BELCHERTOWN — A Belchertown police sergeant has won the removal of part of his discipline stemming from a 2025 traffic stop, but the driver involved says the department failed to fully investigate the incident and has asked the state’s police oversight agency to intervene.
A labor arbitrator ruled in May that Sgt. Dennis Fitzgerald acted appropriately when he ordered driver Jose Rubero back into his vehicle, overturning the department’s finding that Fitzgerald acted incompetently. The arbitrator, however, upheld a separate finding that Fitzgerald failed to deescalate the encounter.
Rubero, a former UMass police officer, argues the internal investigation ignored what he describes as repeated threats to arrest him for disorderly conduct and failed to document physical contact during the stop. He filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission [POST] seeking further review.
Body camera footage from May 7, 2025, shows Fitzgerald stopping Rubero for allegedly using a cellphone while driving on a narrow roadway in Belchertown. Rubero immediately exited his vehicle to speak with Fitzgerald because the driver’s-side window was broken, setting off an argument over whether he was required to return to the car.
When Rubero initially withheld his vehicle registration, Fitzgerald threatened to issue him a citation. As Rubero approached Fitzgerald from his car to hand over the document, Fitzgerald put one hand out to his chest, pushed him back, and told him to “step back.”
Five minutes later, police officers Michael Roney and Draine Colon-Rivera arrived at Fitzgerald’s request for backup, at which point the sergeant wrote a ticket while Roney and Colon-Rivera deescalated the situation.
During the 11-minute traffic stop, both Roney and Fitzgerald told Rubero he could be charged for “disorderly conduct” for standing outside of his car in a narrow roadway, resisting officer requests and speaking loudly.
Rubero filed a complaint with the Belchertown Police Department the day of the traffic stop, citing officers’ disorderly conduct warnings and Fitzgerald’s citation of case law. After an investigation, Chief Kevin Pacunas, who declined comment for this story, concluded Fitzgerald incorrectly cited legal authority for ordering Rubero back into his vehicle and escalated, rather than deescalated, the encounter. This, Pacunas wrote, violated department policies on incompetence and conduct unbecoming an officer.
Fitzgerald received a written reprimand and completed retraining. The discipline was reported to POST.
Rubero argues the department’s investigation failed to address officers’ repeated threats that he could be arrested for disorderly conduct, nor did it document what he describes as a use of force, noting that Sgt. Bruce Jenks wrote that Fitzgerald “pushed him [Rubero] back” during the encounter.
Police concluded the disorderly conduct warnings were justified because Rubero remained in the roadway, ignored repeated commands and spoke aggressively. Rubero disputes that characterization, saying he stood beside his vehicle rather than in the travel lane and never engaged in conduct that would justify a disorderly conduct charge.
“Cops rely on how vague it is to move people,” Rubero said.
He also asks, “If police can investigate themselves, how can we trust cops to investigate their coworkers? They’re friends.”
POST previously accepted Rubero’s complaint and the department’s internal investigation, but this spring he filed a new complaint asking the agency to review what he says were inaccurate findings by Pacunas and Jenks about his conduct.
The new complaint also alleges Fitzgerald’s push should have been documented as a use of force. Rubero said he didn’t realize physical contact had occurred until he later reviewed the body camera footage. Belchertown’s use-of-force policy requires reports when officers use physical force beyond handcuffing a compliant detainee.
“We should remove the burden of having to investigate themselves,” Rubero said.
Meanwhile, Fitzgerald challenged the discipline through his union, and arbitrator Elizabeth Neumeier overturned the department’s incompetence finding while leaving intact its conclusion that he failed to deescalate the encounter.
Neumeier agreed with the union’s contention that Fitzgerald had the right to order Rubero back into his car under Massachusetts case law, Massachusetts Municipal Police Training Committee training courses and Belchertown Police Department’s own policies.
“Police officers are not expected to be constitutional scholars,” Neumeier wrote. “They are, however, given extensive training regarding interactions with the public.”
Further, both officers Roney and Colon-Rivera also instructed Rubero to remain away from the road, but neither received any disciplinary action.
Unless the town appeals, it must remove the incompetence finding from Fitzgerald’s personnel file and request that POST remove it from its disciplinary records.
