WEST YARMOUTH — A former Yarmouth police lieutenant received his final paycheck from the town last month after leaving the force earlier this year in the midst of a professional standards investigation into violations of the department’s rules and regulations.

Patrick Carty, who was with the department for about 25 years and served as a lieutenant for about six years, agreed to a separation agreement with the town on Jan. 30, and the investigation was suspended with no conclusion. On Oct. 6, the town paid him $43,433 in base pay, sick leave and vacation time, according to town records. He made about $105,000 a year as a lieutenant.

Police began investigating Carty on Oct. 21, 2016, when Yarmouth and Barnstable police responded to a call from a home in Barnstable where he was living, according to a report by Yarmouth Police Chief Frank Frederickson. A woman called police that night to report that Carty had arrived home drunk with his young son, and she was concerned about his behavior, according to multiple police reports, which were among more than 150 pages of documents related to the investigation that were provided to the Times in response to a public records request. The woman parked her car behind Carty’s vehicle and took his cellphone to prevent him from leaving, the reports say.

Frederickson and Yarmouth police Lt. Michael Bryant found Carty in bed in his room with his gun on the table next to his bed, according to Frederickson's report.

"There was a definite odor of stale alcohol and Lt. Carty's eyes were bloodshot," the report says. "His movements were also slow and deliberate."

Bryant took the gun from the table and offered to allow Carty to spend the night at his house, according to the report.

Police later found that Carty had gone to his Hyannis martial arts studio, Krav Maga Cape Cod, in the morning, and later that afternoon went with a group of people to Sam Diego’s and Saga Fusion, according to the documents. The group drank at both restaurants, according to receipts and interviews with servers.

At around 5:30 p.m. the same day, a Mashpee police officer responded to a report of two suspicious vehicles parked next to each other for about 45 minutes near a vacant house on Sampson Mill Road, according to a Mashpee police report. When the officer arrived, he saw a black sport utility vehicle parked on the side of the road and a man who appeared to be intoxicated walking around the vehicle, the report says. The Mashpee officer wrote that he thought he recognized the man as Carty and called out to him, but the man did not respond.

The Mashpee officer parked on the opposite side of the street to monitor the situation and saw a tribal van driver with a history of drug charges pull onto the property, the report says. The man in the black SUV then started the vehicle and drove toward Barnstable. The Mashpee officer ran the vehicle’s registration and found it was registered to Carty, according to the report. The officer tried to follow him, but at that point the SUV had entered Barnstable and the officer could not locate it, the report says.

On Oct. 22, 2016, Frederickson suspended Carty’s license to carry a firearm and assigned him to restricted duties, according to police documents. He told Carty that he would no longer have an assigned take-home vehicle.

Another member of the department also reported receiving inappropriate text messages from Carty, according to police documents.

In December 2016, a Bourne resident took out a temporary restraining order against Carty, according to police documents. Bourne police Lt. Richard Silvestro sent an email to other officers in his department and asked them to check twice per shift the area Carty was forbidden from entering, according to the email. He told officers that if they saw Carty not to engage him unless it was an emergency situation and to instead contact the sergeant, who would then contact Silvestro or the chief.

Frederickson said he could not comment on the investigation per conditions outlined in the separation agreement, but said that Carty has been replaced by Andrew O’Malley.

Carty declined to comment when reached at Krav Maga Cape Cod. A man who called the Times and said he was Carty’s attorney declined to comment for this story.

Yarmouth police handled the situation effectively, according to legal experts and former police officials.

Howard Friedman, a Boston-based attorney specializing in civil rights and police misconduct litigation, said police departments sometimes use separation agreements as a way to get problem employees out of the department without having to fire them. The firing process can become lengthy and expensive if the employee decides to fight the decision, he said.

But, he said, a separation agreement allows an officer to leave a department with no stain on his or her record and easily get a job somewhere else.

Regarding the events of Oct. 21, 2016, Jason Guida, an attorney specializing in firearms cases, said Carty could potentially have been charged with either improper storage of a firearm or carrying a firearm while under the influence of alcohol, though it’s unclear if either charge would have held up in court.

“I’ve represented dozens of clients that would have been charged in situations that sound somewhat similar,” he said.

Daniel Linskey, a retired chief of the Boston Police Department and managing director at Kroll, a Boston-based security firm, said the firearms statute may not have applied in this instance because Carty was in his own home. The police chief suspending his license to carry was a sufficient next step, he said.

“I think that’s actually a pretty good response because you’re threading some gray areas in the law,” he said.

— Follow Madeleine List on Twitter: @madeleine_list