BELCHERTOWN — The Select Board Friday night interviewed three finalists for police chief including one candidate, Northampton Lt. Robert Powers Jr., who was named in a federal lawsuit filed Dec. 31, 2014, for allegedly participating in hazing recruits and making disparaging comments about Hispanics in his capacity as an instructor at the Western Massachusetts Police Academy in Springfield.
The other two candidates are Capt. Christopher Pronovost of the Amherst Police Department and Lt. Mark Saloio, of the Sturbridge Police Department.
Powers was the last to appear before the board in a series of three hour-long interviews, but he was not asked about the lawsuit and he declined to comment about it on his way in and out of the meeting room.
He did say during the interview that he has participated in training more than 1,000 police officers who now serve throughout the state.
Select Board Chairman Ronald Aponte said he became aware of the lawsuit last week when a town resident emailed him a copy. Aponte said it would have no bearing on the selection process.
“To the best of our knowledge, the lawsuit hasn’t come to a conclusion and he is innocent until proven guilty,” Aponte said of Powers.
The board is scheduled to meet again next Friday to deliberate on their choice to succeed former Chief Francis Fox Jr. who resigned last fall after a report by Granby Police that he was drunk during a traffic stop, though he wasn’t charged in that incident.
Aponte said he expects the board to vote to offer the job to one of the three finalists at the April 15 meeting.
Pronovost, who has been captain of operations since 2010, has been a member of the Amherst Police since 1990. Before that he was a Granby police officer for three years.
Pronovost has taught constitutional law through the Western Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association since 2003 and is an adjunct instructor and student adviser at Holyoke Community College.
Pronovost told the Select Board that he considers the community to be the most important ally of any police department and that he would make an active effort to strengthen Belchertown’s community policing practices.
Pronovost also said it is important that police be “fair and consistent” in how they treat drug offenders, keeping in mind that addicts are often best served by treatment rather than arrest and incarceration.
Saloio has been a member of the Sturbridge Police since 1999, having previously been a patrolman in Monson for four years and a corrections officer in the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department for three years before that.
Saloio said if hired he would stay in Belchertown “as long as the community wants me.” He said he would not regard the job as “a resume builder,” but is looking to make a long-term commitment.
Powers had a military career before going into law enforcement, having served in the Marine Corps from 1983 to 1988 and again as a staff sergeant in the Army from 1991 to 1995, a job which took him to Thailand, the Philippines, Guam and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
He joined the Northampton Police in 1995 and has been a senior staff member at the Western Massachusetts Police Academy in Springfield since 2008.
He told the Select Board, “My goal since I was a young Marine was to be the best leader I could be” and that the “mental and physical well-being” of its members makes for “a thriving police force.”
Commenting on the recent upheaval in the Belchertown Police Department with Fox’s departure, Powers said, “Nobody likes change, I don’t like change,” and that he “feel(s) sorry for the department.”
Powers said part of his philosophy of leadership is to “stay in touch with the people on the lowest level because they will give you the best information.”
According to the civil complaint in which he is named, Powers allegedly engaged in a pattern of demeaning behavior and making culturally insensitive comments as an instructor at the police academy.
Timothy Turley, the recruit from West Roxbury who brought the action, claims that Powers compelled him to “perform the degrading task of kneeling down and placing socks on the bare feet of another student officer.”
Turley was in his mid- to late-40s at the time and older than the other students. He claims he was discriminated against because of his age and was unduly punished for speaking out against what he perceived as “hazing” practices.
The complaint alleges that instructors, including Powers, “repeatedly ridiculed (him) about his supposed use of Viagra, rotary phones, and numerous other age-related topics,” causing him “to feel singled out, humiliated and embarrassed.”
The complaint also alleges that “Powers regularly used the term ‘ethnics’ interchangeably with ‘Hispanics’,” and that he told student officers that “Massachusetts police officers could issue citations to ‘ethnically altered vehicles all day long’.”
Turley also alleges that Powers “clearly expressed his pleasure” that the class “was not ‘ethnically diverse’ because the entire class was made up of apparently ‘white’ recruits.”
In a written statement, Boston attorney Robert Sinsheimer, who represents Turley, said on Friday, “It appears to me that management at the academy openly fostered a culture of bullying and discrimination. My personal opinion would be that those involved would not be qualified to serve the public in police management positions.”
Eric Goldscheider can be reached at eric.goldscheider@gmail.com.