Fired officer files human rights complaint
Says her termination from East Hartford police department after her arrest last year was unfair
EAST HARTFORD — A former East Hartford police officer who was fired after her arrest in a domestic violence case has filed a complaint against the town and police chief, contending discrimination and unfair treatment because of her sex and age.
Lisa Freeman, a 26-year department veteran, was terminated last year and has exhausted grievance procedures with the state Department of Labor and the Board of Mediation and Arbitration.
In a complaint to the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities dated Aug. 20, Freeman contends that several other officers facing domestic violence charges were not fired. Freeman also contends that administrators considered her to be “too old to keep working.” She was 52 at the time.
State police arrested Freeman last year on charges of disorderly conduct and third-degree criminal mischief related to an incident in Bolton. Her attorney, James Brewer, said Friday he believed the state decided not to prosecute the charges and they were dismissed.
After the arrest, the police department put Freeman on administrative duty pending an internal investigation. She was terminated on April 27, 2020, for violation of department rules concerning professional conduct and personal bearing, department spokesman Lt. Josh Litwin said. The rules say, “No Officer shall engage in any personal conduct or act which, if brought to the attention of the public, could result in justified unfavorable criticism of that Officer or the Department. No Officer shall be involved personally in disturbances or Police incidents to his/ her discredit.” Freeman says she has suffered emotional distress, lost wages and future lost wages, along with pension and benefits, depression, anxiety, loss of sleep and neck pain. She seeks an investigation of her complaint and “any remedy to which I may be entitled.”
The warrant for Freeman’s arrest said her on-again, off-again boyfriend told police that she broke a window at his Bolton house on March 5 then took off. The unidentified man said Freeman had pounded on his door, but he did not answer “as he didn’t want any issues,” the arrest warrant affidavit said.
The man said he and Freeman had been dating for about seven years through frequent break-ups and reconciliations and he did not want to press charges, telling police that Freeman had broken things in the past “and has been hauled away for it,” the arrest warrant affidavit said.
In February 2014, Freeman was arrested on charges of third-degree assault, second-degree criminal mischief and disorderly conduct for an incident that also happened in Bolton, police said at the time. She was accused of assaulting a man and damaging items in his Hop River Road home, police said. The disposition of the case could not be determined. The victim in the March 2020 incident also had a Hop River Road address, but it could not be determined if it was the same person.
Late in 2007, Freeman was demoted from lieutenant to officer and suspended for a week without pay after an internal investigation found she harassed a fellow officer and violated other department rules.
Freeman, former head of the department’s internal affairs office, was disciplined along with Officer Jay Malley, a K-9 cop who no longer works for the department. The internal investigation began after Malley filed a sexual harassment complaint against Freeman in August 2007.
Malley reported that Freeman started harassing him and using her position of authority against him in August 2005, according to the internal affairs report. Freeman tried to show that the relationship was personal and not a workplace issue, but the department found that she committed harassment, a department report said.