Despite following a sequence of events it called “peculiar” and “unorthodox,” the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission recently ruled the Town of Holden was “reasonable and justified” in the July 2017 firing of Police Lt. Christopher Carey.

According to the Nov. 8 decision, signed by commission Chairman Christopher C. Bowman, Carey “engaged in substantial misconduct,” including behaving inappropriately toward a female employee of the Police Department, accessing pornographic websites on his town-issued cell phone while on duty, failing to follow the police chief’s orders to provide a passcode to his town-issued phone, filing an inaccurate police report, and failing to document the transfer of a firearm from the department’s evidence room to a locker.

Carey, a 27-year employee of the Holden Police Department, argued in his testimony that the town “showed bias against him by initially launching an investigation based on uncorroborated criminal allegations and that the ensuing investigations were not fair and impartial but rather ‘targeted and biased fishing expedition[s]’ designed solely to ‘gather whatever potentially damaging information they could to justify…’ [Carey’s] termination,” the report reads.

Carey told the commission that weeks before the start of the investigation, he had questioned a female police officer (whose name was redacted from the report) at the department regarding a potential operating under the influence allegation and a call that appeared to have been “cleared” by an off-duty officer, the report said.

Additionally, Carey said he was asked to look into multiple incidents, one of which included the female officer’s involvement in an off-duty automobile accident after leaving a sports bar in Worcester around midnight. Carey told the commission an on-duty officer at the time of the incident did not report the accident to Worcester police, which he reported to Holden Police Chief David Armstrong in a memo, the report says.

At the time, according to the report, Carey was in charge of the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit.

Shortly after these events, a rumor circulated accusing Carey of “criminal behavior” from 20 years ago, the report reads. The allegations were not filed in a document, the report said, but rather mentioned during a “casual conversation,” which was overheard by a dispatcher who conveyed the information to a detective, and eventually, word got to the police chief.

The matter was turned over to the Massachusetts State Police, and Carey was placed on “administrative restriction” in June 2016. Three months later, in September, Carey was placed on paid administrative leave by the town.

“No criminal charges have ever been filed against Lt. Carey regarding these allegations,” the report stated. “No evidence has been presented to the Commission that would substantiate these allegations. No disciplinary charges have been filed against Lt. Carey related to these allegations.”

In an interview that followed in connection with criminal allegations against Carey, an unnamed female officer recounted the details from an alleged incident from many years ago in which, at a private residence, Carey engaged in inappropriate behavior toward her, the report said. The female officer also mentioned that Carey had been “liking” photographs of female employees in their bathing suits on Facebook, according to the report.

During testimony, an unnamed female employee of the Holden Police Department said Carey’s behavior prevented her from coming to work on several occasions, and from staying at work a couple of times. She said she did not report the “litany of inappropriate behavior” by Carey until interviewed by investigators in 2016 because she was concerned that filing a complaint against a uniformed member of the department could jeopardize her job, the report said.

Among her complaints, she said Carey made comments about her body, referred to her as a “secretary” when that was not her title, teased her and put her in uncomfortable situations numerous times.

An example she cited in her testimony alleges that Carey asked her “Have you ever heard the phrase once you go black, you’ll never go back?” She said he continued to press her on the topic, at one point saying, “I want to know what you think it means.”

The commission report noted that Carey said the town failed to investigate “others” referenced by a female employee, and that there was no evidence he engaged in similar behavior toward other female employees. However, the charge regarding the allegation was “sufficiently specific” to satisfy the requirements of the state’s civil service law, according to the report.

“It was clear through [the female employee’s] testimony that while ‘others’ may have engaged in isolated incidents that she may have found offensive over the years, no officer engaged in the same type of repeated and inappropriate as Carey,” reads Bowman’s analysis in the report.

Armstrong said in his testimony that he had wanted all female employees interviewed to determine if Carey engaged in inappropriate behavior towards them, the report reads.

Armstrong told The Landmark he was not able to comment on whether female employees of the department were interviewed or what the potential findings may have been. Redacted reports from the town’s internal investigation state “[redacted word] employees” were interviewed about their interactions with Carey after the allegations were made.

Additionally, the report said, Carey conceded that he regularly viewed pornography on his town-owned and issued cell phone while on duty.

According to investigation reports from the town, from Aug. 14, 2016, to Sept. 13, 2016, Carey’s search history on his phone revealed that out of 600 searches, 246 were related to pornographic websites, 87 of which were viewed at work. This report also noted that Carey was a certified rape/sexual assault investigator.

A subsequent search of other officers’ browser histories was “neither serious nor thorough,” the commission report said. The report stated Armstrong said sergeants in the department were told to “check their own” cell phones and issue a “self-report” whether any pornographic sites appeared in their browser histories.

The commission also found that Carey was in violation of the Holden Police Department’s rules after he admitted he took out an incident report number and drafted a narrative that he attributed to another officer without that officer’s knowledge. The report listed the officer on a recently filed identity fraud complaint for which Carey was the victim. However, in his testimony, the officer listed on the report said he was completely unaware of the incident.

Carey also admitted to removing a local resident’s firearm from the department’s Evidence Room while he was on administrative restriction, the report says. The firearm was being held for safekeeping and, according to the report, Carey gave it to another officer without properly documenting its removal or entrustment to that officer, who did not have the proper credentials to document the information.

Although Carey was on administrative restriction, he was not explicitly barred from entering the Evidence Room — which Armstrong acknowledged to the commission.

“Rather, Chief Armstrong believed that his statements to Lt. Carey, including ‘no command’ sufficiently put him on notice that he was not to enter the evidence room,” the report stated.

Multiple attempts to reach Carey and his attorney were unsuccessful.

The “totality of evidence” of misconduct, insubordination, and “proven pattern of sexual harassment over an extended period, stand as just cause for the discipline imposed,” said a statement from four other commission members included in the report.

In the report, the commissioners’ statement also said they “concur with the Decision to uphold the termination of the appellant, albeit with little contentment. We write to emphasize that the record established that the Town comes before the Commission tainted by problematic origin of the charges and the behavior of certain officers involved has not been overlooked, none of which has any proper place in a public safety organization, and must not be viewed as condoned by this Commission.”

Armstrong also told The Landmark that the Civil Service Commission’s decision has not changed the department’s policies that Carey violated.

“We did everything we were supposed to do and everything was in place,” said Armstrong, later noting, “We are held to a higher standard. If you want to be a police officer, you have to hold yourself to those standards.”

Holden Town Manager Peter Lukes echoed a similar sentiment in a statement to The Landmark on the results of the commission’s November 2017 hearing.

“The town holds its police officers to the highest standards and the town expects them to live up to those standards,” said Lukes. “As town manager, I am exceptionally proud of the work that the Holden police officers do every day. The department is among the finest in the Commonwealth. If there is an incident, the department takes immediate and appropriate action.

“Even though this matter involved a command officer, the police chief and the department responded immediately by investigating the matter thoroughly and taking the appropriate action,” Lukes added. “The town and the department hold everyone accountable and expect all members of the department to uphold, at all times, the town policies and the tradition of public service. As town manager I personally am proud of the Holden Police Department and how they discharged their responsibility in this matter.”