Michael Gendron 91813

Suspended Chicopee police officer Michael Gendron, right, enters the Chicopee Mayor's office in Chicopee City Hall for a hearing last week. Gendron reportedly had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl.

(Dave Roback / The Republican)

CHICOPEE – A 43-year-old police officer will lose his job in connection with his alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl.

Mayor Richard J. Kos announced Monday he has decided to terminate Patrolman Michael Gendron following a discipline hearing in connection to a restraining order taken out on him by the girl's parents.

“As a Civil Service position, Officer Gendron will have the ability to appeal this decision to the Civil Service Commission in Boston,” Assistant City Solicitor Thomas Rooke said in writing.

The discipline hearing was held behind closed doors Thursday, a week after a judge extended a restraining order against Gendron that calls for him to stay away from the girl, prohibits him from possessing a firearm and bans him from her school and workplace.

“The mayor believes and has stated in the past that police officers are held to a higher standard and even though the relationship is legal, it fell below the standards of what the mayor believes a Chicopee Police officer should be doing off duty,” Rooke said.

He declined to comment further on the decision.

Gendron was suspended without pay this summer after the girl’s mother filed for a restraining order saying she came home early one day in the summer to find Gendron and the girl naked together.

"I'm sure my clients will be pleased," said Daniel D. Kelly, the lawyer who represents the girl's family. He said he had little to do with the disciplinary hearing.

During the hearing requesting the restraining order, a lawyer for Gendron did not deny his client's relationship with the girl, but argued it was not illegal and not grounds for a restraining order. The age of consent in Massachusetts is 16.

Gendron's lawyer, John Jerzyk, of Springfield, did not immediately return calls for comment.

Kos had the sole authority to rescind or extend the suspension or fire Gendron.

A two-paragraph statement from the mayor’s office did not specify under what grounds Kos chose to fire the officer.

Mayor Richard J. Kos statement on Chicopee Patrolman Michael Gendron