Court: Firing of village cop justified | Local News - Stowe Today

A Superior Court judge has reversed her decision and said Waterbury village did not break the law when it fired a police officer in 2012.

The case of Adam Hubacz v. Village of Waterbury has spent the past six years winding its way though federal and state courts.

In a decision issued in April, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that the village’s trustees acted appropriately, and sent the case back to Washington County Superior Court for a fresh look, in light of the justices’ decision.

In December, Superior Court Judge Mary Miles Teachout followed the guidance offered by the Supreme Court and reversed her previous decision.

“The village lawfully terminated Mr. Hubacz’s employment,” Teachout wrote as part of a four-page decision.

According to Supreme Court documents, the case began when Hubacz — who joined the Waterbury Police Department in 2009 — applied for a job with the St. Albans Police Department. As part of his application, Hubacz was subject to a polygraph test, preceded by a series of questions intended to shed light on his character and conduct.

However, the polygraph test never happened, because the person screening Hubacz was concerned with some of his admissions, including:

• Cheating on a police academy examination.

• Filing a false insurance claim.

• Taking uniforms from a police department in North Brookfield, Mass., where he’d been a part-time officer.

• Failing to report $20,000 in off-the-books income between 2004 and 2009.

• Impersonating a police officer, before he actually became one, to gain discounts at places and to intimidate former high school classmates.

The screener forwarded the responses to Joby Feccia, chief of the Waterbury Police Department, who in turn forwarded the responses to Tom Kelly, then the lead prosecutor for Washington County.

After reviewing the responses, Kelly told Feccia that he would not prosecute any cases that Hubacz investigated. Kelly cited the Brady Rule, which requires prosecutors to turn over all evidence to the defense, including evidence of past behavior by the arresting officer.

In 2012, the village trustees fired Hubacz; in response, Hubacz sued the village in federal court for wrongful termination. The case was sent to the state courts, where it continued for years.

“They grasped at a lot of straws during this process,” said Municipal manager William Shepeluk.

In fact, the case lingered for so long that it outlived the life of the village itself, with the issue coming up during a recent meeting of the Edward Farrar Utility District board.

“Hopefully, this will be the last time we have to talk about this,” said board chair Skip Flanders.

The Supreme Court case offers guidance for other municipalities, according to the Vermont league of Cities and Towns.

“The upshot is that municipalities may lawfully terminate or suspend police officers not only for negligence, dereliction of duty, or conduct unbecoming an officer, but also ‘for cause,’” the organization said in a statement to its members. “For cause termination means some substantial shortcoming detrimental to the employer’s interests, which the law and sound public opinion recognize as a good cause for (the employee’s) dismissal.”

“If we had charged with him with conduct unbecoming of an officer or dereliction of duty, it would have been fine, but we didn’t want to ruin this kid’s life,” Shepeluk said. “In hindsight, if we had used the evidence of the state’s attorney’s unwillingness to prosecute his cases, this would have been over in 2012.”

An attorney for Hubacz did not return a call seeking comment.

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