Woodstock Police Chief Is Demoted to Patrol Officer

Following a 14-hour marathon hearing in March and weeks of deliberation, the Woodstock Village Trustees have demoted town police chief Joseph Swanson to patrol officer.

The decision has already taken effect, and Swanson has reported to work as a patrol officer since last Thursday, according to his attorney,  Linda Fraas. But she plans to appeal the demotion decision in court, and to file a civil lawsuit for monetary damages.

“There is absolutely no legal basis to violate his employment contract, which in no way allows for demotion,” Fraas said in an email to Seven Days. “The decision is unlawful, malicious, and not surprising in light of how he has been treated thus far.”

A Woodstock native, Swanson has served in the police department for more than 22 years, including 18 months as chief. But his position has been in limbo since he was placed on administrative leave last October.

That was shortly after town officials started looking into Swanson’s job performance following a road-rage incident involving his husband. At the time, municipal manager Eric Duffy hired a private investigator to dig into the chief’s leadership.

Weeks later, the police union and the emergency dispatcher’s union each delivered a unanimous no-confidence vote in Swanson’s year-and-a-half tenure as chief.

Duffy recommended that Swanson be demoted following the investigation, but Swanson stood his ground. So, on March 19, the town resorted to a rarely used, quasi-judicial trial process known as a Loudermill hearing, which provides due process for certain public employees facing disciplinary action.

The hearing, held in a former basement courtroom, allowed the two parties — the town on one side, Swanson on the other — to make their cases, with a Burlington lawyer hired by the town to preside.

Testimony revealed a police department unhappy with Swanson’s management style: All five police department employees who were called to testify said they would quit if Swanson were reinstated as chief. Employees complained that he seemed to slack off on the job, often showing up to work late and out of uniform.

The 14-hour hearing stretched on until 12:30 a.m., and ended without resolution. The village trustees continued to deliberate, in private, over the course of nearly a month before finally coming to a decision last week.

According to Seton McIlroy, chair of the village trustees, Swanson was demoted for “personnel issues,” which the board would not reveal for confidentiality reasons. 

“We went through weeks of deliberation,” McIlroy told Seven Days. “It is so important that we stick with established processes and procedures. That’s what we’ve been doing and will continue to do.”

Fraas, Swanson’s lawyer, hopes that a judge will see things differently.