting fired. Not really what a reasonable/prudent officer would do. Now that the Labor Board has ruled I most definately hope that Officer Secore can really examine what he did wrong and move towards becoming a better police officer and public servant. If not, sooner or later his "luck" will run out with the Labor Board or in the street. The Coporation Counsel also needs to learn from the labor ruling and recognize the meaning of what is known as PROGRESSIVE DISCIPLINE. Their failure to do so has allowed (what appears)to be a rogue cop back on our streets.
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