Snoozing statie still on the job
Suspended after 2015 nap near rollover crash
A state trooper who was reportedly sleeping on the clock and failed to help a woman trapped in her car after a rollover accident down the road is still on the job despite having a history of snoozing in his cruiser, according to reports.
Trooper Casille Fonseca was suspended for 270 days last year after the incident, which took place in 2015. He appealed the suspension but the state’s Civil Service Commission upheld it in a recent ruling, blasting his “complete disinterest” in responding to the crash and “untruthful” behavior.
According to the ruling, Fonseca was on a detail assignment on Interstate 93 in Braintree after a day shift in August 2015. He was parked in the northbound left lane by Exit 6 as part of a roadnarrowing to divert traffic away from construction, when a woman driving north collided with another car and rolled over onto the side of the road near the exit ramp.
The car was flipped on its driver’s side with the woman trapped inside, and an off-duty Boston police sergeant responded to the scene to rescue her, as did troopers on duty in Braintree and Dedham.
After determining the scene was under control, one of those troopers went to Fonseca’s cruiser and found him in the driver’s seat with sunglasses on his forehead — with a clear view of the scene — appearing “a little out of it.” Fonseca said he had been awake but could not see the crash due to traffic and being too far away from the scene, and that while he heard about the trapped driver after turning on his radio — which he later admitted to having turned off while on duty — he did not assist in the rescue.
A month later, while Fonseca was at another detail in Worcester, another trooper walked by Fonesca’s car and saw Fonseca “reclined in the driver’s seat, leaning to his right, with his head resting on a U-shaped neck pillow and wearing sunglasses,” according to the ruling.
The state police investigated Fonseca — who was previously disciplined in 2004 and 2007 for sleeping on duty — and ultimately charged him with multiple counts of violating several state police rules during the two details.
The Civil Service Commission upheld charges of sleeping and/or inattention to duty, which drew a 180day suspension, and a charge of untruthfulness about his conduct during the rollover crash, which drew the 270day suspension. Both charges can lead to termination, according to the state police disciplinary guidelines.
“I find no plausible explanation for Trooper Fonseca’s complete disinterest in the crash . ... His prevarication is so far at variance with the truth that it cannot be discounted as an ‘honest’ mistake,” commissioner Paul Stein wrote in his ruling. “He plainly meant to deny taking any responsibility for his inattentiveness to duty that night.”
State police spokesman David Procopio said in a statement, “Colonel (Kerry A.) Gilpin is in the process of implementing several reforms at the State Police, including increased personnel at Internal Affairs to focus on more strictly enforcing the code of conduct. In general, the department utilizes a system of progressive discipline which considers the nature of the sustained offense and the department member’s disciplinary history.”