Former Fairhaven cop wins $830,000 lawsuit for unlawful termination. The town may appeal.
NEW BEDFORD — The town of Fairhaven owes a former Fairhaven police officer a total of $830,000, plus a yet-to-be determined amount in interest and fee compensation that an attorney says will likely push the total to over $1 million, after a jury found he was fired unlawfully in 2016 for admitting he was an alcoholic.
Jonathan Alves' lawsuit, filed Feb. 14, 2019, at Bristol County Superior Court in New Bedford, named the town, Fairhaven Police Chief Michael Myers and now-retired Fairhaven Town Administrator Mark Rees as defendants, claiming the town and police department were not truthful about their reasoning for firing the Fairhaven native.
Alves was 24 at the time. Defendants said the firing came after Alves came into work late the morning of March 18, 2016, and confessed he was still intoxicated from celebrating St. Patrick's Day the night before. According to the lawsuit, Alves made no such confession, insisting his termination instead came after he'd confided in Sgt. Matthew Botelho — who attorney Philip Beauregard said had been a longtime friend of the Alves family — to express personal concerns that he was an alcoholic.
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Alves' attorney: Defense's actions, claims don't align
One key factor in the outcome, according to Beauregard, who represented Alves, was that despite the police department's claims that Alves had openly revealed he was intoxicated, he was permitted to leave work for the day and drive home, still in possession of his firearm.
"They performed no tests, allowed him to go home ... in his own car, with a gun," Beauregard told The Standard-Times on Monday.
As it appears in the lawsuit and stated during trial, the plaintiff's claim is that Alves asked to leave that day due to being "emotionally distraught" after an exchange he'd had with Botelho in the parking lot of a Staples store, in which Alves shared concerns that he had become an alcoholic.
As stated in the lawsuit and during trial, Alves immediately contacted health support services to address his alcoholism and arranged in-patient treatment in Falmouth. When he attempted to return to work after treatment several days later, Myers proposed that he voluntarily resign, which Alves declined. Days later, Alves received a termination letter citing the claim that Alves had admitted he'd been "still under the influence of alcohol while on duty, and felt that it was not safe for you to continue working that day," according to past reporting of The Standard-Times. According to Beauregard, this led to difficulty for Alves in finding other law enforcement work.
Defense: Firing was about 'pattern' of behavior
According to the defense, past transgressions from Alves' time in the police academy leading up to his hiring and thereafter also factored into the decision to terminate Alves, noting he'd allegedly given an officer "an attitude" while being pulled over for speeding, had been involved in an illegal fireworks incident, and posted a photo of himself on Instagram with a large knife and a handgun with the caption "Bad MFR." As also noted by attorney John Clifford, Alves was still in the probationary period of his service on the Fairhaven Police Department at the time of termination, during which officers "can be fired for any reason at all," Clifford said during opening arguments.
"The town made the difficult decision to terminate Mr. Alves because he had shown a pattern of poor judgment and immaturity," Clifford told The Standard-Times via email on Monday.
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Outcome reactions
According to Beauregard's office, Alves is set to receive $655,000 in lost compensation damages, $150,000 for emotional pain and suffering, and another $25,000 in punitive damages. Additionally, Beauregard said on Monday that he planned to file for about $300,000 in attorney's fees, which, with prejudgment interest should fall "somewhere between $1.2 [million] to $1.5 million."
Beauregard said Alves is currently employed as head of security at the Bask Inc. cannabis dispensary in Fairhaven.
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"This is a good example of a young guy who’s put up a fight, and hopefully both private and public employers will take note of it and do the right thing moving forward," said Beauregard, relative to how employers deal with alcoholism and the legal recognition of it as an illness.
Clifford called the outcome "extremely disturbing."
"From the day they start working, police officers are granted the awesome power to arrest us, and, with justification, to use force to do so. There is a continued outcry that municipal leaders hold their police officers accountable when they abuse that power, and take swift and decisive action when they do. We can’t have it both ways," he said. "The town is in the process of reviewing all of its options with regard to appealing this decision."
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Ex-Fairhaven cop Alves wins $830K lawsuit for unlawful termination
