Middletown police commission moves to executive session after resident letter and internal probe

The Middletown Police Commission moved into executive session on April 17 after the police chief read an April 14 letter from a resident alleging mishandling of a complaint against an officer and after an internal investigation was provided to commissioners.

The letter, from resident Ralph Savarese and read aloud by the police chief, said Savarese was renewing a complaint he had made against Officer Langford and criticized how Lieutenant Tholen had handled follow-up. The chief told the commission he had forwarded the resident’s communication along with an internal investigation earlier in the week.

Why it matters: Commissioners said they had reviewed the internal investigation and, citing personnel confidentiality, decided to discuss the matter in private. A vote to move into executive session passed without objection.

At the meeting the police chief summarized the letter’s claims, saying Savarese wrote that he was “making another complaint” and that he believed the officer had “failed to interview eyewitnesses to an incident.” The chief also told the commission that the complainant said a lieutenant had told him it was department policy not to interview witnesses; the chief presented the correspondence to the commission for consideration. The commission did not debate details in public before voting to go into closed session.

Commission action: With no further public discussion, the commission approved a motion to enter executive session to discuss personnel matters. The public portion of the meeting ended when commissioners convened the closed session.

Votes at a glance: The commission also unanimously approved the March meeting minutes earlier in the session; commissioners then voted to enter executive session later in the meeting.

The commission did not announce any public outcomes from the executive session at the end of the recorded meeting.