By Jill Harmacinski

The Eagle-Tribune

METHUEN, Mass. — Two Methuen police superior officers were disciplined for improperly seizing a 60-year-old man's handgun and firearm's license after a July 12 incident at a local bar.

Police Lt. Michael Wnek was suspended without pay for five days and Sgt. Tod Himmer for three days after an outside investigator conducted an internal affairs probe into how police handled the 4:27 p.m. call at the Irish Cottage restaurant at 1111 Riverside Drive.

That evening, police received a call about a suspicious male at the Irish Cottage with a possible firearm in his waistband. Himmer and two patrol officers responded. Wnek was the shift supervisor that day.

But special investigator Alfred Donovan of APD Management Inc. concluded the man's handgun and license to carry "were improperly seized" by Methuen police that evening, according to internal affairs report Donovan wrote.

The Eagle-Tribune, through a public records request, obtained all reports generated on the gun incident, including Donovan's full report, reports Wnek and Himmer both wrote, both officers' suspension letters, the incident report and all department emails generated on the matter.

Both Wnek and Himmer said they seized the man's loaded handgun, license to carry and holster as a preventative safety measure. The weapon listed as a .357-caliber Sig Sauer.

"The temporary inconvenience of securing the firearm was outweighed by the risk to public safety for inaction," Wnek wrote in a July 30 report to Methuen Police Capt. Kristopher McCarthy.

It is not illegal for a person with a license to carry a firearm to bring his or her weapon into a bar - as long as they are not intoxicated, according to state law.

The man in question at the Irish Cottage, who works locally as a security guard, did not appear intoxicated, according to police reports.

In suspension letters, Police Chief Joseph Solomon said Wnek and Himmer violated the department's professional conduct and responsibility procedure when they "participated in the improper seizure" of a "lawfully possessed handgun."

Both officers were also disciplined for using non-recorded telephone lines that night to discuss how the matter should be handled, according to their suspension letters. Himmer used his cell phone to call Wnek on his cell phone, according to reports.

Police went to the Irish Cottage that evening to investigate a report of a man wearing a security guard shirt who "just went into the bar believed to be possessing a concealed firearm under his shirt," according to an incident report written by Officer Joseph Rynne.

The officers entered the bar and spoke with the man in question "who was sitting at the bar drinking a pint of draft beer that was just over half full," Rynne wrote. The man was wearing black pants and a white T-shirt.

The man told police he had a valid license to carry and then went outside to speak with police.

Rynne said he spoke with the man "for several minutes and it did not appear (he) was inebriated and during our interaction he showed no signs of instability or intoxication." The man told police he'd just gotten out of work and wanted a beer.

"He also stated that he wasn't aware that he couldn't drink at all or be in a bar with a (license to carry)," Rynne wrote.

Himmer then told the man police were taking his firearm and license to carry and the "licensing authority will make the decision if and when he can have them back," Rynne added.

Rynne also contacted the man who initially called police about the handgun. The witness, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he saw the man taking off his security shirt at his car. When he pulled out his T-shirt he saw the firearm in its holster.

"The reporting party also stated he called because he believed it seemed very suspicious and (the man) could have already been under the influence," Rynne wrote.

The man's handgun, ammunition, license to carry and holster were returned to him on July 13, the following day, after Solomon learned of the incident, according to police reports.

Donovan, in his internal affairs report, said he found the seizure of the handgun and license to carry "was a bad decision and a improper seizure" in violation of department policy.

He noted Himmer said the seizure was a safety measure for both the public and the man involved. But he wrote the seizure of any property "falls under the protection of the U.S. Constitution (4th Amendment) and the Massachusetts Bill of Rights (article 14) and does not allow preventive measures without proper legal justification."

Donovan wrote that regardless of Himmer's intention, he represents the police department who "improperly and without legal justification" seized the handgun "without a warrant and without probable cause that a crime had been committed."

In the report, Donovan, a retired Tewksbury police chief, also wrote that in his 30-year career he "has witnessed many police officers stopping off at a local public or liquor serving establishment ... after working their respective shifts and having a few beers before they went home and a great deal of them carried a concealed weapon on them."

"It is difficult to believe that an off-duty Methuen police officer would have been treated the same way under similar circumstances," Donovan wrote.

When asked for comment for this story, Solomon issued a statement saying the police department "takes all internal affairs investigations seriously and we refer them to an outside agency. We review the reports when they are done and immediately take the appropriate action."

Wnek and Himmer could not be reached for comment.

Copyright 2015 The Eagle-Tribune