A federal lawsuit filed Jan. 19 by Seymour’s former top detective accuses town leaders of engaging in a pattern of harassment and driving him off the police force once he reached age 65.
Ronald Goodmaster, a Seymour police officer for more than 23 years, turned 65 in March 2013.
Prior to turning 65 he sought permission from the Seymour Board of Police Commissioners to work beyond his birthday.
The commissioners voted 2 – 1 to allow him to stay on the job.
But the Seymour Board of Selectmen reversed that decision, acting on the advice of the town’s attorney, so Goodmaster had to retire when he turned 65 last March.
At the time, Seymour officials said research showed only the town’s legislative body has the power to make such a decision.
Goodmaster’s lawyer said the Selectmen had never interfered when other police officers approached the police commission to get permission to work past age 65.
The lawsuit even lists a slew of cops who were allowed to work past the retirement age in Seymour going back to the 1970s.
The lawsuit indicates the reasons given by the Selectmen to reverse the police commission’s decision were a smokescreen.
The defendants named in the lawsuit — Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller and the Board of Selectmen, Seymour Police Chief Michael Metzler, and Lucy McConologue, a member of the police commission — terminated Goodmaster as retaliation for the detective’s complaints about mismanagement and mistreatment of officers within the Seymour Police Department, Goodmaster claims in the lawsuit.
“(Goodmaster) has challenged actions he perceived as unlawful, unethical and unfair,” the lawsuit states. “The plaintiff has taken the defendants to task when believed them to be wrong.”
The lawsuit further alleges that Miller blocked Goodmaster’s appointment as a fire investigator for the Seymour Fire Marshal’s office, even though it was an unpaid, volunteer position.
Goodmaster is suing for an unspecified dollar amount, but has asked for lost back pay, vacation pay and overtime, in addition to punitive damages.
In 2013, the state Freedom of Information Commission found that three members of the Seymour Board of Police Commissioners violated the state’s FOI Act when they allowed Chief Metzler and Seymour Police Lt. Paul Satkowski to remain in a closed-door executive session with commissioners during a discussion of promotions.
Goodmaster had filed the FOI complaint against the commissioners.
