Police Sergeant Disciplined For ‘Failure Of Duty’

     In the early hours of Sunday, January 27, Bourne Police Sergeant Martha R. McGonagle supervised the search for hit-and-run suspect Andrew J. Parker.
     The search ended with Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Patrick Martin shooting Mr. Parker in the leg in a Jasper’s Too Motel room.
     While Deputy Martin has been cleared of any wrongdoing for his actions that morning, Town Administrator Thomas M. Guerino has ruled that Sergeant McGonagle, a 36-year veteran of the police force, did not live up to the responsibility of her position during the series of events that led to the shooting.
     For the role she played that morning, Mr. Guerino ruled this week that Sergeant McGonagle be demoted from sergeant to the rank of patrolman for 45 days and have her pay cut accordingly.
     As appointing authority for the Bourne Police Department, it is Mr. Guerino who makes the decision to demote members of the police force.
     In a ruling released this week Mr. Guerino wrote that Sergeant McGonagle was “responsible for a serious infraction of the rules and regulations of the Bourne Police Department in the apprehension of a suspect that could have implicated deadly force.”
     Acting Chief Earl V. Baldwin reported to the town administrator that Sergeant McGonagle violated section 5.2 of the Bourne Police Department rules and regulations entitled “incompetence.”
     As a result of those allegations, Mr. Guerino tasked Town Counsel Robert S. Troy with holding a hearing to determine whether Sergeant McGonagle acted incompetently on the morning Mr. Parker was shot.
     Mr. Guerino’s decision was based on information gathered in Mr. Troy’s fact-finding hearing.
     In his report, Mr. Troy wrote that Sergeant McGonagle had failed in her duties as shift supervisor by not accompanying officers to the scene of Mr. Parker’s arrest.
     He added that though the officers were able to prevent harm to themselves and any members of the public, Sergeant McGonagle’s absence from the scene was inexcusable.
     “A review of the testimony of the witnesses along with the exhibits submitted into evidence establishes that Sergeant McGonagle made a serious misjudgment when she elected to stay at the Police Station rather than accompany the officers under her command to Jasper’s Motel,” Mr. Troy wrote. “The fact that McGonagle—and the Department—escaped from a potential deadly encounter without incident is more a result of a confluence of good fortune along with the demonstrated skills of the officers who were at the scene than to a correct supervisory strategy,” Mr. Troy wrote.
     Mr. Troy’s report reveals Sergeant McGonagle’s role on the morning Mr. Parker was shot and arrested as complex.
     As sergeant, Sergeant McGonagle monitored a large portion of the radio communications, from the moment the pursuit of Mr. Parker began after Patrolman David W. Ross witnessed him crash into a parked vehicle on Cranberry Road, to his arrest in a Jasper’s Too Motel room.
     While she was not covering the radio, Sergeant McGonagle was either interviewing Mr. Parker’s friends and family or in the field taking part in the search for evidence.
     Bourne Police Dispatcher Brandon M. Esip testified that Sergeant McGonagle was “multi-tasking” and “calling the shots” throughout the search and capture of Mr. Parker.
      Mr. Troy reported that it was in the final stages of the pursuit where Sergeant McGonagle neglected her responsibilities , after authorities had located Mr. Parker and moved in to make an arrest.
     After going out to the scene of the initial hit-and-run accident, Sergeant McGonagle returned to the station to speak with Susan Gallagher, a friend of Mr. Parker’s and the owner of the car he was driving.
     According to the reports, Ms. Gallagher, after initially lying to police about not knowing Mr. Parker’s location, told police that she had loaned her car to Mr. Parker and a man named Andrew Gondola.
     A background check by police of Mr. Gondola showed that he had a lengthy criminal record, including past charges for assault and battery with a deadly weapon and unlicensed possession of a firearm.
     Ms. Gallagher’s claim that she loaned her car to Mr. Gondola was also eventually proven to be a lie. Police later found that Mr. Parker was actually accompanied by a man named Brent Fernandes, who was unarmed.
     Sergeant McGonagle was able to pinpoint Mr. Parker’s location through interviews she conducted with his stepfather, Peter Senecal.
     Mr. Senecal told police where Mr. Parker was hiding in exchange for their assurance that they would not arrest him if he were badly injured in the accident.  
     Mr. Senecal provided the police with a key to Mr. Parker’s motel room and told them that he did not believe his stepson was carrying a firearm. However, he added that he could not say the same for Mr. Gondola, who police still believed was hiding out with Mr. Parker.
     Sergeant McGonagle then told Patrolman David W. Ross to brief Patrolmen Timothy N. Derby, Jared MacDonald and Jeffery A. Lanoie at A-Frame Liquors on Main Street while she stayed at the station to sort out evidence.
     During that time, Sergeant McGonagle also requested that Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Martin, who had participated in the earlier search for Mr. Parker, meet with the four other officers at A-Frame.
     During his testimony to Mr. Troy, Patrolman MacDonald said that the response planned by the four Bourne police officers was very organized.
     However, other officers suggested that Sergeant McGonagle’s absence created a void in leadership.
     Officer Jeffery A. Lanoie, who moved in to arrest Mr. Parker after he was shot by Sergeant Martin for refusing to show his hands after being repeatedly told to do so, admitted that it didn’t appear as if anyone was in charge of police personnel at the motel.
     Bourne Police Sergeant Richard Silvestro, a 23-year veteran of the Bourne Police Department who was contacted by dispatch after Mr. Parker was shot, testified that the officers made several missteps in their arrest of Mr. Parker that could be directly attributed to Sergeant McGonagle’s absence from the scene.
     Among those missteps, he said, was the fact that Patrolman Derby was on the scene providing backup with a loaded shotgun, even though the motel had not been cleared.
     He added Mr. Parker, who was transported by ambulance, should not have been sent to the hospital without a police escort.
     Sergeant Silvestro said that after he took an account of the incident from Patrolman Ross, he immediately ordered an officer to Falmouth Hospital to arrest Mr. Parker and requested Sergeant McGonagle to report to the motel.
     Mr. Guerino stated that Sergeant Silvestro’s opinion that Sergeant McGonagle’s actions had the potential to yield dangerous results was particularly damning.
     “The fact that the most senior Bourne Police Officer at the scene understood that a supervising officer should have been on the scene and request a dispatch to send Sergeant McGonagle to the scene confirms that her failure of duty was clear to all,” he wrote.
     In her testimony, Sergeant McGonagle stated that given the information she was presented with, her actions where entirely appropriate.
     She also stated that there was absolutely no report of a firearm at Jasper’s Too Motel.
     Her demotion went into effect immediately after Mr. Guerino made his ruling Tuesday.  
     Mr. Guerino stated that after she completes her 45-day suspension, her title of sergeant will automatically be restored. He added that Sergeant McGonagle’s suspension will not bump her from a list potential candidates for Bourne police chief that also includes Acting Chief Earl V. Baldwin, Lieutenant Richard E. Tavares, and Sergeants Dennis R. Woodside and Kim M. Young.
     She can file a grievance with the Bourne Police Department in an attempt to overturn Mr. Guerino’s ruling.