The Town of Tisbury and Police Chief Mark Saloio have denied the allegations made by former police Sgt. Eerik Meisner in his federal lawsuit.
Meisner, who was fired in January, filed his $1.2 million claim in U.S. District Court in Boston in August. He alleges he was terminated in retaliation for supporting a female police officer’s claim with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
The town and Saloio’s joint response, which was filed Thursday, doesn’t go into great detail about why they deny the allegations made by Meisner. “Defendants state that Defendant Mark Saloio acted reasonably, within the scope of his official discretion, and with a good faith belief that his actions were lawful and not in violation of any statutory or constitutional right,” the response states.
On Monday, the two sides agreed to a timeline for discovery in the case. According to a court filing, a scheduling conference is set for Dec. 6 in the case. The deadline for depositions is April 17 with all motions filed by Sept. 18.
In my experience, Tisbury Police Chiefs hired at the recommendation of an “independent”, though perhaps not impartial, external consultant have been incompetent and questionably impartial. Those recommendations date back to the 1990s. It’s time that the trail of the independent consultant’s recommendations be followed to see what their agenda was. In my experience, Mr. Meisner was probably dismissed as his credentials were superior to those of the consultant’s “chosen one”.
With a bare assertion response like this, ““Defendants state that Defendant Mark Saloio acted reasonably, within the scope of his official discretion, and with a good faith belief that his actions were lawful and not in violation of any statutory or constitutional right,” it is clear the Tisbury PD is toast on this lawsuit. It all but begs, “We are ready to settle!”
James-you always seem to write a intelligent comment no matter what the subject-It is clear the Tisbury PD is toast on this lawsuit. There has to be at least 3 or 4 lawsuits against the TPD as we speak-the town still after all these years of lunacy still doesn’t get it-from my days when i attended Selectmen’s meetings probably still a month in probationary period left for this guy-as it is for all officers-cut your losses-hire somebody who has their pulse of the island population-the crossing guard issue should tell you what we on our have on our hands.Think globally act locally-the last 4 or 5 chiefs all just wanted to pad their pensions-Hanavan was the only recent Chef who was actually was an officer and the big 3 just tossed him to the curb-payed him approx. 70k to spend the winter in Naples on our dime-All the while paying for a new chief as well What’s wrong with us-We’re not stupid-did we really need to pay 2 Chiefs salaries . I Give up.
wow– what a way to get rich on the taxpayer dime.
If you made a career out of it, it could help provide you with enough cash to buy a house on-Island.
DonDonDon- You must have read the lawsuit through a colander. If you took the time to actually read the lawsuit that the Times provided, you would see that Misner wants his job back. Nobody wants to be embroiled in a Federal Lawsuit!!!
More wasted taxpayers money. Need someone with some business sense running the town. It is easy see why Tisbury has the highest tax rates
Corporations which are run by business minded individuals get sued all the time. It’s impossible to control who sues what entity. Mcdonalds for a cup of hot coffee?
https://www.simplemost.com/most-ridiculous-lawsuits-ever-filed/
And you couldn’t be FartherAway from the truth! Tisbury Police Dept. has a track record of treating it’s employees unfairly…. did you not just see what happened to the crossing guard? This is another case where the new Chief did not practice due process. Mr. Meisner just happened to be one of the first officers to stand up for themselves and hire a reputable lawyer.
How about some responsibility? It is disheartening that the town, specifically the chief, administrator, and selectmen; have not accepted responsibility. They haven’t stated they made a mistake or that they are sorry and we will try to fix the situation. These individuals are not paid to ‘believe’ things, they are paid to know things. You don’t just run around willy-nilly firing people, especially long term employees. It seems this chief has a penchant for this type of self ego inflating behavior and has run the town into several lawsuits based on his behavior in less than twelve months. It also seems the town administrator either will not or cannot control the chief and ensure proper decisions are being made. I do not believe the plaintiff in this case, Lt. Meisner, ever intended to have to go down this path to obtain justice or financial reward, but, if the town leadership isn’t going to be responsible for their actions and not just sit around denying anything happened, then I most assuredly agree with Mr. Kozac’s statement, ‘they are toast’. This clearly isn’t a frivolous lawsuit, no one spilled hot coffee or inadvertently ate a tide pod, someone lost their career. The repercussions for are going to fall on the tax payers. It is obvious better decisions need to be made at the top. I hope the selectmen actually stop and pay attention to this situation and accept the responsibility to make things right.
After discovering this story on Linkedin, I dug into it to see if this was a case of hurt feelings of a jilted employee. Reading the court filing makes me wonder if these people know what decade this is. The credentials of Lt. Meisner seems quite impressive and there seem to be a lengthy list of people speaking highly of his job performance. If only the defendants job performance could measure up to such a high standard. It’s nauseating to see the unchecked abuse of political influence and the completely unprofessional behavior of the police department’s so called leader. Why people keep electing these political hacks with dreams of unlimited power (alla Buddy Cianci) is beyond me. Remember this, Buddy went to prison twice and twenty years later there still is the residual stain of his corruption on the City of Providence. This should be a lesson to all local political appointees and elected officials. Unfortunately, there is always money for lawyers and lawsuits, just never enough to do the right thing.
How can a career law enforcement officer go from Lieutenant, the second in command, to Sergeant to unemployed in one year?
That’s the $1.2 Million dollar question. And by reading the lawsuits timeline it was actually less than one year… try only 2 months! The chief must have been influenced by a political agenda.
The chief believed his actions were lawful to the same extent he believed Mr. Nichols was a threat to the school and then sat on his “investigation” for two weeks and didn’t tell anyone about it. The only reason this clown is still employed is because the same Board of Selectmen that brought you “School in a Trailer” and the world’s very first snow blowing, fire-fighting submarine decided to double down on their latest mistake in hopes that the community would applaud their decisiveness.
Tisbury, the Island’s Three Ring Circus. Showtimes daily.
The same consultant who has been instrumental in the hiring of the past several Chiefs of Police in Tisbury wrote the report that recommended the termination of Chief John McCarthy. The archives of the local newspapers cite him as saying, “The most critical point to emphasize is that the behavior patterns in the department must change. . . . Management must become more sophisticated in dealing with employees. . . . Employees must adhere to basic standards of performance, decorum and respectfulness. . . . Everybody in the department wants to see something happen. . . . If nothing’s done, the situation will continue to deteriorate, and that’s very unfortunate.”
Hopefully, HOPEFULLY this new issue will finally be what breaks our town Camel’s back and we replace ALL the selectmen, our new Chief of Police, our town administer, our town’s tax collector, all those who were involved with the selection committee in choosing the new chief and that will be for starts!
Let me also say that we must put out a big emergency “All Points Bulletin” out to all Tisbury voters requesting that “all new people” run for each one these offices! People who have “NEVER” in the past have sat in one of these seats / positions!
Also Nobody should run for any of the above positions who has ever been one of our island’s County Commissioners!
It might take a few election cycles but Dam It I am totally sick and tired what continues to be this type of business as usual in our town!