Police Union Files Grievance, Countdown Till Firing Overturned

Mayor Moccia was warned numerous times that Torrano would be a problem as a Commissioner and wouldn’t leave his previous personal conflicts behind. Now it has come to pass.

The mayor needs to fire the chief and get new police commissioners.

#3 why stop there the city has had enough,even the best damage control experts are questioning their own efforts.

What the city has lost has always been behind mirrors.While the city thinks growth is the answer very few have looked around to see other cities and towns mistakes.

We are now seeing layoffs from cities who hired to maintain their safety,how does Norwalk cut to the bone when there is no bone or in our case back bone?

Can we wait for an election? The taxpayers need to see some figures as we wait for the shelter figures the red herrings are growing.

when will you people get it. sleaze, sleaze, sleaze and more sleaze. open your eyes and do the math. here is a guy who is so committed and is even in charge of youth bureau, yet he calls a pedophile to give him a heads up. i don’t care that they are friends (?) there must be some point where common sense and good judgement slip in for a moment. think about all the cries of injustice. look back over the cummings blogs and see how many stuck up for him as a “stand up guy” who was victimized by the department. couture is no different ethically or morally. he and those of his ilk have be ripping off the city for years! jsut because nobody looked hard enough or followed up on his well known abuses don’t assume he was such a good cop. he is a self aggrandizing, greedy, slimy little reptile who sees himself as slick. his firing is well earned and the correct course of action. whatever the state says, he doesn’t deserve to be a cop anywhere and never did. he is an immature idiot…..wow, for a minute there i felt like i was writing about cummings again. well, birds of a feather…….

The state labor board is going to rely heavily on whether this punishment is consistent or disparate to other punishments the department has handed out in similar situations. Obviousy it is not. They will also look at whether the department and commission investigated this in a fair and impartial manner. They will also consider any procedural errors in the investigation and trial board, starting with whether the investigation started prior to proper notification and whether it was completed within the contractual time frame. Apparently it was not. The trial board chose not to recognize these issues, while the state labor board must. The entire thing may be thrown out on a technicality, like many other norwalk investigations have been.

The state labor board also strongly considers prior disciplinary record, the city’s use of progressive discipline, and whether some type of retraining can correct errant behavior without the need for termination.

You heard it hear first. The state labor board will give Sgt. Couture his job back with 60-120 days suspension. They will deem the punishment excessive for the offense. They may criticize the internal investigation for sloppiness and not being in a timely fashion. I will then repost requesting the resignation of the Chief, the commissioners, and the internal affairs department.

Article 19 of the contract covers disciplinary action. It requires the officer complained about be notified within 24 hrs, and requires the internal investigation to be completed within 60 days, but that can be extended another 30 days at the request of the officer doing the internal investigation. Internal investigations must be started within one year of the alleged rules violation.
In this case, a complaint was made, to another dept, about Lt Cummings, who has been arrested and resigned. Lt Cummings was Sgt Couture’s immediate boss and an old friend. Sgt Couture told Lt Cummings there had been a complaint made to another dept, and that complaint was not being pursued, at the request of the family of the boy involved. Couture claims to have told Cummings he could not continue such behavior and would be arrested the first time a viable witness/victim came forward. Other complaints against Cummings surfaced later and he was arrested.
The only complaint filed against Sgt Couture was the complaint by the Chief that Couture didn’t report the story about Cummings to the chief immediately, even though the State’s attorney had oredered Couture not to. I would love to hear the state’s attorney’s explanation for that. Were they concerned others in the dept. were involved with Cummings ? There is no claim, nor evidence, of any destruction of evidence.
In other cases where there are criminal charges and departmental charges, the time limits on departmental investigation have been waived, at the request of the State’s attorney’s office, to avoid conflict with the State criminal case.
I doubt if deadlines will be much of an issue, but it will be very difficult to justify to the State, using Sgt Couture as a street supervisor for a long time, as they did, and then deciding he should not be a police officer. My guess is the firing will be reversed and the City will have to take him back. The City will try to negotiate something where they avoid paying back pay for any time between the firing and the re-instatement.
If the City uses some common sense and the benefit of lessons learned from previous cases, (they never do) they will negotiate some settlement as soon as possible and avoid being ordered to reinstate and pay a lot of back pay for time when Couture was not working.
In another case currently in the news, another officer was fired by the chief and the commission, without a hearing, for alleged sex crimes against a high school girl. That firing will probably not be challenged for a number of reasons and the criminal trial should begin next Monday.
The department is quick to take action where crimes have been charged, to its credit, and tries hard to maintain high standards. I’m sure Cummings was told to quit or get fired. In this case, the bad guys are going to court on criminal charges and probably to jail. Couture should have been reprimanded, or, at most, suspended for a few days. If I was the chief, I would have made sure the commission brought that state’s attorney into the hearing and heard his explantion.

How about a little NPD liars Poker. I’ll see your Jon Dyer and raise you a John Cashin.

Who could Cashin pass the test to,we seem to have some very unstable cowboys working the late shift its a wonder the shift commander hasn’t moved to the court house and set up shop.Its been said accident reports are abundant.

Be it John or anyone else time spent pretending all is well has to get to some,get out retire and see the station in the rear view mirror seems to be the logical step for any vet of Norwalk.

What about the morale has anyone thought about that? Word is it sucks and has been for a while.

Callahan was fired and the City was reversed and ordered the City to take him back. If a violation as ghastly as taking body parts to use as an ashtray is not serious enough to terminate someone, what makes the city think that a less serious violation will result in their termination being upheld? What would the opinion be if the Sgt, knowing the case is closed because the victim and family refuse to cooperate, did not confront the Lt., and the sexual activity between the cop and youngster continued while the police decided what to do next, since there was no cooperating victim. Would we now be screaming about how the Sgt failed to take any action to protect the young man?

please don’t use the state’s decision with Callahan as the place to set the bar. OJ was found not guilty as well. The standards set by the state can be wrong and offense and detrimental to the public as well in many instances (such as with skull boy). the department did the right thing in firing him and they did the right thing with couture.
by the way the other two reprobates were allowed to keeep their benefits and pensions because they did their time and had hit retirement age. couture has not got the retirement age. so sorry. consider it retroactive payment for the quality and quantity of service received. besides, if you factor in all the dough he has amasssed while avoiding doing his job and taking care of personal stuff he is well ahead of the game.

# 25 – no, its not about whether I like it or not, it is about what is right or wrong. just as in courts when decisions are made as a result of strategies and theatrics as opposed to facts and truth. callahan deserved to be dismissed and was not fit to be a police officer. king, same, cummings, same, couture same, next guy, same. i really can’t be too emotionally connected anymore because it doesn’t involve me. however, do not tell me that just because three attorneys on a panel are the final true judges as to what is right or wrong in a moral, ethical or common sense context. simple union nonsense is what you are spewing. it is that mindset that keeps the trash in the department instead of being discarded.

How come none of these guys are going to jail with me in December? I plead guilty to possession of Marijane with intent to sell on Tuesday, I manned up to my mistakes and agreed to a one year sentence and 1000$ fine.
Yet these so-called men of integrity do nothing but hide behind their badge and union like COWARDS. Do you expect people of such low moral standards to protect and serve? How can you expect a person of higher moral to work along side such?
Have they no dignity or humility???????
I did the crime and I will do the time, will these cops match me?

Where does anybody get the idea Cummings is getting off easy ? He was arrested and is out on bond. Smart money is on him getting prison time. No way is that getting off easy.
Couture is not accused of any crimes. He was accused by the department of various charges after the State’s Attorney reviewed the evidence and found there was not enough evidence of any crime to justify issuing an arrest warrant. The commission reviewed the departmental charges, found him guilty of some violations, and fired him. Without having participated in the hearing, it is impossible to know what he was really guilty of, or how serious the rules violations were. He may have done some stupid things, but he was an a position never imagined when they wrote the rules. Maybe he desrves some sanction, but the firing will be overturned.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if it turns out that the young man from Westport contacted Lt. Cummings after the Westpot Police contacted him, and told Lt. Cummings that the Westport Police were investigating him. What if Lt. Cummings then wiped his computer after this, and it was several weeks before Sgt. Couture was notified? What if the Norwalk Police knew this before the hearing and failed to reveal this information? Would the State Labor Board take this into consideration since one of their reasons for firing Sgt. Couture was he gave Cummings the opportunity to destroy the computer?

SGT. COUTURE is SCUM! He is supposed to protect kids. HE SO TOLD Cumming’s he was being investigated and deserved to be FIRED!
Lt. Cummings was a married man and has two teenage sons. Couture is married to. It makes you wonder if he is a closet case who gets it on with men at the Glory Hole Book Stores and who know’s where else. A man of HONOR would never protect a child molester. I don’t care if it is his friend. Couture has kids. Would he be so inclined to hold up the Blue Wall if it was one of his children that was having sex with Mr. Cumming’s!
I think NOT! WE reap what we sow Coulture. You are a liar for denying what you did and deserve to be canned! Karma works in mysterious ways. May you and yours suffer to the extent that you are lying. What goes around comes around. And when it really comes you’re way don’t be surprised! It may take a lifetime but it always does. You protect kids man! I’ll say it again. If it was one of you’re kids you would have strung him up, Not warned him! If in fact he is guilty of the crimes he is accused of.

#36 anonymous
If any part of what you just posted is true, somebody(beside Cummings) should go to prison. There is no way retired Deputy Chief Arway will perjure herself at the Labor Board to help Couture. There is no way she had any negotiations with the boy from Weston, if he exists, who never told his story to, nor was identified by, police. There was no investigation because they never identified him. Cummings was arrested on charges involving other boys who came forward after that story came out. That story about a boy from Weston, could be a complete fabrication, intended to bring out other victims. If it was, it worked.

Is she still around ? I heard she was moving to Florida.

I think 36 is just trying to stir up a dust storm. Couture will get his job back on the fact that he had no prior disciplinary action against him and the punishment is excessive. Arway probably left due to difficult working conditions. In a hostile working environment where you and your supervisor do not get along and each is out to get the other is not an enjoyable place to be. When the opportunity arises to go to better working conditions and increase your income, who wouldn’t do the same? From what I hear, Couture’s firing was a politically motivated decision by an administration that was under fire for previous disciplinary actions against other employees and were trying to appear tough. It will backfire at a labor board hearing, especially if details about a negotiated settlement offered by the City and then backed out of by the city come out.

36-sounds like you might be one of those self centered police officers looking out for yourself. Any comments about the other deputy chief that was running his own business from a desk in the PD?

#36 anonymous
I spoke to the Westport detective, and she never got the name or spoke to, a boy from Weston. She got a story, maybe your kind of rumor, from somebody who had just parts of it. She knew the location described was in Norwalk and passed off what she had to Couture who knew right away who the pedophile had to be, based on description of him, his car, and his apartment. What happened then has been rehashed here, and at a police commission hearing, already, and does not need repeating. Newspaper stories brought out other victims and subsequent investigation of their stories led to Cummings arrest.
I don’t know, for sure, but I believe Arway has not worked for the City since putting in her papers. Her retirement started yesterday. The time between was sick and vacation time she had accumulated.
For the record, there are no cops on the labor board. They generally act as an appeals panel and rule on the local agency procedure, not on the merits of the case against the employee. They will not decide if Couture was right or wrong, only if the process used to fire him was proper. If they find it was not, they can order him re-instated.

And if the offense and progressive discipline merit a dismissal.